I'm struggling to write this post today. The weather is getting colder, but I haven't changed to my flannel sheets yet, so I'm having trouble falling asleep. The sun is rising much later, but I'm still trying to keep to my productive summer schedule of waking at 7 am, so I'm feeling a bit groggy during my normal writing time. I'm going away for the weekend with friends, but I still have to pack and I know I need to fit in my friday workout and weekly relaxation time in the sauna and steam room at the gym. I've also been tinkering with my meals lately as a result of recently reading Ray Kurzweil's book Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever, which explains in great scientific detail how our modern diet contributes to a host of diseases and accelerated aging, so I'm feeling distracted and a little low in energy because I haven't figured out what works for me just yet. In short, I'm struggling with this mental task of a philosophy post because my body is not in tip top shape.
In the last post about how to know thyself through evolutionary philosophy, I arrived at the present and discussed answers to the question, "Where am I?" The next logical question is to look down at yourself and say, "ok then, what am I?" Before I get into the heavy, traditional philosophical work of examining my mind and thoughts though, I have to first recognize that we are physical beings, animals, bodies composed of structural elements that form larger integrated systems. We all share roughly 99.5% of our genes with one another, so some general advice is quite easily dispensed to the entire population. As I say directly in the text of my philosophy:
- "In order to survive as long and as well as possible, we must act to maintain the health of our bodily systems. Eat balanced, properly sized meals free from harmful additives. Stay hydrated. Exercise vigorously and regularly. Protect the body from hazardous environments. Avoid ingesting substances that do more harm than good. Identify stress symptoms and manage using relaxation techniques and lifestyle choices. Sleep well. Socialize. Treat illnesses with evidence-based remedies. Address underlying causes, not merely surface symptoms."
While these bromides might be universally accepted, the many shapes we see around the world (polymorphisms in biological terms) caused by those 0.5% differences in our genes means that science cannot dictate exact actions that lead to universally healthy bodies. Do not be discouraged by this! It just means the onus is on you to discover what specifically works best for you. Know how your body reacts to different foods, stresses, environments, and stimuli. Try to understand why this is the case. Once again, know thyself.
And now that I've got this post out of the way, I can go work on this advice myself.
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