What is a daily habit you try to practice?

Meditation – using the Calm app. Almost without fail, I wake up, make my coffee and then put my headphones on and unroll the yoga mat to lay down and stretch while meditation. The app also has four check-in questions: 1) one related to the focus of the meditation, 2) how you are feeling, 3) how you slept, and 4) three things for which you are grateful. I went four months without doing the morning meditation and stretches. I was more keyed-up about things, less (I hate to say it) calm and less self-aware.

I also practice the daily habit of laughter. Laughing has such good mental health benefits – stress relief, the release of endorphins, relaxation, use of abdominal muscles, relationship building, communication – all of these are necessary to be a well-rounded person. I generally end up laughing at something I’ve said, done or thought versus laughing at someone else which is NOT funny.

Learning is an ongoing journey to my way of thinking. You never stop learning unless you’re dead, and even then as your spirit moves on to the next level, you’re probably still learning what lies beyond this thing we call life. I’m a voracious reader – I like asking questions, doing research, looking up words I don’t know. I like asking questions of others, often complete strangers: How do you . . . . ? Where do you . . .? Where are you from? Have you always lived here? I tend to stick with polite subjects, steering away from sex, religion and politics. Miss Manners would be so proud of me.