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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   1530 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for October 11, 2023

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

  • Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.

  • Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.

  • Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.

  • Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).

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What are things that you could’ve started years earlier if you had only known about them/motivated yourself to do them, that improve your life?

I use a Tile tracker in my wallet, which helps me find it if I lose it around the house and more importantly if I lose it outside.

I have a morning checklist of stuff before I leave the house, including wallet, keys, brush teeth, etc.

I have the points apps for restaurants I use often, which effectively give 5% off food in addition to any coupons

I got a credit card and use it for my purchases to get cashback, and have it set up to auto-pay off from my chequing account

I use feedly, a RSS feed to keep track of blogs and comics I like

I use airpods instead of wired earbuds, and they’re a much nicer experience

I take a tiny bit of melatonin before bed

In the drug realm:

Biggest by far: semaglutide for weight loss. Works so well that Walmart is noticing sales drop... if that isn't an amazing endorsement I don't know what is.

Second biggest: occasional moderate dose (1.5g) phenibut taken 8 hours before a stressful social situation.

Doing yoga, dancing, having a dog, cleaning or at least de cluttering regularly.

Freezing foods after meal prepping.

Oh and self massage with natural oils. It's quite nice.

Dancing is a great one, we’ve agreed to go out and dance at least once a month instead of going for a walk/home after dinner and it’s been a lot of fun, if you limit yourself to a few drinks you also avoid the worst of an old person’s hangover.

Being more open, honest and vulnerable with people

Using comprehensible input methods for language learning. I have had this love/hate relationship with two languages I have been studying for a long time, and got them both up to very decent levels. But studying is such a pain in the ass and difficult to be consistent. At some point I realised that 2 months on 5 months off will never get me where I want and the weak point in my method was enjoyment and ease of study. Flashcards and reading and grammar don’t work very well when you have even slightly disruptive events in life and cannot keep up with the routines. So now I have AirPods and listen the shit out of podcasts and audiobooks during commuting and house chores and whatnot. It has made a world of difference for me. “Study” is fun and I already had the habit of listening to many podcasts anyway so it’s seamless. I have been improving tremendously

I'll second this. CI works better than traditional study, it's less taxing than traditional study, and it's much more flexible to do day to day.

I've been doing Spanish for a couple of months, but I wish I'd started a year earlier. At my current rate, I can potentially get to native-level in two years so I'd already be halfway there.

If you learning Spanish check out the language transfer course. Yes it’s technically learning grammar is supposed to be bad but it’s such a well made course that it’s totally worth it

I have a habit instead of only ever putting down my keys and wallet in one place in my home. Thus, I never lose them.

I use Melatonin as well. I think that, without it, my natural sleep cycle is like a 26 hour day or so. If I went on without that or an alarm just going to sleep and waking up whenever felt natural, my cycle tends to drift later and later. Melatonin, taken a couple of hours before bed, seems to keep my sleep cycle synchronized with the actual daily cycle.

Green tea whenever I take Ritalin. Works wonders for the palpitations, and makes it bearable. I'd wager it's the l-theanine, a good anxiolytic in itself.

Green tea bags or matcha?

Green tea bags. I've had Earl Grey work too, even if it's not green.

Your best bet is looking up the l-theanine content, assuming you don't want to pop it as pills.

L-theanine is pretty great as a supplement. It's a subtle and non-addictive anxiolytic and "mind stabilizer". And it can take away the uncomfortable aspects of caffeine for some people.

Yup, plain old coffee gives me palpitations, and standard tea just doesn't do much at all unless I chug it.

I used to lose my stuff all the time (and in fact, I still lose my wallet every couple years). But one thing I've done to mitigate this is to put my keys in the same place every time I get home. I have a hanger right next to my front door and I make sure I leave them there. So even though I continue to lose my wallet and employee badge, at least I'm not scrambling to look for my car keys.

Another thing that I've found is helpful is having weekly scheduled social events. I spend a lot of time working from home alone and I start to lose my sanity after a few days. I've made strides to have weekly scheduled activities on weeknights - same time/same day every week. I find the anticipation leading up to these events helps counteract the work fatigue/isolation.

I carry a large Hydroflask with me everywhere. I fill it up three or four times a day and really don't drink other liquids (except coffee). It keeps me hydrated and I never have to worry about buying drinks. Side note: I've also lost several Hydroflasks but I'm on a good streak now with my current one!

Groupon for oil changes. I've been doing this for years and it's a lot cheaper than your local Valvoline.

I use eBay to purchase used books. I like the act of having a physical book in my hand and Amazon has gotten very pricy. eBay seems to be the cheapest site to buy used books.

I like all of your suggestions as well. I haven't made the switch to a Tile tracker, but that's only because I haven't seen any good wallet/Tile tracker combo products out there.

I just keep the tile inside a wallet pocket. It doesn’t fall out.

Reaching out for help and input. I always have this fear that they'll look down on me or simply reject me out of hand, but reaching to others for help is something that can be so useful. I'm writing this now as motivation to reach out to some professors I've studied with in the past for help with some problems I've been having. Going it alone is pretty impossible, we need to bump into people to help optimize solutions for problems that arise over life.

Working out. PT was such a terrible experience back in school that I avoided any kind of deliberate physical exercise afterwards for ten years.

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