In the beginning of this semester, I made a goal to exercise at least 3 times a week. For some background information, I wasn’t working out at all. I had no motivation to work out and I think I made this goal because of that nagging voice in the back of my head every day—“WORK OUT WORK OUT WORK OUT”. I tried different strategies to get myself to exercise, but literally nothing worked. I brought workout clothes to my classes so I could walk to the gym and exercise, but I still made excuses so I would still never go. I decided that maybe I should take a step back and look at my life from all perspectives instead of just focusing on my physical wellness. Maybe there was some underlying issue within myself contributing to my lack of physical health. I couldn’t disagree that I always had constant anxiety and stress and reoccurring depression. I started reading a book called “52 Small Changes for the Mind” by Brett Blumenthal. This book gave me a lot of inspiration to pick up some small habits that were suggested and it made a crazy difference in my life. I really want to share with you guys so keep reading!
Positive Self-Talk
The first couple small changes I picked up was geared towards uplifting my mental health. The one I focused on first was to stop talking negatively towards myself. I am so guilty of bringing myself down its almost disgusting how much I thought badly about myself. The book made me think about how I would NEVER EVER EVER say 90% of the things I say to myself to other people. So why do I treat myself a lot worse than I do other people? Why can I be loving and caring to others but I neglect my own feelings? This bothered me because this is my only life. Do I want to spend it treating myself badly? NO! I understand everyone typically holds themselves to higher standards and it’s easy to be hard on yourself, but there is no reason to be hard on yourself in a negative way. I started to forgive myself for not being the person I expected myself to be by practicing positive self-talk. First a negative thought would come into my head like, “Man my thighs look pretty hefty”. I changed that negative thought into “My thighs still look good. I think exercising may help them look better but that is something I’ll have to work at”. I would say the positive statement three times in my head and completely block out the negative thought. I have been doing that with every bad thought that enters my mind and it really has done wonders. I feel like I have finally started to love myself and it feels great.
Meditation
Another tip I picked up from the book is to meditate every morning for 5 minutes. I know I just said “in the morning” and a lot of us are not morning people but hear me out. I will literally sleep in till 11:30 everyday if I was allowed to, and I am typically the person that will wake up at the latest time possible and scramble through the door looking like a mess. I am a nursing major so “sleeping in” isn’t really in our vocabulary. I did make sure to manage enough time to give myself five minutes for deep breathing before I start my day, and it has relaxed me and felt ready to take on the day. I felt as if I had less anxiety and stress. In the book, it was shared that meditating increased gray matter in the brain which led to better learning and memory. The effects simple deep breathing can do for you is amazing! I highly recommend trying to out! Do this especially when you start feeling anxious. If you don’t know how to deep breathe, focus on inhaling for five seconds and exhaling for five seconds. Make sure to breathe in with your abdomen and not your chest. Put your hand on your stomach to make sure you feel your abdomen rise. Here is a link to a cute little GIF to help you keep track of those five seconds: https://media.giphy.com/media/2Ff3Svd0MsnQI/giphy.gif. I also have an app called Headspace that guides me along my meditation.
Build Close Relationships
This next tip from the book I am going to talk about is one that probably helped my anxiety and depression the most. It’s to build close relationships and keeping your best friends near. The book stated that studies have proven that close relationships show a reduction in stress, less likely to develop Alzheimer’s, higher survival rates, and delayed memory loss. In the past, I think I made myself busier than I needed to be. I didn’t make as much time for my friends as I should have. It has been really hard to make time for my friends when most of them are living in different cities than me, that are 2-4 hours away. I started to initiate conversations with my friends and be the first one to plan something out for us to hang out. I told myself that I will work my butt off during the week so I can plan to go to Cleveland, which is 2 hours away from Columbus, and spend a fun-filled weekend with my friends, or head to Cincinnati for the weekend. I think I might’ve spent only 3-4 weekends in Columbus this entire semester so far, and I am not mad about it at all. I have been spending a lot of my free time on the weekends with my best friends and I notice I have been smiling and laughing more often. I have generally been happier since I am surrounding myself around people that love me for who I am and I can be myself in front of. Being around people that bring you up and make you laugh is good for the soul. So when I say schedule time for your best friends, really consider doing so. I know life is busy and it’s hard to see them sometimes, but try to make it a goal to see them at least twice a semester.
Be Confident
One of the chapters in the book talked all about being confident in yourself. It has been shown that confidence can bring you greater energy and enthusiasm, and will make you more excited about the future. Now I understand that it’s hard to make yourself be confident within the snap of a finger. Make yourself feel good. Go work out, or put on make up and do your hair. Do things that make you proud of yourself. When you are more confident, you are more likely to trust yourself, and when you trust yourself that will help others put more trust in you as well. Being confident also helps us overcome obstacles that come in the way of our goals and successes. Seriously, what does confidence not do?! Gaining self-confidence has allowed me to accept who I am as a person. I may not get exactly what I wanted on an exam, but you know what? I got it next time. I’m a smart girl and I can do anything I can put my mind to.
Monotasking
Multitasking is the next topic I want to discuss. Good lord I have multitasked my way through life, but the book suggested, STOP! I didn’t really think that multitasking was that bad and I felt like I got through certain tasks faster, but listen, it is not the way to go. Mono-tasking has helped me receive better grades on assignments and study better. There have been times where I am checking my emails and texting while watching lectures for one of my classes. See? I killed two birds with one stone. But I lost focus during the lecture and didn’t pick up important cues from my professor. I also typically have to look back in my lecture to see where I got lost and why I am confused about what we are learning about, which actually is creating more time for me. If I would just actively listen then I most likely wouldn’t get so lost during a lecture. This also brings up a point of quality vs. quantity. I want to put in quality work to have quality results. If I focus on the quantity and getting as much stuff done a day as I can, am I really putting in full effort or am I just going through the motions to finish these tasks? I am also more productive while mono-tasking. I noticed I am more likely to do meaningless tasks like go on social media while multi-tasking. I really think at the end of the day, mono-tasking saves you time and you can concentrate, learn, and retain the information a lot better by putting solo focus on one subject at a time. This has drastically reduced my stress and anxiety.
Reduce Screen Time
You guys may roll your eyes at this next small change I am going to suggest, but I promise, it makes a difference! Minimize your screen time on your TV, tablets, phones, etc. Research shows that watching TV decreases our attention span, cognitive function, and our ability to concentrate. Who wants that to happen? – no one. It’s also associated to stress, sleeping disorders, and depression. I agree that watching Netflix and gazing around on your phone are super easy time fillers, but this is truly spending time doing meaningless activities. I first stopped using my phone at nighttime. Nighttime would be when I would venture on all of my social media sites and spend at least 30-45 minutes on my phone. Then it would be hard for me to get to sleep. For me to change my life around, this is one of the first steps I made. I need my sleep people, and so do you! My book suggested that I go see a play or a concert live instead of continuing to enjoy TV in the comforts of my home. I went to go see Book of Mormon, Sweeney Todd, and Journey in concert. Granted they all cost money, so I can see why people don’t always want to do this. Although, I saw Sweeney Todd for $12 through a small theater group in Columbus, and the play was awesome too. There are ways around the money aspect, just search around like I did! All of these experiences were great and put so much more joy into my life than just sitting at home watching TV. My close friends also have gotten the gist that I don’t care to text anymore. If you have a question, just call me. I rather talk to you on the phone than text you anyways. All I’m saying, screen time tends to isolate you and take common joy from your life because you typically aren’t being productive or doing meaningful activities. Try this out, and I think you would personally agree this would change you for the better.
Create a Weekly Schedule
This next one is an important one- make a weekly schedule for yourself so you know what you all have to accomplish and take on. By doing this, it will make it hard for you to say you don’t have enough time for this and that (like exercising). That’s typically my favorite excuse to use so I don’t have to work on stuff I don’t want to do. I got really detailed with my schedule and included times when I would check my emails, sleep, eat, and get ready. This helped me avoid spending extra time on certain activities I didn’t want to spend as much time on. Making a weekly schedule helped decrease my stress and it increased my productivity. I found myself having tons of more time to relax and do things I wanted to do. It’s been great! I also started putting more of the important due dates to assignments, tests, appointments, etc to my phone calendar so I can have it on hand at all times. That way when I am asked to schedule a day and time for something, I can whip out my phone, look at my calendar and confidently say right away that yes this time works for me or heck no we have to look for another time. By doing this, I don’t have to cram a bunch of mental clutter in my brain and keep reminding myself of the day I am taking this test or when I have my dentist appointment here. I have a picture of my calendar from my phone and my weekly schedule below as an example!
Exercise
This next topic is the one you have probably been anticipating. I feel like a hypocrite saying this because I stated I had trouble doing this from the beginning, but get moving! Go out and exercise when you can. We already know the benefits exercising gives us: stress relief, decreased depression and anxiety, increased mood, you name it. Once I figured all my rubbish out, I actually wanted to work out. I was motivated to kill it in the gym. Like I said earlier that my goal was to exercise 3 times a week, I am now exercising 5 times a week. God I feel great! I have truly been feeling like I can accomplish anything I want. I am energized and determine to go after anything on my mind. It’s hard starting at first, but keep with it and make it a habit. You will be glad you did. I first started by doing two 15 minute workouts a day (equaling up to 30 minutes a day). I also always thought I had to exercise and sweat like crazy, breathe super heavy, and feel absolutely drained from my workouts. It doesn’t have to be like that. My book mentioned to go the intensity where it is hard to keep a conversation, but not so intense where it’s impossible to talk. By keeping this in mind, I enjoy my workouts so much more and I get the increased energy for the rest of the day after I workout instead of feeling super tired. I also used an app called MyFitnessPal that helped me track all the macronutrients and calories consumed, my workouts, and how many calories I lost that day.
In the picture to the left, look at the numbers at the top. The 1,660 is my personal goal of only eating that many calories in one day. The 1,390 calories is how many calories I have consumed that day. The 171 calories is the amount of calories I lost by working out. The 441 calories are the remaining calories I have left in the day to eat in order to reach around 1,660 calories. In the picture on the right, there is a circle graph showing the macronutrients I ate that day. The blue numbers with the percentage symbol next to it is my goal of eating that percentage of macronutrients a day. This is a great way to make sure you are not intaking a bunch of fats for the entire day!
Healthy Eating
I finally made it to the last change I made to make myself a healthier and happier person. I’ve been making an effort to eat healthier. I honestly only cared about making my goal about exercising at least 3 times a week. It was hard to keep this goal going while eating horrible foods. I made a switch to healthy foods because my body was not feeling the fried, sugary, salty foods. My mood and energy greatly increased by focusing on eating natural, whole fresh foods. I want to add that I am not severely restricting my calories to lose weight. I eat whenever I am hungry but I am making sure that it is a healthy meal or snack. While reading my book, it mentioned research done on added sugars, foods high in sodium, and trans-fat. These findings literally made my skin crawl. Added sugar affects our ability to learn. Foods high in sodium decreases our ability to think and can potentially lead to dementia. Trans fat has been shown to shrink your brain, which is a common characteristic shown in Alzheimer’s as well. If you keep these eating trends your entire life, you are setting yourself up for disease and despair. Have you ever heard, you are what you eat? Well, it really is true. Fuel your body with the right foods. You will notice the difference overtime. I am a sweet freak, so it was hard for me to not add sugar to certain foods. I started substituting fruits for my “added” sugars instead of actual sugar. I also only buy whole grain bread, rice, and cereal. I make my own homemade protein pancakes so I know what is all in the mix as well.
There have been major takeaways I learned through this journey. I thought this exercising goal wouldn’t have been that bad to accomplish, but life really isn’t all that simple. I truly had to step back and look at my life as a whole and accept what I really needed to improve with myself. I realize the most important point of this adventure of all, is to put your main focus on being happy with yourself. Once you do that, everything else will start falling in place. It will not be something that will take only a week to happen, maybe not even a month. All these changes I mentioned above has helped me be a happier and healthier person. The little things I changed is what has really mattered to me. The picture below is a habit-forming app I used to help me keep track of these small changes to make sure I would follow through with them every day. I tracked my exercise, healthy eating, study/homework, time management, and drinking 12 cups of water a day. These were all tracked to help me accomplish my goal of exercising 3 times a week. The dots (days) that are not filled in with the green or pink colors are the days I didn’t do that specific “habit”. This is a great and easy way to keep yourself in check!
