When you lead such a lifestyle, you devote yourself to going beyond the everyday routines that people live by, the second-hand beliefs and opinions we have all adopted, the stories we continually cling to, and the agenda of the ego. The best lifestyle can be described in a single phrase, waking up. The best lifestyle needs to include the spiritual and yet go beyond the connotations of spirituality-in other words, we need a “meta” lifestyle. You might be surprised to discover that this isn’t a spiritual lifestyle-I deliberately avoided even using the word spiritual in the book. With that in mind, I wrote a book a few years ago titled Metahuman, which takes its title from the Greek word “meta,” which means “beyond.” I set out to find the best lifestyle that brings lifelong well-being in the present chaotic condition of the modern world. The most enlightened diet, exercise, meditation, and Yoga program do not provide a solution. You cannot put your head deep enough in the sand to be unaffected. They provide a background of troubling chaos. Dealing with malaria in Africa, opiate addiction in the Rust Belt, suicide among veterans, or the looming prospect of Alzheimer’s-take any one of these and you can devote every waking hour to it.įor the average person, however, the real issue is that no one can block out or escape these trends. Any single issue on this list is enough to overwhelm your life if you dwell on it. They are inescapable, and the individual is powerless to solve them. You hear about them every day or actually experience them. Runaway disparity between rich and poor.Collapse of trust in public institutions and politics.Global problems such as climate change, terrorism, and refugeeism.Dislocation and crumbling of traditional families.Rampant consumerism spreading to more countries.A deluge of distractions including the Internet and video games.These trends include the following (they don’t make for nice reading): What statistics fail to reveal is that modern secular society has some dominant trends that work against true, lasting well-being. But let’s stick with the assumption that you enjoy a healthy lifestyle, to which we will add that you meditate regularly and perhaps attend yoga class.Īs beneficial as such a lifestyle is, the key to the best lifestyle hasn’t been found. For example, about 50% of adults under thirty take regular vigorous exercise, a number that falls off with every passing decade, reaching a low point with adults over seventy. That’s a big assumption because age and education have a major impact in those areas. Let’s assume that you have already made good choices about diet and exercise. You might go on to ask, “What is the absolute best lifestyle?” This can be a life-changing question. As a result, better choices are being made by most people, and an improved lifestyle is the result.
But there’s enough information available to give pause. You have the freedom to choose a lifestyle that includes tobacco and alcohol, no exercise, and a diet heavy in processed foods, hydrogenated fat, and sugar. Most of the worst risks are still connected with bad choices. Previously, maintaining physical health was centered on preventing risks like smoking and high cholesterol diet, and medical training in wellness was practically nil. This was the most important turning point for the wellness movement. Choosing your personal lifestyle became critically important starting only a few decades ago, after it was realized that your well-being, and especially your health, depends on your lifestyle.
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