How I Am Becoming The Best Version of Myself

Originally I was going to title this article, “My Ultimate Glow Up Guide,” but becoming the best version of yourself is so much more than that. Beyond your hair, your make-up, how tan you are, or how many tattoos you have, there is someone who is much more than what she appears to be on the outside. We all have a body, yes, but we are a soul. We don’t have a soul–we are a soul, we have a body. If you want to become the best version of yourself, you have to work on your soul first. The energy you give off and how you treat others will always mean so much more than if your roots are showing or if your nails aren’t done. 

Take this TikTok video I saw for example,

“I’m friends with her because she’s skinny.

We hang out because she has clear skin.

I like her because of her makeup.

Said no one ever.” 

This video really resonated with me because for the last few months before watching this video, I became very self-critical and obsessed with the way I looked. I realize now that people don’t love me because of how I look, but because of the energy I bring to a room and who I am as a person, not a body.

So, today I have gathered some of my ideas and things that have worked for me, to become a better version of myself. 

A Good Morning Routine

Your morning routine sets the foundation for the rest of your day, so it’s important that it’s a good one. In a YouTube Video published by “After Skool,” Dr. Andrew Huberman, a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine, summarized a good morning routine as the following:

Practice #1: Get natural light in your eyes within 1 hour of waking up (the sooner the better). This is because your cortisol has a 24-hour cycle and you want that cortisol boost to happen as early in the day as possible. He says it starts your day off as it sets a level of alertness, focus, and mood. Starting that rhythm later in the day by staying inside with no sunlight or with artificial light can push that cycle back further in the day, which can be a sign of depression, anxiety, and trouble falling asleep. It sends a wake-up call to your body and starts a timer in your brain for melatonin release around 16 hours later. He also mentions that just using artificial light or electronic light will not work nearly as well for this method as many more photons are needed for this process, which artificial and electronic light cannot present. 

Practice #2: Avoid drinking caffeine 60 to 90min after you wake up. Caffeine blocks adenosine (a sleepy neurotransmitter), making you feel awake, but once the caffeine wears off, you experience that afternoon crash. Huberman suggests waiting this 60-90 minutes after you wake up to wait for the adenosine to clear out, resulting in no afternoon crash. 

Practice #3: Exercise in the morning. Exercise also clears out adenosine, making us feel more awake during the morning. 

Practice #4: Keep the room cool at night. During sleep, your body temperature decreases 1-3 degrees below your maximum temperature, meaning a cool room at night is important for good sleep.

Practice #5: Cold showers/cold plunge in the morning. During sleep, your body temperature is cooler and when you are awake, it is warmer, so following these standards, a good way to wake yourself up is with a cold shower/cold plunge as the cold water forces your core body temperature up. It also causes a shock in your brain by epinephrine (adrenaline), waking your brain up. 

He concludes the video by stating, “The amount of pleasure (from dopamine) that you eventually experience is directly related to how much pain you experience.” This means that because we experience this pain in the morning (getting out of bed, exercising, cold water, etc.), it will create more pleasure in our day-to-day life.

I’ve been trying out Huberman’s methods recently and I have been feeling much more awake in the morning and throughout the day. This is a great place to start if you are looking to shift towards a more productive and fulfilling lifestyle. 

Set Priorities and Boundaries

Setting priorities and boundaries is something that I’ve always struggled with. I constantly want to be there for everyone and never put myself first, but the truth is, would the best version of yourself let others walk all over you? No. Would the best version of yourself not prioritize herself? Also no. 

Setting priorities is super important when it comes to how you want to spend your time and with whom. “The grass is greener where you water it,” is something that I’ve seen as true in my life. If I focus on someone else, guess where all that time and energy is going? Right to them. If I focus on my studies and academics, my grades go up. If I focus on the gym, I start spending 2-3 hours just in the gym most days. Imagine it as a skill, what you focus on is what is going to grow, so make sure you are prioritizing the right things while also setting time to focus on yourself and relax as well. 

Setting boundaries is also so important. Setting boundaries with others makes you well respected, not mean. For me, setting boundaries, specifically in my relationships with others has helped my mental health and improved my self-esteem exponentially.

Religion and Spirituality

Honestly, I was hesitant to put this in here because the idea of religion and spirituality can come with a lot of backlash. But, from my experience, believing in a higher power has helped me through some of the hardest times in my life. So, I encourage you, readers, to try and connect to something bigger than yourself, whether that be Christianity, Buddhism, or another spirituality or religion. An article by the National Alliance on Mental Health, titled “The Mental Health Benefits of Religion & Spirituality,” summarized the benefits of religion and spirituality as:

• Creates a sense of belonging to the world.
• Helps people cope with difficult situations.
• Provides structure, regularity, and predictability.
• Often teaches compassion, forgiveness, and gratitude.
• Focuses on personal growth.
• Encourages self-reflection.
• Leads meaningful philosophy.

My religion, Christianity, has helped me not just overcome many internal flaws but also helped me take care of myself better which has definitely created a positive shift in my life and appearance, leading back to the beginning of my rant that if you clean the inside, the outside will become beautiful too. 

Thank you all for reading, I hope you all have a great start to your fall!

xoxo,

Izzy

• beauty
• college
• mental health