anything goes with emma chamberlain - new years resolutions

Episode Date: December 17, 2021

ok, last episode for the year before i take a little break. i literally NEVER do new years resolutions, but i decided i'm doing some this year. i think they can help us to achieve things we've been wanting to work on. they don't have to be big, and they don't have to be difficult, so i'm going to lay out mine, and give you guys some tips on yours so you can stick with them. love you all see you in 2022 :) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It is the last episode of 2021. I feel emotional in a good way. Like what a great year we had. What a great fucking year. We spent a lot of time together. We talked about a lot. We discussed a lot. I overshared week after week about my life and my life experiences and you guys showed up and you listened and you hung out with me and It was truly a great year and I'm very grateful for all of you that It was truly a great year. And I'm very grateful for all of you that listened throughout this year. Even if this is the first episode of anything goes that you've ever listened to,

you're still a part of what made this year great. So thank you. I really appreciate all of you guys and your support this year. It means the world to me and it is so crazy that this podcast has become what it's become. And I am so grateful that I could just punch a wall in a good way. You know that feeling when you're like, oh, I'm like so happy about this that I almost want to like be violent for some reason. Like that's how I feel. So anyway, I'm just so grateful and I just had to start this episode off by

giving you all a big thank you. So because this is the last episode of 2021, I thought it was appropriate to make this episode about going into the new year, how we can make 2022 a great year because I'm ready for a solid year. And I know some of you might be saying, Emma, please shut the fuck up. You are going to jinx it and now 2022 is going to be disgusting and terrible because you're jinxing it and that's bad luck. But I

really, you know what, I don't mess with all that anymore because we need to start manifesting and planning and being proactive. Now, in mid-December, so that this next year can be incredible, because I think we need to put a little bit of extra work in because of what we've been through this year with pandemic and social media algorithms becoming even more addictive than they've ever been before and The world seeming to be crumbling every day More and more in different assorted ways like I feel like we need to Be more proactive now than we ever have before to make next year a great year You know for ourselves personally.

What happens on a world level is out of our control, but there are things that we can do to make next year really awesome. I think we just need to try a little bit harder than we ever have before. And that's why this is the first year, possibly in my life, that I am actually making New Year's resolutions.

I never, ever have believed in New Year's resolutions because my mindset has always been, you know, if I want to change something, I'll change it in the moment that I decide that something needs to be changed. If that makes sense, like, why wait, right? Well, this year is something dawned on me when it comes to New Year's resolutions. And it's that New Year's resolutions don't have to be necessarily something

that you've been wanting to change for a while. The act of creating New Year's resolutions forces you to think about all the different ways that you could make your life better. And you might not normally have that thought otherwise. Does that make sense? Oh my God. Me saying does that make sense? Just reminded me of someone tweeted me or wrote in my podcast reviews and was like, can

you stop saying, does that make sense? And you know what I mean? And so now I'm very conscious of when I say that. But also, I can't help it. Those are my filler words of choice. And it's unavoidable. I'm just going to continue to say, does that make sense? And, you know what I mean?

After everything that I say, because it is such a habit and it's so ingrained into my DNA that I can't stop. Anyway, in life, it's so easy to fall into a routine and become kind of complacent with the way that things are. But when New Year's comes around, and it's time to make resolutions, and the simple act of trying to make New Year's resolutions for yourself can help you discover things in your life that you wanna change.

You see what I'm saying? Fuck, I said that again. God damn it. Okay, anyway. You see what I'm saying? Fuck, I said that again. God damn it. Okay. Anyway. So this year I'm doing New Year's resolutions. This year I am doing them for the first time in my life.

So let me go through what my New Year's resolutions are this year. Okay. Number one, I want to continue cooking, but I want to cook at least two new recipes every week. Like completely new recipes that I've never cooked before twice a week. I don't know, I really wanna be good at cooking. Like that's something I really wanna be good at. And over this past year, I cooked quite a bit,

but not that seriously. Next year, I want to really get into cooking and really grow my skill set. And there's no better way to do that than to cook new recipes. So two new recipes a week. Next, I want to exercise in nature more. Because when I exercise, I usually exercise indoors, which is so weird. I used to go on runs outside, but then I kind of stopped doing that because I kept getting scared that I was going to get hit by a car because I was running on the sidewalk and it just like wasn't safe. So I started exercising at the gym or in workout classes once those things opened back up. And I enjoy those things

but I really want to get into going on more hikes, going on more runs outside, maybe even doing yoga outside, stuff like that because I think that that would make exercise even more beneficial for me because exercise is good for you because it helps you release endorphins in your body, which make you feel good, but also it helps keep your body healthy so that you can feel more energized throughout your day and you don't get tired from as much stuff.

It helps you go to sleep at night because when you expend all that energy exercising it helps you fall asleep at night. There are so many benefits to exercise. It even helps I have IBS irritable bowel syndrome. And exercising helps with my stomach pain from that. You know, like there are infinite, infinite benefits to exercise. But it would be even more beneficial and even better

if I would go outside to exercise. Because then I'd also be getting my daily fresh air at the same time. So exercising outdoors is another one. Another resolution I have is that I want to scale back how much stuff that I own. Like, I want to get rid of a bunch of clothes. I want to get rid of the stuff that I've been holding on to for years.

I want to do a big clean out in the beginning of 2022. I'm talking about massive. I'm talking about insanity. I'm talking about bags and bags and bags full of clothes. I want to be left with only a little bit of clothes. I don't want to be left with a closet patch full of clothes. After my closet clean out, I want to have nothing left. I mean, not nothing left, but I want to get rid of a lot.

And I kind of want to keep it that way. I want to have more of a lot. And I kind of want to keep it that way. I want to have more of a minimalist approach, not really, because minimalist is kind of extreme. But let's say there's a spectrum from minimalist to maximalist when it comes to material items that you own. On that scale, I want to lean more towards the minimalist side. I'm not going to be a full minimalist, okay,

where I only have one shirt and one pair of jeans and one pair of shoes. It's unrealistic for me, but I want to really scale back the stuff that I own because I feel like the amount of clutter I have in my life from all of the shopping that I do and all of the things that I've accumulated over the years. It makes me anxious. Having all of this stuff in my environment makes me anxious and makes me feel overwhelmed and I want to really, really change that this year because I've kind of tried to change

it. I've tried to do little closet clean outs but I've never taken it that seriously. And my execution on cleaning out my closet. And the rest of my belongings has never been throw enough. I've never really worked hard enough at it. And so this year I'm going to make that a priority to clean out my closet, clean out all of the shit that I own, and then after I clean it out, leave it that way. Okay, that is a huge goal for me.

Next, I want to lower my phone usage and computer usage even more. I haven't proved a lot on the frequency in which I use my phone. And recently, I deleted my entire TikTok account. I deleted the app a few months back so that I wouldn't be tempted to ever go on it again. But I decided I wanted to be as far away from that app as possible due to its addictive and scary qualities and toxic qualities. And so I deleted the whole app and my whole account yesterday and it felt so good. And I deleted Snapchat, I deleted, that's it.

I have all the other ones. But I want to lower my phone usage even more because I'm doing pretty good. My screen time is like five hours a day. That's not too bad. But I want to lower it even more. I want to lower it to two and a half hours a day. I don't know if that's realistic, but that would be great. And listen, I still am going to enjoy using social media apps and I'm still going to enjoy

using the features that my phone has to offer, but I want to continue to cut it back and use it as minimal I can per day. Because honestly, cutting back your phone usage is one of the best things that you can do for your mental state, truly. And I stand by that. So I'm really going to be cutting back on that screen time. Hopefully. We'll see what I can do.

I made my goal two and a half hours per day and I know I'm not gonna get there immediately but I wanna slowly peel back minutes every day until I reach a screen time of two hours and 30 minutes a day. We'll see if it's possible, I'll try. And last but not least, I really, really need to stop being so mean to myself all the time because I love being mean to myself.

It is where I feel most comfortable and I've found this out through some self discovery. Like I am such a bully to myself constantly. I am constantly saying mean and negative things towards myself. And I asked myself why. And the reason why I'm so mean to myself is because it's a defense mechanism, right? Like if I'm mean to myself constantly, then when anyone else tries to say something mean to me, it won't matter because I'm already meaner to myself. So nothing that anyone can say is meaner than what I say to myself.

And listen, this may be an effective defense mechanism, but let me tell you, it makes me miserable. And because I became aware recently of this habit that I'm in, of being really mean to myself, I think that over 2022, because I'm aware of this, I can work on changing the way that I speak to myself and being more kind and more forgiving to myself and Treating myself like I'm my own friend rather than I'm my own worst enemy So that's another thing I'm gonna be working on um I also want to read more books. I'd like to read a book a month this year

That's something that I think I can accomplish if it was any more than that, I would get overwhelmed. But one book a month, because books really, really enhance your life. They're relaxing and they're entertaining, but they also help grow your vocabulary, help grow your knowledge about stuff. There's pretty much no negative side effects to reading. And I'm reading a lot of classic books, and I want to continue to read classic books this year, because although new books and stuff like that can be awesome. My dad told me that I should start by reading

a bunch of classic books because that will kind of show me what a good book is, right? And also it'll teach me how to read more difficult styles of books. And then from there, once I get really good at reading, right, then I can expand and start reading other things. But he did recommend that I start out with classic books. So there's that. And those are my nearest resolutions. If you don't have any and you're like, I don't know what to do, still some of mine. Still some of mine. The thing about nearest resolutions is that

it's easy to put everything down on paper and say, oh, this is what I'm gonna do this year. But it's a whole nother thing to actually execute them. And so the key to creating a nearest resolution that's actually gonna last is to number one, not make it extremely difficult, like make it something that's approachable and relatively simple,

like reading one book per month. That's not that hard. You know, even if I just read a short book, reading one book per month is something that I can digest. Like that's a concept that I can digest. Reading five books a month is something I cannot digest. That would be a stretch. That would be a chore.

You know, it's about making near resolutions that aren't an impossible chore. And the other way to look at near resolutions is instead of, you know, being super regimented with yourself and super strict with yourself about accomplishing these resolutions. Look at it in a way like, I'm just planning the seed in my own brain. And if I fail, it's not that big of a deal. I'm just gonna do my best at accomplishing these resolutions. And even if I don't succeed in the way that I imagined I would,

just by attempting to work on these nearest resolutions, left me in a better spot than I would have been otherwise. For example, let's use my resolution about cooking, for example. Let's say I only end up cooking two new recipes per month instead of two new recipes per week because I just couldn't handle doing two new recipes per week. Okay, well, even though I didn't perfectly accomplish my New Year's resolution, I ended up in a better spot than I would have been otherwise because I still was cooking new recipes. Maybe not as frequently as I had planned or wanted to, but I still did it a little bit

and that still helped me learn more about cooking and I still know more about cooking than I would if I wasn't cooking those two new recipes per month. And would I have maybe known more if I would have cooked two new recipes per week, maybe, but that wasn't feasible. And so I found something that I could do, which is two per month, and that's okay. It's about being easy on yourself and adjusting your resolutions throughout the year

to make them doable for you and not taking it that seriously. I think when you take it too seriously, that's actually when it ends up failing. When you just think of New Year's resolutions as something to hold in the back of your head and apply when you feel necessary and when you have the energy to do so, and if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. And that's okay. You're actually more likely to succeed at them. And that's that. So, for the remainder of this episode, I am going to give you advice on how you can make your nearest resolutions

to give you advice on how you can make your New Year's resolutions come true, how to make them actually possible based on my limited knowledge of life in the world. I will be giving you advice anyway. So I asked you guys on the Twitter to tell me some of your new years resolutions and I'm going to give you advice about them. Pretty simple, pretty self-explanatory. Let's get into it. Somebody said, I want to start journaling daily. The thing about adding something into your routine daily is that it can easily become a part of your routine.

You just have to be disciplined, okay? Set a time every day. Let's say it's after school or after work at 5pm. Set a time every day that you're going to journal and put an alarm on your phone that says journal at 5pm. And just start doing it every day at that time. I think that the key to making something a part of your daily routine is to do it every day

at the same time for a month straight. And then after that, you're good. Like it's going to be a part of your routine. You're not even going to need to set an alarm anymore. And you'll be in a really good spot. I recommend that you don't take any days off for the first month. Force yourself to do it every single day, even if you don't feel like it. Even if you're so tired after school or work and you're just pissed off and you just want to lay in bed and watch TV and not think about anything. But you also know that you have to journal at 5 p.m. and it's pissing you off the after journal at 5 p.m.

because you don't want to. Force yourself to do it anyway because you can do it. And just write for five minutes. You know, just write for five minutes. Write for two minutes. Just don't not do it. That's the key, because I think the problem is,

if you give yourself a day off with something like that, it'll just throw you off of the routine. You gotta do it every day for 30 days and see what happens. And I can almost guarantee you it'll become a part of your routine. Somebody said, I want to delete Snapchat. Delete Snapchat. Delete it right now.

Don't even wait until the near starts. Delete it right now. I am such a strong pusher of deleting apps that no longer serve you. And you know what's crazy is how easy it is to adjust to your life without said app that was toxic in your life. A few months back, I deleted TikTok off of my phone. And I was really addicted to TikTok before I deleted it. I was going on TikTok for three to five hours a day. And I didn't even realize that I was doing it.

Not only that, but TikTok has a lot of negativity on it. And so I was seeing all of this negative content for five hours a day. And yeah, there was some fun stuff on TikTok. Don't get me wrong. I learned some stuff on TikTok. I learned a bunch about cooking on TikTok. I saw funny videos that made me laugh on TikTok,

but I also saw negative toxic evil videos on TikTok that made my brain feel like it was rotting through my ears. And I was simply wasting too much time on it because it's so incredibly addictive that I could not remove it just a little bit from my routine. I had to cut it out completely from my daily routine because it was too addictive.

I couldn't find a balance with it. You know, it would be great if I just went on TikTok for 15 minutes a day. But no, you know, I couldn't find a balance with it. You know, it would be great if I just went on TikTok for 15 minutes a day. But no, you know, I couldn't cut it down. Like I had to cut it out completely because it was far too addictive and far too toxic for me. And I expected it to be tough for me to adjust to my life without TikTok because I was spending so much time on TikTok every day. And I was seeing such an influx of information every single day through TikTok.

I had anxiety thinking about what my life would be like without the information that I was getting daily on TikTok. News flash, I adjusted to my life without TikTok within a week and I became so used to not having it after a week that I couldn't even remember what it was like having TikTok on my phone. And I didn't miss it at all and I was better for it. And more recently I deleted my whole account so that I never even get tempted to read down

the other shit. I'm never ever, ever, ever going to have a TikTok again. Same thing with Snapchat. I deleted my Snapchat account and I deleted the app off my phone because it just wasn't serving me anymore. You know, and it was causing more harm than it was causing good, right? I know that there's fear that you'll be missing out on something

if you delete an app off your phone, but I can guarantee that that's not the case. You won't miss it. If an app is causing you more harm than it's doing good, there's no reason to have it. Now, I still have social media apps on my phone. app is causing you more harm than it's doing good. There's no reason to have it. Now, I still have social media apps on my phone. I have the YouTube app, I have the Pinterest app,

I have the Instagram app, because those apps when used properly don't really bother me. You know, they actually are really helpful for me. I use all of those apps for cooking inspiration, home decor inspiration, fashion inspiration. Educational purposes. I use all those apps for good. I don't feel they need to delete them, but TikTok and Snapchat for me were like two apps that I just hated and they were making me unhappy, so I deleted them.

And you can do the same. And I can guarantee you you won't be missing out on anything. Somebody said, I want to try to eat a vegetable or a fruit daily. This is so great because I used to never eat fruits or vegetables for so long, like, probably up until I was like 15 or 16. I just didn't eat fruits or vegetables. It was very rare that I would eat fruits or vegetables. And it was because I had trained my taste buds to like not like them. You know what I mean?

And I kind of had trained my body to be unfamiliar with fruits and vegetables. And so when I would see them, they didn't look appetizing into me. Like I didn't feel excited about eating fruits or vegetables because my taste buds were used to other things, right? But a part of getting older is realizing, oh shit, I need to be eating a healthy balanced diet because that actually has a lot more to do with my general health than I thought. Oh shit. I need to add in more nutritious foods into my diet.

So you have that realization at some point. Based on my experience, when it comes to diversifying the types of foods that you're eating and especially adding in fruits and vegetables, it can be hard in the beginning because your body's not going to crave fruits or vegetables. When you haven't eaten them in God knows how long and all of a sudden you're going to try to eat them. You know, your body doesn't want them. You don't crave them. They don't sound good to you. And so in the beginning, it's really hard to integrate them. sound good to you. And so in the beginning it's really hard to integrate them. But what I found was so useful is to just find ways that first and vegetables can taste good to me, okay? I really love roasted Brussels sprouts. So like I just think that they taste really good. And I always have my whole life.

I just think that they taste really good. And I always have my whole life. So I started roasting Brussels sprouts for myself, just so that I could have a vegetable in the fridge. I started learning how to make salads that actually taste good and aren't shitty. At restaurants, I would try to order meals that have a lot of vegetables in them because restaurants know what the fuck they're doing and know how to make vegetables taste good.

So I would use my restaurant experiences as a time for me to eat vegetables because they make them taste good. So for me, when I went from not eating any fruits or vegetables to eating fruits or vegetables. The key was to find ways to make them taste good to me. And then to eat them as often as possible. And over time, my body, I can't explain it, but over time, my body reprogrammed itself and started to enjoy and crave vegetables and fruits for the first time in my life. I've never craved or been excited about fruits or vegetables, but now I, like, my body craves them. It was just hard for the first few months. You know,

it, it, it was like the first few months, I was kind of forcing it. I was just hard for the first few months. You know, it it was like the first few months, I was kind of forcing it. I was kind of forcing myself to eat fruits and vegetables for more like medicinal purposes. I was like, okay, this is just healthy for me. It was almost like taking a vitamin. But then as I started integrating more fruits and vegetables into my diet and eating them more frequently over time, I started to love them. And then it became easy. It was like, okay, this is actually like great. Like now I finally enjoy them.

It just took a few months of reprogramming my, you know, body to like vegetables and fruits again, you know? But once I did, it's so rewarding because now I look forward to these types of foods and it's easy to have them as a part of my diet, right? I recommend that you make a Pinterest board with recipes that are rich in fruits and veggies and find stuff that looks good, you know, and try to make them

or have your mom make them for you, whoever. And even if you're like, I don't want to cook, get some carrots in a dip that you like, you know, and eat raw, uncooked carrots in a dip that you like. That can be great, you know? Like even just that. There's so many ways that you can do it. You can spice up things like apples and bananas by adding peanut butter on top. You can spice up eating things like berries by drizzling some dark chocolate on top. There's so many ways that you can make

for it's and vegetables enjoyable. You just have to, number one, get a little bit creative and number two be patient with the fact that your body's not gonna crave them immediately, but over time, your body will learn to love them. Somebody said, I wanna get more sleep this year. I think that the best thing that you can do for sleep, because I have really, really improved my sleep schedule and my sleep patterns this year over 2021.

I really fixed my sleep situation and what I did was that number one I stopped going on my phone and computer as much before bed. I still do it sometimes, but I stopped doing it as much and I will pick up a book instead or I'll listen to a sleep meditation instead because that stuff makes you tired. Like reading a book, listening to a sleep meditation with your eyes closed makes you tired. It makes it easier to fall asleep quicker. I also started waking up earlier and I started forcing myself to wake up earlier. Like I would set an alarm for seven and be like, I'm a you're waking up at seven and that's the end of it, you know. And for a few months, I was waking up at seven every single day and it was really hard.

It was really hard because I was exhausted. But over time, waking up at seven became easier and easier and going to sleep at night at a reasonable hour became easier and easier because slowly but surely my sleep schedule was adjusting to me waking up at seven. And then naturally I started to want to go to bed earlier at around 1030 and it all fell into place. I think that the thing that really helped me was waking up earlier and forcing myself to do it even if it meant that I only got five hours of sleep. It was necessary because it was the thing that trained my body to wake up earlier and in result of that going to bed earlier.

It's definitely hard at first, but it gets a lot easier over time. Somebody said, I want to be able to let go of things that don't serve me anymore this year. I think the best way to do this, and I know that I do this a lot. Like, this is a piece of advice that I give a lot, but I don't care because it's true. It's so helpful when dealing with things in life that are more abstract. For example, determining what things in life don't serve you anymore, or determining what steps you want to take next in your life to make your life even better, or what you're

looking for in a relationship or a friendship. When you're trying to work out things like that that are more abstract, they're more fagglands of your imagination. It's so helpful to write them down into a journal or write them down into your phone notes on your phone. Writing things down puts them out into the universe and like makes them exist in a tangible way. And it's so incredibly helpful.

So I recommend that you go into a notebook or you go into the notes app of your phone and you write down all of the things that don't serve you anymore in your life. And just by simply doing that, you're really nailing it into your head, what things you want to let go of in your life. And it's almost like it's planting a subliminal seed in your brain that's solid in there. Once you write something down, it becomes solid in your head. And it's almost like by writing down what you want to remove from your life that isn't

serving you, you're planting a solid seed in your brain that can then sprout and grow over time. And naturally, you'll be more inclined to remove these things in your life that no longer serve you. Whereas if you just let them stain your mind and you just let them ruminate in your mind, they're less likely to get done because they're just floating around your mind. They're not rooted in your brain,

like when you write something down and it plants a solid seed in your brain. You know, thoughts are constantly just floating through our heads freely. And if you want something to become a priority and you want something to be at the front of your mind and be rooted there, you need to make it tangible somehow. And writing in a journal is a great way to do that. Somebody said, I want to stop obsessing over men. It's a very broad resolution, but that's basically all that I do. You know, it's funny because I used to do this.

I've always done this my whole life. Up until more recently, I have always used boys as a huge distraction distraction huge distraction. I like people always thought they're like wow Emma is actually quite boy crazy like growing up. I was always kind of what the adults would call boy crazy and At the time I didn't understand why I was like I don't get why I always have to have a crush on someone Why you know, I'm constantly thinking about boys all day from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed. Why?

Why? I didn't understand why. But within the past year or so, you know, two years even, that's kind of stopped. And I didn't really even notice it's stopping. But once it stopped, I was able to realize why I was doing it. Your brain loves distractions because they allow you to have an escape from your problems for a second.

And boys or girls, whoever you're attracted to, romantic interests in general, are a great distraction. You know, they give you a little break from the harsh reality of your life. You know, if you can sit in class and daydream about what it would be like if you got to hold hands with the hot guy in your class, That's a great distraction. And distractions are fine. But if they overtake your mind and they become all that you think about, then you might need to, you know, change things around. I think what helped me stop obsessing over boys was to find new things to obsess over instead that were a little bit more productive, right? Obsessing over boys doesn't really get you anywhere.

It's not very productive. Obsessing over books or obsessing over a hobby that you're really into, like playing an instrument or sowing or knitting or writing, or whatever it may be, cooking, obsessing over those things is a lot more productive. And so you need to find something to be obsessed with that falls into those categories. And in turn, you'll stop obsessing over boys as much because you'll be more focused on yourself and the hobbies and books and learning stuff about literally anything, you can literally learn about anything and it's going to be useful, okay?

There's nothing off limits when it comes to learning. No matter what interests you, it's probably useful to know about. Anyways, once you shift your focus to being obsessed with things that actually enhance your life, not only will you stop feeling the need to use others as a distraction because you found distraction within your own life. But also you won't find yourself in these terrible situations that come from being obsessed with romantic interests. When you're obsessed with romantic interests in your life, you end up attracting a lot of shitty ones. And that's really unfortunate. And it's a huge waste of time. So if you can stop being so consumed by romantic interests and you can ship that focus into

things that enhance your life, then you're going to be in a way better spot all around. Somebody said, I want to exercise more. Exercise is such a great part of a balanced life, but the only way that it's doable is if you enjoy it. You have to enjoy it. And I know that that's like advice that everybody gives, but it's genuinely so true. Like, if you don't like your exercise routine and it's too hard and it's too uncomfortable and it's too tedious, it's not going to stick. And it also doesn't need to be like that. Like exercise doesn't need to be painful and extreme.

You know what I mean? It can be going on a two hour walk a few times a week, going on a really long walk. That's a great form of exercise. It could be doing Pilates classes with your friends. And afterwards, you know you and your friends can go and get coffee and it's fun and cute. Like, it can be something that's fun for you. But you just have to figure that out.

And try a bunch of stuff. Try going on a jog outside. Try doing yoga. Try going on a two hour walk. Try a bunch of stuff. And then pick whichever one is your favorite. Like for me, I'm, I like running right now for some reason. I don't know why I don't know how it happened. And so, and so, you know, I try to run as frequently as I can. But sometimes I hate running. And I'm like, I actually really don't ever want to fucking do this again.

I hate running. It sucks, and it's not exciting to me. Then I don't run, and I do something else. Like more recently, I did a yoga class, because I wasn't in the mood to run, but I wanted to exercise. And I hated the yoga class. I'm never going to do yoga again, but listen, at least I tried it.

It's all about trial and error, adapt your workout routine to your life at the given moment and figure out something that you'll enjoy doing that is also active. You could even do something like rock climbing or hiking or ice skating, like find something that you enjoy doing that just also happens to be physical. Because the benefits of exercise are huge.

I mean, they're huge. In my own life, I've seen so much benefit from consistently exercising in my life, but it won't become a part of your daily routine unless you enjoy it. So it just takes a lot of trial and error and being open-minded to types of exercise that you can do and trying everything. Somebody said, the number one thing I wanna do this year

is take care of my mental health better. It's so hard to take care of yourself. Like, I think it's so easy to take care of other people. Like if someone's staying with me at my house, for example, it's so easy for me to cook and clean for them and, you know, to pick up something for them at the store and to talk to them and be nice to them. It's so easy for me to take care of someone else.

But when it comes to taking care of myself, I just couldn't care less. I think that this is another scenario when whipping out a journal in writing down different ways that you can take care of your mental health better is going to be very helpful. Because again, as I said earlier, it plants that seed in your brain and it roots it in there so that it can grow over time. Some ways that you can prioritize your mental health better is by dedicating one day per week to a day for yourself where you get to do whatever you want.

If you want to lay in bed all day, you lay in bed all day. If you want to go out and go window shopping by yourself, you can do that. If you want to hang out with a friend and go get lunch, you can do that. Leave one day a week completely to yourself, where you get to do whatever you want. Recharge, recenter yourself, that is extremely helpful. And I actually think I want to start doing that, dedicating one day per week to doing whatever I want. No work, no stuff that's tedious and frustrating,

just a day to recharge completely. I think that that's so great, and I'm gonna start doing that. I think I'm gonna start doing that on Sundays. I think it would be really good for me, and I think it would really help me center myself every week. But also, when you write down in your journal,

other ways that you can better your mental health this year, be open to things like saying positive affirmations to myself, you know, meditating a few times a week, journaling a few times a week, going out to lunch with friends that make me feel fulfilled a few times a week. Be open to everything that could possibly help you feel better and could help you recharge throughout the week.

But write it all down. I really swear writing it down will really help. Somebody said I want to be better at saving money. I really think that the best way to save money is to set a budget for yourself that is set in stone and never changes. Okay. When it comes to spending money, applying a structure is pretty much the only way that it's possible. Because otherwise, you don't have control over it.

Keep track of how much you're spending for one month on food, fun stuff, like getting your nails done, going shopping, getting drinks with friends, whatever. And necessary costs of living. So like one month, tally up all of that. How much you spend on fun stuff, necessary stuff, and food, and then create a budget for yourself based on those numbers.

Say, okay, I'm only allowed to spend $70 a month on fun stuff, $200 a month on necessary stuff, and $150 a month on food. Set a budget for yourself. And stick to it because the thing is, if you set a budget for yourself and you create some structure, it'll force you to be more thoughtful about every individual purchase that you make. Instead of just making purchases and it just disappearing into the best of your conscience,

you know, if you're holding yourself accountable, you will inevitably be smarter about the way that you spend. Next, somebody said, I want to brush my teeth twice a day and keep up with my hygiene. I totally understand the struggle with keeping up with your hygiene, especially when you're going through a depressive episode. Like on a normal day when I'm feeling great,

brushing my teeth twice a day and showering is like easy, but for some reason when I'm in a really bad spot, that stuff seems close to impossible. I think that when you're in a really low spot and you really can't get yourself to take care of yourself as you normally do. Set alarms on your phone. 1 at 8 a.m. to brush teeth once, 1 at 9 a.m. to shower, and then another 1 at 9 p.m. to brush your teeth the last time. Like set alarms on your phone to remind you and force you to go do it. And it might seem extreme, but when you're in a spot where keeping up with your hygiene is hard, it's hard.

And you'll forget and you'll push it off. But if you set alarms on your phone to remind you violently that it's time to do these things, you're far more likely to do them. So set a repeat alarm on your phone and I really think that that will help. Somebody said, I want to get better at sticking to a routine. There is nothing better for this than a planner. I personally love paper planners because I just like the physical feeling of writing down things in a planner. But you can also use Google Calendar or Apple Calendar or the calendar in your iPhone if

you have an iPhone. Find a calendar of some sort and set out 15 minutes every morning to writing out a schedule for the day and planning out your day and put everything on that schedule from brushing your teeth to making lunch, to responding to emails, whatever it may be, put everything on that schedule, everything. And the thing that's so useful about writing a schedule and having a schedule down in paper is that when you check something off of your schedule, you get a little dopamine rush and it makes you feel good, you know, to check something off.

It inspires you to get everything done that's on your list. And over time, following a schedule every day with a solid routine will become easier and easier. And I really think that it's the only way to stick to a routine. I really do. I don't know. When I don't use a planner for a few months, like I kind of lose myself, I don't know.

Like writing down my plans for the day really, really holds me accountable and makes me want to do them. And it makes me want to stick to that routine. I'll put shit on my routine, like cook breakfast at this time, get ready for the day at this time, exercise at this time,

and it holds me accountable and it actually makes me more excited about it to write it all down. Somebody said, I wanna compliment myself at least once a day. This is so great and so important, but it's also a hard thing to remember to do. And I think the best way to remember to do it

is to associate it with an act that you do every day. For example, let's say you tell yourself, okay, every day I'm going to compliment myself before I brush my teeth in the morning. Then every day when you go to brush your teeth, which is inevitable. It's inevitable that you're gonna brush your teeth every day or at least almost every day,

as long as you're in a mentally stable enough spot to take care of your hygiene. Bushing your teeth should be a pretty consistent part of your day-to-day life, right? So associating your daily complement with your daily teeth brushing is a great way to remember to do it. Make it a habit to do it right before you brush your teeth.

And then every time you go to brush your teeth, which is something that you're gonna do anyway, you remember, okay, I need to compliment myself. And that's a strategy that's very helpful if you want to integrate certain habits into your life. Like let's say you want to start reading every day. Make it a habit that when you tuck yourself into bed immediately, you read for 20 minutes. That's the first thing you do when you get in bed at night before you go to sleep is you read for 20 minutes. That's the first thing you do when you get in bed at night

before you go to sleep is you read for 20 minutes. And if you need to, you know, respond to some emails in bed as well or you need to finish up some homework or something in bed, you can do that stuff after you read. Make it the first thing that you do when you get into bed. Associate a new habit that you wanna adopt with an old habit that's inevitable and is going to happen without fail every day. Somebody said I wanna make puzzles and play board games more often. Me too, me fucking too. I made a puzzle the other day and it was so enjoyable. Like, it's really hard to motivate yourself to do simple things like play games and do puzzles because it

seems like so pointless, but it's such a great thing for your mind. And I think the best way to motivate yourself to do these things is to number one, incorporate your friends, incorporate your family, do it with people, get excited about the concept of playing games and doing puzzles and eating a cheese board, get excited about that stuff with people that you love because that will motivate you way more. And also try to plan to do it maybe once or twice a month. Like plan a game night with your friends twice a month. Plan it out.

Hold yourself accountable to making it happen. Because doing stuff like that is so fulfilling for some reason. Somebody said, I wanna be more spontaneous and go out more. I didn't really enjoy the years that you're supposed to go crazy with your friends, so I wanna make the most of it right now. Do it and don't feel bad about it.

I used to feel really guilty when I would enjoy myself with my friends. I would feel like, I'm wasting my time. You know, I'm being so unproductive. As long as the people that you're hanging out with are good people, and as long as you guys are doing things that are relatively productive,

even if that's trying a new restaurant or cooking together or playing board games, as long as you guys aren't doing anything toxic, hanging out with your friends and having fun and enjoying yourself is a part of a balanced life. And that's something that I'm trying to reintegrate back into my life because I kind of removed all of that stuff from my life and it's time to bring it back in.

So I wanna do the same thing. I wanna be more spontaneous and go out more as well. And I think the key to that is just to not feel guilty. And also to reach out, oh my god, yesterday for the first time, for the first time in years, possibly two years. No, that's too long. two years. No, that's too long. For the first time in a year, I would say, I actually reached out to a friend or to some friends that I've been wanting to hang out with for a while, but I just was always like, eh, like, we're not super, super close and like asking them to hang out makes me kind of anxious. And also, I don't really need to hang out with people. I'm fine on my own. You know, it's easier to just not ask people to hang out. I actually reached out

To friends and asked them to hang out. I never do that and you know, I was nervous but It felt really good and now I'm excited because I'm gonna hang out with them soon and it's gonna be fun. It's just about getting the courage to ask. And I can guarantee that like most people are pretty excited to get it. Sorry, I just was mixing my matcha. Excuse me. I'm not sure it's so good.

Anyway, I was so nervous and uncomfortable to ask them, but once I did, I realized they're actually excited too. This is a win all around. Everybody wins. I can guarantee that they're going to be excited to hear from you. If they're not, fuck them and text someone else. And if you're in a phase in your life where you don't really have friends

or you don't really have people that you are inspired to be friends with, hang out with your family. Go do something fun with a family member. Text one of your cousins that you haven't seen in a few months and go to lunch with them, you know, get creative. And do stuff that seems stupid.

And by that I mean, go bowling. Go sit on Santa's lap at the mall. Like, do dumb shit like that with your friends. Be random, be spontaneous. It feels really good. And last but not least, somebody said, I wanna start baking and cooking more. Let me tell you,

cooking and baking over this past year has been one of my favorite things that I've gotten myself into. I've really fallen in love with it and the thing about it that's so great is that in order to cook, you have to be present. You know, you have to be present. You have to be focused. And the act of being focused on cooking or baking is meditative and it's so therapeutic. And it's also great because when you learn how to cook and bake, not only do you have yummy food to feed yourself,

but you also have yummy food to feed people that you love and care about. And over this past year, cooking for people has become a huge way that I show love to people. And there's really nothing I love more than inviting over people that I love, cooking for them, and then eating with them. There's actually not a more rewarding feeling. And so I really encourage you to start cooking and baking more.

And if you're struggling to motivate to do it just for yourself, because you're like, well, I don't really care. I can just just, you know, warm up something in the microwave. I don't need to cook for myself. Cook for others. That's a really, really, way, way. That's a really great way to motivate yourself to cook and bake is if you know that you're going to be giving it to somebody that you care about. You guys get into cooking and baking. You won't regret it. It's so great. Anyway, that's all I got for today. I'm going to miss you guys. I'm taking a few weeks off of the podcast just to kind of relax and think and experience life for what it is. You know, like, I just wanna take some time off

of just everything for a bit because I haven't really done that in a long time. And so there will be no podcast for the next few weeks, but I will be coming back in 2022 with a raging vengeance. And I'm so excited for another year of hanging out but I will be coming back in 2022 with a raging vengeance. And I'm so excited for another year of hanging out with you guys every week and talking about pressing topics. And it's gonna be great.

So yeah, I'll see you guys after the break. I hope that you have an amazing few weeks. I will miss you, but we'll be back soon. And thank you again for all of the love and support this year. It means the world to me. I can't thank you enough. And we will talk soon. Love you guys. you guys!