5 things that keep me in check

Okay Staples tagged me on this meme on the five things that keep me in check, so get ready for my reflective post!

My five things:

1. Talking to friends and family – I need to *share* my life, whether it’s something ups or downs, news just random ephiphanies.  My friends make me happy and calm me down.  And I hope I have the same effects on them…

2. Exercise – Yoga, running and a bit of resistence training and random classes – anything that makes me move and sweat is good!  I am a keen believer that sweating once a day makes you happy.  And pushing your body a little further from its comfort zone also builds confidence.  Doesn’t seem to be that direct but once you start doing that, you can’t do any less!

3. Quality food – vegetables, fruits, lots of fibre and occassion freshly grilled salmon fillet with honey and mustard saurce or freshly steamed sea bass with ginger and spring onion… the list goes on!  Good, fresh food makes me super happy, and feel good too.  Sadly I have to confess that I need my occassional dose of McDonald’s fillet O’Fish.  Horrible, I know.  Sometimes I even get migrane the next day I have one, but it’s sooooo delicious.  Oh well.

4. Detox your skin – When I first came to London I get irritated by the low humidity and the lime-rich water.  It was only when I realised at a ski trip that by going to sauna and exercise crazy for 6 days, my skin restores itself!  Skin is definitely the largest organ in the body and when you treat it nicely but proper exercise (sweat), exfoliation and moisturisation, you get happier too!

5. Thinking about thinking – this is key.  Sometimes people call that meta-cognition, it’s the ability to analyse you own thinking critically.  I am chicken-little – super risk adverse and sensitive, so very little thing can make me very stressed out, obsessed for a while, or just down for a bit.  But sometimes if I think about, ‘hey if i were xxx in the same situation, or if it’s not me in the situation but xxx, how I would be feeling now?’.  Having this mind-floating experience helps calm me down and makes me realise the importance of not to sweat over small stuff.  And everything is small stuff.

Finally as my yoga teacher said yesterday during the meditation, ‘Think about what really you are, instead of the external pressure that try to tell you what you need to be.  What is it that you truly want?  Who are the real you?‘

What are your top 5?