3 Simple Things To Reflect On Every Day That Help You Have a Happier Life and Mental Health
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It’s 9:30 pm and the house is finally quiet.
The kid is asleep, dishes are put away and you have ticked off the final to-do on your to-do list.
You finally have some time for yourself.
Now, what do you do with this time before you are ready to go to bed?
In this post, I want to share with you 3 questions I ask myself almost every night when I finally have time for myself.
- Did I do something that makes me learn today?
- Did I do something that makes me healthier today?
- Did I work on a hobby/ task that helps me create today?
I know, at this point you are thinking “Oh heck no, this post is a clickbait” and you have probably heard these 3 questions before. But before you click the back button and call me a no-good-lying-sack-of-red-beans, please bear with me and let me try to explain to you why these 3 questions deserve your reflection every day.
1. Did I Do Something That Makes Me Learn Today?
I am not asking if you learn something new today, but did you actively tried to learn something today. This can be as simple as reading a book for 5 minutes in the morning, or watching a 7 minutes tutorial YouTube instead of the news.
There is a boatload of research (which I could link, but you are most likely not going to click on) that links dopamine (that chemical in your brain that stimulates happiness) to learning in children and grown adults among other benefits.
Proactively trying to learn something everyday make you able to relate to more people because there are more topics you can talk about. It helps you learn new things faster in the future because your brain, like a muscle is better conditioned to absorb new information.
For me, I have been trying to read a book as I drink my breakfast and coffee in the morning (I wake up before my wife and kid). On days where my eyes are just about 3 Watt (very dim) in the morning, I watched tutorial on YouTube for Filmora Video Editing.
2. Did I Do Something That Makes Me Healthier Today?
For this, it’s simpler said than done. But did you order the salad instead of the burger? Did you buy the skimmed milk instead of the full cream?
I am not saying that you should suddenly become a vegetarian, just a small change in behavior to kickstart what hopefully will become a good habit. If you usually order a large soda with your lunch, maybe this time order a medium.
For the longest time, I can honestly say my answer to this question is a “NO!” Like I said in my last post, I used to wake up with shoulder and neck pain due to bad posture. I got sick easily because I don’t watch my diet.
Starting October of last year, I started a smoothie breakfast diet every day and I noticed I rarely get sick. Granted, I was lazy to prepare breakfast and it was not because of a specific health choice.
But the smoothie diet snowballs into more healthy decisions. Starting 6 months ago, I started running because I have more energy. Running everyday boosts my energy level even more.
When your body is healthy, the world just seems that more colorful, you are less cranky and your body just feels…stable.
3. Did I Work On a Hobby/ Task That Helps Me Create, Today?
Now this is a tricky one. Where the first question deals with your intelligence and the second questions deals with your physical health, creativity does wonder for your heart and soul.
When you create something out of nothing, you feel pride, you feel better about yourself. Again, I am not saying that you should be the modern day Leonardo Da Vinci, but work on small things that help you create everyday.
If you always wanted to learn graphic designing, sharpen your pencil and put it on your desk today. Tomorrow, use that pencil to draw a line. The next, draw another line. Whatever it is, as long as it helps you create something everyday. Baby steps is fine, baby steps is great. That’s how everything starts.
During the COVID-19 lock down in May, my business couldn’t operate because of government regulation, so I decided that I wanted to paint my PC case. I finally finished painting 3 panels in 75 days. Not because I picked a hard design or my PC is full of corners and crooks (the panels are flat metal plate in case you are wondering), but because of baby steps.
There are days when I spent 5 minutes picking the colors that I want. Another day when I browsed the internet looking for design for 30 minutes.
At the end of the 75 days, I have PC panels that probably look better before I painted it. But, it is my PC panel. It is my work. I created the shapes and color that people see when they look at my PC.
Now, It’s Your Turn.
There. Hopefully I changed your mind regarding this post as a clickbait. I know how it feels when somebody show you a result of their work without knowing how they achieve it (washboard abs, 30 minutes animation video, a 300 pages book). But everybody starts somewhere and most of the time they started small and simple.
If you find that your answers to the above questions are “No,” don’t beat yourself up. Your situation is not the same with mine or other people. There will be days when you just can’t find the time to create something, learn something or eat healthy. Do not give up, keep fighting that uphill battle until you get at least 1 “Yes” out of 3, the rest will take care of itself.
The point is for us to continuously work on it everyday that one day we can look back and see we have made a mountain out of a molehill and that…feels empowering indeed.
But, until that day,
Try.
