Eudaimonia Habits

8 Habits for Mind, Body, and Soul

🦶🛏🌬🫂☀️🔥🖊🍴

The ancient Greeks had a word for the highest good a human could pursue: Eudaimonia.

Eudaimonia is a well-being that encompasses the mental, physical, and spiritual sides of what it means to be human.

It isn't about just feeling good. Eudaimonia speaks to our uniquely human desire for meaning and higher purpose, but it also speaks to nourishing our physical body in the way we would optimally nourish an animal or plant according to its biological requirements.

Eudaimonia isn't something only for the lucky or talented and it isn’t available only when things go well. Eudaimonia is for everyone, in the good times and the bad.

What follows are the eight levers we can pull with simple habits to take care of our mind, body, and soul. Starting with how to actually pull levers.

🦸 The Human Superpower 🦸

You were born with an ability no other animal has: the power to choose. A lion cannot choose to become peaceful. A sloth cannot decide to become energetic. But you can wake up tomorrow and choose to go somewhere new or try something different. This is the human superpower.

Three things allow us to access this power.

🧠 The first is belief. 🧠

If you believe you'll always have knee pain, improving will be difficult. But if you believe that you can learn how to reduce your pain, because everything is learnable, then your chances go up exponentially. Learning and adapting are human specialties. We aren't the strongest or fastest on earth, but we are the best at making our visions turn into reality, a process which starts with the belief that it will happen.

🗓 The second is consistency. 🗓

Without it, a habit never makes an impact. Working out twice per year won't do much. Working out several times per week is downright transformational if kept up. The key is making habits small and planned. A two-hour daily walk when you feel like it will fail…the resistance and lack of specifics too much to overcome. A ten-minute walk directly after breakfast will stick. Make goals small enough to power through. Plan exactly when and where. Focus on starting…for walking, that means putting on shoes and opening the door.

🪞 The third is identity. 🪞

There's a massive difference between someone who says they are "trying to get morning sun" and someone who says they are "a regular morning sun enjoyer." The difference is how the person sees themselves, and it plays out in behavior. Get clear on why you want to add a habit and use that to solidify it as a piece of personal identity. Be stubborn in only seeing yourself as the person who already does the thing.

🪤 The Traps 🪤

If belief, consistency, and identity are the path, there are also traps along the way to be avoided.

🧬 The first trap is forgetting individuality. 🧬

Humans are unique. No advice is one-size-fits-all. Some people thrive eating lots of dairy; others do better with none. Some enjoy more time alone; others prefer being the life of the party. Get in tune with what makes you feel good and bad. Do more of the former and less of the latter.

😵‍💫 The second trap is neuroticism. 😵‍💫

Interest in health can become an obsession. Life becomes less fun, and you focus on minutia and the potential toxicity of everything. The goal is a good life, not perfect blood tests. Doing things that make us feel alive should have more importance than minimizing every possible risk. And life sometimes won't go according to plan. We need to thrive in all situations, not only when we have the perfect setup. Embrace the current moment regardless of whether conditions are optimal and let non-ideal circumstances roll off your back without a care in the world.

🎭 The third trap is the nocebo effect. 🎭

When you believe something is harmful, it becomes more likely to harm you (nocebo effect). When you believe something is healing, it becomes more likely to heal you (placebo effect). This is established science. If you have the world's unhealthiest food in front of you as your only option, you can either eat it feeling terrible or enjoy it while imagining it as powerful nourishment. The latter feels far better to body, mind, and soul. Use the placebo effect to your advantage; view your actions as healing and their power multiplies.

🦶 Habit 1: Move 🦶

Movement impacts essentially everything: sleep, mood, energy, fat loss, lifespan, bone health, brain health, muscle growth, and immune function. When you move your body, you send a signal to every cell that you are alive and engaged with the world. Your body responds by functioning better in almost every way.

🚶 Move Throughout The Day 🚶

Our ancestors walked to gather food, ran and threw to hunt, squatted to cook, eat, and clean, and were constantly carrying things from one place to another. Our bodies still expect this varied, frequent movement. Sitting for hours is harmful to everything from posture to the cardiovascular system. Take as many movement breaks as you can to walk, stretch, and reset the body.

The easiest and most reliable form of movement for all ages is rocking back and forth while standing. Rock side to side by shifting your weight from one foot to the other while letting your arms swing naturally from the momentum. Rock back to front by swinging your arms from behind your torso to eye-level in front of you while timing small knee bends to coincide with the natural timing of the arm swings.

🏋 Work Your Muscles 🏋

Walking and cardio are healthy, but they don't stress muscles, bones, and ligaments like strength training does. Lifting weights or doing bodyweight exercises like squats, lunges, pushups, and pull-ups, build a body that carries you through a long, active life. Every strength movement can be modified to be made easier or harder, so you can start with any level of skill or strength. The slower and lower you can perform your lunges, the less likely you are to have any strength issues in old age.

💆 Take Care Of Your Fascia And Lymph 💆

Fascia is the web under your skin that keeps the body’s structure stable and helps with circulation. The lymphatic system clears waste and toxins from your body but has no pump; it only moves when you move. To support your fascia and lymphatic system, you can stretch, sauna/hot tub, and utilize massage with hands or tools like a tennis ball or massage gun. The perfect pre-bed routine is to elevate your feet against a wall while lying on your back. For maximum lymphatic drainage you can lightly and repeatedly tap your collarbone, the sides of your neck, behind your ears, your armpits, your stomach, the crease of your leg/hip, and behind the knees.

⚖️ Fix Your Posture ⚖️

Watch a baby squat; their form is perfect. Due to excessive sitting and soft furniture, most of us forget how to move naturally. Proper posture starts in the foot, which should grip the ground with the toes and arch. Weight should be on the ball of the foot, the heel is just for balance while at rest, and the inner anklebone should be higher than the outer anklebone. When walking feet should be straight, arms should swing timed with steps, and the movement should be primarily powered by hips and glutes.

Modern lifestyle causes the neck to move forward and hips to tuck; try to keep your neck straight and adjust the tilt of your hips throughout the day. One of the best ways to improve posture is to spend time on the floor. Soft furniture makes us weak and floor time on your stomach, back, and in a variety of seated positions is the antidote.

🛏 Habit 2: Sleep 🛏

Sleep is not a luxury, it is a biological necessity. During sleep, your brain clears out toxins, your body repairs tissue and builds muscle, and your mind consolidates memories. When sleep-deprived, your judgment suffers, emotions become harder to regulate, and your risk of chronic disease increases. When you sleep well, you recharge the body, the mind, and the spirit.

🌅 Get Morning Light 🌅

Sunlight starts your circadian clock, triggering cortisol to help you wake up and setting a timer for melatonin release 14-16 hours later. The ideal is to get sunlight on your face and body but even if it is cold and cloudy your body receives the circadian signal if you’re outside.

⛹️ Exercise During The Day ⛹️

If you don't use energy during the day, you won’t be tired at night. Physical activity increases sleep drive and deepens sleep quality so move your body during the day as much as you can to sleep well at night.

🤳 Limit Blue Light At Night 🤳

Blue light is stimulating, keeping your brain alert when it should wind down. It also suppresses melatonin; bright light before bed tells your brain the sun is still up. Use warmer incandescent bulbs, candlelight, red color filters on your screens, or blue-light blocking glasses.

🌌 Sleep Environment 🌌

Keep your room dark and cool. Use white noise if needed. Clear your mind before bed by writing out thoughts or to-dos. The mind is malleable before sleep; use that time for gratitude and hope, not worry or anger. Only use your bed for sleep and love, which trains your brain to relax when you lie down.

🌬 Habit 3: Breathe 🌬

Breathing is the only vital function that is both automatic and under conscious control. By consciously controlling your breath you can calm down at any time. Benefits to proper breathing include less stress, better sleep, better mood, more energy, better digestion, and a stronger immune system.

🧘 Breathing Posture Matters 🧘

When you slouch your lungs can't fully expand, so stand and sit straight. Keep your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth, tip touching the top of your front teeth: this opens your airway and supports healthy facial structure. To strengthen the neck, press your tongue flat to the roof of the mouth and look up while resisting the back of the head with your hands.

🐢 Slow Down 🐢

Most people breathe too quickly, keeping the body in low-level stress. Slow deep inhales and slow deep exhales make for balanced emotions and a sharp mind.

👃 Breathe Through Your Nose Into Your Stomach 👃

The nose filters, warms, and humidifies air while releasing nitric oxide for better oxygen absorption. If you have sleep issues, try mouth tape at night to ensure nose breathing. Air should go first into the belly before the entire ribcage and chest expand three dimensionally.

⏱️ Practice Breathwork ⏱️

In addition to proper breathing throughout the day, certain breathwork techniques can be used for extra benefit. Box breathing is repeated 16 second cycles of inhaling, holding, exhaling, and holding for 4 seconds each. 4-7-8 breathing is repeated 19 second cycles of inhaling 4 seconds, holding 7 seconds, and exhaling 8 seconds. Those are both calming practices. An energizing technique is repeating long inhales through the nose and quick exhale through the mouth. The entire breathing system can be trained by holding the breath as long as possible after an inhale.

🫂 Habit 4: Socialize 🫂

Humans are incredibly social animals. Our brains evolved over millions of years in tight-knit groups; we depended on each other for survival. Because of this, we're wired for connection. We feel social pain intensely; the brain processes rejection in the same areas as physical pain. Even in paradise, you'll feel miserable without human interaction. There's a reason solitary confinement is considered torture.

👪 Prioritize People 👪

The happiest, healthiest, longest-lived people consistently have one thing in common: strong social connections. Not wealth, not status, not achievements…relationships. The benefits of prioritizing quality time with friends and family is immeasurable.

🚜 Cultivate Relationships Actively 🚜

Reach out, send messages, plan meetups…it won't just come to you. This can be hard for shy people, but it's always worth the effort. Real-life connection is superior, but digital interaction is much better than nothing and a good outlet for unique interests. Look for people with hobbies or ideas in common or even just an energy you enjoy being around.

🧭 Use Feelings As A Guide 🧭

Some people bring us up, some bring us down. If someone drains you, spend less time with them. If someone energizes you, spend more. People should be cared for and not discarded, but you need to protect your time and energy too.

🤸 Keep Emotions Moving 🤸

Stuck emotions and trauma cause mental, physical, and spiritual pain. Grudges and resentment even get stored in our bodies. Find a method to release stuck emotional energy. Write a letter, have a conversation, hit the heavy bag, do intense cardio, go on a trip. Shake your body, jump up and down, stretch, breathe as deep as you can, do om humming. Give special attention to stretching and massaging the hips, the most common place the body stores emotions.

☀️ Habit 5: Get Outside ☀️

Humans thrive in nature and become sick when removed from it. For millions of years our ancestors lived under open skies, listened to birdsong, and bathed in natural waters. Our bodies still crave this. When we spend all our time indoors under artificial lights, breathing stale air, our biology suffers: depression, anxiety, poor sleep, low energy, weak bones, poor memory, high inflammation, and less immunity.

🌤 Spend Time In The Sun 🌤

It regulates hormone production, mood and blood pressure. Spend as much time as you can outside, with as much skin exposed as possible, while avoiding a burn. Know your body: lighter skin needs less sun, darker skin needs more. Build exposure gradually and stop when you start to pink. The sun gives benefits even when covered by clouds so get outside regardless of the weather.

🏖️ Use Protection Wisely 🏖️

Light entering your eyes helps regulate hormones and protect the skin so limit sunglasses to when truly needed. Most modern sunscreens contain toxic ingredients the skin absorbs; find a natural option or better yet cover with clothing/shade. The skin absorbs microplastics too, so cotton clothing beats polyester. Spend time barefoot or in minimalist shoes; modern arch support, rigidity, and heel elevation don’t allow the foot to move as it is designed to so the foot becomes weak and immobile.

👣 Practice Grounding 👣

Exposing skin to nature (grass, dirt, sand, trees, natural bodies of water and even wind) yields enormous benefits to our mental and physical health. How? The earth’s negative electrical charge neutralizes the positively charged free radicals that damage our body and balance our internal bioelectrical environment. Grounding shoes made with copper plugs and grounding sheets made with silver use the same principle.

🕯️ Follow Nature’s Rhythms 🕯️

The most fundamental stimulus for all creatures is the sunrise/sunset light and dark cycle each day. When we wake with the sun and sleep with the stars all of our biology works as designed, from our digestion to our sleep to our energy to our mood. Getting outside as close to the sunrise and sunset as possible is the best way to keep our circadian rhythm aligned. Use low and warm lighting at night to simulate a campfire or candle rather than bright LED lights which makes the brain think the sun is still out.

🔥 Habit 6: Find Purpose 🔥

Even with perfect physical health, you can still feel like something is missing. Without purpose, life feels pointless. Energy is low. Colors look dull. Music sounds flat. Purpose is not a luxury, it is a key aspect of life. With a strong purpose, everything can be overcome.

💡 Follow Your Curiosity 💡

"Follow your passion" is common advice, but passion is hard to pin down. Curiosity is more intuitive. What makes you feel excited? What do you want to learn about? What problems interest you? Following curiosity leads to work or hobbies that give purpose, tapping into intrinsic motivation that exists even without external reward. Curiosity is a compass.

🎨 Create 🎨

Art, music, jokes, a garden, delicious food, books, videos, memes…anything. Build something physical with your hands. Start a business, a community, a revolution. Anything brought from the mind into the world counts as creation. Create from an authentic place, and your reward is purpose and meaning.

🏓 Play 🏓

There's more to life than productivity. Find the type of play you enjoy and let loose. Get into flow state: when challenge matches skill time disappears and you become fully absorbed. This feeling of focus is one of life's great pleasures.

🔧 Solve Problems 🔧

It could be as simple as feeding your family or as complex as decreasing suicides worldwide. Helping others is perhaps the ultimate way to access feelings of purpose and meaning. Look around…what needs fixing? Start there.

💒 Look To Tradition 💒

Family, religion, hard work…meaning has been found in these for thousands of years. Take pride in and learn to appreciate everything; if you can find meaning in keeping a clean house and appreciation in a warm coffee then you’ll be able to find them in life’s grander and more glamorous offerings too. Countless wise people throughout history believe connection to God to be more important than anything else in life, and I am in no position to argue with them.

🖊 Habit 7: Cultivate Thoughts 🖊

The one thing that can never be taken from you is your mind. Even in jail or other challenging circumstances, we reign over our mental kingdom. We cannot always control what thoughts arise, but we can choose which to give attention and importance to and which to set to the side and disengage with.

🧘 Meditate 🧘

It's for everyone, not just monks, and doesn't require sitting cross-legged. Meditation means calming the mind and observing the thoughts that arise. It's a learnable skill for self-soothing, infinitely better than drugs or endless scrolling. Set a timer for two minutes. Focus on your breath. Notice thoughts. Let them go. The benefits will carry into all of life.

📝 Write 📝

Our thoughts often swirl with nowhere to go. Writing lets them become clear and controllable. Problems that seemed overwhelming become manageable on paper. Goals that seemed vague become actionable. Feelings that seemed confusing become understandable. Writing also gives us control over our personal narrative.

🎯 Think Intentionally 🎯

You may not be able to choose how you feel, but you can choose what you think about your feelings. While sad you can think: "I will get through this." While angry: "This isn't actually a big deal." Choose helpful thoughts, write them down, and say them aloud. Choose gratitude, not envy. Choose hope, not despair. The most powerful window for intentional thought is first thing in the morning and last thing before sleep. Picture your goal as a reality clearly and fully step into how it would feel if it were real…it will become real when a clear vision is combined with consistent action.

📺 Consume Content Wisely 📺

Books, movies, music, social media…all content affects your thoughts. Thoughtless content makes you thoughtless. Stressful content makes you stressed. Content that makes you feel alive is nourishing for the soul. Everything is stimulus: light, smell, sound, touch, aesthetics. Curate your inputs like a garden; remove weeds and nurture flowers.

🍴 Habit 8: Eat Nutritious Food 🍴

Food affects everything: disease risk, mental and physical performance, skin, hair, muscles, organs. But don't become fearful. It can be healthier to eat "wrong" food believing it nourishes you than "right" food believing it harms you…that's the placebo effect at work. Learn the principles of nutrition, eat healthy when you can, relax and enjoy the meal even when you can't.

🐄 Eat Time-Tested Foods 🐄

Nutrient percentages on packages aren't what matter most; if they were, multivitamins would be the healthiest food on earth. Food is more complex than that. Whole foods beat processed foods because the nutrients are higher quality, more digestible, and include nutritive properties scientists don’t yet understand.

Eat like a farmer. That means foods from animals and plants that are processed and prepared traditionally (simple olive oil press/bread fermentation used for centuries versus industrial canola oil/bread process only used in modernity). Seek pasture-raised, free-range, wild-caught animals. A natural cow walks freely eating grass; an unnatural one sits in a stall eating corn. Eat animals that were healthy when alive. Eat nose-to-tail: organ meats and bone broth contain nutrients not found in just muscle meats. Humans can thrive with both high and low levels of carbs but everyone needs sufficient fat and protein as they are essential nutrients.

🥒 Optimize Digestion 🥒

Eat fermented foods for beneficial gut bacteria: kefir, yogurt, kombucha, kimchi, and sauerkraut. Give your system breaks between meals rather than constant snacking. Stop eating a few hours before sleep. Smell and look at your food, not a screen. Chew well. Eat to satisfaction, not excess. Move gently after eating.

🛁 Avoid Toxins 🛁

Use glass, cast iron, stainless steel, and wood…not non-stick or plastic. Filter drinking and shower water. Eat organic to avoid pesticides. Choose natural cleaning and hygiene products. Minimize electromagnetic frequencies by using wires over bluetooth, using a faraday pouch while phone is in a pocket, keeping physical distance from the router, and turning off Wi-Fi at night.

🍊 Hydrate 🍊

Hydration means keeping a balance between water and minerals. That balance is kept by consuming foods and drinks to balance your level of hydration need (watery foods/drinks vs salty/mineral dense foods/drinks). You can correct your level of hydration by monitoring your level of thirst and urine: clear urine means too much water, dark means not enough so aim for the middle.

👂 Listen To Your Body 👂

We're all unique. Eat according to your genetics, geography, and time of year. Seasonal, local food keeps your body in sync with your surrounding natural environment. What nourishes one person may not nourish another based on what their ancestors evolved to digest. Notice how your body responds to different foods.

The Human Superpower Redux

🦶 Move 🦶

🛏 Sleep 🛏

🌬 Breathe 🌬

🫂 Socialize 🫂

☀️ Get Outside ☀️

🔥 Find Purpose 🔥

🖊 Cultivate Thoughts 🖊

🍴 Eat Nutritious Food 🍴

These eight habits aren't new ideas. They're ancient common sense, the same principles that allowed our ancestors to thrive across time and geography. To flourish mentally, physically, and spiritually is your birthright as part of a long lineage of humans.

Modern life has disconnected us from our humanity. We stopped moving. Sacrificed sleep for screens. Forgot to breathe deeply. Replaced community with isolation. Retreated indoors. Lost purpose. Let counterproductive thoughts win. Traded real food for packaged products. The result has been epidemic disease, mental illness, loneliness, and a sense that something important is missing.

But we can reclaim what's been lost. Remember what makes you different from every other animal on earth: you have the power to choose. All people have this remarkable ability regardless of age, background, circumstances, or past failures. Every day, ordinary people make difficult choices for the better.

Start small. Pick one habit. Make it tiny. Plan a specific time. Do it once. Then again. Let it become part of you. Then add another, because the world is now yours and the possibilities are infinite.

Avoid the traps. Find what works for you. Don't become neurotic; the goal is a good life not perfect blood tests. Use the placebo effect; believe what you're doing has power. Embrace imperfection. There will be setbacks and obstacles…what matters is coming back to the path and never giving up.

The ancient Greeks understood something profound. A good life is more than pleasure or comfort. It's living connecting with nature, developing potential, growing, learning, connecting with others, and contributing to your community. A sound mind, body, and spirit…that is eudaimonia, and it's something all humans can tap into.

Cheers to being human.

Cheers to exercising your power to choose.

Cheers to your eudaimonia.

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