What’s de Word with Nicki

Lifestyle tips for young adults

Very often, we as young people live our life on a day to day basis. Sometimes with no serious or realistic planning or regard for life itself. In a recent conversation with one of my more spiritual friends I was told that in order to live a full life one must balance the three elements of his being; mind, body and soul. As my mission for the past 3 years was to change up my life, outlook and understanding of living, quotes like these proved to be quite helpful and channelled my research on holistic living. Often we don’t think of living as a science. Often we don’t think of living at all. But there are a few things that we can all do to ensure that we are taking the most advantage of this life given to us and be satisfied with what we have done with it. Here are a few lifestyle tips for the young (though they can be adapted for any age group) which I have accumulated throughout my journey for change, that I want to share with you, my faithful readers.

1. Keep the physical body healthy.

To begin with, doctors have let it be known that being slim isn’t always an indicator of good health, neither is being fat an indicator of ill health. The aim, therefore of being healthy is not necessarily to be slim. It’s to be healthy and that’s that.  The best way to do that is to balance diet with exercise. Over the past years, I’ve adopted a change in my diet, where I’ve cut down on fast foods, sugars and salt and turned to the more organic side of eating. This has lead me to much research on the ingredients placed in processed foods, forcing me to the conclusion that I am way better off without them. So my advice to you is to be careful of what you put into your system. Packages labelled “Low Fat” may have cut down on fat content but at the same time boosted sugar, which eventually turns into fat anyway. So get familiar with the ingredients in the foods that you buy. Try cutting down on fast foods, cook your own meals, and those of you who can, even try starting your own small garden to supply yourself with items that are overly priced at the market.

Secondly, try incorporating exercise into your life routine. If you’re like me, then you’re not a big fan of exercise. But don’t worry, there are less intense alternatives to sweaty exercise. Joining a class like Karate or starting yoga are just two examples. Remember, without good health all the things that we have planned will have to take a back seat as we will be incapable of doing them. It is therefore, very important to adopt a lifestyle habit that maintains a healthy body.

It would also help to try eliminating bad habits like smoking and drinking large quantities of alcohol on a regular basis.

Very recently, the rate of obesity in young people has skyrocketed in the US and Dominica is no different. I found myself shocked, when the ministry of health stated the drastic increase in obese youth on island, and wondered how such an epidemic is even possible on an island that is abundantly blessed with fresh food and requires so much walking to get you from one point to another. I guess it boils down to how we choose to eat and what we choose to do with our bodies. This worldwide youth obesity epidemic, mirrored with world hunger (very strange) has pushed for intervention by the WHO (World Health Organisation) resulting in bans on processed foods imported from the US by countries like Russia. Weirdly, many Dominicans seem to believe that food from the US is king and we fail to see the blessing we have from our home; fresh organic food, free from preservatives, excess sugars and salts. So come on people, take advantage of the nature isle and eat from her bounty.

2. Knowing the difference between “thick” and “fat”Often times we mix up the terms “thick” and “fat” and our society promotes having a little extra blubber as it is considered sexy. For the purpose of my non-Dominican audience, a “thick” woman is one who is voluptuously curvy. There is no doubt that a full-figured woman is beautiful, and so is every other kind in my opinion. However we must be careful, as our society draws a very thin and misleading line between being overweight and being “thick.” It seems that many young ladies these days tend to give in to the trend of society, masking their laziness with the excuse of being “thick,” getting older, or giving birth. While I understand that these circumstances do cause weight gain, I also understand that with effort some of the weight can be lost in order to bring the body back to a healthy weight. So get on your “thickometer” and decide whether or not your weight is healthy and if necessary, make the changes. Also, be careful with the butt and breast enhancement pills. That’s all I’ll say about them.
3. Eliminate stress and build your mindMany times, as human beings, we worry and stress about things; our job, our relationship, our future, our bank account etc. The thing is that worry and stress have never and will never change an aspect of your life that you are dissatisfied with and only burdens the mind. Only action or time can change things that we stress over. So try to adopt a less stressful outlook on life. Let time go as it wishes and instead of sulking about situations, make a plan to change them. Stress comes with many side effects such as unhealthy weight loss, headaches, depression etc. Don’t let it burn you out. Take control of the situations in your life that are stressful and wage a battle on them. It won’t be easy, and it might take a while, but acting on these situations is much better than crying over them. Don’t you think?

We also don’t usually take the time to train our minds; to reflect on our life, our simply to sit and meditate. Take some quiet time every now and then to allow the mind to be free. If you’re religious, give time to church. If you’re not tied to a religion and are just simply spiritual, contemplate on how you can help your spirit to grow and be fulfilling. Help others, give back to your community and remove people whom you have conflict with from your thoughts. Encourage spiritual stability, by loving your environment, people and most importantly, yourself. Feed your brain by reading, and even having sensible conversations with elders about the past and life in their days. Being submerged under water always helps me to calm my thoughts, try finding what works for you. A hike up to Morne Diablotin, one of the highest peaks on island, can help too. When you get to the top, scream and shout as loud as you can. Release your anger and stress. Dominica’s terrain offers free therapy baby, take advantage of it.

4. Fail and accept change

Yes, I said it. Fail! Don’t be afraid of failure for it can be quite healthy for personal growth. I remember that in my first piece of this column, someone mentioned that I had no place to give advice on clothing after having failed at queen show. Though there is some truth to this, I cannot deny that the lessons I learned through that failure are those responsible for my growth today and I am quite thankful for such an experience. Not everyone has the balls to fail in front of thousands of people anyway. Ever wondered how we gain experience? If you’re guessing “through doing” then you’re right. With doing can sometimes come failure. Such failure evokes an understanding of life that you would have never gotten without it. Failure helps us identify the things that we did wrong and forces us to create a method to avoid it by doing things differently. Failure can seem scary, but is very necessary. Never turn down opportunities out of the fear of failing. It’s good to fail from time to time. It’s good to feel the raw feeling of disappointment in yourself in order to dust off and flutter out of that dark cocoon as a beautifully transformed being. Every great person we know has failed before achieving his ultimate goal; every single one of them. Einstein, Zukerberg, Jobbs, just to name a few. Some even stumbled upon it while failing at something else. So never think that life is perfect and all about successes. That’s only in the movies. Be prepared for failure, learn from your mistakes and accept the changes that come along with it. There is no one, given formula to live your life and you will find that you learn as you go along. In the wise words of one of my favourite artists, Queen Ifrica “Roll with the punches, accept changes, work with the formula, do what you have to do.”

5. Plan practicallyThis one is personal for me as I only recently (a few years ago) came to the realisation that dreaming without a practical plan just doesn’t cut it. It’s great to have dreams, don’t get me wrong. We all have a dream for our life; to be rich and successful, to have a beautiful family, to be the next Prime Minister, whatever. We all dream. I, personally, enjoy dreaming at any time of the day, whenever my mind sees it fit. (Sometimes to my own embarrassment) But the important thing is to balance dreaming with reality in order to avoid stress and the feelings of disappointment when years roll by and those dreams seem to feel like they will never come true. Growing up with Disney showed us that a fairy godmother or a hip blue genie can grant us our life’s wishes. Don’t be fooled kids, that’s in the Disney world, not in the Earth one. We must learn to be our own fairy godmother or genie. The question is, though, how do we do this? How do we grant ourselves our own wishes? How do we make those dreams come true? These are not rhetorical questions, they can all be answered. So what’s the answer? Through realistic planning and hard work of course. Did you not listen to any one of your parent’s lectures? I guessed so. Dreams aren’t granted at the flick of a wand in 2 seconds but at the following of a plan in probably a couple years. Accept what is present. That is where you are and what you actually have. Then formulate a realistic plan with realistic timelines based on your personal reality, resources, opportunities and situation and plot out a map as to how you are going to get to where you want to be. Then, comes the work. Start working hard at achieving the things you set out for yourself. Calculate your risks and take them. Don’t bother about what others have to say about the time that you’re “wasting” or the “stupid decisions you’re making” as long as you have created a realistic plan for yourself, with the advice of worthy adults who you consider to be helpful. So make those dreams come true today by putting in some work, taking some risks and making some changes. I’ll leave you with this quote from one of my biggest role models:

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” – Walt Disney

Hakunamatata,

Nicki