The 4 Pillars of a Happy, Healthy Life
In my continued quest for lifelong learning I’ve been taking notes and distilling what I’ve learned in the books, podcasts, documentaries alongside my own personal self experiments in health and well-being. The patterns that have emerged for me come in four different areas in what I call the Four Pillars of Happy, Healthy Living. What they do not include is what we do at work. I’m not going to spew out any ‘do what makes you happy’ or ‘follow your passion’ hyperboles as that doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone. If you’re working to pay the bills, doing what you love, or not working at all it doesn’t matter and these pillars still apply to a happier, healthier life.
Nutrition
Books like the China Study, How Not To Die, Proteinaholic, and SuperLife all talk about the abundance of research in the largest studies in the world conducted by world renowned scientists spanning decades. Some of these studies include, but are not limited to, the Epic Study, China Study, Seventh Day Adventist Study, Framingham Heart Study, Nurses Health Study, the Women’s Health Initiative and all the up-to-date recent studies are distilled into short videos at NutritionFacts.org which is where I go often. Netflix, for some reason that I’m not complaining about, has a few documentaries on nutrition and espouse a plant-based diet. Forks over Knives, What the Health, In Defence of Food, Food Inc., Food Choices, Plant Pure Nation, Cowspiracy, Eating You Alive, Vegucated, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead to name a few.
What we eat affects how much energy we have, our mood, can cause disease and cure disease. After an obscene amount of non-vocational research the most cited diets are a Whole Food Plant Based (WFPB) diet and Paleo diet. Surprisingly similar, both diets are plant based so eat your freakin’ vegetables and nuts, and both advise removing processed foods, sugars and all dairy! As for the differences, WFPB diets of course don’t consume any meat products whatsoever and the Paleo limits and/or prohibits the consumption grain and beans.
In The Telomere Effect written by two PhD’s, one of whom is a Nobel laureate, is about how the health of our telomeres. Telomeres are the tips of our chromosomes that protect our cells from deterioration. The length of telomeres indicate our health as a whole and the book describes what we can do to keep them healthy. These mention the four pillars I mention here and nutrition is pretty much a plant based diet which allow for a little meat. The Microbiome Solution written by a tenured gastro entomologist and researcher also espouses a plant based diet with the allowance, but not necessary, bit of meat to help promote and maintain our gut bacteria.
Personally, I’m plant-based and my health has improved dramatically and I have the blood work and weight loss to support it. It’s just what is best for me and my family plus the added knowledge about how my eating habit reduces animal suffering and helps our environment also improves my mental health in simply increasing my happiness.
Exercise
This isn’t news. Move your damn body. Every day! I don’t need to cite a book reference here. I started with a 5 minute stretch video on YouTube and slowly, methodically evolved to a long, two and half hour morning routine. The secret, for me at least, slow, enjoyable(-ish) workouts that is either weight lifting, slow jogging, or yoga and the most important part don’t fucking miss! Every day gift yourself the 5–10 minutes and more when you’re ready. Even if it’s a walk. Want something different to follow? Check out the Wim Hof Method. I loved this course and it helps both the exercise and mindfulness pillars. I continue to do the breathing, stretching and cold showers (don’t worry it’s not that bad!) as a part of my now elaborate morning.
Sleep
In Peak Performance: Elevate Your Game, Avoid Burnout, and Thrive with the New Science of Success, and many a Rich Roll Podcast, top athletes, executives and entrepreneurs have proven that sleep can be one of the most productive activities you can invest in. In a cool Stanford Study, when the swim and basketball teams extended their sleep time the swim team improved their sprint times and the basketball team improved their shooting accuracy across the board. Not getting enough sleep can severely impair mental performance and bandwidth which shits all over that productivity badge we show off when we proudly tell our colleagues about our late night work sessions. Get your sleep, the work will be there when you wake up.
If you are having trouble getting to sleep with your mind always being on try what I do. An hour before bed, turn off your devices or at least put them in airplane mode. Don’t use anything with a screen so forget TV or gaming or any social media. I read a book that has nothing to do with work. I like non-fiction, athlete bios, spirituality, to name a few genres. It’s as simple as that.
Find Your Flow
The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance and Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work describe profound neurological phenomena they call flow. People like extreme athletes such as Laird Hamilton taking on seventy foot waves and simply knowing how to surf his way out of fatal trouble or wing suit teams negotiating impossible turns at breakneck speeds or achieving what is described as enlightenment in meditation or the simultaneous sense of connection and feeling completely free raving at a concert or EDM festival with tens of thousands of people. Try one or many of these! I haven’t rocked a wing suit, but I do have a daily meditation practice, been to the largest music festivals and I love trying new sports since playing basketball and boxing for many years. I have a friend who describes this feeling when he’s driving his motorcycle and his mind has to be focused on what he’s doing thus reducing mindless distraction. I’ve read the same thing with archery. When you’re learning something new your mind is in it!
The science is in and the evidence continues to mount that a daily mindfulness practice will significantly improve your life. Meditation can improve your overall happiness, your relationships, get better sleep, reduce your stress levels, sharpen your concentration are just some of the benefits of a daily mindfulness practice listed in the link above. Meditation doesn’t have to be dogmatic or any change in any belief system. It’s just a simple (not necessarily easy) few minutes every day. In 10% Happier by Dan Harris, the author tells the story of a highly touted ABC news anchor’s journey from a meltdown in live TV to the top of his game both professionally and personally crediting meditation. Get in some Yoga (try YouTube if you don’t want to go to a class), floating tank, breathing exercises (Wim Hof Method mentioned above), mediation (free apps can help get started), ecstatic dance, flow states in art or sports all can work.
In addition to, not as an alternative, there’s significant evidence for practicing gratitude. The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu describes the merits of gratitude in not only healing pain, but to achieve joy. Practically, there’s a beautiful book, the Five Minute Journal, that I use every morning to write what I am grateful for. Every day it makes a subtle and profound impact.
One of the challenges around starting a mindfulness practice is that we won’t know where it will take you. When you do weights you you’ll get stronger and your muscles will grow. When you sleep right you know you will be clearer less tired throughout the day and when you eat right you know you will feel better. Unless you’ve done it, you’re unsure how it will affect you. I would say to trust the process.
An important thing to note with these pillars is that they are are all symbiotic. Each can help or harm the others. In my experience the tiniest of changes (replacing sugar in my coffee for cinnamon) can evolve into amazing things (lost 40+lbs, can run for hours, feel incredible in all aspects of life).
