Seven suggestions for a healthy life

I just finsihed a nice podcast interview with Dr. Shawn Baker, himself being a physician, athlete and author of the book The Carnivore Diet. About the end he asked me for some personal tips that would from my view reduce the chance of getting cancer. I named four important points, which I think are essential: Reduction of chronic stress, an appropriate diet, physical activity and social interactions with other humans. After the interview three more points immediately came to my mind, so that I will list here my seven suggestions helping to avoinde cancer and live a healthy life in general:

  1. Gratitude: Be thankful even for the small things in life, because nothing can be taken for granted. If something bad happens to you, the following magical sentence from Viktor Philippi can help: "Thank god it's like that and not worse." Indeed, almot any situation could be worse.
  2. Reduction of chronic stress: The same situation can cause two distinct perceptions of stress in two different individuals. Therefore one should learn to change ones thought patterns in such a way that chronic stress cannot emerge in the first place. Again, the sentence "Thank god it's like that and not worse" is helpful. Meditation is also a great tool to avoid chronic stress.
  3. An appropriate diet. As-far-as-possible reductions of industrial sugar and grains are the most significant measures. But never should one castigate oneself (over longer time) - it is fully okay to allow oneself certain foods from time to time if one misses them. This could be a piece of cake together with coffee on a Sunday or even the famous cheat day.
  4. Physical activity: The most important aspect is not which type of activity one should engage with, but that someone engages with physical activity! The optimal lifelong activity pattern would include both strength and endurcane training.
  5. Connecting with Nature: One should expose oneself to Nature as often as possible; consciously connecting with Nature is also important, such as "grounding" ("earthing") by walking barefoot or developing a spiritual conncetion.
  6. Connecting with lovely people: One should learn to spend a lot of time with other people that benefit one's mood, while reducing time with individuals causing discomfort as far as possible, but without separating oneself from the latter. Be aware that every human being is a member of the human family. Try to forgive those who hurt you even if it takes a lot of time and effort.
  7. Connceting with God, whatever you understand under that name (without explicitly referring to a religious god). This includes some sort of trust in life, love and charity with all other beings and all points listed above, being fully aware about what benefits us as a human being.

en_USEnglish