FITNESS INFORMATION

Growing old is a privilege, a lot of people don't get the opportunity to live a long life. And although growing old is a privilege it is also a responsibility we have to ourselves. In order to grow old and enjoy our children's lives and our grandchildren's lives, and perhaps even our great great-grandchildren's lives...we have to live a HEALTHY life of our own. Inspired by the Disney+ series Limitless with Chris Hemsworth (link below), this 6 part longevity series is focused on helping you live the longest, healthiest life possible, providing the science and activities that will guide you to the keys of longevity.

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The first thing we're going to focus on is the relationship stress has with longevity. When we experience stress, our brains sense that and flip a switch. A flood of hormones enter our bloodstream after our nerves send our entire system into overdrive. We experience and increase in our breathing speed, our heart beats faster, we feel wired. When our body feels like it's experiencing a dangerous situation, the energy serge we experience prepares us to either fight or run away (Fight or Flight). When our bodies then feel like we are away from danger, our stress circuit should switch back off. But when we continue to experience stress from our jobs, relationships, school, etc... The hormone cortisol, keeps flowing and our fight or flight system doesn't fully stop running. As time goes on, we get burnt out which can lead to high blood pressure, a malfunctioning immune system, and elevated blood sugar, all of which increases the risk of deadly disease.

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One thing that can help with our stress, is positive self-talk. Positive self-talk allows us to recognize that our fight or flight system responds not only to the outside environment but also within ourselves (our emotions and thoughts). When we feel under pressure and we believe that we can't cope with that stress our brains hit the panic button. We tell our fight or flight circuit to turn on and prepare for the worst circumstances. When our body anticipates injury, our arteries tighten, sending blood in towards our core to prevent us from bleeding to death. Our body is simply trying to protect us. So what's the problem? Well, the problem is that with less blood reaching our muscles and our brain our mental and physical strength flag. By thinking more positively though, we open our blood vessels up again allowing us to find the energy to fight and power through.

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The more stress we experience, the faster we breathe, the faster we breathe, the more stress we experience. It's a horrible cycle, but if we can practice breathing slowly and deeply, the nerve fibers in our chest will detect the change in movement and flood our brains with signals to calm down resulting in a short circuiting our fight or flight system. Everything gets dialed down within our bodies including  heart rate, stress hormone, and anxiety. Mindful Meditation in another helpful technique that not only helps us feel less stressed in the present moment, but when done regularly, can alter our stress response as a whole. The network within our brain that's responsible for our fight or flight circuit is instinctively hypersensitive in order to keep us safe. The problem is, the pressures and stress we experience daily can set it off. Scientists believe that about 8 weeks of regular mindful meditation can rewire connections within our brain, leading to a less likely overreaction to things that stress us out.

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Some ways we can keep our stress levels under control is by practicing mindful meditation 3 times a week, practice box-breathing when feeling stressed out, and trying positive self talk when we feel under pressure and tense.