I think we can all agree, 2020 has been a strange and difficult year. Life has not gone as we all expected. Remember New Year’s Eve and thinking, “2020 is our year!!!!”. Ok, so maybe not so much. But it tells a lot about us as a society and as humans, in general, that we are still trying. Trying to adapt, to grow, to evolve, and to still believe in better days ahead. For all the cynicism in the world, we have to remember how resilient we are and be grateful. One thing we can take from 2020 is this lesson: life can go in ways we did not expect and that it can change instantly.
My question, in light of understanding that life can change in an instant, is this: how many of us live life like we have unlimited time? In my opinion, time is the most valuable commodity we have as humans. So what are we using our time on? Is it what we love, chasing our dreams, or creating a better life/world for ourselves and those around us? It seems too often we do not spend our days on those, aforementioned pursuits, but on rather surviving and grinding through our days. Sometimes we function (or barely function) in a closed loop of work, eat, Netflix, sleep, repeat until we can even begin to forget who we are as individuals. Life becomes simply putting one foot in front of the other. To be fair, there are periods of life where we have to just get through the day. But if that becomes our normal it can become problematic. The answer, in my opinion, is to find your passion and chase it. Maybe we feel like we can’t do this. But I think we need to start making our passions a priority. It’s not selfish, it is a key to being healthy. We often think of health as exercise and diet (and that’s true), but it is also mental and spiritual health. It’s being a whole person and you can’t be a whole person if you don’t follow your passions, dreams, and goals. Now the passion you have isn’t so important, it’s about doing it. It could be fishing, knitting, making art, playing a sport, learning a language, starting a business, etc. That thing that drives you and makes you feel excited; find it and hold on to it. There are other benefits to chasing our passions, besides doing something you love:
- It is good for your brain. Per totalbrainhealth.com “a German study found that adults who became proficient jugglers showed increased brain volume on imaging studies.” Learning a skill increases our brain’s neuroplasticity. Basically that means it increases the brain’s ability to grow new neurons and make connections. There is also evidence that engaging in an intellectual passion (and that’s not just reading or learning a language, anything that involves problem solving, in my opinion would fit the bill.) helps stave off memory loss as we age.
- It is good for your heart. Doing something you love improves how you feel about your day to day life and it gives you a purpose. It basically improves your psychological well being and this improved well being is linked to cardiovascular health. An author of one such study, Laura Kubzansky of Harvard School of Public Health says, per cnn.com, “For physical health, it’s not so much happiness per se, but this ability to regulate and have a sense of purpose and meaning.”
The bottom line is that we know life and be unpredictable and change instantly. We owe it to ourselves and to those around us to be our best, most healthy selves. So yes, live a healthy lifestyle. Eat well, exercise, get good sleep. But don’t forget to create a complete health picture by protecting your body and mind by finding purpose in chasing your passions.