Five alternatives if you are not cool enough for meditation (plus other 2 thanks to the AI)

Meditation and its sister mindfulness are the trendiest things nowadays, cool people meditates every day, of course after waking up at 4:30AM. I tried myself anapasati, the Buddhist breathing technique; it worked to some extent, until I found it increasingly tedious. What can be an alternative that puts me in the same mindset, while doing something I like? Increasing my skills at the same time?

1. Jogging

I found that running at a relaxed pace for 30-40 minutes flushes my worries away, gives me ideas to solve problems, raises my body's endorphins, and helps keeping me reasonably fit.

2. Drawing

It engages the right side of the brain, while silencing the analytical, logical left side. To start is easy: there are plenty of educational videos for any level.
Even just doodling cats from Instagram puts me in a happy space.

3. Cooking

Preparing decent food requires focus, or everything will be burnt, or too salty, or too squishy.
It's a way to treat ourselves and our loved ones; it's a nice problem-solving task that creates delicious solutions.

4. Coding

I stopped being a developer many years ago, but I enjoy sites like Code Wars and Project Euler: they are full of interesting problems that can be solved by writing small programs. Next level: try creating NFTs on Ganache.

5. Praying

I'm not very religious, however I was born and bred in a Catholic country, and I've seen that praying share with meditation similar patterns.
The practice of rosary is close to reciting mantras, it brings to the same state of mind.

6. Reading books

Books can transport you to different worlds and teach you about new cultures and ideas. They will help learning or improving the 5 ideas above.
I got this idea from the AI, well done AI!

7. Drinking tea

Tea has many health benefits and can be very calming.
This was suggested by AI: after these years in London I must say that a cuppa is very relaxing indeed.

MB