And if you feel the need to increase the comfort in your life, put the effort into finding it. Discomfort leads to discontent and unhappiness.
3. Keep up your reading. Some people like books, newspapers and magazines; others need their device. Whatever your medium, reading every single day is generally necessary. Just add at least 10 minutes of something fun to read — not your work, research or mindless scrolling, which is not the same as reading. Neither is looking at guitars (note to self).
Get engaged in a story, romp through a new world, and let your mind build a house there. Those minutes add up to hours of brain-building relaxation. Nonfiction is OK too.
4. Move. It is so easy not to do exercise — anyone can loaf about — and now that you’ve proven the point, it’s time to make getting exercise your number one priority. Seriously. There is no more accessible, affordable and effective antidepressant available anywhere on the planet than physically moving.
The jury is in folks: mild exercise, like walking 20 minutes a day, will make you feel better, allow you to do more, and you might even start to enjoy it.
5. Give back to your fellow humans. No matter how bad off you feel you are, someone is worse off. Anything you can do to help another person will make you feel better about yourself; it usually works that way. Sometimes you end up giving too much to an ungrateful wretch, but then you learn to make better choices.