It’s crucial to look after our mental health. I felt this more than ever in the last two years of my PhD. Long hours of work, high stress, uncertainty and pressure all were weighing on me. Through podcasts and some other sources I landed on two tools that saved my mind from blowing up! Meditation and Stoicism!
I started meditation with the help of a great App called Headspace, although these days I don’t practice meditation daily, I can tell that it was quite helpful and would give a a level of clarity and calmness that I could never get.
On the other hand by learning about Stoic philosophy and reading resources by people such as Marcus Aurelius and Seneca. I basically learned to for the most part not give a fuck about a lot things! Basically one of the learnings from Stoicism is that we should not occupy our minds with affairs that we cannot control, if something is out of your control there’s no point in worrying about them. This simple fact by itself changed my life, although it’s not always easy to follow this advice but still it’s been quite helpful. These days I have started to do Yoga on a daily basis, and I’m hoping to bring myself to do daily meditation as well. To wrap up, here’s my life philosophy, nothing is more important that my well-being and I do what I can to accommodate my needs and do the least amount of work that negatively affects my mental health.