HEALTHY HABITS TO OPTIMIZE MENTAL HEALTH
18 JANUARY 2021 (11 MIN READ)
Improving your state of mind is not as simple as a choice. We can recognize that we are full of mental ailments and need to change, but habits are required to make a real difference. Think of all the times you have told yourself it’s time to improve, but next thing you know, you have the munchies again and are back at the bottom of the ice cream pint. You need to take your higher self's signals to step away from what is comfortable; prioritizing pleasure will lead you down a dark path of procrastinating misery. To live a good life, I firmly believe you need to make friends with the uncomfortable. Do things every day that require patience and a setting aside of your ego; you will notice yourself blossoming because of it. I will lay out three key habits I use to start the day that can positively change everyone’s life; they just kind of fucking suck to do. If possible, stack them all in the morning so that you can begin the day with momentum and a peaceful perspective. Until I complete my morning routines, I am not Lucas; I am just an average guy who can be a huge asshole. Once finished, my real self comes out, and that authentic self does not have much self to give out. He just communicates peace and gratitude without the ego that often comes with it.
COLD WATER EXPOSURE
Start every morning with a freezing cold shower.
Ok, there’s no chance I motivated you to do that. Let me rephrase: if you start every morning with a freezing cold shower, you will be happier, less stressed, more focused, and better able to accomplish difficult things. Does that sound more enticing? Since you should only endure the cold for about a minute, I think this might be the best deal of all time. It’s as if someone offered you a Malibu mansion for $100. So, take the fucking deal!
Since this seems too good to be true, let me provide evidence showing the extreme benefits of cold showers. According to a medical study observing the effects of cold showers on depression, they can reduce depressive symptoms rather effectively, specifically, through their causal release of endorphins and norepinephrine.¹ Endorphins are neurochemicals that often get released through exercise and lead to immense feelings of pleasure. On top of that, they operate on the brain’s opiate receptors, which means they naturally relieve pain, both emotional and physical. Basically, we have a crazy antidepressant residing within us that can get released on command. However, all good things come with a cost, and to access them, we may need to do something that sucks—in comes cold showers, which release them by the bucket.
In addition to endorphins, cold showers also release norepinephrine, another mood booster. Norepinephrine acts as both a stress hormone and neurotransmitter; it is directly linked to high levels of focus as well as happiness. Emphasizing this correlation, all ADHD medication and many antidepressants release norepinephrine to make users more concentrated and less depressed. When I quit Adderall, cold showers became my lifeline, giving me a feel-good rush while I felt so down. Also, it was one of the few habits that allowed me to focus and clear my mind effectively. Part of the reason I can get away with not taking ADHD medication is because of my daily cold showers. If you are someone who struggles to stay present and focus on the task at hand, taking cold showers will become your best friend. If you are someone who struggles to stay happy, taking cold showers will become your best friend. If you are someone who needs to stop jerking off in the shower, taking cold showers will become your best friend. Besides the miraculous way feel-good hormones are immediately released, cold showers can also help you master your mind.
Often, in uncomfortable situations, we allow our feelings to overpower our minds and lead us to do something stupid or exit the scene as fast as possible. When one takes a cold shower successfully, they have to become one with the pain and not allow it to overpower their mind—or else they will start screaming or running away from the water. Practice standing under the freezing water and not twitching a muscle; find that peace of mind for just a minute. Once you begin mastering this, frightening situations will get a lot easier to handle. Next time you do something like take a test, go on a first date, ask your boss for a raise, or do a brutal workout, the less power you will give the anxious feelings and the more you will be able to present your best self despite the pain. Additionally, walking into a cold shower allows you to tell your ego to fuck off when it wants comfort. This also transfers to real-life; you will notice yourself walking into potentially awkward situations with more speed and ease, refusing to listen to your lower self. In other words, you will learn to embrace discomfort, an essential skill in living a good life.
JOURNALING
Evidence exists that consistent fifteen to twenty minutes of journaling can improve your physical and mental health.² However, that by itself does not do anything for us. How are we supposed to journal to best accomplish that goal? Journaling is not enough in and of itself; we have to learn to perfect the craft. Think of it like lifting weights. With the correct form, we can strengthen our muscles each session; however, with bad form, we can literally tear our muscles and set ourselves even further back than before. The same goes for journaling, as the rest of this section will reveal.
In a behavioral study conducted by two University of Iowa psychologists, journaling was revealed to significantly impact the way participants processed information.³ In the experiment, students got split into three groups. The first group had to only write about their emotions associated with a stressful event. The second group was asked to use logical processing in journaling to understand their feelings about something anxiety-provoking. Finally, the third group had to factually journal about a news story. Group 1 came out of the study upset and negative; their emotions got the better of them. In investigating the writing, the psychologists found that participants would beat themselves up about their negative emotions, feeding their sadness. In contrast, Group 2 came out of the study with the most positive mindset, highlighting the power of using logic to understand one’s emotions. Like most people who focus too much on the news, Group 3 bought MAGA hats and started tweeting, “All lives matter!” Although this very well may be true, the study showed that they came out of the journaling feeling quite negative. This fascinating experiment showed that within journaling, focusing too much on emotions or facts can lead to more negativity, but combining emotions with logic can lead to a more positive outlook. However, mastering this art is easier said than done. So, here are tricks I use in journaling to better understand my emotions and, ultimately, myself as a person.
First, write out the emotion you are noticing. Next, immediately journal why you think you feel it; this should be the first idea that pops into your head. Now, and this is the challenging part; try and dig a step deeper as to why that emotion is attacking your body. Look beyond the surface level and search for an answer hidden under the rug; that answer almost always resides from logic and gives you a better understanding of yourself. Within this strategy, it helps to know that the emotions felt because of another person’s actions are ultimately a mirror into our own insecurities. For instance, if you feel anxious or insecure that somebody new does not seem to like you, that is ultimately a reflection of you not truly loving yourself. With this perspective, almost any reaction is a chance to heal our internal wounding. Treat the emotional obstacle as a vehicle to become a better person. This way, any negative feeling will start becoming a blessing in disguise.
Now, counter-advertise the negative emotion with factual evidence. If you are struggling with feeling loved, write about someone who sincerely loves you for you. If you are beating yourself up about an error, write about an accomplishment that still gives you the chills to this day. This will allow you to understand your value and reminisce about times you have persevered. When you are in a more positive mindset and easier on yourself, address how you will become better next time. Once the bulk of this emotional work is completed, plan out how you will attack the day and prepare for potential obstacles. In the evening, go back to your journal and put your day up for review. Write about the things that worked as well as the things that brought you down. Through this daily reflection, you will become a master at crafting the best day possible. Finally, finish with these three small things: gratitude, self-love, and the awareness streak.
Write down three things you are grateful for in life. Speaking from experience, this made me value life a lot more and start experiencing what happiness felt like. Try to write about loving relationships and nature rather than material possessions. Next, jot down three things you love about yourself. I don’t care if it’s something like being good at video games or chugging a beer fast; just practice loving yourself. In this day and age, too many of us have become our own bullies due to setting ourselves up against unrealistic standards. (Fuck you, social media). Lastly, write down something you learned about yourself today. Unfortunately, this one has to be more profound and specific. Attempt to write about something you learned that helps you become a better version of yourself. Things such as realizing a bad habit or a specific negative way we talk to ourselves are great places to start.
MEDITATION
Through deep abdominal breathing, one can stimulate their vagus nerve, which is basically your own body’s unlimited supply of Xanax. In scientific terms, it is a cranial nerve linked to the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for mood, digestion, respiratory rate, and heart rate, to name a few. Once the nerve is stimulated, your body can become more relaxed, more resilient, less depressed, and less anxious.⁴ So, just through a couple of minutes of breathing through your stomach, you can become a lot more mentally fit to tackle the day. Every time I practice abdominal breathing, I feel my lower, stressed self blow away. However, this does not take away from the fact that sitting down and simply breathing is boring as shit. This is the main reason that despite the known benefits of meditation, people refuse to do it. Sadly, I got breaking news for you: if you can’t embrace boredom, you will live a life of constant anxiety.
We live in an era of overstimulation as well as an endless supply of pleasure. Our phones have provided us with immediate dopamine whenever we want it. Bored? Scroll through pimple popping videos instead of reflecting. Horny? Fuck your hand to porn while refusing to show interest to other females. Hungry? Press a button, and an ice cream sandwich will show up at your door. Ok, I’m not complaining about the last part too much, but still, we need to chill the fuck out. Due to this constant need for pleasure, I believe now is the most challenging time for any individual to sit down and breathe. But now is the time we need it the most! Anxiety rates are skyrocketing, reflecting how much we have grown to constantly need more. In comes meditation, which helps you appreciate a state of relaxation and gratitude for what you have in your possession. It teaches you to slow down and take a breath when life is becoming too overwhelming. Through practice, meditation can allow you to become a more focused, present person, but this requires a specific type of meditative practice called "noting."
While meditating, note when your mind starts wandering and bring it back. It will inevitably do this, so please do not get hard on yourself and give up. Funnily enough, the more times you have to recenter yourself, the more resilient your mind becomes. Podcaster Tim Ferriss equated it to weight lifting repetitions, which lead to more strength with each rep. The more times you catch yourself drifting off in meditation, the more you will catch yourself doing it in reality. Thus, you will find yourself more present in situations such as conversations with friends, doing work, playing a sport, or even something insignificant such as taking a shit.
Start implementing these three habits each morning, and you will notice your days running a lot smoother. Your shadow will stop having as much control over you, and even further than that, you will notice when it starts tapping at your heels again.
