Getting Started

I am now 60 but I do not feel old in myself, on the contrary I am still learning and developing and I am far from ready (as Yates put it) to go gentle into that good night.  I still have much to do, but unless I take some radical measures I am not going to have the health and time to do it all.  Psychologically I might still feel fit and able, but physically, well I am accumulating the health problems associated with age: I am very overweight, 21 Stone 4 pounds (135.28 kg or 298.25 lb)  at this morning's weigh in, I have lost a few teeth, I need reading glasses, I am asthmatic, I have had a heart op. (successful) to stop me going into atrial fibrillation, I have psoriasis and my blood pressure and cholesterol have been creeping up recently.  I am not totally decrepit by any means, but if I don't do something now it is obvious that I am going to face a lot more serious problems down the line.

So I have been working on changing my lifestyle with five primary objectives in mind:

Health extension.  

Life extension is a big thing these days; but I prefer to think of it as health extension because it is not my goal to hang onto life at any cost but rather to improve my general health now and to increase my chances staying healthy for a long time.  This is, of course, what most people who are into life extension are trying to achieve, we are long past the time when it was just about vanity and cosmetic appearance.  Indeed, I am far from being caught up in the cult of youth, I like being older and want to make the most of it.

Mental well-being and efficaciousness.

I got off to a rather bad start in life in many respects.  This did leave me with serious problems, such as severe depression.  Over the years, I have gradually been able to piece together enough of what happened to come to terms with my past and find a degree of peace.  But I still have issues, I find it very difficult to approach people I don't know or haven't been introduced to, and very seldom actually initiate interactions or projects with people.  I am much better than I was in my late teens or early twenties when I was suffering from very severe depression, but I can see that there is a huge untapped potential still remaining in me that needs a bit of work to unlock.

Sustainability.

I am very concerned about human driven global warming and other damaging impacts our way of living is having on the ecosystem of the planet. I am trying to follow the advice, to think globally but act locally.  So I have been trying to make my personal lifestyle more sustainable as well as trying to do my small part to help promote more ecologically aware technology.

Security.

Besides global warming, I am also very concerned about economic instability and inequality and the growing threat of various forms of totalitarianism, from the corrupt and covert fascism of oligarchy, to the religious fundamentalism we see rising within, not just Islam, but also Judaism, Christianity and Hinduism.  I am not a survivalist, they are focused on creating their own individual haven to escape to when, "S.H.T.F.".  I believe that in the event of a major social breakdown the people who will be the most likely to survive are not isolated individuals, no matter how much they have prepped,but rather those who are part of strong, sustainable, communities.  "Prepping" should no be so much about individually hording for the apocalypse as about building strong, sustainable, relations with those around you.  But as  Covid has made clear, we have to consider, not just the apocalypse, but also lesser threats stemming from the rising ecological, economic and social perils.  So, in working on my lifestyle I am taking into account factors such as being careful about where I make my home and producing enough food to be able to survive in difficult times; but I am also trying to work on becoming part of a sustainable community, not just on being a prepping loner.  

Religious/Spiritual growth

I would not say I believe in God because to believe in something is to have a definite image or idea of what something is and to have the conviction that definite thing exists.  Well I don't have a definite image or idea about what God is, but I do have faith, that is trust in the ultimate goodness of what is and an openness to the mystery behind appearances.  These days I express this primarily through participation in the complementary currents of Freemasonry and the Anglican Church, but my spirituality is also very much informed by Vedanta and Buddhism, with threads coming from Taoism and Islam.  I am seeking to develop a lifestyle that is very much grounded in the acknowledgement and exploration of a relationship with the mystery we call God.  I probably won't write much about this, however, as I find it expressed best in actions - when I am in my garden increasing the fertility of the soil and caring for the growing plants, that it is one of the times I feel most connected to God. 

One thing you may notice is missing from this rather inclusive list is politics.  I do care about political philosophy, but I have no faith in the existing political systems - I have a preference for Western Democracy over the other existent systems, but it seems to me that the rise of Trump and Boris in two of the key Western Democracies shows the sever deficiencies of our current political systems..  I believe that our politics grows out of the way that we live, both in terms of our political aspirations and in terms of our true political influence.  So  I may touch on politics in this blog, but it is unlikely to be a primary focus (even though in other forums I write a great deal about politics, especially Brexit and the potential of the EU to regulate globalized capitalism).  I rather suspect that the most effective way to work is to try change one's self, and promote the good by example, rather than by trying to persuade and correct others.

I am planning to do two things on my blog:  

The first is to record and discuss my own lifestyle choices. In doing so, I will be talking about scientific research relating to nutrition, supplementation and various medical issues.  The usual disclaimer applies, this is not intended as medical advice This discussion is not intended as medical advice as I am not qualified to give such advice, my qualifications being in psychology, philosophy and training.  Rather, it is presented as a record of my own interest and decision making processes and I am only writing about them in a public forum in order to draw people's attention to issues and subjects that they might want to research themselves or discuss with their doctor or other appropriately qualified healthcare professionals.

The second is to help to promote various projects or ideas that seem to me to be potentially relevant to me or to someone else trying to make similar lifestyle changes to me.

I hope you find some of the discussion of interest.....