Like most of the world I watched in sadness as the Notre Dame Cathedral burned. It stood for more that 850 years. It survived sieges, wars, and revolution. Yet, there it was burning. The home to priceless art, stunning medieval architecture, and huge historical moments was being destroyed. This previously undefeated monument had succumbed. Watch the news enough, however and you begin to realize a hard truth: life can change in an instance. Whether it is a national tragedy or a story of personal hardship, the same idea holds true.
My question, in light of understanding that life can change in an instance, is this: how many 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 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 loves. 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 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 make a complete health picture by protecting your body and mind by finding purpose in chasing your passions.