3 Daily Habits that Have Made My Life Suck Way Less

I must preface this blog post by saying that I am not, in any way, a “life-hacker” (NOT EVEN CLOSE!).

I’m generally the last person to get on board with some fancy, trendy, self-help-thing-of-the-moment that everyone suddenly swears by (call me skeptical meets stubborn…).

Remember when everyone and their mom started raving about the benefits of celery juice? My inner rebel was more inclined to whip up mint-chocolate-chip milkshakes every morning versus hopping on the “drink your greens” train.

Yes, I can be obnoxiously self-governing and anti-trend when it comes to taking outside feedback or suggestions, even if they’re really good suggestions, just because it’s outside feedback and suggestions.

Can you relate?

Are you sometimes stubborn and skeptical and self-governing, like me?

It’s something I’m working on, honestly. SIGH.

So with all of that said — ALLOW ME TO OFFER SOME HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS TO YOU.

I want to share three healthy habits and productivity tips that have seriously drastically changed my life and myself.

And as you are reading these, I invite you put your skepticism or stubbornness aside, for just a moment…

And keep a curious, open mind…

And really consider if they would be useful to you, too!

Cause if I were to come up with some random 30-day “Make Your Life Suck Less” challenge, these would be the three required practices for folks to adopt. (And they don’t require some fancy gym membership or an infrared sauna in your backyard — yippee!)

READ ON, IF YOU DARE.

“Make Your Life Suck Less” Habit #1:

Landline your frickin’ cellular telephone.

Remember in the good old days, when your phone couldn't come with you everywhere you went?

Cause it was like, attached to a wall?

It would just hang out in that one corner of the kitchen, and you had to actually share it with the other humans in your home, and you couldn’t crawl into bed with it and get cozy under the covers and watch hours of beauty tutorials on YouTube until 2 o’clock in the morning…remember when??

I DECIDED TO TRY GOING BACK TO THAT MAJESTIC TIME-SPACE-REALITY.

The age of the landline! So limited! So simple! So YES PLEASE.

Here's how it works: When I'm home (lolz when am I not home these days), my phone sits on the counter where I charge it nightly, and if I want to use my phone, I have go to stand over there and use it.

Now if I’m doing an Instagram story, or Facetiming with friends, or using my phone for something a little more extensive, I’m allowed to take my phone out of it’s cozy landline corner and do the thing…

But as soon as I’m done?

The phone goes BACK IN IT’S COZY LANDLINE CORNER CAVE.

I implemented this practice back in February because I noticed that my screen-time was off-the-charts excessive. Like, 8-10 hours a day, excessive. Eep. Ick.

And I noticed that I would unconsciously reach for my phone first thing in the morning, and find myself having a hard time leaving it out of my sight for more than, oh…six minutes?

I mean, I’m addicted. I’m pretty sure we all are.

After all, I live by myself (phone = form of connection), I do a fuck-ton of work on my phone (phone = productivity and output), and I effing love social media (phone = all the dopamine!). My phone is basically my best friend, y’all!

So yeah…that is sad, so I decided to try this thing where I treat my cell phone like a landline. 🤷‍♀️

And while I haven't done it perfectly 100% of the time (what is ever perfect, 100% of the time), holy fuck has it made a difference.

I slashed my screen-time in half without even trying.

And instead of reaching for my phone first thing in the morning, I now journal.

And instead of scrolling through Instagram before I go to bed each night, I read a book.

IT'S ALL VERY 20th CENTURY, I KNOW.

I can't recommend this enough for anyone who wants to stop being so damn addicted to their phone. Or stop endlessly numbing out with social media. Or just drastically reduce their screen-time, and get back into the rhythm of real life.

I'm a calmer, less distracted, more present and peaceful version of me on days where I strictly landline, so I can’t recommend it enough. Everything just sucks less.

“Make Your Life Suck Less” Habit #2:

Be honest with your journal.

I have been a regular journal-er for years, specifically in the from of “Morning Pages”.

If you’re not familiar: Morning Pages is a practice outlined in Julia Cameron’s genius book “The Artist’s Way”, and consists of three handwritten pages of stream-of-consciousness journaling every AM, where you’re basically “brain-dumping” whatever might be clogging up your mental and emotional works.

I LOVE ME SOME MORNING PAGES.

But after years of filling up journal after journal…it started to feel a little stale.

Even though there’s no “wrong way” to journal, I could feel myself sorta half-assing the process and just journaling for the sake of journaling.

I was keeping it surface-level with myself — jotting down whatever was coming up that day, or replaying the events of the day before as if I was keeping an eye-witness report of my whole existence. It felt detached, boring, and un-insightful.

So I started implementing this ballsy new journaling prompt every morning:

“If I was being really honest…”

And BOOM. Suddenly we’re in Truth Town.

I’d let my pen hit the page, and not let it stop or slow down until three pages were done.

And wowzaaaa — suddenly this journaling practice felt more like a regular therapy session, and less like a random box I needed to check as part of my morning routine.

If you struggle with journaling, or want to feel more in touch with yourself and your emotions, having a really honest Morning Pages practice might be a beautiful habit to try on.

While I was never shocked by what came up with this prompt, I was always relieved to feel like I was telling myself the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

And (this is kind of a fun bonus part) — to admit what I was really feeling without having to do anything about it.

I could just write it out:

“I’m tired and I wanna sleep for two weeks. I’m overwhelmed and I miss my Mom. I’m tired. Did I mention I’m tired? Ugh. I just want to stay in bed and not be responsible for anything. I wish I could relax. I’m anxious and I don’t know why. I hate that feeling…”

AGAIN, THIS IS NOT GROUNDBREAKING-GENIUS-WOW STUFF.

But, much, like a really good vent session?

I could just let off some steam, see how or what I was really feeling (if I was being really honest), and thusly feel extra seen and heard. Hello, self-induced self-intimacy!

My journal now feels like a warm, trusting friend I can go to with anything. One who will never judge me, or use my words against me, or tell me to “look on the bright side” when I just don’t feel like it.

And I love that.

“Make Your Life Suck Less” Habit #3:

Meditate. Everyday. No exceptions.

I’ve had an on-again/off-again relationship with meditation since around 2014 when I started attending the meditation workshops my father, Dennis was teaching in yoga studios back home in Boston.

I’d tried to meditate before learning from him (Pops has been teaching meditation since the 1970’s — it’s actually how he and my Mom met, adorbs I know!) but I always found it really boring, frustrating, and kinda impossible.

But the way my Dad taught meditation? I got hooked.

It felt so good. And easy. And centering. And fun.

Meditation gets to be like a feel-good game I sit down to play with myself everyday, instead of some stiff ancient practice I suck at.

And to put it bluntly: When I meditate everyday, or sometimes twice a day, MY LIFE WORKS 1,000x BETTER.

To the point where if I skip it, I’ll notice myself getting agitated or hyper-annoyed with some small thing that normally wouldn’t bug me…

Prompting me to ask myself, “Jeez girl, why are you so pissed and grumpy?”

And then I realize — fuck-nuggets. I didn’t meditate this morning. Of course. #FAIL

Which is why it’s become a non-negotiable staple for me.

Anytime I talk about meditation, so many peeps reach out and ask how to get started.

Meditation is something most of us know we should learn, or aspire to do more regularly, but I know first-hand that trying to master meditation on your own (or using an app) is generally pretty frustrating…

SO LISTEN:

My Dad and I are talking about putting a virtual meditation workshop (or workshops) together for people who want to establish a daily practice, and experience the majestic benefits of sitting still and closing your eyes for twenty minutes a day (when I say it like that, meditation sounds so sweet-n-easy, right?!).

If you want to hear about this new Meditation offering as it rolls out, click here.

IN CLOSING, SWEET SOUL:

If you want your life to suck way less…experiment with these three daily habits.

You will wind up a calmer, happier, more productive person AND you’ll have bragging rights because these three things are not the easiest things to implement on a day-to-day basis…(who doesn’t love bragging rights?).

Because life should not suck. And you deserve to feel really good, every damn day.