Being incarcerated can be mentally, physically, and emotionally challenging.
Regardless of how long you are sentenced, jail time can take a serious toll on you and how you view yourself and the outside world.
It is important that you maximize your experience and make it the best you can by spending your time wisely communicating with friends, family, and cellmates, reading and writing, exercising,and obtaining new skills.
Staying in touch with your loved ones can help you stay on track with your responsibilities and can also give you a sense of unconditional support.
Support is necessary when you are doing time so that you do not feel alone in what you are experiencing.
If you are not able to speak with or you lack family and friends in the outside world, you can always find a community where you are at.
You must select your friends in jail wisely if you wish to change the direction of your life post incarceration.
Doing this successfully can look like finding people with similar healthy interests as you or connecting with people who lead by example and hold characteristics or personality traits that you wish to obtain.
Another thing that you can do while incarcerated to better yourself and expand your skill sets is to master writing.
Whether this be journaling, writing letters, logging your day, or even attempting to write your first book, any skill you practice consistently will gradually become more advanced and more elevated.
Writing can help relieve anxiety and stress and help keep your mind away from negative thoughts.
It is important to know how to communicate to the world regardless of if it is verbal or written, communication is an asset in itself.
Matter of fact, written communication is proven to help you be a better verbal communicator.
Writing can help to better organize your thoughts and can also promote diligent thinking.
Reading is just as effective of a skill as writing is.
It can help you view life in other perspectives, expand vocabulary, and learn new things from others.
This is a skill that will help you improve your life post incarceration.
Exercising is one of the best things that you can do for your mental, physical, and emotional health.
This is a healthy habit to form in jail and outside of jail.
Some benefits of exercising include mood boost, increased agility, decrease of future healthcare costs, increased confidence, improved creativity, improves skin, improves posture, increase in energy, lengthen your life, protect your heart, and many more.
Exercising will make you feel better about yourself and it is something that you can continue post incarceration to promote a happier, healthier lifestyle.
Without being said, you have a lot of time on your hands during incarceration and it is important that you use it wisely so that there is room for improvement in your life.
Working on yourself, reflecting on your decisions, and deciding who you want to be after your time is served are all things that you need to take into consideration with the time that you have.
There is always time for you to become the best version of yourself.