5 Things I Didn’t Learn In School

In school I learned how to calculate the area of a circle and how to count to ten in Spanish. But all I really wanted to know was how to kiss a girl. For some reason they didn’t have a class on that.

And then in college they taught me how oil money can disrupt domestic governments in the Middle East, and how to discuss philosophical treaties on Justice, and that if I mastered the dynamics of a supply and demand curve, the universe would reveal itself to me. Unfortunately, this turned out not to be true. Although I could plot those curves like nobody’s business, I was still lost in a broader sense.   

Again, they didn’t have the classes I wanted. How to Have Friends and not be Lonely, or A Beginner’s Guide to Overcoming Anxiety and Creating Abundance. Everyone else seemed to already have these things figured out.

Because there was no professor to show me this stuff, I had to deal with it on my own, and I still am.  All I know is the things that work for me. I can trust my experience for myself, but I have no idea if these strategies work for anyone else.

Here are five things I know:

1. I feel better on days when I get physical exercise than on days when I don’t.

2. The more attention I direct towards being grateful, the less room there is in my mind for anxiety.

3. The only way I know how to have a positive impact on the world and the people around me is to make sure I am focusing on my own health first.

4. The more quiet time I make for myself, the better I am able to listen to my breath and my body, and give it what it needs.

5. The less News I consume, the less anxious I feel. I would rather read a book than the internet.

All I want to do every day is improve a little bit in the four quadrants of my health (physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual). If I can do that, then I am happy. And successful.