Life is full of responsibilities. Everything from your finances to your health and even the Earth should factor into your everyday decisions. This can feel overwhelming at times, especially if you’re living on your own for the first time.
Fortunately, most of the more intimidating parts of life aren’t that scary if you take the time to break down, understand, and prepare for them. If you’re getting ready to launch into life on your own, here are a few of the most important things to keep in mind to help you create a healthy, independent lifestyle.
Begin with the Basics
The first step in establishing yourself on your own is caring for your body’s basic needs. This may seem obvious, but there are many small details of basic self-care that can quickly be lost in the hubbub of school and work.
If you want to stay healthy, you need to tend to four areas in particular: eating, sleeping, exercising, and mental health.
Eating
Eating is a complex subject and hardly one that can be properly broken down in a paragraph or two. Each person’s body is unique and requires different considerations.
Nevertheless, if you want to live a healthy lifestyle on your own, you have to take the time to figure out what your body needs. Start with a basic set of diet recommendations. Then talk to your doctor and research how you can tailor your diet to help your body stay as healthy as possible.
Sleeping
Getting adequate sleep is a constant battle. School, work, and personal life are always tugging at your time. This can make it challenging to get enough rest. With this in mind, make sure that you’re doing two things.
First, gauge your sleep habits to see if you’re getting — at the very least — seven hours of sleep each night. Then, consider your sleep environment. Is it dark, comfortable, and conducive to sleep? Remember to regularly address both the quantity and quality of your sleep when you’re living on your own.
Exercising
It doesn’t matter how old you are, your body also needs plenty of exercise. This can help both your physical body remain fit and your mind remain calm and focused. Always look for ways to incorporate more exercise into your daily routines. This can include anything from a trip to the fitness center in the morning, to yoga in the afternoon, or even a jog after class.
Mental Health
Along with the physiological basics, it’s also wise to take steps to safeguard your mental health. When you’re living on your own, it’s up to you to catch and diagnose unhealthy mental health habits.
Are you stressed out? Anxious? Depressed? Do you struggle with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? Consider reviewing a list of cognitive distortions every once in a while to see if you’re slipping into any thinking patterns that need to be addressed.
Remember Your Responsibilities
Along with the basics, it’s also important to keep tabs on your responsibilities. As an independent individual, there will likely be many of these. They’ll also probably involve a very diverse selection of activities.
For instance, if you don’t live on campus, you’ll need to pay your rent or mortgage. You’ll also need to shop for groceries, take your car in for repairs, maintain relationships, and possibly care for dependents. And that doesn’t even touch on any school and work-related duties you may be given.
To help you keep track of and come through on your responsibilities, consider utilizing a few different lifestyle tools, such as:
- Routines: Routines can help you get up, go to sleep, get to work on time, and so on. They are also a great way to incorporate basic responsibilities into your daily life.
- Schedules: School and personal schedules can both help you remember what is expected of you. This includes everything from finishing a project by a certain deadline to setting up and sticking to a house cleaning schedule.
- To-do lists: To-do lists are a great way to remember one-off activities that aren’t worth including in a routine or schedule.
Lists, schedules, and routines are all excellent ways to keep your life organized. They enable you to keep track of and tend to your various responsibilities without feeling overwhelmed in the process.
Don’t Forget Finances
Your finances are another huge area of life that can run amok if left unattended. You can successfully gain financial independence by engaging in a few different monetary habits, such as:
- Maintaining a steady income: Make it a priority to keep a job that provides a steady stream of income.
- Avoiding cosigning: Whenever possible, dodge the need for a cosigner on your personal bank accounts and loans.
- Accruing minimal debt: Eliminate as much of your debt as possible.
- Creating a budget: Add up your income and expenses and ensure that you’re living within your means.
By making basic fiscal moves like these you can establish yourself as a financially independent individual.
Invest in Others
Most of the items on this list have been self-oriented. And within reason, that’s a good thing. If you can establish a healthy mind and body, good personal financial habits, and so on, it puts you in a strong place to operate independently.
However, a life lived in total isolation is hardly one worth living. If you want to establish yourself on your own, you should also consider how you can proactively give back to those around you in need. A few areas to consider directing your efforts include:
- Your friends and family: Your friends and family are the closest community you’ll ever have. Don’t cut them off in your fervor to live independently. On the contrary, use your independence to stay in touch and help them when they are in need. You may even find the favor reciprocated one day.
- Your community: It’s easy to ignore the community that you live in. However, as an independent individual, it becomes part of your responsibility to look out for those around you. Whether you’re helping at a local food bank, volunteering on a neighborhood watch, or even mowing a neighbor’s lawn, strive to stay aware of the needs of those that are geographically closest to you.
- The Earth: Living sustainably isn’t just a trend. It’s a core responsibility of being a human. We all share the Earth, and as a fully autonomous individual, it partly falls to you to do your part in the battle for a brighter future. From creating less waste to using green cleaning products, there are many ways that you can incorporate green living into your unique lifestyle.
Establishing your independence is primarily an introspective and personal experience. Nevertheless, there are many ways that you can use your independence for the greater good of your friends, family, community, and the Earth itself.
Learning to Live a Healthy Independent Lifestyle
Many factors go into living on your own. Everything from basic physiological needs to mental health concerns, financial considerations, tending to life’s responsibilities and giving back to others all factor into the equation.
If you want to truly set up on your own, you must take each of these areas of life seriously. If you can do that, then you won’t just be able to survive the adventure called life. You’ll be able to thrive in it.
