Umm...this, this, a million times this! Sorry, I get a little excited sometimes. =)
/u/shrillthrill posted this over on reddit but it's a great example of a multifaceted intervention with excellent results in young healthy people. Here's why I recommend "The Big 6" before everything else. Enjoy!
http://journal.front...2016.00117/full
"These findings cumulatively indicate that a multifaceted intervention can simultaneously produce substantial and enduring improvements across a wide variety of psychological and physiological systems in healthy young adults. The magnitude of the effect sizes indicate considerably greater changes than observed from more narrowly-focused interventions, including improvements in mood and stress that were more than 2.5 times greater than typically observed from mindfulness training alone (Grossman et al., 2004; Eberth and Sedlmeier, 2012). These findings provide an important exception to the prevailing view that highly multifaceted interventions are less effective (Wilson et al., 2015). The present results indicate that multifaceted interventions that are effectively designed and sufficiently motivating can elicit large and diverse improvements that reveal the substantial adult capacity for cognitive, affective, and neural plasticity."
Here's the intervention (I don't think it's necessary/practical to go quite this long for each element):
"The intervention convened for 5 h each weekday over a period of 6 weeks. Each day included 2.5 h of physical exercise, 1 h of formal mindfulness practice, and 1.5 h of lecture or discussion on topics related to sleep, nutrition, exercise, mindfulness, compassion, relationships, or well-being.
Each day began with 1 h of exercise in which participants completed a sequenced collection of exercises that targeted flexibility, balance, coordination, strength, and body awareness. Rate of respiration during these exercises was reduced to five breaths per minute by syncing the breath to subtle variations in music designed for this purpose.
Participants then completed 1 h of mindfulness practice. The majority of this time was spent engaging in focused attention meditation in which attention is directed to a single aspect of sensory experience (e.g., the physical sensations of breathing or walking). Participants also completed guided compassion meditation in which they deliberately generated feelings of compassion (wishing freedom from suffering) and kindness (wishing happiness) first toward themselves and then toward loved ones, acquaintances, and eventually strangers.
Each afternoon began with 1.5 h of lecture, discussion, or activity. Participants were introduced to key concepts and best practices in sleep, exercise, nutrition, alcohol consumption, mindfulness, gratitude, empathy, compassion, active listening, stress management, goal pursuit, and happiness.
Participants then completed 1.5 h of exercise under the direction of a fitness instructor with certifications in Pilates, yoga, and personal training. Workouts focused on Pilates twice a week, yoga once a week, and body weight circuit training once a week. A detailed workshop on anatomy and movement was offered once a week.
Throughout the program, participants were advised to limit alcohol intake to no more than one drink a day, to eat a diet of primarily whole foods, to restrict consumption of non-produce carbohydrates to after exercise, and to sleep 8–10 h each night while keeping a regular sleep schedule. One alcoholic drink was defined as 1.5 ounces of distilled spirits, 12 ounces of beer, or 5 ounces of wine.
Twice during the intervention, each participant met privately with an instructor for 20 min to discuss personal challenges and opportunities. Outside of the program, participants were advised to complete two high intensity interval training workouts each week and to engage in random acts of kindness each day. Participants kept a daily log of hours slept, alcoholic drinks consumed, workouts completed, and random acts of kindness. Each weekend, participants also kept a food log. These logs were reviewed by instructors and returned to participants each week with comments and suggestions for improvement. Following the 6-week intervention, participants received no additional instruction or support."
Edited by lostfalco, 07 April 2016 - 04:11 AM.
