| Given the audience here, I encourage you to think of it as an ongoing experimental process. As with software, don't expect immediate, dramatic progress. It feels to me like picking locks: a few apparently tiny improvements can suddenly add up to something larger. What has helped me, in rough order of importance: A very regular sleep schedule. I used to be all over the place, but hacking on this has really paid off. Lots of sunlight. I got rid of my bedroom blinds, try to make it outdoors daily, and have an elaborate automated lighting system that gives me a more summer-ish lighting cycle the year round. [1] I used to use a blue light panel, and would probably still use it if I were living in a darker climate. Regular cardio. Running, cycling, hiking, long walks. At a minimum I'll do a 30-20-10 cycle [2], which takes only a few minutes. But I find mood benefit in much longer things, possibly because of the sunlight. Minimal refined carbs. At this point I'll have something with sugar or flour maybe once a week, and my moods are much more stable. Meditation. I know the traditional practice is daily long blocks of time, but I find more use in more frequent short ones. One way to think about meditation is in terms of learning awareness and control over the flow of one's thoughts. Basically, I think of serenity (and specifically non-reactivity) as a skill, and it's a skill worth practicing often. That can be as little for me as one conscious breath, or a 5-minute meditation break. Therapy. Find a professional you like. It make take going through a few. Mine is great. Her experience with many different people helps her spot patterns and suggest changes in ways I can't do on my own. She's also good at spotting my bullshit and getting me to debug it. A quiet environment. I have a top-floor apartment on a quiet street, one that only shares one wall with neighbors. It's very restful. At work, I also find ways to minimize environmental stress. Yoga. The way my body remembers to be stressed is in muscle tension. Learning to stretch and relax both those muscles and my mind helps, and also helps me diagnose other issues, as it helps me notice what is making me tense (and therefore reducing my resiliency. Minimal drug use. My average day includes no alcohol or caffeine. When I have them now, I'll notice a mild increase in mood instability for a day or two, so I almost never have them two days in a row. |