Appropriating the American way while writing for Medium
1. Keep physically fit and eat well
Fitness: There are so many ways one can manage to do this these days: go to the gym; find a lifestyle clinic; go bush walking; swim every day; jog; walk; go up and down stairs instead of using lifts; catch buses or walk instead of driving.
Regimes: Whatever foods keep you trim, healthy and full of energy is the way to go. For some it might be a ketogenic diet, for others it will be completely different. Engage a nutritional expert to help you here. Find what your own “poison” is, and run with the regime that suits you best. Putting on weight around the middle is a sure giveaway sign that you need professional help, as it can lead to heart attacks and strokes.
2. Find a passion in life
This is a sure pathway for sustaining interest in, and long-term love of, life and living. It can be investment in your work, or finding a hobby or pastime—such as gardening, reading books and travelling—or it can be spending quality time with your grandchildren.
3. Do not knowingly harm another sentient being
4. Fix your emotional problems
This can be more difficult to achieve than getting fit, as many people find it threatening to admit to, and to seek help, for emotional or mental problems. But not many of us are the result of a perfect family background, and it is, therefore, unreasonable to expect to reach your true potential without huge personal investment in your growth, or assistance from professional therapists.
5. Read and share beautiful stories
Beautiful stories well told are life affirming. Keep away from dystopian literature, especially if you are in a sensitive and vulnerable state. Of course, once you are strong—and free of emotional illness—you can indulge in the darker side of life and literature, if you so choose. As my elderly, wise grandfather once told me: life is all about balance.
6. Develop faith and give something back
Try to know something greater than yourself, no matter what you decide to call IT, and communicate your thoughts, feelings and needs in silent prayer or in meditation, while offering to give back to the world something worthwhile that you are able to offer it.
7. Love is all you need
I know it sounds to some trivial, superficial and banal, but if you can truly achieve this seventh goal in a universal sense, then you have no need of following the steps.
