Short and sweet

Such is life. And, this week’s blog. I sense a sigh of relief on your part. It should be easy to keep this one short. Let’s see if I can sweeten it without sugar coating it. I’ve two more blogs I want to write, but for one it’s way too early, or I’m just not brave enough to write it now, and for the other I just don’t have time now. And since the reality is that people have the attention span of a goldfish these days, I might as well shorten my weekly insights anyway. If you’ve read my previous blogs, you won’t be surprised that some have taken me two whole days to write, and while I love doing that, it’s a bit more than I can afford to do at the moment.

Hardwired

I know you probably think it’s a bit of a stretch to say life is sweet, but is it really? No one will argue that it’s not short. Who said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it”? If you know it’s from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off because you saw the movie back in the day, then you’re probably getting close to what we canonically call “old age”. And yet it feels like it was yesterday.

You’ll will find it difficult to find someone who doesn’t suffer from the negativity bias so deeply ingrained in the human spirit. And the reality is that many people live in conditions that we can’t even fathom putting them in the same sentence with sweet. So is it short and bitter? Bittersweet, or just tasteless? Maybe you think it’s sweet chilli or sweet and salty, although I think the former is actually sweet and the latter is inedible after a short time. Everyone has their own experience of life and thinks of it according to that experience. But we mustn’t forget that we have this psychological tendency, rooted in our evolutionary history, that makes us give more weight to the negative than to the positive.

Negative experiences evoke stronger emotional reactions. We also pay more attention to them because we evolved that way to survive. We learn from our mistakes and as such it’s important to recognise and focus on negative outcomes. This is why our brains have evolved to process negative information more thoroughly than positive information. This also means that for every negative experience, you need at least a handful of positive experiences to lose the saltiness. But it still won’t be sweet.

Divergent angles

So do we want to live a longer life? If life isn’t sweet? Or do we actually like it salty or spicy hot? But if we like it that way, isn’t it sweet then? My life is sweet. I really like spicy hot, so that’s sweet to me. I also tolerate salt pretty well, but like everyone else, it’s inedible if it’s too salty. On the whole though, life is sweet, I think.

I know I said recently that I’ve hit rock bottom, and that’s true, and nothing has changed. When I say rock bottom, it means something different to everyone. This is my rock bottom, not yours. Don’t imagine that my personal situation is your rock bottom. I’ll tell you more about it when I’m brave enough to do so. And why should you care? Because I’m not special and there are many people who can relate to what I tell. Not with everything I tell, of course. Some will identify with some things and some with others. If I can get one person to take action and make a positive change in their life regardless of their faults, I’ve done my part and achieved one of my goals. I don’t feel that life is any less sweet because I’m going through a difficult time.

Immortals

I also know that despite all this, I’m very lucky, but there are a lot of lucky people who think life is a struggle, as if that is unpalatable and not sweet. If you don’t think struggle is sweet, then maybe you suffer from a taste disorder and should get your taste buds checked out. I look at my folks in awe of what they do and how they live, including their struggles. This brings me to what I believe is essential for a long, healthy and happy life.

Shaped by victuals

Your diet. Not just what you eat, but how much of it you eat. I’m not going to give you dietary advice. I’ve my own thoughts on this, but to be honest, I’m not very good at following the diet I know I should be following. For one thing, I know that sugar is one of the worst poisons there is, and yet I eat it. I try to be as responsible as possible, but I’ve to admit that I don’t do a very good job of it. And when I say sugar, I don’t just mean the white powder, but refined carbohydrates in general.

Nevertheless, diet is extremely important for a happy life. As the saying goes, you are what you eat. Take the effort to research this topic thoroughly, because it’s one of the most important things you can do and change. It goes without saying that you need to be critical of the information you have access to. The easier it’s to get, the more careful you should be with it. That is, the more it’s accepted by everyone, the more you should scrutinise it. Behind the message you receive is someone, or rather a corporation. At least behind the first message you receive. And the second and third. So do your research thoroughly. It’s worth it. You’ll not find a corporation that advocates for fasting.

Treadmills

Exercise. You don’t have to go to the gym. No one has. But you do need to exercise regularly. You don’t have to run a marathon, or any length at all, although a couple short runs a week will only do you good. Short but intense, you’ll thank me. My folks exercise every day around the garden and the vegetable garden. They don’t run but they work hard by all measures, and definitely tick the exercise box. They turn 72 and 80 years old this month. Move your body and put it through a healthy stress.

Eustress

Speaking of stress. There’s good stress and bad stress. If it’s too much stress, it’s always bad. Plan your day to include mindfulness practises like meditation and breathing exercises. It’s not easy, but it’s worth setting aside 20 minutes, more if you can, and dedicate yourself to just breathing. I can tell you it’s hard, but the joy will always bring you back. It’s also a good way to fail regularly.

Soduku

Maintain mental sharpness by exercising your brain with challenging activities like learning new skills or hobbies. Stay curious and open-minded as this can lead to increased mental stimulation and a healthier, more vibrant life. Dare I say, read.

You’ve got this

I think I’ll add one more to make it a handful and because it’s actually good for you, but not easy like the ones above or as easy. Doing nothing but breathing is the most challenging of everything I’ve mentioned so far. Next, is to stress your body to heat and cold. From saunas to ice cold water, once or twice a week will do wonders. But I don’t have access to a sauna! That’s no excuse. Shower very hot and finish with a minute or more of the coldest water you can get out of your shower.

A walk in the park

There isn’t much you have to do to grow old and healthy. And more than ever, it’s important to know how to do it. The reason is simple. We’re living longer than ever before and our life expectancy will continue to increase in the future. Soon we’ll be 200 years old or something of the sort. I don’t have ideas that I personally will live beyond 100, but I think it’s possible that the first people to live to 200 or even older will be born before I die.

If you were born in the 2050s and are reading this, I did better than I thought I’d. The chances of that happening are slim, but not zero. You’ll probably have to ignore the diet advice, since you probably don’t really eat much and take all your nutritional needs in pill form. But the other advice is probably even more necessary than it’s today. At least the exercise and the mindfulness practises, since you’re connected to the matrix most of the time and not to nature.

Older, Wiser, and Still Kicking

We can’t ignore what an increased lifespan means for the bigger picture. From the healthcare system to the economy. The focus is shifting from treating disease to preventing it and optimising well-being. This paradigm shift results from the development of innovative therapies, personalised medicine and a more holistic approach to healthcare. In the economy, we’ll have to adapt to the fact that many more older people will want to stay active, not only by pursuing new passions and interests and contributing to the economy and society in this way, but also by simply staying much longer in their current jobs.

We think that we only work to sustain ourselves until we no longer need an income to survive. Yet work can very well be the place where you exercise your mind and body, and one of the places where you get your sense of purpose from. And then there are the social security systems and the public and private pension plans that need to be re-evaluated.

You wouldn’t believe if I told you

I’m someone who’s fascinated by technology and the latest advances in biotechnology. I can’t help but be amazed when I think of how far we’ve come in recent years. The field of artificial life is especially intriguing, as it holds the potential to revolutionise not only our understanding of life itself, but also the future of health and longevity.

Scientists have made great strides in creating artificial cells that can produce proteins, much like natural cells. This may not sound like much, but this breakthrough brings us one step closer to understanding the fundamental principles of life and eventually creating fully synthetic living organisms. What does this have to do with health and longevity, you may be asking. Well, the implications of these advances in artificial life are far-reaching. Imagine, for example, a future where we can engineer synthetic organisms to produce life-saving drugs or develop personalised therapies based on a person’s unique genetic make-up. Or that we’ll be able to replace damaged organs with lab-grown, customised alternatives, or even create entire artificial organs that function seamlessly within our bodies. The possibilities are indeed awe-inspiring.

The Doctor Will See You Now

But it’s not just about biotechnology. Think of the wearable health monitoring devices and apps that are slowly but surely becoming as ubiquitous as mobile phones. Or the rise of telemedicine, which is revolutionising access to healthcare by breaking down barriers and making care more accessible and convenient for patients regardless of where they live or their circumstances. I couldn’t leave out Artificial Intelligence either, although it’s still in its infancy. From predicting disease risks and identifying potential biomarkers to optimising drug research and development, this technology is already helping to accelerate the pace of innovation and unlock new insights into the underlying mechanisms of health and ageing.

Response Ability

All of this brings up a lot of ethical concerns that are very serious and not easily resolved because they affect so many different stakeholders in different ways. We can’t and shouldn’t abandon the development of these technologies, but we must also bear in mind that they can be abused, not only by those who develop them, but also by the users. Especially if the technologies become ubiquitous and an accepted part of our normal lives. This is too complex a topic to continue in this week’s blog, otherwise I will fail to make it short.

Nor will I go into the implications of immortality, which is on the cards for humanity at some point. Once you take the shortness out of life, can we still call it life? Is there life without death? Perhaps in a future blog.

Conclusion

It doesn’t matter how long you live, as Ferris Bueller alluded, life moves pretty fast, don’t miss it. Someone else also said something to the effect of; time flies when you’re having fun and a minute in hell feels like a lifetime. To me that means you want to live a sweet life, even if it’s going to feel short.

And thank you for reading this. Although I write primarily for myself, and I do read them all after I’ve published them; after all I’m my biggest fan (so he is narcissistic!); I hope you get something out of it, if nothing else, some entertainment.