So learning… is very important…

Of course

Almost everyone is actively trying to learn every day, and learn from others, learn faster, learn more, try to learn the right things for themselves 

For me, almost everything important that I’ve learned..

Stuff that.. Increases the quality of my life. 

I’ve learned those things just from:

1) Having as many experiences as possible, and doing my best to reflect on those experiences

Then, 

2) I learned the most from Google and Youtube. 

It took me a lot of time (a lot of time)… years, of trial and error

Of trying to find what content I like, who I like to hear it from, how, 

To find the couple of people

In this whole world

That I like to learn from 

Next,

3) I learned a lot (and very fast) from the right Mentorship 

For the past 5 years, I've been actively asking and trying to meet wiser and more experienced people 

They've lived more of life..

The advice they give me was never something I learned in school. 

It’s always, always the same things that I hear. 

Taking care of yourself, having gratitude, being kind, taking chances, following your instinct, finding and exploring what you love, and doing it as much as possible

But when I first heard them, man, I just didn’t get it, 

It’s not always possible to take it in at the moment. 

Because I’m not as mature, I’m more distracted, I’m not at the level yet,  

It’s not what I grew up knowing

It just sounds too simple to be true! 

But after growing up a bit, I’m slowly starting to realize a bit of what they meant. 

And I started to realize that most of life’s wisdom, has already been captured in cliches. 

And the main reason why I started to understand them were because I sought as many new experiences as possible, and I reflected on them. 

Life is all about experiences. 

The more you have, the more you learn, the more you grow, the happier you may be. 

So I wanted to share the most important skills I developed along the way, to speed up this process. 

And these are not things, I directly learned at school. 

• The first is Self-Awareness, which I spoke about in the previous chapter. 

• Second, is Health (Physical, Mental and Spiritual) 

• Third, is Emotional Intelligence. This is what creates true happiness and connection. 

There are other smaller things like Curiosity, Learning, Intuition, Asking etc.. 

But those are all byproducts of the big 3. 

(1) Self Awareness

There’s a reason I dedicated the entire previous chapter to self awareness. 

But its always worth going over again, because it’s a numbers game. 

It’s how many times you do the right practices and bang the importance of this in your head. 

• It’s something that needs to be taught as early as possible, because it gives us the necessary lens to evaluate ourselves, the ability to change, the awareness to realize critical things that are holding us back, the ability to zoom out and look at things with a wider perspective in order to temporarily get out of the daily struggle. 

Once again, its not something I can put into words, its a personal realization that needs to be accessed through training:

(i) Mindfulness, and

(ii) Self-Reflection. 

So finding at least one mindful activity, and trying it over and over again. 

Then failing, and trying to pick it up again. 

I started meditation first, tried it in a lot of different ways until I found a meditation process that I like. 

Then I picked up yoga, because it developed my mental/physical/spiritual health all at once, and it also has the coolest community of people. 

And other things like gardening, walking, something creative etc..

I know that anyone can find the thing they like doing the most, and then spend like 10-20 minutes a day to do it. 

Similarly for self-reflection,

I found the best way for me to write and the best time,

I found Google Docs for my phone and laptop,

I started recording audios because its so easy and I can do it anytime. 

It’s just about finding the self reflection process that you see yourself doing, and doing it as often as you can.  

And why I put Self-Awareness first, is because it starts to develop Intuition, Creativity, Curiosity

If I gave myself some space, it can do incredible things that I love doing. 

Anyways, I talk more about this in the previous chapter. 

(2) Health

So second, is Health. 

This one is mind blowing. 

Health! 

No shit. Obviously. Health? Of course. 

We are barely taught about Health in School.

And just the everyday living of life has so many things that compromise Health, so this makes fixing it more difficult. 

But I think we’re improving to be honest. It was way worse before.

So by health, I mean Mental, Physical, and Spiritual Health. 

(i) First, Mental

From all of the people I’ve met, 

I’ve seen two correlations:

• The stronger their mind, the more they’ve achieved. 

• The healthier their mind, the happier they are. 

School is when your mental health is really exposed the most, and it seems to be getting worse. 

And the mind is still so fragile 

So it’s crucial to heal it, and continuously train it. 

What trains the mind best? 

- A huge part of my mind’s development was through mindfulness. 

Each time I sat down for a meditation practice or every yoga session, that … gave me …. another rep. 

- Reading & writing alongside...helped me learn quicker and train my brain. 

- Mentorship also provided me access to more tools. All you have to do is ask for it, if no, ask better next time 

- And what did the most, was constantly challenging my comfort zone. 

Every second in a discomfort state, I grew. 

It gave my brain more proof of what’s true. 

Then reflecting and learning from the failures, seeing the lessons more clearly, and taking them in. 

Now what heals the mind the best? 

From an external view, talking to people and finding a support system of loved ones. 

From an internal point of view, self-care. 

Which takes us to the body next, Physical Health

(ii) Physical Health

This is just a matter of getting your sleep, diet, and fitness in check. 

And actually prioritizing it. 

Very difficult. 

It’s very difficult, because:

• There are too many distractions that affect our sleep,

• We’ve mostly been exposed to worse foods over time,

• And it’s just so easy to fall out of fitness schedules. 

All I can do is share what helped me improve, because I’m still forever going to be challenging myself on these three things. 

The important thing is that it’s way more aware, and simply better than it was a few years ago. 

For Sleep, 

All of the info is online right. 

Around 5 years ago I started Googling what improved sleep. 

And over the next 2 years or so, just tried a bunch of things. 

Dark room, Cold Room, No Phone an hour before bed, Blue light glass, Magnesium, 

• The most important thing was getting blue light blocking glasses, and not using my phone an hour before bed. Or even an hour after I wake up. 

• Next, it was just about making one change at a time. Until it’s settled. And repeating 

Because doing too much at once never works. 

For Diet, 

This is the hardest. Food is just too good. And we’re use to them if we grew up with them. 

• But the most important thing for me was to find what I was reactive to, and just cut out processed food. As much as possible 

• I tried so many different diets, but a Balanced diet is what works the best. 

Of course more whole foods, more vegetables, but having some balance with junk. 

For Exercise, 

I just tried a lot of different things, and found what I liked the most. 

• My best advice is find the type of exercise best for you. 

Sports, Gardening, Gym, Dance Yoga 

And the last aspect of Health, is Spiritual. 

(iii) Spiritual

Everyone  Has their own Has their own Lifelong journey to discovering their souls, if they want to. 

But there were 2 ways that helped me discover this more. 

It was practicing Gratitude, and Giving. 

• Gratitude: 

  • The more I practiced gratitude, the happier I was. 

  • It just felt like nothing was happening at the start and it was forced, but over time, the lens started to develop itself. 

  • I started with the classic, write 3 things you’re grateful for, and it actually felt nice. 

  • Then it was conversations with other people, 

  • Then throughout my days randomly 

  • But the more I did it, the more natural it became. 

  • It’s the only way we can develop this appreciation for the things we have. 

• Giving: 

  • Giving, just feels good. 

  • And it’s genuinely warming for the soul. 

  • And this includes giving people time, respect, space to be heard

  • It’s naturally human. 

(3) Emotional Intelligence

Now, the last skill, is Emotional Intelligence. 

I’m very glad there are more people talking about kindness, empathy, and emotional intelligence. 

At the end of the day, this is what matters the most

We are 7 billion people living in the world right now, and for most of humanity, we have just been killing each other.  

Now is finally the time to stop, be nice, and help each other out.

Of course is it going to take a loooot to change something that’s been building up for so long, but it starts with 1 person at a time, it starts with you, it starts with today, or as soon as possible 

Because If you are listening to this, then you are privileged. 

You have a phone, a laptop, and shelter. 

You have a duty to be kind to others and develop emotional intelligence along the way. 

So to actually develop it 

• Self-Awareness and Mindfulness are the first step, because only then you can be aware of how you affect other people, and how they affect you. 

After developing that, it was a 3 step process for me.

In the same order as this chapter:

• So first, Taking care of myself: So training my mind, body and soul. 

  • Because this is what gave me the space to understand things deeper. 

• Second, Taking care of my family members: By putting my ego aside, and helping them, which is extremely hard, but the most important thing to do 

  • Because the people closest to you are who you can learn the most from. 

• And last, following my purpose and giving back to other people

  • Because putting myself on this path, I’m constantly developing myself. And this helps me understand others better. 

And this is what developed emotional intelligence 

And I wont say developed it

It just started to develop it

Just like all of the things here, with Self-Awareness, Health and Emotional Intelligence, I feel liked Im just scratching the surface of things 

But they allowed me to learn quicker, and live a happier life