Good day, sunshine!
Hope you are having a great start of the week!
I would like to share with you 5 interesting facts that I get inspired by:
1. HOW LONG WE LIVE.
Did you know that an average lifespan is 4000 weeks?
Imagine if 4000 weeks we spent doing what we love and feeling happy, wouldn’t that be wonderful?
The reality is…we don’t. We get bogged down by stress and demands, we strive to excel at work and a lot of time we leave our personal life and happiness on a side.
2. HOW QUICKLY WE RENEW OURSELVES
The good news is that we can change it at any time in our life. Scientists estimated that we replace around one percent of our cells each day, amounting to 30 percent by next month and 100 percent by next season. That is both true for body and brain.*
Seeing yourself and your cells in this way, every three months you get a WHOLE NEW YOU.
3. CELL DECAY vs. CELL GROWTH.
More fascinating is the discovery that the pace of a cell renewal depends on what you do and how you feel. A key signal that tells your cells whether to decay or grow, is movement. A sedentary lifestyle hastens cell decay. An active lifestyle hastens cell renewal.**
4. POWER OF EMOTIONS.
Your emotions are thought to be another key signal. Negativity prompts cell decay. Positivity prompts cell growth.***
I personally experienced effects of both: when I lived some of the worst weeks of my life and the best ones that I’m living now. Comparing the two, one thing that changed my life forever was… 5 positive thoughts to each negative.
5. HOW TO BE HAPPY.
External and internal happiness is quite different. Many times when we get to a certain level in our career or buy something, we think we are happy, but that’s temporary. What makes it more sustainable, is our SELF-ESTEEM and RELATIONSHIPS. ****
Relationships are the most important investment we can have in our life, in terms of our time and effort.
* Crowley, C. and H. S. Lodge (2004), Younger Next Year: A Guide to Living Like 50 Until You’re 80 and Beyond (New York: Workman)
** Kempermann, G., H. G. Kuhn, and F.H. Gage (1997), “More hippocampal neurons in adult mice living in an enriched environment“, Nature 86: 493-95
*** Cotman, C.W., N.C. Berchtold, and L. Christie (2007), “Exercise builds brain health: Key roles of growth factor cascades and inflammation”, Trends in Neurosciences 30: 464-72.
**** Crowley and Lodge, 2004; see also Davidson, R.J., D. Jackson, and N.H. Kalin (2000), “Emotions, plasticity, context, and regulation: Perspectives from affective neuroscience“, Psychological Bulletin 126:890-909.