Living well is something that people have been trying to do for thousands of years. However, it is often more challenging than many realize.
The reason for this comes back to the fact that we live in a complex world. Things are dynamic and change all the time, meaning that it is hard to stick to a regular routine.
As such, knowing the best way to live is difficult. Your needs and situation keep evolving, so what you should do next is too.
Fortunately, some bedrocks help you achieve a better living. These apply no matter what you’re trying to do in life, or even how hectic things get.
So, what’s the best way to live well if you’re the sort of person who’s always looking for more health? What should you be doing, exactly?
Master The Art Of Fasting
First, you’ll want to consider how you want to incorporate fasting into your lifestyle. Science is increasingly showing that eating all the time isn’t good for people, and it could be downright harmful if done incorrectly.
Therefore, you’ll want some sort of fasting in your routine. The safest is probably green smoothie fasting where you drink green smoothies for a day or two instead of water-only fasting or eating nothing.
You can also do time-restricted eating. Here, you skip dinner a few times a week and cram more calories into the morning to take advantage of the heightened insulin sensitivity at this time of day.
Fasting can take a while to get used to. The body may take some months to get used to going without food. However, it will eventually adapt and you’ll discover that your fasting sessions are easier than they were previously.
Stress Less
You can also live well and boost your health by stressing less. Not allowing life to get the better of you can be an excellent way to remain in control and enjoy your time.
Stress is a problem because it changes how the body operates. Small amounts are okay, but if it goes on for a long time, it can be damaging.
Stress increases the hormone cortisol, which is associated with extracting more sugar from muscles and putting the body into an inflammatory state. This response is okay if it is short-lived, but it becomes a problem much after that.
Stress is even more of an issue when it starts to feed into conditions like diabetes. It can make blood sugar control worse and cause you to eat more if it remains too high for too long.
Therefore, look for ways to lower it. Find what works for you, like breathwork or meditation. You can also focus your life on meaningful and productive relationships with people while avoiding those who are destructive of your happiness.
If you can take regular breaks from work, do so. While working more than 40 hours per week is doable in the short term, it’s not something that many wellness experts recommend in the long term.
If you can take a month-long break every few years, that’s an even better idea. These longer breaks give you time to think and reflect, allowing you to make breakthroughs that help you in other aspects of your life.
Be Skin-Kind
Living well also involves being kind to your skin. Looking after it is often the best way to present yourself in robust health.
People usually associate the skin with inner changes in the body. How it looks is often a reflection of processes churning away inside.
However, you also want to make sure you’re protecting it in daily life. Wearing sunscreen and moisturizer prevents the sun and pollution from damaging it while fighting back against oxidation and similar problems.
Being kind to the skin also means adding various antioxidants to your routine, like vitamin C. These can have a profound impact on brightness, especially if you’re currently low in these essential components.
Finally, look for ways to trap more moisture into your skin. Use emollients and other moisturizers to prevent excessive evaporation and to protect the skin against general ambient oxidative stress.
Remind yourself that moisture is an anti-aging compound. The more of it you have in the skin, the better protected it becomes against the general woes of life.
Cultivate Joy
At the same time, you’ll want to cultivate more joy, even if it sometimes feels hard because of ongoing events in the world. Joy essentially means finding something worthwhile in the daily activities of life and focusing on that instead of how things could be better.
Naturally, it can be a challenging thing to develop. However, the people who succeed tend to be significantly happier than those who don’t.
How you cultivate joy depends on your personality and underlying characteristics. Some people have success by staying curious. They’re interested in how the world works and want to refine their understanding over time by probing the deepest questions. These sorts of analyses compel them to move forward in their fields and continue to make new discoveries.
Then there are those who successfully prioritize the hobbies that make them feel good in their lives. These individuals have something that they can do with their hands every day which prevents them from becoming idle.
Laughing often is another form of medicine. People who giggle about jokes and spend time with fun friends are often healthier, simply because their mood is better most of the time. This is one of the reasons why isolation is so negative for a lot of people.
Play The Long Game
If you want to live well, it also pays to play the long game. Realizing that health is a marathon, not a sprint, is essential.
Most people experience profound changes in their health over a period of months and years, rather than hours or days. That’s because it takes the body time to renew and change how it structures itself.
Therefore, focus on consistent actions, whether your goal is weight loss, living longer, or greater athleticism. Look for how you can build the foundations today for a stronger tomorrow.
Where possible, avoid fads. Stick with things that are proven to work based on science and common sense. Don’t be afraid to experiment sometimes, but also keep your mission in mind.
If you can, look at decades-long time scales. Don’t focus on one week to the next, but imagine yourself doing what you’re doing now long-term. Think of your wellness goals as something you’re shooting for in your sixties and seventies, not necessarily right now.
Hydrate Properly
Proper hydration is another tactic you can use to live well. Making sure you give yourself sufficient water allows your body to carry out various cleaning processes that keep you in good condition.
Start by drinking a significant amount of water when you wake up in the morning. Guzzle some hot tea if necessary. Then, have another drink with your breakfast to replace the fluid lost overnight.
If you can, ditch sugary sodas. While these can sometimes be helpful for athletes, they don’t work well for the average person and can even cause harm.
Remember, if you drink a lot of sugar, it could possibly harm your cells. Excessive glycation from high blood glucose is associated with all sorts of lifestyle diseases, including diabetes.
Do A Little More Every Day
Another way to live well is to lean into it and do a little more every day. The more you can trust and explore the process, the greater the results you will likely get.
For example, if you are currently doing strength training twice a week, you could add a third session. Similarly, if you currently eat 40g of fiber daily (which is quite good by Western standards), you could increase this to 80% through relatively simple means.
If you want to sprinkle some high-intensity sessions into your training routine, please do. The more of these you include, the faster your health could improve.
Eat Well
Finally, to really live your best life, you need to eat well. This means finding foods that support your short- and long-term well-being.
Researchers believe the best diet is the Mediterranean style. However, this option is a compromise that only partially reveals the science. The best diet for most people is one that replicates the early human diet, full of fiber with the occasional sugar-free treat.
When you eat well, you’ll notice that everything changes. Suddenly, you have more energy and feel supple, ready, and willing to take on the world.
You also have more mental bandwidth. You discover that you’re able to deal with things that you couldn’t cope with before.
Eating well, of course, requires effort, but the rules are fairly simple. Eat mainly whole foods, like beans and seeds, and cut out the ultra-processed junk, like chips and luncheon meat. These latter foods can be actively harmful to your health and make you feel much worse than you should, undermining the other aspects of your new lifestyle.
So, there you have it: a primer on how to achieve more health.
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