Health Archives

Don’t Forget to Inhale

June 25, 2021August 10, 2024 Nik

Living is exhaling.

You wake up, jump out, and make your bed. You brush teeth, get dressed, and race to the breakfast table. Phew!

You work. You type. You work harder. You type faster. Pheeew.

You buy groceries. You sort your bills. You tuck your kid in. Pheeeeeeeew.

You watch Netflix. You doomscroll. You listen to a friend yap for hours. Phew, phew, pheeeeeeeeeeeew.

By the time your head hits the pillow, you are exhausted. You’re wheezing.

What happened? Simple: You forgot to inhale. That’s also living.

Unwind Your Mind

June 18, 2021August 10, 2024 Nik

Your mind has many layers. All day, you keep jumping from one to another.

There’s the work layer, which contains your to-do list, your career goals, and a million process workflows.

There’s the organization layer, which reminds you to do grocery shopping and keep your adult life together.

There’s the social layer, which sends a friend’s joke into your ear mid-lunch and prompts you to call your mom.

Each of these layers breaks down into a million smaller sheets, and you’re Tarzan, trampolining from level to level inside the bouncy castle of your mind. That can be exhausting. When it is, it’s simply time to take a break.

Are You Free to Abstain?

May 25, 2021August 10, 2024 Nik

French scientist Pierre Fouquet was an early researcher of alcoholism. He broke the illness into three categories, two of which describe the circumstances of people we now describe as “alcoholics,” such as drinking in secret with the goal of blacking out.

The third, “alcoholitis,” is “the most common form of alcoholism in France, particularly among men,” Fouquet noted. The subject has a high tolerance and lacks serious psychological complications — they mainly drink beer and wine in social settings, just in too large quantities for it to be healthy.

“We drink to drink with others,” Fouquet said, but “the toxic effects of consumption are still felt.”

Our sneakiest addictions are those we don’t consider to be problems at all. If you drink with coworkers four nights a week and everyone has two beers, that seems like a perfectly normal thing to do.

The question — and this may be Fouquet’s greatest contribution to the world — is:

Do you have the freedom to abstain?

You Can Choose To Not Be Rushed

February 16, 2021August 7, 2024 Nik

Adrenaline used to be for escaping tigers. Today, it’s mostly for fun. Rollercoasters, fast cars, the thrill of our sports team winning at the last second. Those are dosed experiences.

A question I ask myself is: Are we still dosing? Sometimes, I feel like I’m running on adrenaline 24/7. I’m injecting myself, of course. It’s an addiction.

When I wake up and check my portfolio, I start buzzing. I reply to five people on WhatsApp. I think about 17 things I wanna do, and by the time I leave the shower, I’m already behind in my mind. Write a post. Quick! Inhale lunch. Check the phone again. More adrenaline! Emails! Calls! More writing. Fasterrrrrr….aaaargh!

When you work from home, you don’t need adrenaline. When your phone rings and it’s a stranger, you don’t need adrenaline. These are not dangerous situations. But if you’ve already chosen to be frantic, it doesn’t matter, does it? You’ll do everything in a frenzy, even if frenzy is rarely required.

It is not a privilege we’re used to, but it’s one we must learn how to handle: We can choose our stress level. There’s good stress, and there’s bad stress — but you are not obligated to give in to either.

You can choose not to be excited, and you can choose not to be rushed.

How To Know When To Quit

February 12, 2021August 10, 2023 Nik

In 2006, Nike ran a series of ads called “Joga Bonito” leading up to the soccer world cup in Germany. It means “play beautifully.”

The clips showed world-class players like Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic performing soccer tricks, goofing off, and just enjoying the game. The ads were a smash hit, and my best friend and I spent hours watching them. We started downloading and collecting freestyle videos of all kinds, and, soon enough, we went outside and began to practice.

“How does Henry do this trick?” “What’s an ‘Around-the-World?’” Before long, we had a sizable repertoire of cool moves. Unlike my friend, I wasn’t on an actual soccer team, so instead of focusing mainly on that, I just kept practicing tricks. I trained outside for hours. I did sessions in our basement in the winter.

I also got more friends addicted to the fun, and, together, we discovered we weren’t the only ones. We hung out in forums. We started a local German freestyle group. We even had our own competitions. Everyone would film some footage, edit their best clips, add music, and, voilà, the trick-off was on!

By 2008, the movement had gained enough momentum to warrant its own world championship called Red Bull Street Style, which my then-practice buddy took part in. We also auditioned for Germany’s Got Talent, but neither of us made it to the show.

In 2009, I was gearing up for my A-levels and started having knee problems. That year, I shot my last clips. After graduation, I still dabbled with the ball on occasion, but when I went to college, I decided: That’s it. I quit. No more football freestyle. Today, all that’s left is grainy videos and a ball in my room.

In retrospect, this may sound like an obvious choice; the classic “giving up a hobby for something bigger.” Back then, it was a very painful decision.

Initially, there were less than 100 serious freestylers in Germany. I had peers from all over the world who respected my work. By being both early and dedicated, I had been, for a brief moment in time, one of the best football freestylers in the world. That’s hard to walk away from.

Ultimately, however, quitting was necessary. I wasn’t meant to be an athlete. I’m very happy with the job I have now — writing — and wouldn’t trade it for the world.

But how do you make these decisions? How do you know when to quit? Here are some of the factors I considered.

The Rule of 70/20/10: Do Important Work or None at All

February 9, 2021August 10, 2023 Nik

Ip Man, a Kung Fu movie about the legendary martial arts teacher of the same name, is rated a staggering eight out of 10 on IMDb and considered a cult classic among fans. The movie is almost two hours long, but if you skim through it, you’ll notice something: There’s not a lot of fighting.

Isn’t that what Kung Fu movies are about? Apparently not. You’ll see the master having tea, helping his friends, and struggling with everyday life. You’ll see him muse about politics, about war, and about philosophy. You’ll see Ip Man training and spending time with his family.

Why do people love this movie so much if, as it turns out, there are only three major fight scenes? They love it because each fight means something.

The Stoics’ 7 Functions of the Clear Mind

January 15, 2021August 7, 2024 Nik

The best reason to practice personal hygiene is that a clean body leads to a pure soul.

It’s not the explanation my dentist gave me the other day, but regardless, at nearly 30 years old, she finally got me to floss. “Your gums are at risk,” she said. I have flossed every day since. One, because I’d like to keep my teeth until I die, and two, if I don’t have a clean mouth, how can I expect good things to come out when I open it?

Neither the importance of dental care nor its effect on our mental state is new to us, yet more than half of Americans are short at least one tooth, and more than 10% have lost all of them. That’s 40 million Americans without teeth.

In one of his many post-lecture discussions transcribed in Discourses, Stoic philosopher Epictetus talked about “washing your teeth” — in 108 AD. He also used cleanliness of the body as an analogy for — and precursor to — purity of the soul.

Even in 2020, Humanity’s Biggest Challenge Remains the Same It’s Always Been

October 14, 2020July 31, 2024 Nik

Every year, 1.5 million people die from diarrhea. That’s more than from suicide, homicide, conflict, and terrorism combined. It’s also more than all the victims of AIDS, malaria, and the measles. One in three of those deaths is a child under the age of five.

“Diarrhea?” you might wonder. “Really? I have never even heard of anyone dying from this in my entire life!” Yes. Really. Neither had I, and it shows just how lucky you and I are: We’re so far removed from the problem, we don’t even know it exists.

Neither did the richest man in the world.

“For Third World, Water Is Still a Deadly Drink.”

On January 9, 1997, this headline adorned the front page of the world’s most respected newspaper — a newspaper delivered to over one million people each day — The New York Times.

The article was written by Nicholas Kristof, a man who went to Oxford and Harvard and has won not one but two Pulitzer Prizes. Kristof is a living legend in journalism.

On assignment in India, Kristof asked a woman where he could pee. She pointed to a gutter. It ran right into their supply of drinking water.

In Germany, many toilets charge 0.50 €, especially around highways. I often say it’s inhumane. I think no human being should ever have to pay to pee or poop. That’s a big lawsuit I’d one day love to bring.

Then again, the situation in India and Africa makes 50 cents look like a joke. The people there might not pay with coins, but they pay with their lives and children’s lives later. That’s actually inhumane.

Kristof was shocked. Here we were, after 2000 years of civilization, yet millions of people still died from complications around the most basic of human needs — and no one had even heard about it.

If that’s not a scoop, I don’t know what is. It absolutely deserves the front page. Yet, when an interviewer asked Kristof about his article 20 years later, all he had to say was:

“This article was quickly forgotten, except that it had a couple of important readers in Seattle.”

Everything Society Taught You About How To Live Was Wrong

August 1, 2020July 24, 2024 Nik

You really thought you had it, didn’t you? You truly believed that, this time, you were making progress. Finally.

After years and years, you began to understand. How online dating works. How to advance your career with your laptop. How much you can get for how little. Great experiences. Cool things. Trips that make you richer. Products that make the world better. Finally, everything was starting to click.

And then, in an instant, it all fell apart. You went back to zero. Back to bewilderment jail. “If you pass go, do not collect $200.” Actually, that’s not true. You collected $1,200. You might even collect another. But what does it matter if you’ve lost your job, if your husband is sick, if your restaurant had to close? The money can’t make the anger go away.

That’s what you are. Angry. Deep down, you resist. It should not have been this way. This was not what you signed up for. You had a plan. You had ideas. You’ve invested thousands of hours of blood, sweat, and tears. And now, all those hours have been invalidated.

Everything you thought you knew about life was wrong. You feel remorse. You wish the rules would still apply. You regret learning them. You regret falling in line and getting all your ducks in a row. What did you do it for? What’s the point if it all went to shit anyway?

One event changed everything. Absolutely everything. It’s like someone ripped the curtain from its rail, and you were still sleeping. You’re blinking. You can’t see. It’s too bright. What is this? What is this light? Why is it so aggressive? No, mom, not today. Let me just go back to sleep.

The light is aggressive because sometimes, aggression is the only language humans understand. If the light wasn’t blinding, it wouldn’t force us to open our eyes. If we want to take it in, we must take in everything. No more blinders. No more curtains. Even if, at first, the light will make you angry.

Use the “4 Burners Theory” for Better Work-Life Balance

July 31, 2020July 23, 2024 Nik

Everything in life is a tradeoff. Every waking second, you’re trading different options against one another.

Whatever you pursue — be it with your thoughts, your time, or your energy — prohibits you from pursuing something else.

Millions of these tradeoffs are microscopic and thus happen on autopilot. You scratch your back, grab your keys, and before you know it, you’re done showering.

Unfortunately, the auto-pilot often takes over much bigger, more important tradeoffs, which would actually require conscious thought. Case in point: If you never make the tradeoff between your work, health, and relationships, life will do it for you.

If your first job demands a lot of hours and you’re a diligent person, you might end up spending a lot of hours at any other job you’ll hold in the future — just because you’re used to it. If you’re an athlete as a teenager, you might never let go of your hardcore workout regimen — even after your professional aspirations change. If you’ve spent all your weekends with friends since high school, starting a family will take a conscious effort.

In 2009, David Sedaris shared a framework in a New Yorker Article, which will help you make these big picture tradeoffs more deliberately: The four burners theory.

Category: Health