Go for it - I want others to input success stories like yours. Failure stories are good too - stuff that doesn't work.
I'm using this as a bit of a diary, so much of what I write is 'froth and bubbles'. By writing it down I find it easier to identify the useful things. Like this app, for example.
http://www.heartrateplus.com/
I can list a few things that did/didn't work for me (I think they're all relevant, apologies if I deviate a little). Broken down by category:
Exercise:
Clearly this is important for overall health, including mental health... so I thought I'd start with it.
So my basic approach to this is a gym session (resistance training) 3 times a week, plus a form of cardiovascular work to increase VO2 max (HIIT sprints work well) once a week. In doing this, I've found:
- Focussing on muscular hypertrophy (growing the muscle) for aesthetic reasons, without also training a full range of motion, leaves me with poor mobility and did some damage. It's taking me time to reverse it, but it's working so far
- Increasing the number of training sessions beyond this point. It didn't necessarily leave me drained (if I ate enough), but there were clear diminishing returns
- Training to failure during resistance training. I find that training to about 50-60% of the max reps on a set and keeping it at about 5 reps per set as a general rule has worked well. It increases strength over time, whilst allowing me to train
Meditation/Mindfulness
This has been covered already, but basically I'm not very good at using certain techniques. GB has covered body awareness already, which I use.
Diet
Already covered, but in summary I find a ketogenic diet (modified Atkins, basically) alongside some intermittent fasting to be very useful
Confidence and motivation
I haven't found a clear solution here that I'm happy with, but what I use to date:
- Study of various philosophical texts, which I've mentioned
- Study of history, particularly the study of successful people
- Routinely reminding myself of the principles learnt from the above
- Make (somewhat) public declarations to friends/family that adds another layer of motivation when I want to achieve a particular goal (although focussing on process improvement helps, the goal comes by itself)
Concentration/Flow:
Focussing on this one now. I find I have issues focussing when my phone is nearby or the internet is freely available, especially if the result of the task has serious implications. What works to date:
- Limit availability to internet and turn phone on flight mode
- Work through the source of anxiety relating to the task, and attempt to remove it through reasoning (Bertrand Russell's method of continually reasoning with yourself until your subconscious essentially synchronises with this view seems to work for me)
Really interested to hear what worked for others.
GB - great posts so far. Love it