Behaviors

Use pen and paper instead of typing when taking notes, especially for material you want to remember later. The act of handwriting tends to slow you down and forces more active processing of the information, which can improve learning and memory compared with keyboard notes.

Write about the same upsetting, stressful, or traumatic experience across four sessions, usually 15–30 minutes each on consecutive days. If there is no clear trauma, use a major conflict or stressor and write freely and honestly, ideally by hand. The repeated, structured revisiting helps process the experience and reduce its emotional intensity over time.

This recommendation is to skip high-velocity neck manipulation, especially chiropractic thrust techniques applied to the cervical spine. The concern is that rapid rotation or forceful adjustment can injure the vertebral or carotid arteries, potentially causing dissection, clot formation, reduced blood flow, and stroke.

Brush teeth with a soft brush using light, circular motions on the front and back surfaces instead of hard scrubbing. Keep pressure low—especially with an electric toothbrush—so the bristle tips stay on the teeth. This helps clean effectively while reducing enamel wear and gum irritation.

For OCD, medication changes should be managed closely with a licensed psychiatrist or physician who understands the drug’s dosing, side effects, and timing. The goal is to find the right prescription and dose to reduce symptoms while creating a window that makes psychotherapy and other behavior change more effective through improved neuroplasticity.

Deliberately sit with boredom instead of immediately reaching for stimulation, especially in the first hours of the day. A common protocol is to delay turning on your phone or Wi‑Fi for 2–4 hours and to spend about 20 minutes daily doing nothing in idle moments like waiting in line. This builds tolerance for the urge to seek quick dopamine hits, making it easier to stay present and less reactive to constant screen-based distraction.

This practice is to take sermorelin or similar growth-hormone peptides in the evening, typically shortly before bed. It’s usually done on an empty stomach, often about 20–30 minutes before sleep, to better support the body’s natural nighttime growth-hormone pulse from the pituitary.

Keep the late evening and early night hours calm by avoiding arguments, upsetting news, and other stressful interactions, especially after about 8 p.m. The goal is to prevent repeated cortisol spikes that can interfere with sleep and, in some cases, disrupt endocrine balance.

When you’re trying to fall asleep, skip the classic mental exercise of counting sheep. The recommendation is to avoid this bedtime strategy because it can keep your mind engaged and make sleep onset take longer rather than helping you drift off.

Do not split sleep into repeated short bouts across the day and night, including schedules like Uberman, Everyman, or triphasic sleep. The recommended alternative is consolidated nighttime sleep, since adult polyphasic patterns have been associated with worse sleep quantity and quality, reduced REM sleep, poorer cognition and mood, and other metabolic downsides.

Build the muscles that support the spine, especially in people with a thinner or more mobile frame. The idea is to improve stability along both vertical and side-to-side axes so the spine is better braced under load. This can reduce injury risk and help compensate for a naturally less stable structure, though only up to the point where anatomy still sets the limit.

Use lumbar support whenever prolonged sitting or travel aggravates low-back pain, especially in cars, airplanes, or at a desk. If you do not have a dedicated cushion, roll up a towel and place it in the small of the back to help maintain a neutral or slightly arched lumbar posture, which can reduce strain on irritated discs and surrounding tissues.

A low-back-friendly core exercise done on all fours: brace your trunk, extend one arm straight forward and the opposite leg straight back, keep the torso as level as possible, and avoid twisting or arching. It trains spinal stability and anti-rotation control, helping build endurance around the spine while minimizing shear stress on the lower back.

When you’re stuck on a problem, spend a little time thinking it through before sleep, then stop and revisit it in the morning. The idea is to avoid stimulating activities like TV beforehand and let the brain continue processing the issue overnight, which can surface a clearer solution after sleep.

A glute-ham raise is a posterior-chain strength exercise that emphasizes the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. It’s used as an accessory movement to build back-side strength, support posture, and help preserve power with age by training the muscles that extend the hips and stabilize the trunk.

Take one slow, intentional walk each week for about 30 minutes, ideally for 8 weeks. Go somewhere unfamiliar or visually expansive, slow your pace, and coordinate deeper breathing with your steps while shifting attention from small details to the bigger scene. The goal is to reliably trigger awe, which can help broaden perspective and support calmer, more reflective mood.

Aim to meet standard physical activity guidelines by getting about 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic activity, with at least 2 days weekly of resistance training. The combination supports overall fitness and may help reduce mortality risk, including some of the harm associated with poor sleep.

Ask relatives about any history of skin cancer and related inherited risk factors, and use that information to guide your own screening and prevention plan. Family history can signal a higher genetic predisposition, including risk for cancers that are less tied to sun exposure, so knowing it helps you and your clinician judge how closely to monitor your skin.

Get a once-a-year skin screening from a reputable board-certified dermatologist, with a true head-to-toe exam that includes moles, hair-bearing areas, between the toes, and the genital region. This helps catch suspicious lesions early, and people with many moles or higher family/genetic risk may need more frequent checks.

Let acne lesions resolve on their own instead of squeezing or picking at them. If a spot has a small white tip and is only mildly tender, a warm compress can help it drain naturally; otherwise, hands-off care reduces trauma, inflammation, and the risk of permanent scarring or indentation.

If cannabis starts causing paranoia, anxiety, or another bad reaction, do not try to “push through” by taking more. The recommended protocol is to stop escalating the dose and avoid additional consumption, because more THC is likely to amplify the same adverse effects rather than relieve them.

This recommendation is to avoid cannabis use in people who have schizophrenia or who are at elevated risk for psychotic disorders, especially if they have a first-degree relative with schizophrenia or psychotic bipolar disorder. The rationale is that cannabis can worsen or trigger psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations, delusions, and psychotic episodes, increasing the chance of symptom flare-ups in vulnerable people.

A plyometric push-up variation performed by driving explosively off the floor and clapping between reps. It’s used to build upper-body speed and power by training rapid force production, making it a useful accessory when the goal is athletic explosiveness rather than maximal pressing strength.

A cycling-based workout done outdoors, often including mountain biking, with a mix of longer steady rides and shorter sprint efforts. It serves as both cardio and lower-body training, building aerobic capacity while also challenging leg strength and power.

Insert brief, random pauses during teaching, reading, or skill practice—typically around 5 to 10 seconds, with a few pauses per hour. These micro-breaks appear to help the hippocampus rapidly replay and consolidate what was just learned, improving retention and understanding.

Prefer foods and drinks packaged in cans with BPA-free linings, or skip canned products when that option isn’t available. The goal is to reduce exposure to BPA, which can leach from can linings into the contents and is a common source of this chemical in the diet.

If you wake up in the middle of the night, keep your phone out of reach and avoid opening social media or other stimulating apps. The idea is to prevent a brief awakening from turning into a longer alert period, since bright light and engaging content can make it harder to fall back asleep.

When you’re working through a problem or trying to reframe a situation, talk to yourself using your own name and second-person language, as if you were advising someone else. This small shift creates psychological distance, which can make your thinking more objective and reduce emotional reactivity.

When you’re upset, deliberately project the problem into the future and ask how it will feel tomorrow, next week, next year, or even in 5–10 years. This mental time shift helps put the issue in perspective, which can reduce the intensity of the current emotional state and make the distress feel more manageable.

Deliberately expose yourself to awe-inspiring sights or ideas—like giant trees, sunsets, the night sky, or remarkable feats of innovation—especially when you feel emotionally bored or stuck. The point is to trigger a brief sense of wonder that can feel destabilizing but positive, helping your mind zoom out, shrink everyday problems, and expand perspective.