Wellbeing
Small steps that worked for real people, on wellbeing.
The sky over Wellbeing · 174 small steps
- Anger arrives with information
- Anger is a boundary alarm
- Awkward is a season, not a sentence
- Criticism needs credentials
- Don't park your life at "someday"
- Get stronger at being misread
- Heal the fear first — the words follow
- Judgment is one habit, pointed two ways
- Pleasing everyone still gets you judged
- Practice having no audience
- Some advice assumes the rent is already paid
- Take the laugh back
Or browse another area:
- wellbeingAsk plainly when a low spell goes suddenly calmAfter a long low, a sudden calm or giving things away can be a warning sign. Ask directly. 988 US, 116 123 UK; in danger now, 911 or 999.
- wellbeingAsk what a mistake would cost before you do it badlyRough work beats none for a chore. Where a mistake could hurt someone or hide a fault, such as wiring or gas, do it properly or get help.
- wellbeingAsk whether the worry has a next stepA looping worry has a next step or it has none. Plan the first, set the second aside on purpose. If it takes over your days, see a doctor.
All 174 tips on wellbeing
- “Busy” isn’t about you
- “My responsibility” instead of “my fault”
- A slanted report can still be accurate
- Aim yourself at people, especially when the pull is inward
- Alone can be a life, not a waiting room
- Anger arrives with information
- Anger is a boundary alarm
- Ask for the ferritin, not just the iron
- Ask plainly when a low spell goes suddenly calm
- Ask them how they did it
- Ask what a mistake would cost before you do it badly
- Ask whether the worry has a next step
- Ask whether you forgot or you are afraid
- Awkward is a season, not a sentence
- Book the assessment, and stop guessing
- Break your gaze every few seconds
- Budget for the social hangover
- Call the card before you post the wallet
- Change the slot when after-work workouts keep failing
- Check the plate before you open the door
- Check the sliding scale before you go it alone
- Check your child’s photos for a white glow in the eye
- Childhood dreams are not a debt
- Confidence follows competence
- Confidence is the receipt, not the ticket
- Criticism needs credentials
- Dab the balm on before the tissue does
- Depression is an illness of motivation, not a shortage of cheerfulness
- Do a sum in your head when you can’t start
- Do I have to be in the room?
- Do one new thing this weekend
- Do the push-up you can do today
- Doing everything right and feeling nothing
- Don’t believe everything you think
- Don't park your life at "someday"
- Download the map while you still have signal
- Dreamed about your ex? Don’t text them
- Drink the glass, then wait fifteen minutes
- Drink the water and count it
- Drowning is quiet
- Enamel does not grow back
- Envy can be grief in disguise
- Familiarity starves fear
- Find out who your campus police are before you need them
- Find the second way out
- Get stronger at being misread
- Get the guard before the crown
- Get up and move; the bed makes it worse
- Give blood in the quiet weeks
- Give yourself the basics first
- Heal the fear first — the words follow
- If they flash you, check your own lights first
- If you need to disappear for a while, say so
- If you shower and still smell
- Improve yourself because you like yourself
- It was never mostly about size
- Jealousy is the smoke, not the fire
- Judgment is one habit, pointed two ways
- Keep the beliefs that survive scrutiny
- Leave the phone in your pocket for the wait
- Let four sentences do all the talking
- Let the thought you hate pass without a fight
- Let thoughts be weather
- Loneliness bends what you see
- Look out the window every twenty minutes
- Make the sun a tie-breaker
- Meditation: becoming impartial to the weather inside
- Mortality is a lens, not a morbid thought
- Move a muscle, change a thought
- Move while it still bothers you
- Name one person, give one job
- Name the sounds in the room
- One story: the drink was the depression
- Open the window before the water reaches it
- People learn the jokes you make about yourself
- Perfectionism is a hamster wheel, not a high standard
- Pick the volunteer job you can carry this month
- Plan it for the new moon
- Plan tomorrow’s drive before tonight’s first drink
- Pleasing everyone still gets you judged
- Practice having no audience
- Practise the talk out loud for one person first
- Press your tongue to the roof of your mouth
- Pull your toes toward your shin
- Push your belly out to quiet it
- Put down the case you keep reopening
- Put lip balm on before the dentist
- Put the drop in the pocket under your lower eyelid
- Put your face in cool water
- Raise the screen and stand up before you buy a chair
- Read the UV index before you skip it
- Rebuilding? Start with a physical
- Replace the helmet that took the hit
- Rinse the eye with water and do not rub it
- Roll the tennis ball against the wall
- Run the bite under warm water
- Say ‘I’m blushing’ before they do
- See a doctor before you try another alarm
- Shave it before you start hiding it
- Show up anyway
- Show your eyes the motion
- Slow down for the deer you haven’t seen yet
- Small promises you actually keep
- Smell the shirt dry, not the skin
- Sober for months and still not feeling better
- Some advice assumes the rent is already paid
- Sometimes it’s a money problem
- Spit, don’t rinse
- Stop arguing with the fear of dying
- Stop somewhere safe and rest when you start to nod
- Stop trying to fall asleep
- Swap the en for simple in the web address
- Take a first-aid class before you need one
- Take the laugh back
- Take the photo before you go in
- Take the walk after lunch
- Take two dry weeks and read the result
- Take yourself to the film
- Tell the dentist before you sit down
- Tell the doctor what it stops you doing
- Tell your therapist what isn't working
- Tense your legs before you stand
- The bacteria are on your tongue
- The book works when the reader is ready
- The case for tomorrow is your track record
- The clean toilet is the one nobody uses
- The compliment lifts the giver too
- The earplugs make the band sound better
- The far side of lonely
- The feed is a highlight reel
- The feeling is automatic. The next move is yours.
- The glow is mostly sleep and water
- The irritation is a mirror
- The journaling trio
- The last drops hide upstream
- The pillowcase experiment
- The regret you get to choose
- The regulars are watching the mirror
- The spotlight is mostly in your head
- The spray that works has a three-day limit
- The water goes between the drinks
- The way out of a rip is sideways
- The whole-life trade
- Their reaction is their history talking
- Their win is not your loss
- They forgot it before you got home
- Tired after people, or afraid of them?
- Tired is a symptom before it's a personality
- Treat natural anxiety cures as extras
- Treat the depression, not the optics
- Try a glass of water once, then look further
- Turn the dome light on
- Turn the rival into a teacher
- Unlearning the verdict
- Wash the dishes when your head is full
- Watch the urge instead of fighting it
- Wear it at hugging distance
- What the envy is pointing at
- What the gym can carry
- When anger beats the pause, get help for it
- When the answer keeps being “a therapist”
- Will moving fix it? Both answers are true
- Write down a week of food when the weight won't rise
- Write down the good thing, with its details
- Write down the panic, then check it later
- Write down what you will say before you dial
- You can stop before anything falls apart
- You can't out-discipline a wound
- You know your reasons. Grant them theirs.
- You're allowed to be ordinary
- Your bloopers against their highlight reel
- Your job is not your worth
- Your paycheck was never a measure of you
- Your tail lights are probably off
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