Daily meditation

I decided to give meditation a go earlier this year, and I gotta say, it really does work if you stick with it for a while.

You don't need to do anything more complicated than sit, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing. When thoughts bubble up and your mind starts to wander (and it will start to wander, early and often), just notice that it's happening, observe the thoughts the way you would observe anything else happening around you, and bring your attention back to your breathing.

I started with just 1 minute in the morning and added 15 seconds each day until I was up to 10 minutes. (More like 20 minutes is probably even better, but, you know, I've got kids and a job and hobbies and other things to do!) After a couple months of doing this daily, I could definitely feel the effects of it—I just overall felt calmer, more patient and leveled out emotionally, less reactive to frustration, and better able to focus throughout the day. Highly recommended.

Why Buddhism Is True is a book that makes the case for the scientific basis for it, among other things. Not essential but an interesting read on the subject.