Behaviors

The first week after quitting smoking or vaping is the critical period; use supports such as deliberate cold exposure, exercise, and positive social interactions to offset the dopamine drop and improve the odds of maintaining cessation.

Use positive social interactions as a healthy way to increase dopamine during the first week after quitting nicotine.

After quitting smoking, vaping, snuffing, or dipping, do hypnosis regularly about once a month or even once a week to reinforce the neural circuits supporting abstinence.

For resistance training, generally choose two exercises per muscle group; possibly three maximum if training all legs and calves in one day.

For each muscle group, include one exercise that places the muscle into a weighted stretch or larger range of motion, and another emphasizing contraction in the shortened or peak-contraction position.

Use a separate day to train biceps, triceps, calves, and neck directly, while also indirectly stimulating torso muscles. Include some sort of dip movement and a pulling movement such as chin-ups. Ensure at least one hard arm session each week, and include calf training in the weekly plan.

If sleep was poor to terrible, generally skip training the next day and focus on recovery rather than forcing the workout.

Grip the dumbbell, bar, or handle very tightly during lifting to facilitate force production. In unilateral movements, also grip the opposite dumbbell or handle tightly, even if that side is stationary, to enhance force output. To generate maximal force, contract the core and even fill the body with air while gripping tightly.

If you want to relax, use long exhales or physiological sighs and consciously relax the core and fists.

After time off from training, take 1–2 weeks to ramp back up to full workout duration and intensity rather than jumping straight back in.

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Choose a meditation style based on your specific goal and current state, such as focus, mood, sleep, or performance, rather than treating meditation as one generic practice. Assess whether you are more internally focused or externally distracted, and generally choose the style that trains against your default bias.

For many meditation practices, stop moving and either sit or lie down before beginning. In most cases, close your eyes to shift perception toward interoception, although eyes-open meditation is also valid depending on the practice.

Before each meditation session, assess whether attention naturally goes inward or gets pulled outward. One simple test is to sit or lie down, close your eyes, and notice whether attention flees to external sounds/events or stays on the internal landscape; then open your eyes, focus on something external, and evaluate how well you can disengage from internal sensations.

Choose the meditation style that is harder for you in that moment rather than the one that comes naturally, because challenge drives neuroplasticity. If internal focus comes easily, use exteroceptive meditation; if external distractions dominate, use interoceptive meditation.

Use a 3-minute meditation session as a practical minimum; evidence suggests even 3 minutes can benefit focus and anxiety management.

Use a timer if helpful when doing meditation sessions.

Treat meditation as repeatedly bringing attention back after mind wandering. Reframe mind wandering as training rather than failure, and think in terms of refocus ability rather than uninterrupted focus ability; more refocusing repetitions can mean more effective training.

Use a breathing cadence of inhale, inhale, exhale during meditation if desired.

Use slow inhale-exhale cyclic breathing as a common meditation breathing pattern.

Use a cadence of 3 to 6 seconds inhale, 2-second hold, and 7-second exhale.

Use deliberate control of breathing depth and cadence during meditation to shift brain and body state. First ask whether you want to be calmer, more alert, or remain in the same state when you finish.

Keep inhales and exhales relatively balanced in duration if you want to end the meditation at about the same calm/alert level you started.

If you are stuck in your head and want to get out of it, pair exteroceptive meditation with natural cyclic breathing rather than more complex breathwork.

If you feel pulled out of yourself and want to bring awareness into the body and calm down, use a deliberate somewhat unnatural or non-default breathing pattern.

Traditional focus/refocus meditation close to bedtime may impair sleep onset in some people.

Regular meditation reduces stress and may improve functioning on reduced sleep by offsetting unhealthy cortisol patterns.

If using cannabis, edibles from controlled sources allow more defined THC/CBD milligram dosing than smokable forms from unclear sources.

If cannabis was used during adolescence and brain function recovery is desired, stop using cannabis in any form.

Recommended as part of the general health practices that support recovery of brain function; he groups healthy metabolic function and healthy body weight together.