Western culture has a tendency to value yang (active, visible, etc) over yin (quiet, hidden, 'inactive', etc) and I'm part of that culture so I can be a bit that way too. But you need the yin stuff. Muscle growth happens on the rest days right - the yin days? I just joined a gym and I'm pretty fired up about it, but it is EXTREMELY typical of me to get way too fired up and then burn out within a fortnight. So to avoid that, I need to balance that yang stuff with yin habits - getting enough sleep, stretching, rest days.
Yang
Strength train at gym twice a week
Play Zelda: Breath of the Wild when I have free time
Yin
Amish hour (turn off all screens and the overhead light at 9:45 pm, start winding down, reading, etc.)
15-minute static stretching routine every evening
The Zelda one might seem odd, but I have this dumb problem where I procrastinate on stuff I actually love and really want to do. So I spend all night doing dumb stuff on the internet, scrolling twitter/reddit/facebook, and not doing the stuff I really enjoy. This is a case where I hope yang is the right approach. Instead of saying "don't spend time on social media" I'm going to actively play Zelda instead.
I have a few other habits I'm trying out - meditation, a mobility routine in the morning (this one, with the addition of the Gunslinger after the first Hero pose. I also do a few bridges and the Lying Down Bow Draw. Then you finish with a kind of Dragonball Z-style chi-gathering arm movements to make you feel powered up). But if I don't do those, it's okay. They're not the challenge. Okay, it's 9 pm, I'm gonna go play Zelda for 45 minutes.
