10 Lifehacks Schools Couldn’t Teach Me.

But learning them by myself with intention and applying them with passion bettered my Life.

Following the wisdom of Confucius, I’ve learned that hearing leads to forgetting, seeing to remembering, but doing brings understanding.

Completing years of formal education with diligence was intellectually stimulating and gave me a valuable foundation to experiment safely, but it hardly gave me helpful life skills that I could immediately use and benefit from.

However, informal learning abilities gave me unique tools that I immediately used and applied to my life. These remarkable tools greatly impacted my health, well-being, creativity, and productivity.

Having a strong interest in the body and mind connection, I developed experimental systems with distinctive tools leveraging scientific breakthroughs during my informal learning sessions conducting experimentations by emulating the experiences of successful people.

We don’t learn to walk by following our parents' rules even though they might help a bit. We learn to walk by doing, falling over and over again, and standing up with hope and passion.

Gaining these life skills, which I introduce in this post, requires reviewing them with an open mind, value recognition, acceptance, and gradual experimentation with persistance by taking calculated risks.

Some of these skills are physical, some mental, and some both. However, as the body and mind are connected (psychosomatic), they can impact both physical and mental well-being.

Gaining and using these skills worked well for me and many others I met. However, they might not work for everyone for various reasons.

As these unique and powerful lifehacks contributed to transforming my life, I briefly introduce them hoping they might be helpful to some people, especially the younger generation who might not know their values yet and might experiment with them safely.

As these topics are comprehensive, I only focus on the critical aspects to articulate their values and link to previous articles which cover the details.

Here are ten life-changing self-taught hacks.

1 — Working and Living in a Flow State

I start with this item as it tremendously affects managing my stress, increasing creativity and productivity, and improving my health and overall well-being. It is not a new-age idea.

A flow state is a mindfulness practice giving us an altered state of mind. I see the flow state as an essential tool for creativity, productivity, health improvement, happiness, and overall well-being, as I have experienced it for three decades.

The flow state changes the content of our consciousness at a specific time to an optimally functioning mental and physical performance.

A flow state is a psychological concept that can be practiced by following mindfulness principles such as living in the moment, clearing mental clutter, self-compassion, focusing, paying attention to one thing at a time, and smoothly switching tasks.

As neurotransmitters and hormones work in a more balanced way in the flow state, the body and the brain might experience less oxidative stress lowering inflammation.

I achieved the flow state by improving my cognitive skills and emotional maturity. I find the flow state ideal for creating desired results with less time and effort, balancing my energies, and reducing stress while working or studying.

2 — Thinking and Responding on My Feet

I grew up nervous at school and feared being judged by peers and teachers. Many of us have this natural discomfort created by our primitive brains.

However, there are practical ways to handle this disturbing pressure and shine like a star. The secret is learning how to think on your feet.

Thinking on our feet refers to making quick decisions, solving problems under pressure despite judgments, and responding gracefully to leave positive impressions on your audience.

This skill can help you handle unexpected challenges easily, thrive in high-pressure situations with joy, master the art of crisis management, and give confidence to your audience.

This vital skill can be used in many situations or events. I provided six practical steps to guide you to become a pro at thinking on your feet based on my decades of experience. You can customize the approaches.

By learning, customizing, and practicing these tips, you might learn to think and respond on your feet with ease, handle any impromptu speaking situation with poise and confidence, and make an everlasting impact on your audience.

Skill building will take time and effort, but once you create new neural networks and consistently rewire your brain and mind, it will get easier and become second nature.

3 — Meditation and Mindfulness Practices

I learned nothing about meditation during my formal education. Years later, I understood its value. Therefore, I made meditation a hobby. Nowadays, I meditate three times a day.

I see meditation as necessary as food and water in my life. After practicing meditation for decades, I haven’t seen any side effects.

Meditation helped me balance my hormones and neurotransmitters. Besides, regulating my emotions by meditating regularly increased my creativity and productivity and improved my relationships.

I use meditation in my work for productivity. It helps me work in the flow state quickly. In addition, I use meditation as a creativity tool, as reflected in this story titled How I Perceive the 50th Century.

In addition, meditation and mindfulness practices are part of my mental health kit. I use these practices for short-term and long-term health and well-being benefits.

4 — Time Restricted Eating and Long-Term Fasting

I had no clue about the value of time-restricted eating at school. I started time-restricted eating by skipping a meal decades ago. Not eating breakfast brought me benefits. I documented my experience of skipping meals in a previous article.

Interestingly, when I skipped another meal (lunch) later, I improved my health from multiple angles. In a previous story, I documented my experience and perspectives on the one-meal-a-day plan.

My dietary regimen contributed to making time-restricted eating sustainable. Consuming bioavailable proteins and healthy fats via a keto-carnivore diet made it effortless. In addition, this unique diet made my body leptin-sensitive preventing unnecessary hunger.

Refraining from refined carbs and replacing them with healthy fats gave me an excellent blood glucose profile and made my body fat-adapted and insulin sensitive. In addition, this approach allowed me to enter ketosis quickly and maintain it sustainably.

Before a well-formulated keto diet, it was not easy for me to fast. I felt hungry frequently and had to eat multiple snacks daily. Eating too often, like six times a day, put my body in a metabolically disadvantaged position.

Eating just one nutrition meal a day made the just adverse effects putting me in a metabolically advantaged position. Time-restricted eating also increased my stamina and allowed me to try occasional long-term fasting.

5 — Adversity Quotient, Gratitude, and Meaningful Collaboration

During my undergraduate studies, I did not know about the adversity quotient (AQ) concept. Later, during my post-graduate studies, I researched the behavior of exceptional and distinguished leaders.

When I learned the AQ concept later, I noticed that these leaders had a high adversity quotient. They rewired their mind to deal with setbacks. I learned a lot from their thinking patterns and optimistic behaviors.

AQ refers to gaining abilities to tolerate physical, mental, and emotional obstacles and setbacks and systematically convert them into opportunities. The higher the AQ, the better we can relate to others and adapt to our environment. AQ can make us more resilient in life.

Studies indicate that the higher the AQ, the more successful the learners are. Increasing my AQ helped me become more grateful.

Gratitude is a valuable feeling nourishing the brain. Its effects on the brain are noticeable. Thus, mental health professionals suggest gratitude journals as a therapeutic tool.

When you feel gratitude, the body and the brain work in a better balance. As a result, you don’t feel anger, jealousy, guilt, boredom, fear, or anxiety when grateful. So you can count your blessings to cultivate gratitude.

Despite setbacks in life, I record my gratitude daily via expressive writing. I also show my gratitude to others, improving my relationship with them. The more I meaningfully collaborate, the more benefits I gain.

6 — Using Neurobics and Creating a Mind-Gymn

Neurobic exercises are activities that challenge the brain and stimulate the development of new neural connections. Neurobic activities are part of my daily mind gym, which I developed after school.

The critical premise of neurobics is to stimulate various brain regions, break established patterns, and create new routines by using the five senses in new and unpredictable ways.

A fundamental aspect of neurobics is stimulating the brain through various activities and allowing it to rest and recover by getting sufficient sleep and relaxation for growth and adaption.

As you design neurobic exercises, it is vital to consider three key factors: learning new concepts, generating new ideas, and acquiring new skills.

Practicing neurobic activities can improve creativity and productivity by enhancing focus, attention, working memory, procedural memory, task-switching, and problem-solving abilities.

Research indicates that we can develop neural connections at any age and maintain them with mental and physical practices giving us better cognitive health and performance. As I explained in a previous article, these processes are called neurogenesis and neuroplasticity in science.

Neurogenesis starts before we are born and continues until we die. So, our brains can grow and shrink. To maintain growth, we might intentionally use various activities stimulating different brain regions.

In a recent story, I introduced various brain regions responsible for different senses and sensations with multiple practical tips.

7 — Thermogenesis — The Power of Cold and Heat

I learned about the concept of thermogenesis in science classes at school but had no idea of its value on our health and well-being.

Regular use of cold and heat therapy for decades brought me many benefits. The most noticeable ones were improving sleep, reducing stress, lowering inflammation, strengthening the immune system, and enhancing mood.

Replacing coffee with cold showers was an innovative solution for my health and vitality. Cold exposure has a noticeable hormonal effect on the body, improving physical and mental health.

In addition, cold showers mixed with hot ones can improve sleep quality, reduce stress, and lower inflammation, supporting the body and the brain.

I also leveraged heat therapy using dry saunas and steam baths. They brought many benefits, as I explained in this article.

8 — Emotional Mastery and Cognitive Flexibility

I hid my emotions in school and feared expressing them due to perceptive judgments. Gratefully, in later years, some mentors taught me how to express my emotions using valuable tools. Setting healthy boundaries helped. Emotional self-defense is essential for survival.

During this learning process, one of the crucial lessons in my life was to slow down to regulate my emotions. I suffered from ambition and constant agitation toward perceived success. When I slowed down, I became more creative and productive.

Cognitive flexibility is the ability to adjust our thinking when facing multiple variables in an event or situation. Observing, understanding, and assessing our thoughts is critical before they turn into unpleasant emotions. Having a flexible mind without regulating emotions is not feasible.

I gained cognitive flexibility by acknowledging my thoughts and feelings without suppressing them. Staying optimistic and keeping hope with an open mind increased my cognitive flexibility, which required emotional regulation.

By achieving cognitive flexibility and emotional maturity, I got a chance to work and live in a flow state, bringing serenity, calmness, bliss, and joy to my life. I documented my experience in an article titled Increase Cognitive Flexibility and Emotional Maturity with Five Habits.

9 — Replacing Unpleasant Feelings with Pleasant Ones

I replaced several unpleasant feelings with pleasant ones, but in this section, I will give two examples, changing envy and boredom, which contributed to my emotional mastery.

In my younger years, I used to envy people who were more successful than me. When I saw their outstanding results, I used to feel an entanglement in my stomach even though I enjoyed and appreciated their outcomes.

However, when I learned to convert envy to admiration, I felt a tremendous liberation in my psychological well-being. Envy is a natural emotion that anyone can feel. Yet, we can acknowledge this emotion, feel its effects for a short while, and quickly tap into our cognitive system to make a quick assessment and intend to create admiration.

In my school years, I found boredom challenging, unpleasant, and risky emotion. I lost interest in mundane things when I got bored. My homework, chores, and even hobbies looked dull.

I also experienced anhedonia for a short while when I got extremely bored. During that period, boredom caused self-sabotaging behavior. I looked for instant gratification to find an escape from the effects of this unpleasant feeling.

After leveraging the paradoxical power of boredom, I became more creative, productive, and happier. I don’t see boredom as dull and destructive emotion anymore. After using a simple approach for many years, I no longer allow boredom to upset me.

When boredom enters my consciousness nowadays, it takes me minutes to neutralize it and turn it into pleasant emotions intentionally. I also watch for excessive excitement, which triggers the punishment pathways in the brain.

10 — Ditching Perfection But Embracing Excellence

This one was the most significant mindset I applied to my life. I suffered from a perfection problem in my younger years as it was touted as an essential value in the school. I used to strive for an A+ to satisfy myself.

Focusing on perfection caused me to experience analysis paralysis affecting my creativity and productivity. So I decided to choose imperfection as my perfection to do less and achieve more.

Imperfection does not mean producing unorganized results. Instead, I define imperfection as striving for excellence. I achieved this goal by growing gradually and making incremental progress.

Pragmatic planning helped me to achieve excellence. Without having a plan, starting any task was daunting. Creating a plan was crucial for addressing procrastination. Pragmatic planning rewired my brain for better problem-solving.

Therefore, I’m not too stringent about creating my plans. I just do a quick mental picture of the job and jot down the major parts on my task list. Then, I mature the plan by adding or subtracting details while doing the task, which helps me achieve excellence.

Starting is the most challenging part of any project. The brain constantly tries to find ways to reserve energy, preventing us from starting work. The critical point is rewarding the brain by completing small tasks from the plan that lead to excellence with incremental progress.

Conclusions and Takeaways

You can improve your physical and cognitive capabilities by gaining healthy lifestyle habits by experimenting gradually and safely with fallback positions. Besides, seeking help when needed and leveraging the experiences of others can be invaluable.

By learning from others and gaining their support, you also need to take personal responsibility to improve your mental capabilities, which can contribute to your physical and psychological health.

As we are all unique, these lifehacks working for me might not work for you. You might also not be able to develop a structured and rigorous informal learning system. However, some of these approaches might give you ideas to customize them for your needs.

The critical points are having a growth mindset with an optimistic outlook on life, recognizing the values of lifehacks, accepting your strengths and weaknesses, and passionately experimenting with hard work by taking calculated risks.

As a new reader, you might check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting on my reviews, observations, and decades of sensible experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

As a new reader, please check my holistic health and well-being stories reflecting my reviews, observations, and decades of experiments optimizing my hormones and neurotransmitters. I write about health as it matters. I believe health is all about homeostasis.

ALS, Metabolic Syndrome, Type II Diabetes, Fatty Liver Disease, Heart Disease, Strokes, Obesity, Liver Cancer, Autoimmune Disorders, Homocysteine, Lungs Health, Pancreas Health, Kidneys Health, NCDs, Infectious Diseases, Brain Health, Dementia, Depression, Brain Atrophy, Neonatal Disorders, Skin Health, Dental Health, Bone Health, Leaky Gut, Leaky Brain, Brain Fog, Chronic Inflammation, Insulin Resistance, Elevated Cortisol, Leptin Resistance, Anabolic Resistance, Cholesterol, High Triglycerides, Metabolic Disorders, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Thyroid Disorders, Anemia, Dysautonomia, cardiac output, and urinary track disorders.

I also wrote about valuable nutrients. Here are the links for easy access:

Lutein/Zeaxanthin, Phosphatidylserine, Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, zinc, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine, and other nutrients.

Disclaimer: My posts do not include professional or health advice. I only document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives to provide information and create awareness.

As part of my creative non-fiction writing goals, I’d like to share a few stories that might warm our hearts with a bit of humor into weighty topics.

Sample Humorous Stories

Based on my writing experience and observations, I documented findings and strategies that might help you amplify your voice, engage your audience, and achieve your desired outcomes in your writing journey.

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