How to Improve Your Lifestyle and Stay Positive?
Good night’s sleep
Advice from sleep scientist Prof Alice Gregory at Goldsmiths, University of London
If you can’t sleep, get up and do something different
It’s normal to wake up during the night, but most people just fall straight back to sleep without realising it.
If you can’t get back to sleep easily, or if you struggle to nod off in the first place, don’t just lie there. Get up and do something else. It’s important to associate bed with sleep and not with being mentally awake.
Stick to consistent bedtimes and waking times – yes, even at the weekend!
Stick to a routine with a consistent bedtime and waking time. Your body needs to know what it should be doing and when it should be doing it.
This is important for all of us, including babies and young children. If the evening always goes ‘story, bath, bed’, then they know what to expect.
Don’t nag teens for being lazy, their body clocks are different from adults’
Adolescents aren’t being lazy. They’re doing exactly what their biology is requesting of them – staying awake and getting up later. It’s a real shame that schools demand such an early start time.
During lockdown and the summer holidays, many teenagers were able to revert to their natural sleep pattern, so it prompts the question, is it time for a change?
Survive a hangover
Advice from health psychologist Dr Sally Adams of the University of Bath
Some of us may be destined to get bad hangovers, thanks to genetics
The severity depends on lots of things, including your weight and what you’ve eaten that day. Genetics also plays an important role.
It might be boring, but the only way to avoid a hangover is to drink in moderation
Drink in moderation. That’s the only way. Eating a fatty meal before you go out drinking might also help because it can slow down the absorption of alcohol into the bloodstream.
Stay away from the hair of the dog
Hair of the dog prolongs the inevitable. It’s not a good idea to treat a hangover with more booze.
Fry-ups might aid with metabolising alcohol. Eggs and bacon contain an amino acid called cysteine, which helps to break down the acetylaldehyde that is produced.
There’s no evidence that exercise can help a hangover. What might happen is that you become more dehydrated, which could make you feel even worse.
Go for A Walk
Walking has saved my life this summer. An afternoon stroll through the park is a great way to clear your head, reduce stress, and get a tiny bit of physical activity in. Just being outside for a few minutes, breathing the fresh air, is enough to make you feel rejuvenated.
Most people have a small park near there homes, but even if you don’t, a short walk around the block will work as well. Getting outside for even a few minutes each day will greatly improve your life.
Take a Break from Social Media
Social media can be extremely toxic. Facebook is by far the worst offender for me. It’s difficult to believe that people I know in real life can be so hateful and anti-science. It’s depressing and sometimes makes me irrationally angry. Turning it off has worked wonders for my mental well-being.
But it’s not just Facebook, and it’s not only the stuff that makes you angry that you have to look out for. Social media can lead to depression. It can be horrible for your mental wellness to see glamourous shots of people in exotic locales, photos of pristine homes, clips of happy families celebrating their togetherness. Sometimes it’s difficult to remember that these brief glimpses we get into someone’s life aren’t real. They are a perfectly curated highlight real.
It’s difficult to scroll Instagram and not compare the wonderful images to our own lives. Taking a break and trying not to compare your real life with someone else’s highlights will do wonders for your mental wellness.
Chat with Friends
Every other Tuesday, I have a standing Face time call with my best friend. She lives on the other side of the country, and both our trips to see each other this year were canceled due to COVID. But, that’s not a reason for us to drift apart!
Our calls work wonders to help us stay connected and stay social in these trying times of social distancing. Every call lifts me up and makes me feel rejuvenated. Good friends will do that.
Even if you can’t get together with your friends, stay in touch with them. Have video calls, phone calls, and text regularly. Staying connected with old friends is a great way to help you feel good about your life.
Declutter
It’s hard to relax when there is stuff everyone. Take it from me, the queen of clutter! My desk is regularly a mess of books, pens, journals, and post-it notes.
Usually, I work through the clutter. But it’s hard to describe how much cleaning up the mess and decluttering my work space enhances my creativity and productivity. It’s like my desk is a metaphor for my mind, and when it’s clean and organized, my brain is too.
Realizing how much a decluttered work space improved my life motivated me to keep it decluttered. My books and notes now all have their own place, and my clutter free desk makes focusing on my important tasks a whole lot easier.
Read
There’s something magical about turning away from all the hustle and distractions of everyday life and getting lost in a good book. It can take you away from your real life, if only for an hour or two – but sometimes that’s enough to give us a refreshing outlook.
I used to lurk on Reddit for a half hour or so after every shower, but instead, I decided to use that time to catch up on my reading. It’s astonishing how much better I feel after reading a chapter than after being on Reddit. I feel a sense of accomplishment for getting through my list, but I’m also less stressed because I opted out of the online world, if just for a few minutes.
Cut Out Toxic People
Speaking of haters, some of them might be people that are close to us. We all have a toxic friend or family member that never has anything nice to say about our hopes, dreams, passions and achievements.
Some may say that family is the most important thing, but I disagree. If a family member or a friend can’t be civil to you, if they can’t be happy for you, you don’t actually have to engage with them. We have made family out to be so important that we accept all kinds of abuse from folks because they are family. Maybe if we learned to set boundaries with toxic people and stop excusing their behavior, they would learn to be less toxic.
And even if they don’t, you don’t have to deal with their toxic behavior. I can’t tell you how freeing it is to get out of a toxic situation. The sun shines brighter, the sky is bluer, the flowers are more fragrant. Your life will drastically improve when you stop trying to appease toxic people.
Embrace the Word “No”
How much of your life have you wasted doing things you don’t like to do? If you’re like most people, you’ve probably said yes to a ton of things that you don’t actually want to do, either because you felt bad or were peer pressured into it.
A great way to improve your life is to learn to say no. Saying no to a night on the town when drinks aren’t in your budget isn’t going to destroy a friendship. Politely declining a request isn’t going to destroy a relationship (and if it does – the person who is trying to guilt you is probably toxic, and we already talked about removing toxic people from your life).
Don’t take this too far though. There are certain relationships that require sacrifice and doing things we don’t necessarily want to do. Go for that walk through the orchard with your partner. Play that game with your child. But learn to say no to the things that don’t really matter.
Start a Side Hustle
Starting a side hustle isn’t normally on lists about improving your life, but I think that’s a mistake. Starting and working on a side hustle can improve your life in many ways!
First, there’s the financial aspect. If you’re struggling because you don’t have a lot of money, a side hustle can help by increasing your income. But it’s more than that. Starting a side hustle can open you up to an entire world that you never knew existed. It can give you the opportunity to learn new skills and meet new people.
I’ve made tons of new friends through my two side hustles, and have learned so much about networking, web design, writing, SEO, graphic design and more through my side hustles. Even if I never make a huge amount of money from them the personal development has been more than worthwhile.
If you’re ready to start a side hustle, check out the course Launch Your Side Hustle. It has everything you need to know about picking your hustle, getting started, and even paying taxes!
Look over your day the night before.
You should always line up your day the night before, says Gayle Carson, acclaimed life coach and speaker from Albany, New York.
"It allows you to walk through your day, so if you walk into the office and someone asks ‘Do you have a minute?' you will know if you do or don't." Bonus: If you make a to-do list at the same time, you'll find that this productivity hack actually helps improve your sleep as well.
Reach out to people you haven't been in touch with recently.
There's no doubt that maintaining your relationship with close friends and family is important. However, a landmark 1973 study published in the American Journal of Sociology showed that "weak ties," or people who are more acquaintance-level connections, are the ones who can actually help you out the most in terms of developing new contacts, improving career prospects, and generally meeting new people. Each week, set a goal to get in touch with one person you haven't talked to in a while, and you'll find your personal and professional networks growing faster than ever before. And for more ways to connect with old friends.
Do your most creative work in the morning.
While it may be hard to get out of bed early and put your pen to the paper as soon as possible, morning is actually the best time to get your creative juices flowing.
"During morning hours, cortisol acts as your energy hormone and your focus and concentration are better than any other time of day," says Debra Atkinson, a productivity, fitness, and wellness coach with Flipping Fifty. So, use biology to your advantage and leave more mundane tasks for later in the day. And if you're not a morning person but would like to be, check out these 20 Better Sleep Essentials That'll Have You Waking Up Well-Rested Every Morning.
Stop Sacrificing What You Want Most For What You Want Right Now
It would be lovely to relax, watch a movie or a show, meet a friend for dinner, etc. instead of working longer on a project that needs attention, going to the gym, making dinner at home, etc. Instant gratification is seductive and satisfying, but not when it is at the expense of long term goals, especially goals that will help build your self-esteem and help make progress towards your goals. Stop sacrificing substantive happiness, that will bring you consistent and lasting joy for superficial, momentary happiness, which will fade quickly and ultimately extend unhappiness.
Stop Making Excuses
If you are looking for a reason/excuse not to do the right thing, you will surely find one. Part of taking ownership of your life and reflecting on how you got to an unhappy state is understanding how you are enabling your poor decisions. It is usually with excuses, like you're tired, or you don't have time when you're not making time, you will do it tomorrow, etc. Stop making excuses, and start owning your life and pushing yourself to do the work. Happiness doesn't fall into your lap, it takes work like everything else. So get out of your own way and stop making excuses.
