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@RickiTarr walking everywhere. Public transport is a neoliberal fraud and cycling is getting riskier irt accident consequences as you get older

@RickiTarr I don't argue with people on the Internet. I just stopped doing it. Using Mastodon definitely helped. Fewer dicks here. And no quote posts.

@RickiTarr going for a ten minute walk before I start work and also at lunchtime. I started during the lockdown and carried on to get me away from my screens.

@RickiTarr I've stopped eating after dinner (7pm) and started going to bed earlier (9pm)

Going to bed early prevents late night snacking. Which improves the quality of my sleep (no more gas rumbling around) also keeps the calories down. I wake up rested and with more energy.

@RickiTarr
Daily Meditation. I started because I was looking for something to help with anxiety & depression. I went on a 10 day Vipassana or Insight meditation retreat. That retreat changed my life. So much so that my bestie, her sister in law & granddaughter have all attended the retreat because of the changes in me. Never would have guessed back in the day that I’d be a meditator.

@RickiTarr Daily meditation.

I practiced off and on through my 20s-30s, but hit my stride about 11 years back and haven't stopped.

Having an app where I keep a "streak" has helped, as has periodic training with a sangha.

Why? Because I believe working for the liberation of all beings on many levels is important, from sitting quietly and praying to putting precepts into action in the world.

But also, it develops clarity of mind, ability to observe the mind vs reacting, increased focus... there are lots of personal benefits from practice over time.

@RickiTarr cooking for myself. It was born of necessity, being disabled, on food stamps, a strong aversion to many foods, and a profound sense of boredom with unlimited free time. Plus, always been annoyed no one passed along cooking knowledge to me in my family...

It was made much simpler by the need to carefully look at the cost of things. Forced me to read tons of recipes, which I looked over extra carefully as I wanted to avoid giving traffic to "AI" generate recipe sites

@RickiTarr Developing perseverance, mastering the art of learning quickly, and building strong interpersonal connections are key habits I've cultivated.

@RickiTarr I stand when I work at least 80% of the time (my desk goes up and down). I read years ago that sitting all day isn't healthy so I just started standing more. It took some adjustment at first, but within a few weeks it felt just as normal as sitting.

@RickiTarr A what?

@RickiTarr Accepting compliments graciously. I used to have a knee jerk reaction and blabbed something along the line “it’s not a big deal” “no, you are better!” “This is nothing! You should see XYZ”. But learning to accept them and saying simple thank you has changed perspective in my life - that some part of the conversation is not about me

@farah @RickiTarr

Yes, once I understood that I was just making it more awkward and weird for the other person, as well as dragging it out for me, which I also don't like.

And like you said, it's an ego thing.

@farah @RickiTarr
Yes!!! I also noticed at some point, that I really disliked when people did it after I complimented them. I felt so invalidated in my positivity, that I decided I don't want to do that to others.
But, yeah, it took time (and is still difficult sonetimes).

@farah @stephaniepixie @RickiTarr Yesss! Bravo!

@RickiTarr Keeping a respectable level of cleanness and tidiness about the house. I've not always been good at that, not at all.

I'm not saying everything is spotless. But I look around the living room and nothing is on the floor that doesn't belong there, things are neatly on shelves, if I have a bad accident and have to summon an ambulance I will not be embarrassed by what they find and they will not comment upon it in the care record.

Oh, and I started because, moving to a nice little house after living in a horrible rubbish flat, I just really wanted to make a clean break from the past. That seemed look a good way of doing so. It helps, of course, that I bought and arranged all the furniture here so I can actually put things away without difficulty.

@RickiTarr

I am learning the Way of the Ear Tip Crew.

Will cat says it's more than enough to have food, a bed indoors, a best friend, and birds to watch. After all, he points out, there are coyotes out there, and blizzards, and bad drivers. He runs away from people he doesn't like and shows his butt to everything.
#cats

@RickiTarr Trying to learn something new every day. I never really learn much and the subject is random, but it adds up and is fun. Over the years, it makes a difference.

Self-improvement.

@Pistolenkind @RickiTarr ...And I bet you rock at Trivial Pursuit

@MichaelPorter @RickiTarr I'm really not that impressive. That's not false modesty.

But: If someone has completely stopped learning, then the difference can be stark.

@RickiTarr Taking daily meds & supplements on a daily basis; I used to be inconsistent about taking meds as directed for everything but antibiotics.

I chained taking meds to things that were already habitual for me. Adding them to my morning routine worked great. My therapist suggested the technique.

@RickiTarr never argue with an idiot over politics

@RickiTarr

Breathing
Birth

@RickiTarr
Practicing language skills with Duolingo. Today will be a 624-day streak and the vocabulary and repetition has helped me greatly with language acquisition. I was especially motivated after learning that "research has demonstrated that bilingualism can delay the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's disease by several years. The mental workout involved in using two languages keeps the brain active and engaged, which helps maintain cognitive functions longer."

@RickiTarr Walking at least 2 miles every day. Pledging to never eat in a fast food restaurant.

@RickiTarr

Eating healthier. The trick was making it effortless by hooking up my groceries to basically auto-add a list of healthy stuff to my cart and have it shipped to me.

Walking for an hour is a great habit for both physical and mental reasons that I've found my body wants to do to get outside, which made it easy to stick to. I just tend not to do it during the winter.

Bi-weekly and weekly in-person social gatherings are also a must. Scheduling them is a pain, but it's worth it.

@RickiTarr "Clean as you go," when cooking. Makes a huge difference. Learned it from a Chef I worked for.

@kimlockhartga Yeah, that's the big difference I see for people who keep cooking.

@kimlockhartga You used to get it drilled into you if you worked in a McD*n*lds kitchen. @RickiTarr