Deal with It/Buck Up. Some strategies for handling things that are out of your control.

Stuff happens. In the world, quite a lot happens that has no effect on you. Other stuff happens due to your own actions. Some stuff happens that is good for you. But then other stuff happens that is beyond your control and not pleasant at all. In this case, all you can control is your response, and you can respond at a few different levels: feelings, thoughts, words, actions. Here are some strategies for managing yourself at each of these levels.

My Core Message: Sleep-Food-Exercise

I believe that paying attention to sleep, food, and exercise, in that order, is the basis for solving 90% of the problems you may face.

Sleep: Sleep well, sleep enough.

Food: Eat nutritious food, don't overeat. Get veggies and some protein every day.

Exercise: Break a sweat doing exercise a couple times a week. Try to get some movement every day, even if you don't break a sweat. Find something you like to do and keep doing it.


Beyond this, stress management interplays with these factors. Good sleep, good food, and some exercise will help you keep stress and anxiety from taking over your life. Keeping stress and anxiety under control will help you do better with physical maintenance of yourself with sleep, food, and exercise. To that end, that's why I've posted a page about anxiety, and why I also write about organization and adjusting your frame of mind.

Don't Let the Perfect be the Enemy of the Good

In 2004, I had to make a decision. Or at least a plan. I was driving around the US on a road trip. My job had evaporated, and I needed to figure out some new direction. At some point on that trip I landed at a friend's place in Portland, Oregon, and I picked up some used books by Ursula Le Guin at Powell's Books. One of the stories that I read brought up the point that sometimes, when faced with a decision, what matters is not the actual decision, but rather that an action is taken. Inaction, the lack of any decision, becomes itself a sort of prison.

What's Going on Here

So, I've made it a couple weeks in to adding more content to this site, and I think I should attempt to clarify what's going on with this site.

Being of Good Character

Here's a strategy to eliminate a huge source of anxiety from your life.

Being Sick

Having a cold or illness sure is one way to get thrown off of your normal healthy activities.

New Anxiety Page

I've added a new page on strategies for managing anxiety in the links above. My hope is that this can be a helpful reference for you. It's written from the perspective of personal experience.

Keeping stress under control is critical to managing and developing overall health. In a complex, modern world, anxiety is a natural response to complexity, and a major component of mental stress. Mental and physical health are tied together. Reducing stress and anxiety helps promote physical health. Basics of physical health, i.e. good sleep, food, and exercise, are excellent support for managing anxiety.

How to Deal with Feeling Overwhelmed

If you have an active mind and many thoughts, you may frequently run into the feeling of being overwhelmed. I think there are two sources of this feeling. One is from overstimulation, essentially too much input. The other is from having insufficient output... your thoughts need a landing place. Here are some suggestions to deal with the input and output sides of this situation.

Give Yourself Some Structure

When you breathe, you cannot breathe in continuously, you cannot breathe out continuously. You have to alternate. You have to cycle. But you know that after each breath out, you will breathe in. After each inhalation, you will exhale. It's predictable. It's for the most part automatic. For the most part, you don't have to spend your time thinking about breathing, and your mind is freed up to focus on other things. Setting up a daily or weekly routine is like this too.