I want to start out by admitting that not all my habits are healthy. They’re not awful, so don’t go thinking that my history of depression (have I mentioned my history of depression yet?—Surprise!) has something to do with bad health, but they’re not as awesome as they could be. I run every day, try to stay away from processed foods for the most part, and spend time feeding my intellectual side. On the other hand, I sometimes binge eat, don’t go to sleep nearly early enough, and don’t take enough time to be still and meditate.

My habits could be better.

So…I’m going to go on a journey of establishing healthy(er) habits and seeing how they affect my happiness. I know that my depression is worse when I’m not taking care of myself; the biological and emotional are inextricably connected. I obviously expect good things. Otherwise, what’s the point of healthy habits?

I’ve divided them up into three main categories:

1. Sleeping – going to bed earlier and getting up earlier
2. Eating – more vegetables (which I’m not terribly fond of), established meals and less grazing, more water (and less soda, sadly)
3. Exercising (body and mind) – meditating, more hiking, running earlier in the day

There’s no way I’m going to do all of this at once because I know how that turns out: complete and utter soul-destroying defeat. So I’ll start with the sleeping stuff. I’ll let you know next week how it goes.

Choose Joy.

—A