How to de-stress on the road of self improvement:

Anyone who has been around here for a short period of time knows that you’re religiously told to push yourself beyond means you thought were possible. Your body has unknown limits... and finding out just how far you can push yourself can be one of the most fulfilling experiences you can ever have.

Decompressing and relaxation can serve as a great tool to keep you focused and give you time away from this constant self-induced torture. Aside from sleep, it makes up 25% of my time while I am awake, while the other 75% is spent going balls to the wall hard as I can at everything I do. Time that is set aside with you in mind. You can put your goals on the back burner, even if it’s only for 10 minutes at a time.

Here are a list of some of the best activities you can do to keep you functioning at your best.

Daily activities:

  1. This goes without saying, sleeping. You need rest to recover and get your strength. Sleep 8+ hours a night.

  2. Mindfulness meditation. Even if it is only for 10 minutes. Build yourself up as time goes on and add 10 seconds a day. Pick a time during the day and stick to it. The point of it isn’t necessarily to detach at all. Rather, become hyper focused on the here and now and becoming okay with the human condition while in this state. In other words, accepting that your back hurts from sitting up straight. Accepting the thoughts that are occurring in your mind and just letting all the pain, boredom and everything else be.

  3. Get yourself a dog. You don’t have to pretend to be any certain way with your dog. Your dog will love you no matter what. You can invest in your dog, and no that your investment won’t go upside down. You can show your dog affection, and it won’t turn on you if you do. If you train it properly, it will always listen to you. You can walk your dog so both of you can destress together.

  4. Get yourself several hobbies. Or, just things that you can do that make time stand still. It can be as simple as chess and ping pong, or as complex as rock climbing and MMA. Regardless, the more active you are, and I don’t mean intensity here, the more you’re using your body in different ways, the more difficult it is to notice how much time has passed. It has to do with using your body to do something to keep your focus. This means working with just your hands will take focus, but not as much as something that takes many more body parts and muscles.

Less frequent activities:

  1. Massage. I’m talking about deep tissue massage. Go for 90 minutes with the right person and you will feel like a new man when you’re done. It shouldn’t necessarily all feel good while they’re doing it. If it does, tell them to go deeper.

  2. Take a bath... sounds kinda gay, but it works. You put the water on as hot as it goes and let the water run the entire tone so it doesn’t get cold. Drain it when it gets a little full, but keep the hot water running. Sweat it out in there and relax.

  3. Have several groups of friends that all enjoy an activity. For example, I have one group that does flag football, another that does poker, another that has a game night. I don’t get to see all three each week, but because they’re all on different days, I get to go at least one each week that works best with my schedule.

  4. Go into the woods and let it out. I want taught how to process or deal with emotions. Sometimes I get really pissed about stuff in my life that I caused, be it something as simple as when I got myself into debt, or something more complex because of some life trauma that occurred, someone’s death that was close to me, or a family members suffering. Since finding TRP years ago, I knew that emotions couldn’t be processed in front of others. Specifically, I couldn’t take my anger or anything else out on other because it isn’t their problem and they don’t deserve that. So, I take them out in the woods. I will sit in the woods and process my emotions. Really feel what it wrong. And then I will explode. Scream as loud as I can and do what I need to in order to process my problems and emotions.