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"Quality of life" is often considered an economic phrase. Consequently, many people equate improving the quality of their lives with increasing their income. But, while money can certainly give you access to more resources, you don't have to spend a dime to experience significant improvements in the quality of your life. Instead, you just need to add some new routines to manage your state of mind and experiences better. Routines like exercising regularly, eating healthier meals, sleeping deeper and longer, and doing brain exercises to enhance mental acuity, can all be incredibly helpful.

Exercise Regularly

Regular exercise will help you manage your weight, reduce your risk of contracting a serious illness, and control your blood sugar and insulin levels. Besides looking great, you will also feel great because neurochemicals and hormones stimulated by exercise will improve your attitude and mood. Finally, exercise is good for your brain, too. It improves your ability to think, learn, and discern.

One reason people exercise less often than they should is that they get sore for days afterward. If your muscles take a longer time to recover after a workout than normal, increase the amount of protein you eat and get a muscle stimulator to flush out lactic acid and increase blood flow.

Eat Healthier Meals

When you eat healthier foods (foods closer to nature), such as fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds, you will have a healthier, more vibrant body. Since nutritious meals give you all the macro- and micro-nutrients your body needs, good nourishment will reduce the risk of serious illnesses. A healthy diet reduces health issues related to high blood pressure and high cholesterol and prevents diseases such as osteoporosis, strokes, heart diseases, and diabetes. Read books and articles about healthy eating or make an appointment with a nutritionist to figure out how to make healthier food choices.

Sleep Deeper and Longer

Many factors influence the quality and quantity of sleep. So, if you are not sleeping as deeply or for as long as you need to, then identify why and remove these barriers to getting a good night's rest. For instance, if you have a health issue that keeps you up at night, talk to your doctor about it.

When you sleep, you clear metabolites from your brain and give your body time to heal and recover from the stresses and strains of the day. If you are sleep deprived because you don't enjoy deep rest or sleep too little, then you'll have symptoms like stress, memory lapses, high blood pressure, and a compromised immune system. Sleep deprivation can cause other problems, too. It often puts you in a bad mood and causes you to overreact to small inconveniences. Finally, sleep deprivation makes it difficult to maintain your bodyweight; besides hormonal imbalances, you're also likely to eat too much or too little.

Do Brain Exercises to Enhance Your Mental Acuity

Before neuroscience, psychologists believed that people could not increase their intelligence.  They believed that high IQ, a form of cognitive capital in our knowledge economy, was an epigenetic gift. We now know, based on scanning how neurons grow when stimulated with novel information, that everyone, regardless of IQ, can get progressively better at problem-solving, learning, and adaptability. We can all make continuous cognitive improvements.

In a Scientific American article, Andrea Kuszewski reveals five primary principles that she discovered to increase anyone's intelligence. She found that seeking novelty, challenging yourself, thinking creatively, doing things the hard way, and networking all contributed to improving cognitive performance.

We all know the value of exercise, diet, sleep, relationships, and intelligence, but the magic occurs when we do more than recognize them as good ideas and create routines to put them all into practice.