From Couch Potato to Bean Sprout

The thoughts of how to live healthier and be more productive can overwhelm even the most motivated of us, but breaking a lazy spell isn’t as easy as just getting up and doing it. Don’t let the simplicity of your Nike logoed sweaters terrorize your couch time. 

Instead, try to incorporate a few daily routine practices that both keep you continuously productive and healthy as well as able to enjoy downtime when it’s needed. Hitting the gym every day isn’t the only way to practice a healthy lifestyle and isn’t even possible for all of us. 

However, on the other hand, living the life of a couch potato increases the likelihood of suffering from high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, and diabetes. All of that chilling out can result in a relaxation overdose whose path’s ending includes higher life insurance for overweight individuals and other difficult situations.

Get Out of the Lazy Rut

It’s completely normal to have bad days, weeks, or even months. Sometimes things just aren’t going our way, and hiding from the world can be healthy when we need a break. But on the other hand, we’ve all had times where rebooting ourselves mentally and physically just seems like too much, and tomorrow quickly turns into never. 

The best thing you can do when catching yourself falling into a pattern of continued laziness is to identify what has you stuck.

Figure Out the Problem

Say it out loud, write it down, or scream. Sometimes we avoid what’s happening by not allowing ourselves to actually say what has us down because even with no one around, we can be embarrassed by our feelings or the way our life looks at any given moment. 

But in order to win, you have to know what you’re fighting. Are you going through a break-up, feeling insecure about your career path, or suffering from anxiety or depression and not knowing how to end it?

Take a deep breath and mentally give yourself a break. You won’t have the strength to get up if you’re letting your thoughts beat you down. Tell yourself what’s wrong, write down with ways to help, and tell someone you’re close to how you’re feeling. 

Just speaking about the problem will help you take the first steps to get you back to yourself.

Give Yourself Peace

Funny how being alone can feel like standing in a room full of loud, judgmental relatives. Quiet negative thoughts by practicing meditation, which may sound like cliche advice, but it works. 

There are different forms of meditation, so take some time to find a way that works for you. It may be a bit unexpected to hear that the best way to get going is to slow down even more, but taking just 10 minutes a day to think about what you want to accomplish in the next few hours is a great way to increase your mood and your level of production.

Even if you’ve never done it before, meditation is a great practice because you can do it anywhere and anytime for any reason. A large part of getting trapped in the couch potato lifestyle is not feeling motivated and not being able to get adequate sleep, which causes us to feel fatigued during daylight hours. 

Use meditation before you start your day, and after you end it to give your body and mind a needed rest. You will sleep better and be able to work better during the day.

Change Your Diet to Increase Your Energy

The phrase you are what you eat is a bone-chilling truth when you’re opening the blinds in the darkroom you’ve carefully crafted. Comfort foods may be emotionally comforting, but that comfort only lasts for a moment. 

Improve your energy by improving your diet. Increasing your intake of healthy foods you enjoy will help you not only get deeper sleep, so you wake up refreshed but also give you the energy to not want to sit on the couch anymore. 

As a couch potato CEO, I understand how much this advice is hated. I’ve been the chubby kid who basically blocked my ears whenever I thought phrases like this were coming my way. So from one couch potato to another, trust me, it’s for your best interest to put more effort into your diet.

Do Something Crazy

There’s so much life happening all around you that you’re doing yourself a disservice by not going out and experiencing it. Take an art class, sign up at an open mic, climb a mountain (or maybe just the tree in your backyard) — it doesn’t matter what you decide to get out and do as long as it’s something that breaks your daily routine. Do something that intimidates you or try that thing on Pinterest you think is cool but don’t know if you can pull off. 

We often think of ourselves as the protagonist in our life stories, so think of something exciting that your favorite character would do and try it out. Even being bad at something can provide a much-needed confidence boost in getting back out and active. 

So get that coupon for ax throwing or glass blowing. As long as you can take a picture of yourself doing it, it’s worth giving a try.

You’ve Gotta Have Your Friends

Make active activities a group hang. When you hang out around active people, you tend to become one. So simply ask a friend what their day has planned and ask to tag along. 

In college, I frequently went on grocery shopping and dinner dates with a good friend, and in that way, tedious errands became a fun part of my week. I got to look forward to. I knew my friend would be counting on me, so it helped me stay off the couch. 

Join the Dating Pool

Flirt with the idea of being desired and go on some dates. If you’re married, take your partner out on the town, and if you’re single, dust off those online dating profiles and get back out there. 

Going on a date gives you a reason to get out, put on your best outfit, and finally shave. There’s nothing like feeling smooth, clean skin to boost your confidence, and to find some inspiration. When you look good, you feel good.

Most of the time, if you don’t have plans, there’s no reason to get up and wipe the crust out of your eyes, so going on a date is a great way to fake it until you make it when breaking out of the couch potato rut.

Why Couch Potatoes Don’t See Light

Don’t bury yourself from the world because time goes by faster than we think. We all need moments to reset and even allow ourselves times to feel sad, but vacations are only great when we don’t overindulge.  

Feeling proud of ourselves and strong is more than just how much money we have or how good we look online, but rather it’s about the small daily habits we choose every day that creates the lives we wish to have. 

Whether you’re stuck in a rut or trying to change your lifestyle, even reading this article is a great start. These tips can be a good beginning, but the only real trick is to do things that make you happy. When you’re happy, you move more, do more, and live more. Remember, you deserve to be happy.

Holding grudges and hatred for others is clearly not healthy for anyone. 

The Buddha said, Anger, with its poisoned source and fevered climax, is murderously sweet. 

However, he then appropriately referred to the significant downside of staying angry: Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. 

These fascinating and complex images describe an emotion that carries great pain, hurt but sometimes pleasure. With such complexities and given such overwhelmingly strong emotions and related conditioned responses, how do we overcome these barriers to heal and move on, knowing that anger is not good for us?

The most effective way is to turn within because we have available to us an infinite supply of love and compassion to draw upon to help resolve issues that are usually sourced and projected outwards from our own internal conflicts.

The Art of Letting Go: Forgiveness

Luckily, we have the light of awareness and forgiveness, powered by love, available to us to actively resolve these issues. While going through this process of healing, it is advisable to remain compassionate toward our own emotions and experiences so that we do not sit in judgment of ourselves. However, we should not ignore our own pain in a rush to forgive and resolve these conflicts.

We need to be balanced because one of the biggest causes of disease is when people are trying to be too nice to others without getting what they need for themselves.

Letting go the Grudge with Meditation: It will help in healing.

In meditation, which can be defined as doing our spiritual work, we discover that we have a level of consciousness available to us that can be referred to as our Higher Self.

This consciousness level is based upon love and is actually what makes up who we truly are – love-based beings. Unfortunately, our current consciousness level is dominated by an illusory sense of self – our ego-minds, which are based upon fear. Basically, our ongoing hatred and grudges are generated and supported by our ego-minds, which see others as separate from ourselves.

Consequently, we feel the need to be protective and fearful of what others might say or do to us. This highly defensive posture produces a mental attitude that supports conflict, suspicion, and misunderstandings.

During our meditative practice, we quiet our ego-minds and allow our Higher Self to dominate our awareness. Once we are in our Higher Self, rising above our ego-minds, our perspective on reality shifts from a fear-based one to a love-based one, allowing us to heal and resolve our personal grudges. 

The benefit of letting go: can do wonders for human beings

The great thing about letting go of our hatred is that we remove their burden and start to feel the lightness of being while strengthening our connections with the people around us.

If we become conscious that we are all one at the deepest level, we can reconnect through love with others and experience peace. Our deep mutual connections are so much more substantial than our disputes with people in our lives. Reconnecting with this reality helps ground us so that we can put our anger into a better perspective. The ego-mind, which is the false sense of self our collective consciousness has adopted, is our dilemma’s main source.

The ego-mind has been dominating our culture for way too long, clouding our awareness that love forms the foundation of how we could be living our lives. Once our communities become more heart-centered, we can start a new trend by letting people around us know how much we love them. 

Let’s take full advantage of this present moment and do a brief meditation to let go of our anger for someone close to us. We can do this meditation with our eyes open or closed:

Take three gentle breaths.

Now think of someone you have a significant conflict with and the key reasons why you have a deep hatred for this person or what this person has done. Now take the hatred that you feel inside of you and mentally move it out about a foot in front of you. And, now breathe five gentle breaths into and out of this anger.

A good way to think about this is to imagine this sense of anger is breathing in and out. Let it breathe in loving energy into this feeling of anger, in the form of golden light, and as it breathes out, feel the negative energy begin to dissipate. Now take another three gentle breaths as you become aware of the weakening of this negative energy.

We often tend to remember our traumas or the negative moments in our life. It’s like when you eat at a restaurant and then get the stomach flu. Your senses immediately develop an aversion every time you see the place or food that made you sick. I think we can all empathize with this example. Taking risks in life can be scary, and our minds tend to go to all the blockades that may occur and impede us from continuing.

We may think about how difficult it would be, how much time it may take. And there you go, you don’t even try. I’m here to say that no matter what your personality type, you can do whatever you put your mind to.

The key is to take a step by step action so that success stays in your path. When I think about success, it’s not fame; it’s not how many followers you have, and it definitely is not measured by how much money you make.

Here are 4 tips to stay focused and achieve inner success: 

Success is a mindset, and if all the latter things come with along then, that’s a bonus. If we become fixated on the financial piece or fame, we will get deterred from our original idea or goal that we have in mind. 

1. Whatever project you have in mind, whether it is starting a new business, starting a blog, or even writing a book, jot down the steps you need to take. You may have many steps during this process, but it’s important to focus on each step one at a time. 

2. You may feel overwhelmed as you may have a job or doing other things in your life. Don’t get discouraged and remind yourself to stick with one step at a time. If your mind starts taking you into the impossible or the feeling of giving up, stay on course and remind yourself of the original reason why you want to do what you set your mind to. Everything has steps and challenges; nothing is a guarantee. Yes, of course, your project may fail, or that book you wrote may not be a bestseller. However, the fact that you completed your project or idea is a success already!! 

3. If the feeling of giving up takes over, take a break. Put your work aside for a few weeks. Then return to your project with a fresh pair of eyes.

4. Don’t get discouraged and don’t give up! If one thing didn’t work out for you, that’s okay. There is something else waiting for you. Each experience is a lesson and a pathway to your next big achievement. It’s like going to an audition.

The audition is what you need to work hard for. You may get 1000s of rejections but staying focused and hoping for the next one helps you stay on target. Perseverance, to me, is a success!! Now go ahead and think of what your next desire is and put it to work! 

Social media is a mirror, anddddd a mirror that I would like to shatter. Instead of receiving seven years of bad luck for breaking it, I will instead have different fractals, different pieces of glass, that will all offer me a different perspective, and that’s not bad luck at all. 

Those different reflections will actually offer me MORE luck than a rabbit’s foot, four-leaf clover, or family of ladybugs combined because I will be able to see the truth of what social media really is. Well, we’ll all feel that lucky once we remember what luck is. 

“Luck” isn’t luck; it’s presence. It’s awareness. It’s alignment. When you’re focused on the now, you’re able to notice the signs that are always around you at all times. You’re able to participate in the constant stream of dialogue that’s always coming from the Universe. 

When your head isn’t in the clouds, but it’s glued to your phone, the only reflection or perspective the mirror can offer you is that of tech neck, which isn’t flattering, nor does it feel good. 

Social media is not good or bad. It just is. We’re able to use it to support us, but it doesn’t mean that you don’t need a break from it. Here are 5 reasons why you need to take scheduled breaks from social media.

5. Social media IS a mirror, and it’s only offering you one perspective. 

When you are on social media, you only see one perspective. One perspective of yourself and one perspective of everyone that you’re following. You’re seeing what people are choosing to put out. The perspective that they want you to see. You’re witnessing what has been carefully selected and “niched down” to provide you with the experience that they want for you. When you’re always looking at the same perspective, you’re it’s one dimensional. You don’t see any other view or angle. They’re always in the same position. When you are consistently viewing the exact same thing over and over again, you’re in a state of consumption, and what you’re consuming begins taking up valuable real estate in your mind. You don’t have room to hang any other mirrors up on your wall because this one takes up all of it and is mirroring back to you what you already know. Taking a break from social media allows you to be refreshed, reinspired, reenergized, and reengaging with the actual life that is around you, so when you return, even if their position hasn’t changed, you have a better view of the situation. 

4. That mirror can break at any time, and when it does, it can cut you.

We’ve seen the end of Myspace, Vine, the headlines of TikTok being potentially banned in the United States, and the impact that these endings and the threats have taken on mental health. Creators all over the world are posting videos of the fear of their tears and of their sleepless nights. Creators do not own social media, and although social media shows and shares your life, it is not your actual life. When and if it “breaks,” “goes dark,” or “transitions” into something else, you won’t be feeling empty or lost if you had other ways to express yourself, be creative, and be social with those you love. Taking breaks from something and being present somewhere else reminds you of the temporariness of everything, including our life, and when you access that state of presence, you step into a space of appreciation: for the platform and what it offers, but also for the rest of your life that is more important than an app. 

3. When you stare in the mirror all day, the reflection never changes. 

When you look into a mirror, you see a reflection of yourself staring back. If the person, not the mirror, does not change their outfit, no matter what they do, the reflection will look the same. Walking away from the mirror and coming back to it later allows you to stop obsessing over what you do see and gives you an opportunity to change it. If you keep staring into the mirror obsessively waiting for something to change, you’ll start to notice things and create stories and insecurities about what’s not even there. 

 If you are always on social media, always obsessing over what to post, and never taking your eyes off of it, you start obsessing over things that aren’t even true. Vanity metrics will consume you, and you will start criticizing things that no one else can even see. If you would just walk away and clear your mind, you will come back and realize what you thought was wrong really wasn’t. 

2. Mirrors reflections are not actually what you look like.

Scientists have proven that we, as human beings, have never truly seen what we look like. We have only ever witnessed yourself through a mirror. A mirrored reflection is not perfect; it’s sometimes inverted and sometimes distorted, and so is social media. When you spend all your time on social media, all that’s being reflected back to you are assumptions and projections that you’re making about what you see. You’re not subjective because you’re liking what you do and scrolling past what you don’t, but you don’t even know if that situation is really what it looks like. Social media has caused so many arguments, disagreements, and miscommunication for everyone from friend groups to celebrities to politicians, and when we judge someone, including yourself, solely on reflection, we do not really see the whole picture.

1. Mirror, mirror on the wall, the comparison is the thief of all. 

Social media can be a great place for collaboration, but it’s also a huge place for competition. When we are looking at what everyone else is thinking, feeling, saying, and doing, it naturally creates feelings of comparison, and this comparison is the thief of all joy, confidence, and authenticity. It makes you question your worth, your status in life, and if what you’re doing is right.

Social media has created a generation of “influencers,” and when your thoughts, feelings, and actions are being influenced by everyone else instead of your own intuition, you become less of who you really are and instead of a mirror reflection of everyone else.

Stepping away allows you to come back into the wholeness and appreciation for who you really are compared to no one else except the person you were yesterday.

When you “break” the “mirror” that is “social media” into pieces and you look at it from different perspectives, you can see what is there to help us and connect us. If you are not careful when looking at it from this angle and stare into that piece of glass for too tight or too long, you can end up cutting yourself. Be gentle with yourself, with your social media. Take a break when you need to and know that it’s okay to look, but sometimes it’s okay not to touch. Or swipe. Or scroll.