I want to live for a very long time, but there were times in my life I didn’t. I would have quite happily had it finish quickly and my physical health, my belly, suffered because of it.

Our mental health has a direct impact on our physical health, they are directly linked and its proven so over many test study examples, but then I think anyone could tell you that and you don’t need an elaborate testing regime to prove it. To understand it at a deeper level is certainly well worth it and it is good that there is always ongoing studies and new information to force a change in someone, somewhere.

But deep down inside you, hiding in the mind somewhere and playing out on the body, you always know you are going in the wrong direction or heading off the rails.

In a conversation just before I wrote this piece, I had said to a friend and colleague… ‘Life is LONG’ and they corrected me and said, you mean ‘Life is too short’.

No, I meant what I said. Life is long, when you get on the wrong path or you are going through the darker days… then life is long. The days are long and the nights even longer, but also life is long if you want to make it so, just simply by living longer.

I am trying to make it longer now on many fronts, because a long life looks good from here.

Like everyone, I have had my ups and downs and I have faced challenges with my health, both physically and mentally, but I turned a corner on much of it and I continue to develop my thinking and my approach to life so that I will be able to turn any future corner… no doubt there will be. That is just life.

“A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.”

David Brinkley

So, I own an apple watch. I like it. It is a bit of a slave driver and there are times when I let it run my exercise routine, but now I manage it better. I don’t get too irate when I miss a goal… but it is great to build out the achievements and it is fulfilling to hit the goal.

I am currently average in my fitness and had a few injury’s recently. I think, in all honest I have let the injury’s hold me back. I have used it as an excuse to not exercise and at times I was right not to do some of the exercises I would have done.

Running, some strength training and H.I.T.

It was right to not do the above, because of my foot injury. But what else could I have done… I didn’t even look into it and so now after two months of lazy, I am back at average.

I don’t want to be average, so I will be back on the exercise trail from today. My watch is telling me so and it is well timed as I was feeling it around the midriff.

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”

Wayne Gretzky

Food and sleep is the right base to build a great foundation on. I sleep well enough and recently I have been enjoying my sleep. I get a satisfying 7 to 8 hours a night… I wake up like a robot and feel alert when I do. However, I do wake at 4:42 every morning and look at the clock and go back to sleep. Any thoughts on that?

I have made a big impact on my sleep quality, I am happy with that.

How?

Because I have been reducing the sugar in my food, eating more of a plant based diet and I have reduced my coffee intake (again) and for fine measure I am going to bed at a regular time and ditching the electronics an hour before. I see each challenge as the obstacle; yep, the old Stoic Philosophy.

I also fail the challenge on a regular basis, but I keep going. It is the way.

I know, that it has been said time-and-time again, ditch the electronics before bed. An hour is the recommendation. I am doing that now, inconsistently because I do need a dopamine hit now and again, but when the phone is ignored, ditched for the hour before I go to bed. Then. for sure. It is… a dream state.

Meditation is a funny old thing. Something that I am constantly playing around with and I have moments of real satisfaction and other times my head is shooting off into the past or into the future. I am told the point of the meditation is to train your brain to stay in the present. Mindfulness.

I am still training my old grey matter, but my imagination does take me on the emotional time travel and I had back into my past memories or more often or not, I race into my future possibilities.

It is going to take much more self regulation to keep my thoughts in the present for a decent length of time, however I have discovered another simple way to hold my thoughts in the moment.

Gratitude.

Take the time to recognise others for what they are doing in the moment. That takes attention, thought and it means you are present. It is rewarding to spend more time living in the present.

“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”

John Lennon

Question and be curious…

Health is as much about taking action to do things, get things done, to achieve stuff as much as it is about looking after your mind, body and spirit.

Take action on the things that you control. In the ‘personality responsibility cycle’ thoughts come first, then emotions, we then react or respond to what our emotions are telling us and then we can take action.

We are only the ‘taking of actions’ away from what we want in life, but take actions on what you can control by taking the time to pause and think just a little bit more on the subject. Be curious and questions things.

“For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: ‘If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?’ And whenever the answer has been ‘No’ for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something”

Steve Jobs

The one thing I do differently now from where I was this time last year is that I pause before I respond. That simple action has led me to ask the right questions, take clear actions and through this year, 2020, the toughest year on record for many…

I have kept it together.