For the past year, I’ve been a participant of ACER Integration — an online community and framework created by clinical psychologist Dr Rosalind Watts. The program follows a year-long, nature-based integration cycle. Every new month gives me access to guided visualizations, live sharing circles via Zoom, breathwork sessions and Q&As with some of the most prominent minds and voices in the psychedelic space. The community is not a substitute for therapy and it does not encourage psychedelic use — only a deeper connection to nature, ourselves and each other. ACER stands for Accept, Connect, Embody and Relate. For me it’s been an invaluable space to integrate life experiences alongside deeply compassionate, grounded and like-minded people from all over the world. And as I wrap up my 13-month cycle, I highly recommend anyone feeling called to connect with a community like this to check out the info pack and apply. ACER opens up to new members in October and applications are now being accepted. If you do apply, be sure to mention Recomendo in your application. ACER will offer a discount to Recomendo readers who are accepted into the program. — CD

I took The Five Senses Quiz created by Gretchen Rubin, author of “Life in Five in Senses”  and it identified my most neglected sense as Hearing. I was also given interesting suggestions on how to enhance my “neglected” sense. For starters, I’ve been ditching my AirPods when I walk my dog. I’m not accustomed to quizzes that tell me my shortcomings rather than strengths, but I appreciate becoming aware of my areas of neglect, because it motivates me towards improvement. — CD 

This online collection of motivational videos made by artist Michelle Ellsworth are incredibly intimate and funny and comforting to watch. They offer advice on personal problems and creative struggles and interpersonal relationships. They are unedited and around 2-5 minutes long. It doesn’t seem to be updated and not all the videos load, but it’s worth spending some time on if you need something uplifting. I clicked on a few titles that grabbed me and each one made me smile and made me feel more forgiving toward myself. — CD

In their most recent newsletter, Clearer Thinking put together a list of eleven of the most popular approaches to "happiness" and their techniques. The approaches are: Positive Psychology, Stoicism, Common Sense, Christianity, Insight Meditation, Traditionalism, Introspection, Self-Help Books, Hedonism, Altruism, and Community. I realized I checked off every technique under Introspection (Find a way to look at the world that resonates with you) and Common Sense (Sleep enough) and quite a few under Hedonism (Remember that you get just one life, so you might as well enjoy it). Three approaches that I made up for my own life and that keep me happy are: 1. Investigate my own intentions and make sure they are aligned with the highest good possible. 2. Take naps on the grass with my pets. 3. Find something to celebrate everyday. (Even if it’s just pouring myself a glass of champagne after the work day.) — CD

I’ve been reading Oneness by Rasha and I was really struck by the effectiveness of one of her allegories called The Plate of Life — where you imagine Life as a plate at a buffet table of experiences. Rasha suggests working backwards from the end of your life to now and consider what experiences you choose to put on your plate to create the life you want. I shared the full excerpt here on Twitter, which can be better viewed on a desktop. — CD

I took this mini-quiz to find out if I'm living my life in the "fast lane." The quiz is based on research of how fast pedestrians walk along a 60-foot stretch of pavement in different cities, and how that affects pacing in other aspects of life. Turns out I am somewhere in the middle. I scored a 37. — CD

Rather than making new year’s resolutions, I answered these seven pairs of questions, structured as a “Personal Annual Report” in this downloadable PDF created by Shane Parrish at Farnam Street. For instance, “What can I do this year that will leave me in a better position for next year?” The quick exercise is worth doing once a year.  — KK

This new tool by the Clearer Thinking team helped me discover and build a list of my own guiding principles. Your principles are what guides you when making decisions and if you know what they are, you can have less anxiety surrounding decisions and make them faster. Here are a few questions and principles that influence my decisions:

• Choose life-expanding choices over comfort.

• Ask yourself how this serves your growth.

• Can I accept the consequences of this choice? If I can, that is true freedom.

• What would my fully-actualized self do?

• When in doubt, opt for the natural path over the forced path.

— CD

If you’re not the type to make resolutions for the new year, you might like this list of 27 Life-Changing Micro Habits That Require Only A Few Minutes. Here are some of them: Vow to walk around for two minutes every hour you sit at your desk. Start each workday with five long and deep breaths to calm your mind and get ready for the day ahead. Practice gratitude while you’re in the shower. Write for two minutes in the morning as you drink your coffee. — CD

Talking Points for Life has all the advice you could ever need for all kinds of uncomfortable conversations. Like exact wording on how to decline a request for money (“I’m sorry, I have a personal boundary of not mixing money and friends.”) or techniques on redirecting negative conversations by bridging (“However, the real issue here is…”). There is also a page on “How to encourage someone to answer your question instead of saying, ‘I don’t know’” which is kind of a pet peeve of mine. — CD 

According to this Guardian article, “regular doses of awe may be vital to our wellbeing and make us nicer people.” The article includes a list of different ways to experience the shivery, goosebumpy feeling of awe, including attending live performances by skilled people, watching nature documentaries, and listening to music that gives you the chills. — MF

Dru Riley has put together a list of 100 useful rules for making life more rewarding. — MF

Samples:

• “Read and listen to whatever you’re most interested in.” — We get more out of what interests us. Find something that you enjoy reading instead of struggling through books.

• “IDK = No” — If you’re uncertain, the answer should probably be no.

• “Don’t make them think.” — Make it obvious.

• “Price affects risk.” — If an experiment is cheap, just do it. The more the price goes up, the more you should reconsider.

This list of rules of thumb will help you make better decisions faster. Here are some examples. — MF

• When faced with two paths, choose the path that puts you in the arena. Once you’re in the arena, never take advice from people on the sidelines.

• When choosing between two paths, choose the path that has a larger luck surface area.

• If you have a choice between entering two rooms, choose the room where you’re more likely to be the dumbest one in the room. Once you’re in the room, talk less and listen more. Bad for your ego—great for your growth.

Milan Cvitkovic’s long list of “things you’re allowed to do,” is chock-full of fun and surprising tips and suggestions. Here are a few:

• Write on a post-it note affixed to a greeting card rather than on the greeting card itself, so the recipient can throw away the post-it and reuse your card

• Cold contact people. Yes, even famous people. Just make sure you have something to say.

• Learn how professionals email by reading leaked emails [from Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Sunny Balwani, Mark Zuckerberg, etc.].

— MF

Here are a few favorites from ideopunk’s list of 100 useful tips:

• “Where is the good knife?” If you’re looking for your good X, you have bad Xs. Throw those out.

• Discipline is superior to motivation. The former can be trained, the latter is fleeting. You won’t be able to accomplish great things if you’re only relying on motivation.

• Sturgeon’s law states that 90% of everything is crap. If you dislike poetry, or fine art, or anything, it’s possible you’ve only ever seen the crap. Go looking!

— MF

I love reading lists of ways to improve your life and even more so when they are virtually effortless ways. Here is a list of the Guardian’s 100 ways to slightly improve your life without really trying. My favorite ones are:

22. Laugh shamelessly at your own jokes.

34. Go for a walk without your phone.

55. Learn the names of 10 trees.

60. Drop your shoulders.

78. Always book an extra day off after a holiday.

97. Listen to the albums you loved as a teenager.

— CD

Send your future self a letter. Might be a prediction, a goal, or a letter about something that happened today you dont want to forget. For 20 years Future Me has been forwarding letters into the future for free. You’ll most likely forget you wrote one and getting a note years from now will be a wonderful surprise. Thank you, today you. — KK

Here is a long scroll through milestones in human evolution, sourced from Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, and BBC, and put together by a Professor in Ecology. At the end of the page there is a note of Ages: that rescales the timeline to a calendar year which is really interesting. The Big Bang begins on January 1, the Sun forming on September 1, earliest signs of life appear on September 13, and just 2 hours before the year’s end appears us — humans. — CD

You might not know that we publish a few other newsletters besides Recomendo. One of them is Book Freak. Each issue offers four short pieces of advice found in useful books. Here are two quotes BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits, which is the subject of issue 61. — MF

Before making a decision, ask yourself these two questions

“Will it help you do what you already want to do? Will it help you feel successful? The answers to those questions is freeing because if the change program doesn’t satisfy these two requirements, it’s not worth your time. ”

Form habits through emotion, not repetition

“In my own research, I found that habits can form very quickly, often in just a few days, as long as people have a strong positive emotion connected to the behavior… When I teach people about human behavior, I boil it down to three words to make the point crystal clear: emotions create habits. Not repetition. Not frequency. Not fairy dust. Emotions.”

The Six Spokes Theory, described here as a “strategy for an optimal life” is a great way to draw out a snapshot of your life and see what areas might need more attention. This is also called a Life Pie, which I first read about in The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. You start by drawing a circle and dividing it into 6 slices. Each slice is assigned to an aspect of your life. You then draw a dot on the dividing line to the degree that you feel fulfilled. After connecting the dots, you’ll be able to spot in what areas you are lopsided. I made a short YouTube video outlining my process here. — CD