It’s become evident that the greatest predictor of longevity is stress and how you handle it — stress management.
Stress manifests itself in several ways — not only how you may interpret stress, such as when you feel a situation is making your heart race or you become heated and angry.
It’s commonly known that excessive negative stress (as described above) often leads to heart attacks and strokes, resulting in millions of unnecessary premature deaths.
You’re unknowingly stressing your body and mind day in and day out
1 — Inactivity and the sedentary lifestyle
If you’re retired and sit on a beach all day drinking beer while sunning yourself, you’re not as stress-free as you think.
Even if you have sufficient money to sustain such a passive, lazy, carefree life, you’re causing your body and mind a relentless flow of subconscious stress.
That happens because you’re likely eating unhealthy, sugar-laden junk foods, drinking too much beer and sodas, not anywhere near enough water, and aren’t moving your body.
That behavior leads to massive internal metabolic stress and systemic inflammation.
As a result, your organs, gut, and bloodstream become sicker, while all the sugar you consume turns to fat, making you obese and potentially diabetic, which, again, leads to early death.
Retirement doesn’t equal sitting around doing nothing — on the contrary, it’s the best time to become active and fully enjoy all the “good things” life has to offer.
Meaning: Stay engaged, socialize, talk to many people, or delve into freelancing, learning new skills, and earning money online.
2 — Late nights, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, and poor sleep
I’ve seen it with my own eyes recently in Thailand. Old men, drinking and smoking relentlessly in the seedy “pick-up” street bars.
They’re up to it into the small hours and come home drunk every night after having 12 beers or more, a pack of cigarettes, and possibly some weed (or worse).
How’s their sleep? It’s not good. It’s more like being in a semi-coma for a few hours until they wake up and repeat.
What do you think this life approach does to the body and mind?
It stresses the hell out of both!
No movement, constant late nights, poor food, and lack of sleep will have you heading for a mental health breakdown, a serious stroke caused by oxidative stress, and self-abuse.
Side note: I’ve never seen so many middle-aged men stumbling around like Zombies in Pattaya, Thailand.
I’m sure you can guess why that’s the case.
It’s because of the adverse effects and stresses of these people’s passive, lazy, and self-destructive lifestyles.
Let’s talk about the positives — stress management and increasing your lifespan.
Critical factors beyond stress management to achieving longevity, staying fit and healthy:
1 — Your diet
A healthy diet is the No. 1 stepping-stone to becoming healthy and maintaining your progress.
The problem is that most don’t know what a “proper” healthy diet is.
I’ll help you out.
Here’s what to avoid and what to enjoy:
Avoid:
Sugar, all forms of grains, including everything made from flour, processed junk, and fast foods, plus seed oils.
Enjoy:
Meat of any color, fish, seafood, eggs, butter, cheese, coconut oil, yogurt, whipping cream, olive oil, cruciferous vegetables, healthy animal fats, berries, coffee, water, and even some wine.
Eating well lowers the oxidative risk in your bloodstream, eliminates most free radicals that cause cancer, and alleviates negative stress!
2 — Your exercise and movement routine
Keep moving until the very end!
The more you move your body doing simple things like walking, swimming, biking, trekking, and some light bodyweight exercises or yoga, the better.
But keep it light. There’s no need to push yourself hard with any movements, as that would only cause harmful stress.
Keeping your exercise routine easy to moderate creates positive stimulatory stress.
That keeps your mind firing, and alert and extends life.
3 — Mind-calming practices
Not nearly enough people understand this — that’s a big shame.
Mind-calming exercises are an essential stress reliever and install a powerful positive mindset.
Mindfulness, meditation, breathing work, positive self-talk, and affirmations:
These are the techniques I use daily.
- Be mindful of everything you do and experience
- Meditate 1 to 2 times per day for 10 to 20 minutes
- Focus on deep breathing when you’re out walking
- Always talk positively to yourself
- Ask for what you want and you will eventually get it — believe in yourself
Please think about these simple and easy-to-complete practices and how they will install calmness and eliminate stress in your brain.
It’s a no-brainer!
4 — Positive stress = Mind stimulation
By all means, do stress yourself with “positive active” stress.
Your mind wants and needs to receive these messages to function on a higher and clearer level.
If you do nothing, your mind along with your body will slowly shut down and die.
Staying physically active and working on something with passion creates positive stress and the release of your happy hormones — Serotonin, Dopamine, and Endorphins.
5 — Sleep and rest
Getting plenty of quality sleep is vital, especially as you age.
The saying that the older you get, the less sleep you need is a dangerous myth that can speed up your way to the end.
Sleep more and enjoy it and rest up a few times for 10 to 15 minutes per day.
Sleep and rest are your golden ticket to a long and healthy life, accompanied by their best friends, food, exercise, and stress management!
Final Thoughts
I hope you see that stress comes in many shapes and sizes.
It’s often out of sight too, which is a big danger to your health and longevity — stay alert, and on the outlook for any negative stress you may be causing yourself.
Maintaining an active lifestyle, eating well, but not too much, working on your positive mindset, and keeping your brain and body stimulated dramatically decrease negative stress.
Instead, you’ll stay strong, motivated, inspired, and curious and can enjoy a longer and healthier “positive stress life.”
Rob
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