Hobbies, Stress, Strategies, all backed by science and experience!

NOTE:

When you clicked this blog, you were hoping to find information about how to improve yourself (if that wasn’t obvious).

Well, let me start off by saying this doesn’t just go for teenagers. There aren’t any activities that you can do now that would be more beneficial as you get older so you might as well start now.

You likely don't want to sit around reading for more than 20 minutes so I decided to break it up.

We are all at different points in our life and need different things. So instead, I have decided to briefly explain each topic and allow you guys to explore each topic more in depth if you want to.

I will write separate blogs that you can find about each topic going more in depth just to make it easier to find the information you’re looking for.

Now let's stop wasting time…

How can we change our life?

As I mentioned there are plenty of ways that you can change your life and be able to accomplish certain things. You need to start somewhere and that's what I am here for.

These are focused on smaller, daily managing strategies that you can use now and aren't big or broad such as “drink more water” or “workout.”.

My goal is to provide strategies you’ve never heard of before as these 10 main things have helped me do everything more efficiently, easier, and honestly enjoy the activities that I do day-to-day more.

These will also be backed by science because you shouldn’t be trusting random people who write about their life stories on the internet, you’ll find some aren't always the truth.

“"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." – Lao Tzu.

Dopamine

Controlling your dopamine levels is the number one thing to do if you want to be more productive.

I watched this video a week ago (at the time of writing this) called “Dopamine Loading is the EASIEST way to get ADDICTED to studying” by Matthew Smith.

He explains some awesome points about methods to control your dopamine. But why is controlling your dopamine important and how do we do it?

Dopamine is a hormone in your body known as the “feel-good hormone”. This hormone is released whenever you feel excited about something or proud of something especially if you finish something that's hard.

This can boost your motivation to do more throughout the day if used right.

That is also another reason why starting your day with a cold shower or "cold plunge", even just your face, is so important- because it gives you more motivation and energy throughout the day and also wakes your body up through adrenaline.

Unfortunately, there are also some setbacks and that's why you need to learn to control it. Your brain takes scrolling as a really difficult high producing dopamine task and that can be a problem for a few reasons which I will go more in-depth within this blog... 

This blog will be about learning new ways to control your dopamine and what dopamine can do for the body such as the harmful effects it can have if not controlled well, (spoiler alert: could be a reason why you’re so tired all the time).

Vibes

I know it sounds weird. How can vibes even help me? What do you even mean, vibes? Well, do you ever get that ‘feeling’ that you’re forgetting something before you leave or have said “something doesn’t feel right” without any evidence as to what.

Well did you know this is a skill that your body uses to warn you? 

If you lack this sense, it could be a sign that your awareness and emotional intelligence is low. Or maybe your senses in general are bad such as sense of smell, hearing, eyesight, etc.

Well vibes play a crucial role and it's been said to contribute to most of your decision making throughout the day. Especially your instincts and quick decisions such as fight or flight.

The best part, it can easily be manipulated and controlled!

Controlling and learning how to pick up on vibes can drastically improve your production, especially if combined with the dopamine idea.

There is plenty to explore in this topic and this is the one topic that I have done plenty of weeks' worth of research into.

There are plenty of consequences if not incorporated or perfected, some as bad as death and some great benefits such as improved emotional intelligence (being able to control your own and sense other emotions clearly).

There are of course more skills like awareness and many more from vibes, and I will talk about it all through this blog.

Summarize

Just like what I am doing with this blog. Anything that you do, take a second and summarize. Try to summarize into one sentence or within a paragraph.

If you can’t then it's likely that you don’t understand the topic enough and may bring up more questions for you to research.

Similarly, if you feel like you need to get something done and you can’t think of what you need to do, then it is likely that your brain is overloaded.

Learning how to summarize your information, reduce your need for your brain to think is essential for allowing your brain to function throughout the day and prevent burnout.

Fortunately, this blog can help teach you ways to reduce your reliance on your brain such as the need to think less which can give you more energy while setting yourself up for success the next day. 

Change & Adaptability

Change and adaptability is an essential skill to learn. What do I mean? How does change and learning to adapt help? When would we even incorporate it? Isn't changing your schedule bad, aren't we supposed to be consistent?

To start, please stick to one question at a time. Second, I will answer these questions more in-depth, but the main point is that even with a strong schedule or good activities, the task can eventually get boring or just doesn’t work for you and your schedule. 

This is extremely normal. I've had to change my schedule a lot already.

Learning how to change and adapt your activities and schedule while still being able to be productive and get the work you need done is essential and honestly takes a good amount of trial and error. 

Sometimes you’re doing the right things; it's just hard to be consistent that happens to the best of us. Just like how working out can be hard in the summer because of the heat, learning how to change your schedule to protect yourself from the heat is important to being able to keep working out a part of your schedule. I will teach you some ways to possibly try this and how to change your schedule.

Note that when you try to change your schedule, remember there will be weeks that are worse than others but it's normal to get back to working as hard as you were.

This blog can hopefully reduce that time for your lows and teach you to adapt to hardships easier.

Choices & Understanding

There are a lot of choices and things in this world that are very good at hiding their true nature. Whether that’s a ‘friend’ who acts like a friend though secretly talks behind your back or a choice that feels good at first but is silently hurting you.

Every day you should look at the big parts of your life and ask yourself “Is this really what I want?” Is that friend really a good person or only acting the way he does because he knows my humor? 

Learning what is secretly wrong can help you find what is secretly right for you. In doing so, this blog tells you why it's beneficial, and how to choose the things that are better off for you.

Acknowledging Yourself

If you want to improve yourself, relationships, confidence, stress levels, whatever the case it always starts with changing yourself, you have to help yourself before you can help others. It can boost your relationships and trust, not just with people but yourself as well.

All of that starts mentally. If you want to be able to tell yourself, “I need to do this” or “I should get this done” then convince your brain why you want those things. It's like saying “oh, I should study.” chances are that didn’t end out well. 

The reason is you have to remind your brain why you want this. If you’re struggling right now, think of everything that you hate or dislike and then tell your brain how you would change those things. Do research if needed.

Your brain is very good at remembering information but throughout the day it can be hard to remember everything with the amount of information you gain. Part of it is understanding what goes wrong so that you can switch it up or remove it the next day.

If you did something that you aren’t proud of, then think why. What led me to making that decision or falling into that trap.

This is actually similar to what you do in games, how you may have been aggressive or passive which led to consequences such as losing or 'throwing'. This may have led you to researching tips of “how to rank up” or something similar. 

Think of life the same way because that is technically what self-improvement is. Trying to get better. So, learn what you’re doing wrong and study your decisions. Don't try to rank yourself against other people though.

Trying to be the best can ultimately lead you to being the 'worst'. Try to set smaller goals that way you can adjust if needed, have more motivation to do it and less time which gets you to work faster due to the deadline being closer. Which does lead me to my next point....

If you are going to study, make it about yourself so you know what you need to change as this will also allow you to make decisions about what you want to change and the daily habits making you ‘worse’ or ‘lose’ in life.

This is exactly what I will be teaching you in this blog. How to make yourself more charismatic and convincing to your brain and how to stick with the things you say in order to fix what I am doing wrong. 

Now this is what I meant by leading me to my next point....

Manipulate Procrastination

What does this mean? Maybe some are even procrastinating unconsciously but the moral of the story is, doing things will always be hard. The discipline to do things is a skill and a hard one to learn. If people are hard-working, respect them as they deserve that respect in their work ethic.

But sometimes these hard workers are procrastinators who manipulate them. Now, what does that mean?

We acknowledge that procrastination is pushing back the work or something you don’t want to do, which only ends up making it harder on ourselves because we may realize that, but it can be hard to do work when you know you don't like it.

So instead, I created a new way that allows you to technically procrastinate just less and more effectively. Keep in mind this is what works for me, if it is not working for you and instead influences you procrastination than stop and use the other methods.

Hugs

Hugs do also sound a bit odd, but hugs are very important for humans and even health. Not just mentally but physical as well. Hugs can be hard to get sometimes as nowadays people see giving someone a hug as a little awkward and difficult.

You're either a person who hugs everyone or no one (usually) but if you feel awkward to hug other people than there is still a solution. Hug yourself. Hugging yourself has shown to have many improvements, especially mentally.

It has also been shown to reduce stress and many other benefits towards mental and even physical health.

In this blog I will talk about how to do it right and the benefits of hugging yourself or someone else.

Micro-Bravery

Think of something small that you're scared of. Think about doing that task and how you'd feel doing it. It would likely stress you out, bursting you into all sorts of emotions. Truly think about this (this is an exercise work with me)....

Notice how I said think of something small and you were able to. You deep down know it's a small minuscule thing, yet you are still afraid of it? Ask yourself why. What makes this scary? Is it creepy, big, dangerous?

Think of the worst possible outcome that thing can bring to you. Would asking a question really to make you the most hated person in class. No and even if it does than those people are too easily influenced and wouldn't be worth gaining their trust and friendship anyway.

When you are scared of something think about the world, the universe and how small of an impact it has. Think how tiny you are. You're only one in hundreds or even thousands just where you live. It really isn't that deep.

This doesn't mean that you can't become something amazing. It simply means the bad things you go through now, think about them.

Would you messing up that one presentation in Spanish really impact your whole life. Not at all. remember you don't have to be good at everything and people who expect you to be good at everything have way too high standards themselves and may have self-esteem issues.

Don't take their opinion too literally.

This blog will help teach you to relax and manage your fears, your future and the people you choose to be around. This blog specializes in exercises and thinking about your own life and I highly recommend it.

Death

I know a crazy one to end on but think about it. If you were to die right now, have you accomplished what you wanted?

Have you progressed towards a better you? Did you get closer to your goals? Did you make progress? And if you were to die right now, would you be happy with your life?

Sure, you have regrets, but would you feel happy with what you've accomplished right now? Have you helped or influenced people? If not, then there is work to do.

If you wouldn’t be happy dying right now because you know you want to achieve more in life, then there is plenty you can do, even if you can’t think of anything.

Because, the truth is, whether you like it or not, you can die at any time. That is the unfortunate truth. If you truly don't know than researching is always a great place.

Now let me make it clear this isn’t a threat. This is a reminder that you only live once and that one event can change your life in an instant.

Because at the end of the day "...if you had one shot or one opportunity to seize everything you ever wanted in one moment would you capture it or just let it slip?" -Eminem.

A lot can change in a few seconds, but do you want the world to decide what changes you or you to decide what changes your world? 

In order for you to choose you have to get to work and change because “Nothing will change if nothing changes.”. So, if you don’t want to keep living the way you are now, then you must do something about it.

This is the best thing I can teach you. Mindset and developing an inside voice of your own to encourage yourself is the number one thing you need to become a better you and this is coming from experience. It all starts mentally. Be your own therapy.

If you want to change you have to make it clear and remind yourself everyday of how you used to live or even live now. You don't want to go back.

Once you realize how great life is once you start creating that self-love and self-trust, you'll realize what you've been missing out on all these years.

This blog will put you in that mindset. Be a better you. Stop focusing on the little stuff and teaches you how to help yourself so you can help others.