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Ask HN: What lifehacks actually changed your life?

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41–50 of 73 posts

Re: Ask HN: What lifehacks actually changed your life?

#41
post #37

There are a couple to be honest. 1. Intermittent Fasting. I had gained a lot of weight after an accident. It helped me get back into shape. I was always a very active person. So I never had to watch what I eat but late twenties and my injury forced me to watch I eat. I'd often feel bloated, heavy, and tired. Fasting regularly for at least 18 hours was something I had to work on but it's just second nature to me now.…

This!!Right to the point. The only thing I can add is make use of a habbit track app, as I usually struggle to keep them. Most are simple hobbies I like to do. But one must be carefull not to fill up to much the daily life. A lot of discussion son HN about this.

Re: Ask HN: What lifehacks actually changed your life?

#42
What changed my life?

- Question authority, always ; when in doubt, don't work for client/boss

- Steal from the rich: take all you can from the supermarkets, and redistribute it

- Cook good stuff ; it's good for motivation

- Take time away from computers to be human with other humans (i swear i'm not AI), but not just 24h, more like a few weeks

- Acknowledge we're all fallible and deserve some slack: prepare for failure so you can build cool things without drama

Re: Ask HN: What lifehacks actually changed your life?

#43
post #19

Last year, I started meditating daily (usually only 10-20 minutes, sometimes twice). 3-4 months into the practice, I am still a n00b but have honestly told a couple friends already that this was one of the most life-transformative things I have intentionally done, except maybe for moving to Japan at age 19 (where I ended up mostly sticking, for decades now). I really think YMMV on this one. I personally had one of th…

Please tell us how you do the walking meditation. It sounds great and I’d love to try it.

Well, I started with the guided walking meditation in the app I use (Waking Up). It has 3 pre-recorded coaching sessions for walking. I did the longest one which is for walking outside in public.

I wished it had more, but it only had that one. So I bought this other app, called “Walking Meditations” (on iOS), and it basically just has 3 guided walking meditation sessions.

I also have “Ten Percent Happier” so I did that app’s walking meditation.

After trying all these guided walking meditations a couple times each, I started trying to do it on my own, without any guidance/coaching.

That works, but I personally still do better with a guided session. (That is to say, when I have an audio guide, I tend to notice more quickly when I get lost in thought, and observe the thought and let it pass, then return focus to the object of meditation, whether that is my breath, body sensations, environmental sounds, etc. If left to my won devices, after a while I still tend to get lost in thought for several minutes before realizing it.)

So then I realized, hey, I can do the regular guided meditations while walking. The guide does usually say something like “OK, take your seat. Close your eyes, and bring your attention to the sounds around you | your breath | the weight of your body in space.” I just ignore the non-applicable parts, or substitute something applicable.

If walking outside, I don’t close my eyes. Instead of bringing my awareness to the feeling of my body in the chair, I bring it to the feeling of my feet hitting the pavement, my legs supporting my body.

But the rest of the coached meditation generally works fine. The commentary in these sessions generally consists of long pauses with gentle reminders and hints, to softly note your in/out breaths, become aware of sounds or sensations, or note when you become lost in thought and return your focus to the object of meditation.

I believe with more practice I will likely just do it without coaching, but for now I like it with the coaching. I also made a habit of doing morning meditations standing on my roof, eyes shut usually, but facing the sun. That works great, too.

Especially great for walking are the guided meditations that have you pay close attention to all the sounds around you. In a city, or in nature, even in a stil and quiet place.

TL;DR - “just do the same meditation, but while walking”

Re: Ask HN: What lifehacks actually changed your life?

#45

Understanding no one cares about how I live my life . Far from being a bad thing, this means I can just live without constantly worrying about how others might perceive me. As long as your not hurting anyone else , just live. We're here for a very short time. Don't waste it on people who never cared

Your response reminds me of the time (3 weeks ago) when I was really really scared of death (I’m only 19) but I was shaking for days thinking about what happens after and what not because time seems like it’s flying now and that’s when I really decided to think about death. Went online and read at least a thousand different posts about death on quora etc.

“We’re here for a very short time”

Re: Ask HN: What lifehacks actually changed your life?

#46

Closest thing to a “hack” which hasn’t actually changed my life but works super well for me was 4-8-7 breathing. Try it when you want to sleep, I rarely get through two or three rounds before drifting off.

I clench my fist and breathe through index finger gap. Its the only way I can do a slow breathing pace. I calm down after a few breaths.

Re: Ask HN: What lifehacks actually changed your life?

#47
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please tell us how you do the walking meditation. It sounds great and I’d love to try it.

Well, I started with the guided walking meditation in the app I use (Waking Up). It has 3 pre-recorded coaching sessions for walking. I did the longest one which is for walking outside in public. I wished it had more, but it only had that one. So I bought this other app, called “Walking Meditations” (on iOS), and it basically just has 3 guided walking meditation sessions. I also have “Ten Percent Happier” so I did th…

I'm 100% trying this once the weather is not -12 celcius :)

Re: Ask HN: What lifehacks actually changed your life?

#48
post #15

The most impactful change in my life ("life hack" if you will) was when I stopped reading/watching/listening to news entirely, and I soon after deactivated my Facebook account. Significantly reduced my stress almost immediately. The truly important news still reach me through friends and colleagues or random chance. The rest, all the useless or depressing stuff is filtered out.

Ah yes, the "ignorance is bliss" approach.
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