Neal’s 5 Tips For Thriv-ival in 2026
Here’s the scene: Things are really weird right now, the temperature is really hot (literally and figuratively), and there are more people than ever telling you everything you should be doing, worrying about, and buying to “stay safe” from “them,” “it,” or “the end of everything.”
Life surely feels dire for so many. How in the heck could we talk about optimizing our wellness and thriving at a time like this? “Who do you think you are, Neal?” I don’t know. Still trying to figure that out…
Hence my new word: thriv-ival. It’s a new wellness descriptor, built for our times, that basically means a state of oscillating between thriving and surviving, hoping the law of averages works in your favor.
If you can’t tell, this is a Neal-in-2025-esque approach to a conventional listicle about healthy habits. If we haven’t spoken directly in a while, I’m a brand new girl. I’m hopped up on DGAF, but still have a twinkle of my idealism escaping the event horizon of resigned acceptance.
Who has time for pomp and circumstance anymore, really? It’s almost the 30’s for goodness sake!
So, here’s 5 reasonable, valuable tips on how to actually be healthy in this whacked out world. Delivered in the way you all know and love.
In This Article:
- Tip 1: Throw Away Your Devices.
- Tip 2: Give.
- Tip 3: Make Your World Smaller.
- Tip 4: Meditate.
- Tip 5: Get Strategic About Your Supplements. And Medicine. And Diet.
How to Actually Be Healthy in 2026: Dr. Neal’s Top 5 Tips
Tip 1: Throw Away Your Devices.
Right in the garbage. All of them.
…or at least lock them down.
Personally, I’ve found the old ways I’ve engaged with the world won’t serve me moving forward. By old, I mean the things I did like 3 weeks ago.
You may be familiar: doom scrolling, reading articles made just for me to invoke the highest level of emotional response and engagement, and constantly refreshing to see the newest sound-byte, meme, or zinger that’d make me surge with dopamine for 12 seconds.
It won’t serve me moving forward. It didn’t serve me then.
“The media stinks!” we cry as we keep feeding the beast. Yeah yeah, but let’s be honest… we LOVE us some stinky media. We’re addicted to the editorialization, the drama, and the rhetoric.
We’re roaming through the proverbial poison ivy and cow-itch backyard wondering why we spend all our time swollen and itchy.
Pair some honest introspection with some action:
- Figure out how much time you’re spending gazing into the abyss
- Identify (be mindful of) the things you’re clicking on and WHY
- Stop interacting with the gross stuff
- Curate BETTER things to spend your time with
(Weird how that advice applies to everything health and wellness like food, supplements, medicines, exercise…)
The last point is important. I want you to find BETTER things to read, play, click on, or engage with. I’m not anti-distraction; distraction is FINE and rest is needed.
I am, however, anti-brain-rot-inducing, behavior-modifying, anger-intensifying distractions.
Read a book. Ignore all that media nonsense. What has it really done for you anyway?
Tip 2: Give.
Alternatively, serve. Or not alternatively.
Tip 3: Make Your World Smaller.
Back in my day, you used to hear some health-related conjecture and then ask an actual official smarty-pants in that department WHO YOU KNEW, who was IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD, and then, by-golly, you’d go and ACTUALLY RESPECT THEIR ANSWER.
Who are your trusted experts?
What have they done to earn that trust?
Here’s an important indicator of whether or not your trusted expert is an ideal trusted expert: how physically close are they?
Can you throw old tomatoes at them if they’re actually wrong and misleading you, or do they live in a McMansion or secret bunker somewhere across the country, bought with all your clicks and likes?
I find that the neighborhood approach to confidants nearly ALWAYS wins.
Tip 4: Meditate.
Like, actually do this. Time to start practicing healthier brain habits.
The alternative is to keep on going as we are, adding more moments and years to the big pile of moments and years we’ve spent training our brain to behave in a way that’s pretty bad for it (and us).
Time to slow the brain down. Disconnect the sensory cues from our emotional reactions. Get some distance between them, at least.
Five minutes a day. That’s all I ask.
Look to an expert to get you started. I know a guy…
Tip 5: Get Strategic About Your Supplements. And Medicine. And Diet.
Ten points for you if you can say “YES” to each of these points:
- I know specifically why I take each of my supplements (not just for “general health”)
- The supplements I take are made correctly, have the right doses and forms, are a good value, and are not sold to me by an evil corporation trying to steal the moon (I call this my Supplement Quality Standard)
- I know that the supplements I take are helping me
Now do that for your foods and medicines and you are on your way!
I am the self-proclaimed “Supplement Strategist.” I believe a good plan, based on good science and reason, is the best approach to conquer the chaos of supplement misinformation (and frankly, wellness consumerism).
On Tips 1-4, I can just nudge, encourage, or guilt-trip you into considering them.
On this one, I can really help. It’s been my long-standing offer. LET MY TEAM HELP!
How to Succeed in Wellness While Trying Really Hard
Figuring out how to actually be healthy in 2026 can be incredibly complicated.
So here’s what I’m saying, simply:
- Be mindful about what you’re putting into your body—food, medicine, supplements, and information
- Take care of the earth underneath your feet
I know this is contrary to the kind of advice that gets attention in 2025, seeing as it’s pretty boring, wholesome, and everyone can equally win if it’s done correctly.
Stuff’s weird. I think the weirdness of our times has made us take the boring, wholesome, local, service-minded, bond-strengthening, and soul-nourishing advice for granted. “Yeah yeah, I know all that healthy habit stuff, but what can I take?”
You know what you can take? You can take it from me: we have the power to build the lives we want.
It’s time to be more strategic in how we spend our time, what we pay attention to, what we value, and what we allow into our bubbles. Thriv-ival may be what we need in 2026 to help us eventually get back to our old selves. Standing tall, smiling, and focused on getting every drop we can get out of this life.