5 Keys to Living a Good Life

In my new book, The Life Guide for Teens, I provide readers with five keys to a good life, and three important tools to help along their life journey. I explain that while the keys are very helpful for young people, they are applicable throughout life.

5 Keys to a Good Life

Adequate Sleep. Sleep is essential for good health because it allows the body to grow during teen years, to repair itself, and to strengthen the immune system. It also supports brain health by improving memory, mood, and the ability to think.

Tools to help improve sleep include maintaining the same sleep schedule during weekdays and weekends so that the body does not become confused, using the bed only for sleep to create an association between being in bed and falling asleep, creating a comfortable bedroom environment including a comfortable bed and pillow, and turning off electronics an hour before bedtime.

Tools to prevent sleep disturbance include avoiding: exercise or large meals before bedtime, caffeinated beverages late in the day, getting into arguments late in the day, and keeping electronics inside the bedroom that increase the temptation to engage with them in the middle of the night.

Teens typically need 8-10 hours of sleep, while adults need 7-9 hours.

Regular Exercise. Exercise is important for good health because it strengthens the heart, muscles, and bones, improves circulation, and helps maintain a healthy weight. It also boosts mental well-being by reducing stress, enhancing mood, and improving sleep quality.

When exercise is done outdoors in the sunlight, its benefits are augmented by the effects of the sun including increased vitamin D levels that strengthen bones, increased serotonin levels that are thought to boost mood, and helping to improve the sleep-wake cycle.

Children and adolescents should participate in aerobic exercise (which makes their hearts beat faster) for 60 minutes daily and muscle strengthening exercises 3 times weekly. Adults should participate in 150 minutes of moderate-intensify physical activity per week, and muscle strengthening exercises 2 times weekly.

Good Diet. A good, balanced diet is important because it provides the essential nutrients the body needs to function properly, maintain energy, and support growth and repair.

An example of a balanced diet includes a mix of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins (like from chicken, fish, beans, or tofu), and healthy fats (like from nuts, seeds, and olive oil). This variety ensures the body is provided with essential nutrients like vitamins, minerals, fiber, and energy that lead to the best possible health

Active Social Life. An active social life reduces stress, boosts mental well-being, i.e., reducing the risk of anxiety or depression, and helps combat feelings of loneliness and isolation. Strong social connections have been shown to improve immune function, lower the risk of chronic diseases, and thus increase lifespan by promoting a sense of belonging.

Social life can be improved by joining clubs or organizations with interests similar to one’s own, becoming involved in new activities or hobbies, and regularly checking in with old and new friends. Asking others to share their thoughts and feelings and listening carefully to their full response helps build and sustain relationships.

Having a Purpose. Finding a purpose provides direction, motivation, and meaning to life. This helps with goal setting and working toward something fulfilling. It also promotes resilience during challenges, which can enhance mental and physical well-being, and contributes to overall happiness and satisfaction.

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Long-term life purposes often change or are refined over time, and thus it is fine to start out with a simple purpose, such as choosing to be kind and helpful to others.

A sense of purpose can be gained by self-reflection, experimenting with new ideas and activities, observing the work of others, and asking for feedback. Manifestation of one’s purpose is likely to be sustained when it reflects the individual’s values and strengths.

The 5 keys become even more important in later life because studies have shown that their use can lengthen the lifespan. Conversely, failure to adopt these keys can lead to the development of anxiety, irritability, decreased ability to handle stress, and chronic disease including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and a poorly functioning immune system.

3 Tools Along the Journey

Positive Self-Talk. When people talk to themselves, they give their brain directions regarding how it should think, feel, and/or act. A negative message such as, “I can’t do this,” can lead an individual to abandon efforts to overcome a challenge. On the other hand, positive messages such as, “I can do this,” or “I want to be able to do this,” promote resilience and sustained effort that often leads to success.

Almost all negative messages can be reframed in a positive light. It is important that the positive message is completely believable to the individual using it. Otherwise, it may be accompanied by self-doubt that can negate the power of the message. For instance, “I can do this,” may not be fully believable when encountering a new challenge, while “I want to do this,” can be believed fully.

Finally, affirmations such as, “I am going to succeed at doing this,” may be more prone to be disbelieved, because the prediction of success may not always come true.

Self-Regulation of Emotions. Runaway emotions can derail life plans and lead to physical and mental health dysfunction. For instance, anger can lead to aggressive behavior that causes other people to react with animosity. This can create a vicious cycle that can cause physiological changes over a long period of time including elevated blood pressure that can lead to heart disease or even stroke.

Severe anxiety is another emotion that is harmful. As a way of avoiding triggers of their anxiety, overly anxious individuals will reduce their life choices such limiting their participation in new activities outside of the home or social interactions. Thus, they can experience decreased options for exercise, social life, and finding their life purpose, which can lead to deteriorating mental and physical health.

Learning how to regulate emotions is an important life skill that can be accomplished by choosing to undertake calming activities such as a walk in nature, using self-hypnosis, meditation, or listening to quiet music.

Listening to the Inner Self (or Subconscious). Within each of our minds is a large reservoir of knowledge and wisdom that can be tapped at any time as a source of guidance and self-affirmation. Among its many attributes, this reservoir serves as the basis of conscience, dreams, insight, inspiration, and creativity.

Tapping into the inner self is the most important form of self-empowerment. Such self-connection can be achieved by quieting the mind, as described above, posing questions to the inner self, and remaining open to becoming aware of inner thoughts and feelings.

In turn, insights derived from the inner self can help support making the life choices that will help manifest the 5 keys to a good life.

Takeaway

Each person can align themselves with the 5 keys to a good life described in this post. Our society would be much healthier if most of us kept these keys in mind as we make our life choices.

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