From NYT, Feb 2025
35 Simple Health Tips Experts Swear By
When I find myself stuck in a pattern of negative thinking, I try not to complain for seven days. It retrains your brain to stop going down a negative path. I write "Don't complain!" on a sticky note right by my bed so I see it when I wake up.
Dr. Kali D. Cyrus
Psychiatrist and assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Medicine
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My second-grade teacher, Ms. Edson, told us: If something feels too hard to do, it just means that the first step isn't small enough. So often when we're struggling, we tell ourselves that it's a sign that we're broken or that something is our fault, and then we freeze. But when something is too hard in the moment, tell yourself Ms. Edson's advice.
Becky Kennedy
Clinical psychologist, parenting expert and founder of Good Inside
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I do small actions day to day that keep me connected with other people. I didn't used to. But then my research began to show people who do are happier, live longer and stay healthier. I started deliberately making dates with friends, going out to dinner with other guys. I have a Friday noon meeting every week with my friend and colleague Marc. And I make small, frequent contact with other people I want to stay connected to. Texting counts.
Dr. Robert J. Waldinger
Director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development
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There's lots of work on what's called time affluence, the subjective sense that you have some free time. The simple act of giving myself a break — two to five minutes to catch my breath between tasks — makes me feel less time-famished. Studies would suggest that just changing that sense of time famine can have a disproportionate impact on well-being.
Laurie Santos
Cognitive scientist and happiness expert at Yale University
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Each year, make a commitment during your birthday month to schedule all your annual health checkups. Schedule them for anytime in the next year before your next birthday. Keeping your health in check requires consistent care. This helps make sure that you get it done.
Dr. Folasade P. May
Gastroenterologist and associate professor of medicine at U.C.L.A.
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Often when I'm feeling mentally foggy, I use the 10-10-10 rule: Take a 10-second break every 10 minutes to stare at something 10 feet away. This not only helps reduce eye strain from screen time, but the brief mental break can help boost your focus and refresh your cognitive clarity.
Lisa Mosconi
Neuroscientist and director of the Weill Cornell Women's Brain Initiative
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4-7-8 breathing
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5 things to hear, smell, taste, see....feel
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I look for opportunities for bite-size "movement snacks." Exposure to different movements helps prevent injury and increases range of motion. When you leave a room, touch the top of the doorway. If you walk by a playground, just go hang on the monkey bar for a little bit. Put your hands against the wall, lean forward and pedal out your feet to flex your ankles. Look for times to sit on the ground, so you have to get back up. Try brushing your teeth on one foot.
Michelle Voss
Associate professor of brain sciences at the University of Iowa
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If you wake up in the middle of the night, don't get up (unless you really have to pee). Instead, lie on your back and do 10 rounds of 4-7-8 breathing (inhaling for four seconds, holding it for seven and exhaling for eight). Then count backward from 300 by threes. The breaths slow your heart rate, while the math keeps your mind from racing. It works so well, it's like taking an Ambien.
Michael Breus
Sleep specialist and author of "Sleep Drink Breathe"
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Curiosity is a superpower! It helped me learn to work with and overcome my own panic attacks. Whenever I notice the "Oh no!" voice in my head when I'm worrying, I can flip the inflection to the "Ohh?!" of being curious: "Oh, here's heart racing. Oh, here's sweaty palms. Oh, here's feeling like I'm short of breath." When I bring curiosity to each of those by themselves, it doesn't feel as bad.
Judson Brewer
Director of research and innovation at the Mindfulness Center at Brown University
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Create a secret, quirky phrase that you say to yourself when you stop your work for the day to shift out of professional mode. (I used to say: "Schedule shutdown complete.") When ruminations about work arise, you can simply respond: "I said my shutdown phrase." Over time, the urge to obsess over work diminishes.
Cal Newport
Author of "Slow Productivity"
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"Stop, Breathe, Be" is a three-second brain reset to help manage anxiety in the moment. The instructions are in the name: Stop whatever you're doing, take a brief pause. Take a deep breath in and out. Be grounded in the present moment. "Stop, Breathe, Be" gets you out of "What if?" thinking and back to what is, in the here and now.
Dr. Aditi Nerurkar
Harvard physician specializing in stress and burnout
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During my workday, one of the most restorative things I can do is listen to a song I love between clients. If I listen to some Snoop Dogg, I'm going to feel a little recharged. It puts you in a different zone. I have a playlist that has gospel music and Megan Thee Stallion and all sorts of stuff.
Nedra Glover Tawwab
Licensed clinical social worker
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Short bursts of intense exercise — burpees, sprints on a bike, taking the stairs at work — are both physically and metabolically valuable. I make sure to put them into my life a couple of times every week.
Dr. Jordan D. Metzl
Sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York
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Diaphragmatic breathing — using your diaphragm to take deep, controlled breaths and expand your belly, followed by exhaling slowly and letting your belly fall — stimulates vagus nerve activity and potentially reduces gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating. I do it at bedtime for about 10 minutes.
Dr. Lin Chang
Gastroenterologist at U.C.L.A. Health
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A couple of times a day, I consciously drop my shoulders, sigh and think to myself: "Let go."
Sherry Cormier
Psychologist and bereavement trauma expert
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