What I Learnt This Week: Turning Back Time, Pleasure vs Pain, Process vs Goals

Happy Friday!

Before I start, I wanted to mention that my book, Metamorphosis, is now out in the world! It’s a framework for getting out of those safe, familiar cocoons that we’ve constructed for ourselves and making the changes necessary for us to live a life of joy, wonder and purpose. It’s available on Amazon, iBooks, Kobo and Nook. If you’d like a free sample, please shout.

Here are 3 things I learnt this week.

1.We can genetically turn back time. I listened to a fascinating Goop podcast interview with Dr David Sinclair, Harvard professor and author of Lifespan. The technological advances he and others are making in reversing ageing are jaw-dropping. They can now reset the genome of the eye in mice and turn back time; they’ll soon be able to do the same for humans in the eye, spine and beyond. This is because the memory of and information about how to be young still resides in our bodies! Other great takeaways: 

• If we cured all cancer, we’d only live 2.5 years longer on average because of all the other diseases whose likelihood ramps up as we age
• For every 4 more years we live, we’ll gain an extra year thanks to technological advances
• We need to experience hunger and cold to turn on our longevity genes (the latter was underlined when I rewatched the excellent Wim Hof episode of Goop Labs on Netflix). They turn on our longevity genes. Complacency is not good for our bodies
• He takes Metformin - it’s a Type II Diabetes drug which also prevents cancer, Alzheimers and heart disease
• He also takes Resveratrol - the polyphenol from red wine - as a powder. Mice on a western diet who took Resveratrol lived as long, and had equally healthy organs, as those mice on a lean diet who exercised. PS - you can’t get a high enough dose from red wine!!
• Smoking, CT scans, x-rays, chemo, all break our DNA

2. I was reminded how quickly I can change what causes me pleasure and pain. Tony Robbins says that if we can master what causes us pleasure and pain we are completely in control, as the desire to gain pleasure and avoid pain drive all our behaviours (see his awesome book, Awaken the Giant Within). Cold and hunger are two conditions I usually resist with all my being. I snack at any sign of hunger and I layer on the knits, cups of tea and hot water bottles when I’m chilly. But having listened to the above, I’ve started to embrace the cold (and hunger, kind of) - I’ve instantly switched my perception of them from painful to beneficial. I finished my shower this morning with an icy blast and managed 10 seconds - I’ll build it up!

3. The process is more important than the goals. I’m finally reading Atomic Habits by James Clear, and it’s a brilliant reminder of the power of small, consistent habits. He argues that goals are flawed because goals don’t = success (everyone who applies for a job has the goal of getting the job), they’re temporary (we stop trying when we hit our goal) and it makes us unhappy when we don’t achieve them. On the contrary, when we have a great process we get great results. Clear says: ‘When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy. You can be satisfied anytime your system is running.’

Have a great weekend!

Sara

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