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The most important prevention is to be healthy on all levels.
1. Physical – Be active, exercise as you are able, and move your body. If you are unable to be mobile, there are several online programs that offer guided, seated exercises.
2. Diet – Eat a healthy, balanced, and nutritious diet. Avoid alcohol, sugar, and processed foods. Drink lots of water.
3. Learn new things and challenge yourself.
Find a balance between cognitive challenge and personal enjoyment. Engage in “neurobic” exercises, tasks that break your routine and challenge your brain.
- Learn a new language and join a language conversational group. Use digital tools such as Duolingo or Babbel.
- Play strategic games and puzzles
- Classic strategy: Chess, Bridge
- Numbers and Logic: Sudoku, KenKen
- Word Mastery: Standard crossword puzzles, games like Spelling Bee, or Wordle
- Creative and technical skills:
- Start a hobby from scratch
- Creative writing: take a memoir-writing class
- Learn a musical instrument
- Learn an artistic skill such as photography, pottery making, painting
4. Engage in activities that bring you joy and peace
- Gardening, social time with family and friends, hobbies, music, crafting
5. Have good family and social relations
Resolve any stuck relationships or interactions. Practice setting boundaries. This may mean letting the person go, and recognizing it may not serve you to have them in your life. See a professional therapist to resolve stuck issues or relationships.
6. Heal your trauma through any number of different paths, such as therapy, body movement, martial arts, sound healing, EMDR, Reiki, Tapping, Heart Math, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and other paths.
7. Find a spiritual path or whatever calls to you in terms of connecting to something larger than yourself. We are actually spiritual beings having a human experience, not human beings having a spiritual experience. It is important that we connect with the Divine through our relationships, through connecting with the earth and all its living inhabitants, and through connecting with nature and the wonder of this vast universe of which we are a part. When we become overly attached to validating who we are through transitory paths such as drugs, sex, money, acquisition of property, and purchases, we will ultimately be following an empty path that does not nurture us on a deep level.
8. Learn to meditate, or spend quiet introspective time with yourself. Learn to disengage from the hectic, pressured, chaotic world we live in, and devote time to nurturing your inner self. You deserve it, and we all need it.
9. Contribute or volunteer in your community. Find an organization or cause that calls to you. Google “Volunteer Opportunities” to find a multitude of organizations that need volunteers.
10. Practice random acts of kindness. Look for small ways to contribute to someone, even a smile or hello as you pass someone on the street. In our culture, we have been far too disconnected from one another, and loneliness is at epidemic levels. We must look for and nurture connections to each other in order to build community that people are so desperately seeking.
11. Monitor your thoughts throughout the day. Let go of negative, self-defeating thoughts that don’t serve you or anyone. Your thoughts carry energy and communicate to the world even if you don’t say a word. Set intentional positive tones and thoughts at the beginning of the day, in meditation if possible. Develop the habit of checking in with your thoughts to see that you are maintaining that positive tone.
12. Limit screen time. Have no electronics in the bedroom, including cell phones and televisions.
13. Open yourself to receiving positive feedback, gifts, and acknowledgments.
12. Practice deep breathing.
You deserve health, happiness, and joy.
You have gifts to contribute to the world. Let your light shine!
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