I used to be someone who quickly turned to medication whenever I felt depressed, had a slight headache, or was just tired. But over time, I learned that living a healthy and happy life often just comes down to building better habits and eating right.
A few years ago; it felt like the universe was against me. I was doing poorly in school, my parents weren't doing well financially, and I was lonely and also angry that I lacked resources needed to move forward in life. I was temporarily solving my problem by sleeping excessively, not eating healthy, overthinking, and even misusing cough medicine, just because it made me drowsy and helped me escape my reality. At some point, I just knew I couldn't continue that wasteful life, and I had to take the right steps to change my lifestyle and mood.
So I started small. I built a new routine based on simple habits.
There were three little but powerful things I first adopted:
Start my day Early
Pray to God
Make my bed
I started by setting an alarm for 5:30 am; starting your day early is one of the biggest productivity hacks I have learned over the years. After I woke up, I tried to pray to God every morning. I chose to do this because I noticed I was ungrateful for life and the things I had around me, so I first had to learn gratitude. Another thing I did was to make my bed. As small as it sounds, this act helped made my brain active and gave me a small sense of discipline that triggered joy and motivation. I did that for weeks until it became my new norm.
I observed another flaw that affected my mood, which was my physical appearance. I saw that my body was looking too weak for a man and badly shaped, and I was constantly feeling fatigue, so I added workouts to my routine. I couldn't afford access to a gym, so I downloaded a fitness app from the Play Store and started a calisthenics workout (self-weight workout). I did a lot of pushups and pullups; since it was my first time doing that, I felt a lot of pain. I couldn't move my arms for days, and parts of my body got swollen. My muscles eventually got accustomed to doing exercises, and the pain went swiftly. I would have uploaded a picture of my transformation, but I might get flagged by the community.
I remembered that during the semester, I lacked confidence. I traced the problem to being ignorant. When you read and know about a lot of things, you will get more confident in approaching people and having quality conversations. I decided to solve my inadequacy by reading books. I started by reading a book titled 'The Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz'. The book taught me a lot about how to overcome obstacles, build confidence, and achieve success. I also read 'How to Talk to Anyone' by Leil Lowndes because I wanted to improve my social skills. It was there I learned the power of remembering people's names; it actually means a lot to people. I read even more books and took online courses on Coursera and Udemy. I was able to get more knowledgeable and also gain a lot of electronic certificates by taking free courses online.
I took it a step further by downloading the Punch newspaper app on my phone, and I read the news every day to stay informed. Journaling and also writing down my tasks for the next day was a habit I also picked up. After months of constantly adhering to my new routine, which eventually became a habit, it really transformed my life. My depression slowly faded, my body posture and stamina improved, and I grew more confident in myself.
Medication isn't always the solution to our problem. Sometimes, just adjusting your habits, a mindset-shift and also improving your diet could get you that quality life you dream of.
Summary of steps I took to improve myself:
Start my day Early
Pray to God
Make my bed
Workout
Read books
Take online courses
Sleep early and wake up early
Journaling
Planning and budgeting
I really hope this list helps a younger reader or even a struggling adult realize that real transformation often starts with the smallest steps
Thank you for reading ♥
Images are mine
Editing with Canva
