For years I’ve read self-help books, exercised heavily, meditated daily and even attended some weekend-long forums to learn how to be the best version of myself. It has been an enlightening journey, to say the least, but also riddled with a lot of experimentation. After going through all that here are some tips for you to try while you are figuring things out.

First on the list is intermittent fasting, yes I know there are tons of posts on here about that, but that should show you something. In my opinion, fasting is the holy grail when it comes to feeling better. Not only does it give you more energy, aid in weight loss and help the body run more efficiently, but fasting also removes mood swings while making you feel outright amazing. There is virtually no downfalls to incorporating it into daily life, I have a friend who was almost on diabetes medication, suffering from high blood pressure, overweight and always fatigued. I urged my friend to try fasting for a month, and it was a lifesaver for them. After that month, they were full of energy, no high blood pressure and medication-free, which lead to fasting becoming a part of daily life.

Next up is exercising, an obvious, yet crucial one. Following an eight week or six-month program does not cut it though. When I say exercising it means a lifestyle of hitting at least seven to ten thousand steps daily and being active at least three to four out of seven days a week. These are in no way hard tasks to complete unless you refuse to try. By building a lifestyle that incorporates being active, you will genuinely feel better in your skin in addition to being much happier. Furthermore, exercise reduces anxiety, strengthens your bones, aids in life longevity amongst many other incredible benefits.

That said, nutrition goes hand in hand with exercising. You don’t want to be eating unhealthy and hoping exercise or your metabolism will make up for it. Nutrition for the sake of this article means eating a variety of foods from each macronutrient category. Macros are fats, carbohydrates and proteins. When you eat a healthy amount of each of these it improves heart and gut health in addition to improving sleeping patterns. A healthy amount of each is 50 – 65% carbs, 20 – 35% fats and 10 – 35% protein, but from what I have learnt it’s better to stick on the higher end for carbs as you experiment with fats/ proteins.

The last tip on my list is developing yourself intellectually. I do this by reading, writing and meditating daily. Mediation is a powerful tool when it comes to building a better you as it allows you to check-in with yourself. Furthermore, it teaches you to gain mental clarity while providing a timeframe out of the day to deal with any uneasy feelings. From my experience, I use a portion of the time meditating to become more accepting of myself instead of letting negativity or the past leak into my present reality. It is a great way to end or being a day because it leaves you feeling refreshed and full of energy to dive into the day with nothing holding you back. Bear in mind this is from my experience as well as others and may not be the case for you at first.

However, developing yourself means a little more than meditating. Reading an interesting book, blog or learning about a new topic will help stimulate your brain. In turn, you will strengthen your vocabulary, memory focus and analytical thinking skills. These will aid in opening up new avenues for you to explore as you grow.

Well, there you have it the secret is out. There is no need to get caught up in things we can’t change or focus on what could have been, live in the now, love yourself completely, follow your gut and do whatever makes you happy.

E