10 Highly Influential Things I Do Every Single Day [Part 2]

Hey Steemian friends this is @axios here with another episode!

If you're here because you love reading, watching, and supporting great Steemit content then I would love it if you took the time to watch the short and sweet Steemit videos that I made just for you (you'll see them below).

I'm constantly putting myself out there in ridiculous ways but I like to play, entertain, and have fun so it's very much worth it ;-)

5 More Highly Influential Things!

Yesterday I shared with y'all my first five influential habits and activities that I perform each and every day.

We talked about the power of webcam journaling and how it helped me overcome extreme levels of depression.

I also shared the importance of water and movement in your day to day life and how it can profoundly impact your mind and body in a crazy amount of ways.

Lastly we brought up the importance of tracking your daily habits and I shared with you some simple and effective ways to track your progress here on Steemit if you're a content creator.

All of that is linked here, but for now - lets move on to the final five!

6. Cold Showers

Did you know that taking a cold shower is extraordinarily beneficial to your health?

I never knew this until just a few weeks ago!

And ever since I've started doing it this year, it has significantly improved my mornings.

Here's a few quick health benefits for you:

Improves Circulation: "Cold water causes your blood to move to your organs to keep them warm. Warm water reverses the effect by causing the blood to move towards the surface of the skin." (Source)
Relieves depression: "Research at the Department of Radiation Oncology at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine indicates that short cold showers may stimulate the brain’s “blue spot”– the brain’s primary source of noradrenaline — a chemical that could help mitigate depression." (Source)
Strengthens immunity: "According to a study done in 1993 by the Thrombosis Research Institute in England, individuals who took daily cold showers saw an increase in the number of virus fighting white blood cells compared to individuals who took hot showers." (Source)

And now...

My Steemit Exclusive Sketch!

I created this truly ridiculous video just for you...

Will you donate just a minute your time to watch me demonstrate the power of a cold shower?

You're awesome :)

7. Freestyle Rap (Free Association)

I'm a big fan of improvising everything.

I think the reason for that is because over the past three years I've been diving into the realms of improv theater.

Through this practice, I've noticed my cognition and creativity skyrocket.

I believe that the reason for this has a lot to do with association.

When we challenge our mind to associate ideas, we create a stronger and more efficient neural network that ultimately serves us when we are utilizing our brain for mental and emotional processing.

In my opinion, improvised thought is more like a decentralized form of thinking.

It's nonlinear and there's no central point of thought, the network provides the way as you validate the thoughts that pop into your mind.

Now there's a bunch of ways to improvise: theater, music, dance, gaming, sports... you can improvise just about anything.

In this post, I'm going to show you how I improvise words with a quick and fun freestyle rap.

I must warn you though, I'm by no means a hip hop artist...

But I am silly and weird and sometimes those go hand in hand with rapping.

So without further ado...

My Steemit Freestyle

8. Creating From The Soul

This is a big one.

It's a daily habit that has changed the course of my life in many ways.

I used to live in an institutionalized reality...

High school, under-gradaute, graduate school...

None of these educative systems ever encrouaged me to create!

And due to this lack of creative inspiration, I started to die inside.

I became so detached from who I was, didn't like myself at all, and certainly couldn't relate with anyone around me.

But then I did something very simple.

I started creating things...

Every day, I would just create something.

I even started a facebook group called Create Every Day which ended up being a hit.

I found out that I wasn't the only one who also craved to express and share my creative abilities.

In my opinion, it's too easy to spend all your time watching netflix or wasting your life away ingesting facebook feeds.

Thanks to Steemit, we now have an alternative social platform that promotes and encourages creativity.

Creativity is what feeds the soul!

And through it, you can discover very important and useful aspects of your soul...

And sometimes, these aspects are what support your very existence!

You don't need to do much at all.

Just focus on creating for a little bit every single day.

10 minutes is enough.

I say that because those 10 minutes will soon turn into 10 hours.

Creativity is contagious!

Speaking of that...

Here's a few older videos of mine where I did just that.

These are some of my favorite personal and collaboraitve creations.

Very much soul-based stuff right here :)

LaunchR Promo

This was a project that I did with a bunch of my improv friends.

It was going to be the trailer for a sitcom about a startup company that literally existed on a playground.

Their function as a company would always be over-generalized, using lots of buzz words to cover up the fact that they actually did nothing lol.

How I Wake Up

This was a short skit I did about how the things in my house actively and collaboratively participate to get my ass up each and every morning.

9. Asking Questions

Questions are extremely important and useful things.

I try to ask myself questions every day, especially ones that lead my mind in the direction I want to go.

Whenever I'm feeling stuck, lost, fatigued, or afraid, I'll usually ask my mind a question in order to look for a new answer that maybe I haven't been thinking of.

Here are my top three questions that I love to ask myself when the time calls:

When I really want to be productive but I'm being a bit sluggish in the moment I will ask myself this:

If I could feel productive and fulfilled by the end of today, what would I have done?

When I want to make a productive change in my life I will ask myself this:

What decision could I make right now, that would wonderfully and profoundly transform my life?

When I feel like there's no way out of a situation and I am not sure what to do I will ask myself this:

If a miracle happened, what would that be like?

10. Gratitude

Last, and most definitely not least, is by far the most influential daily habit that I have.

This practice has single-handedly changed my life for the better.

It is a major part of my day to day existence and without it, I would surely not be where I am at today.

Simply put: I am constantly expressing gratitude for my life.

Each and every day, multiple times a day I connect with what I am grateful for.

I will especially do this during the times when I feel the worst as it allows me to immediately kill those negative thought patterns and replace them with productive and positive ones.

I'm not talking about ignoring or denying your reality - I'm talking about choosing to NOT live in an illusion of your own creation.

In the end, we always have a choice as to how we perceive the world around us.

And I will tell you this: it's A LOT easier to operate in this world when you are seeing it through a lens of appreciation.

That is the simplest and realest truth I can ever give you.

So choose to find gratitude every single day.

It only takes one mere moment to connect to one or two things that you are grateful for.

By doing so, you'll notice an immediate shift within yourself.

It's truly a powerful practice!

Those Are My Top 10!

I hope you've enjoyed this list and if you didn't read the first five...

Check them all out here!

What were your favorite ones out of these five?

Are there any things that you do on a daily basis that are worth sharing?

Let me know in the comments below!

Also! I am on discord now so feel free to stop by and say hi! @axios#6379

Sending my joy & love...

~ @axios

Thanks For Stopping By :)

Interested in becoming the greatest version of yourself?

Looking for practical tips and strategies to get you there? I produce daily, high-quality content within the realms of empowered psychology. If you're looking for Steemit content that will give you that psycho-spiritual edge, then follow the @axios channel today. You deserve to be your very best!