How do you take care of yourself?

[rm5]

Hi everyone! I’ve been thinking a lot about the next chapter of my life and all the things that come with it, both good and bad. I’m not necessarily struggling with taking care of myself currently (though I am struggling with other things), but I am genuinely wondering what you all do to take care of yourselves—physically, mentally—in any and all ways. I’m not asking for personal information you aren’t comfortable sharing, I’m speaking very generally. Especially for those in the workforce, and work-life balance. I’ve been thinking a lot about these things lately as I’m in this period of young adulthood.

I’d appreciate any insights, both theoretical and practical. I’m just curious.

 

[KaliYoni]

I don't know you personally, so I'm finding it difficult to answer your question without either giving really generic advice ("eat healthy food"; "don't spend more than you make") or veering into clichés ("if you love what you do, it isn't work"; "family comes first"). Plus, since you don't know me personally, anything you read from me could be coming from a sociopath...or worse.
;-)

But a couple of things I feel, with hindsight, that might have been good for undergraduate-me to know include:
* The consequences of failing at something are the lowest they'll ever be when you're a student. Take more chances, personally and academically.
* Relationships with other students, faculty members, and college staff will be much more meaningful and important over the long run than grades.

 

[JSRinUK]

Before I started my current job, I did a lot of running. Lost weight, got fit and active, went to many run events, best time of my life.

Life necessitated changing jobs, and had to take what I could get. Now I have a physically demanding job that takes its toll on my aging body. I can’t run as much, I feel less fitter by the day, my health is slowly diminishing, and life feels like a chore once more.

We humans are supposed to be advanced and enlightened, but we develop a society that burdens us with high cost of living so we have to physically and mentally destroy ourselves. No other animal species does this.

Great to be human, isn’t it?

All I can say is to live by the day, and find one positive thing in the day - no matter how small. It might just be seeing a small flower fighting its way through the weeds, a little sunlight breaking through the clouds, tiny things, but positive things. In the end, since I lost my dog, that’s what keeps me going,

 

[eyoungren]

When I was young, I hated PE. I still hate PE. But at 22, United Parcel Service hired me to unload trailers and air containers. Halfway into my first week they moved me into what they called 'Irregulars' and what everybody else called 'bulk'.

People/companies use UPS (and other shippers) to send things like car parts, styrofoam containers, oversized packages, wood, metal, stuff packed in wood and metal, bars, poles, furniture, etc, etc. None of that stuff can go down a regular package belt in the system. It has to be handled manually - by bulk/irreg drivers inside the hub. It has to be unloaded, loaded on to a bulk train and then unloaded at the outgoing trailers or air containers so the loaders there can load it.

So at 22, 110lb me is handling this stuff. Then a few years later UPS starts an over-70lb service. By 1999, at 29 years of age, I am throwing 150lb packages from waist height on to belts that are at shoulder height. I am equal parts proud and regretful that I was capable of doing this. Proud because I could, regretful because of the toll that all that took on my body. Even then, I speculated what would happen later on.

But with a dead end there at UPS, I got in to graphic design. That put me in an air conditioned/heated office and sitting in a chair every day. But it had to do with computers and not manual labor in a non-temperature controlled warehouse.

I used to be quite agile. Now years of sitting has resulted in high-blood pressure and the meds to treat it. I doubt I could lift much over 50lbs for long. But the biggest thing is that it's hard to sit comfortably and lie down comfortably. A result of the constant twisting and turning while moving 70lb plus packages in my 20s. That is the end result of the physicality of that job at UPS.

I don't whine about it much except to myself though. I met my wife at that job and we've been married for 28 years now, with two kids (22 and 17) and a home (and the mortgage for it).

The doctor has long told me I need to be walking a minimum of 30 minutes a day. I have bursts of activity for a while where I do that, but it's never consistent. Right now I have to walk or call an Uber. Our car died a month ago and its not getting fixed and I do not see a new car anytime soon to replace it. Fortunately, I am still capable of getting moving.

I just got to do more.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

The lense I look at life through is:
1.) You never know when you are going to die and you most definitely will so grab it by both horns and to hell with what people think and the consequences.

This is also my advice. Dont focus on your health. Focus on your life. You will age and eventually get sick and die. That is life's guarantee. There is plenty of time for your doc to tell you what's wrong with you. You're young - get out in the muck and mire and live. Get dirty, get hurt, fall in love, get drunk, be late on a bill or two lol. Do all the things on your list or more importantly try to (the journey). There is not too much in your 20s that you can do IMO that will prevent the inevitable. Illness in all of its forms and death are coming for you. I dont care what any flat belly doc tells me (and I have had a few in my life lol). I dont mean to sound ungrateful because I'd be dead without my docs, amazing nurses and modern medicine but if you did everything they say, life would suck frankly. eat the prime steak dinner and dessert. Do it often.

Find what brings joy to your life and focus on that. Do that. My wife and my kids bring me unending joy (and irritation and frustration and all of that too haha but its worth it), so that is what I do. You do that - find the joy in your life and wrap yourself up in it. That is the best medicine of all and is how I take care of myself and those I love.

 

[eyoungren]

The lense I look at life through is:
1.) You never know when you are going to die and you most definitely will so grab it by both horns and to hell with what people think and the consequences.

You will age and eventually get sick and die. That is life's guarantee.

A few weeks ago I read another story of an old person who'd fallen, broke their hip and then within a short amount of time died. Over the years I've heard this same story enough times to wonder why this happens. And enough times to know that as I age, it's falls that I want to avoid having.

Turns out that breaking your hip requires a rather intensive healing process from the body. If you're young you can recover fairly quickly. But, the more we age, the less we bounce back (as they say). Older adults tend to have more compromised immune systems, healing is slower and they become more susceptable to infection. All this combined generally leads to death from the type of fall most people would just walk away from. Of course, if you've fallen over and you strike your head first then all bets are off I guess.

My own grandmother's serious health complications began after a fall, where she broke her hip. That would have been some time in early 1989 I believe. She was in the habit of moving furniture around at 3:00 am. Which at 79-80 years old wasn't smart to be doing when living by yourself. She was dead by mid-1990.

 

[Hamdullah Retarderson]

I only eat McDonald's once a week. The rest of the days, I eat healthy, traditional dishes from my country. I also eat offal once a week. I swim. Every night, I go swimming at the Sheraton spa. I've been 80 kilograms for five years. I'm 184 cm tall. I also fulfill my religion obligations. I pray. I fast occasionally, except during Ramadan. It's good for me. I have enough time for myself outside of work and family. Thank Allah

 

[rb2112]

Hi everyone! I’ve been thinking a lot about the next chapter of my life and all the things that come with it, both good and bad. I’m not necessarily struggling with taking care of myself currently (though I am struggling with other things), but I am genuinely wondering what you all do to take care of yourselves—physically, mentally—in any and all ways. I’m not asking for personal information you aren’t comfortable sharing, I’m speaking very generally. Especially for those in the workforce, and work-life balance. I’ve been thinking a lot about these things lately as I’m in this period of young adulthood.

I’d appreciate any insights, both theoretical and practical. I’m just curious.

Put effort into relationships, old and new, that are making your life better and happier.
(flipside) Reduce or remove effort into relationships that have paid off poorly.
Set healthy boundaries/limits (bedtimes, alcohol limits/or none, places you should be going to or never going to, people you should be hanging out with or never hang out with). Simple guardrails will make you free to move within them and avoid big life mistakes. How do you know what big life mistakes to avoid? Look around and "dont be like that guy...".

Work-life balance is sometimes talked about...I never found it in a very competitive work environment with high standards. Work your butt off, then take breaks as you can. Find an exit plan whether it is 5-10-15 years way and power towards it.

Understand seasons of your life...they will pass. Examples: Are you a parent now? Focus on making your children's childhood great and setting them up for success. Are you a student now? Complete your program and move on. Working with no end in sight? Figure it out, either start saving more, or wanting less, etc. In great health? Exploit it and stay there and do things in the world while you can? In poor health? Start to fix everything from the ground up habits, if you can, or acknowledge your limitations if that (body part) will never get better and change what you want/expect to do.

Brush and floss daily....once you start having dental problems....everything sucks because you will feel it DAILY....in your head, to boot. Pay now to address small dental problems before they blow up.

Good luck!

 

[rm5]

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies! Overall, I think I’m just really anxious about what’s next but there’s nothing anyone or I can do about that. I know what I’m doing and what kinds of things I should avoid, at least in general. More specific things I’ll learn the hard way I’m sure.

My physical health ain’t the best but it is all congenital and nothing I can do to fix it. Otherwise I take as good care of myself as I can. I eat healthy for the most part and get plenty of sleep. I don’t exercise as much as I’d like to but my schedule is packed. Weekends I go on walks for a couple hours.

The thing I am SO, SO, IMMENSELY sick of is social media. I have a feed-blocker extension but that only does so much. I use Insta and FB for too many legitimate communications to ditch them entirely. At this point I’ve just blocked a bunch of pages. I think my life (surely my mental health) has absolutely gotten worse since joining Instagram specifically. But again, I use it for foo many legitimate purposes to ditch it entirely.

Currently trying to rebuild friendships/build new ones after 95% of my friend group graduated last year (I’m in college currently) and it’s a very slow-going process but I’ve made progress.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

I turned off all social media … gosh 15 years ago now? Technically, I still have FB I guess but I set it to private so I only talk to my brother with it. I agree it is mostly a giant time suck and huge waste of time. It was isolating to a degree but that for me was the blessing. All the noise it produced went away. I am pretty introverted and don’t care to interact with others truthfully (unlike my wife who is incredibly social), so having all that time, focus & clarity back for myself & what was important to me was great. SM was like having the faucet of everyone’s BS on full blast all the time and was infuriating and exhausting. Seriously, F that lol. It was & is not important.

I understand that you are not prepared to stop using sm but I think you can set strong rules regarding how you use it, what you use it for, when & who you use it with. You are 100% in control of those metrics.

Yanno, it is surprising how robust and resilient the human body is. The tenacity of life & will to go on in most people is impressive. Dont discount your own inner strength despite congenital illness.

Have fun on your journey