Does recovery determine longevity?

I feel it’s worth making a note that our ability to recover from what we are put through may affect both our mortality and how we feel right now and will feel in the future.

I’m not going to go into depth right now, but I want to log this idea of an overarching theme: that those people who age well may simply be following lifestyles that allow proper recovery. Those who live to a good age may do so because their lifestyles promote resistance to diseases. The best resistance is a lifestyle that allows sufficient recovery from the rigours of each day.

This view is very much a summation of all I have learned recently and previous knowledge. The newer idea that cancer and heart disease could have some relation to diseases, the knowledge that busy lifestyles with little rest and relaxation make it difficult for the body to fight diseases, and new products with chemical compositions where the effects on humans are unknown to a high degree have become more common.

I also feel that humans, along with most species, are used to this kind of abuse by ourselves and by the environment. It’s something we’ve all evolved to deal with, otherwise we wouldn’t be here. Therefore our bodies already have mechanisms to deal with many of these problems. What we need to do is ensure we do all we came to help these recovery processes do a good job. That means learning about them, understanding what they need and making sure they get it.

I also feel that our bodies have developed to make this as simple as they can. Half of it is to know our own limits.

I intend to return to this post in time to update it. For now this is a simple start.

Does recovery determine longevity? first appeared on my original blog.

Further references

• The life sabbatical: is doing absolutely nothing the secret of happiness?
  • The focus is really on recovery, not rest. Doing something different will restore balance and allow you to recover.
  • Many people often confuse rest with sitting down quietly. But given that many of us spend our working lives sitting, staring at a screen, for some, a better form of rest might involve listening to music or doing some form of movement. For some people, rest might involve embarking on a creative project, which allows them to express themselves in a new and different way.”
• I discovered the work of physician and researcher Saundra Dalton Smith. Her Ted Talk explains that we actually need seven different types of rest: physical, mental, emotional, sensory, creative, social and spiritual.”
• #471 8 Hidden Habits To Live Your Healthiest, Happiest and Most Fulfilled Life with Robin Sharma explore Robin’s concept of the ‘eight forms of wealth’, including physical and mental wellness, rich family relationships, fulfilling work and strong community connection
  • Rest is not a luxury; rest is a necessity 
  • Happy high high-performing people consistently focus on good-quality rest
  • The happiest people savour. They take time to enjoy things.
  • His Book is “The wealth money can’t buy ” I have yet to read it but I want to now.
  • My summary of Robins’s talk is that
    • your humanity is the most important thing you have, along with your uniqueness and special gifts. 
    • True wealth comes when you develop those and learn to share them with the world. 
    • That sounds cliche, but it’s also a summary of what I mean by lifestyle education.