8. Active social life.

Last, but not least, in our list of 8 things you can do to improve your overall wellness is to lead an active social life.


As this article points out, if stress is the villain of the story, then an active social life is the hero.

An active social life has been shown to delay dementia, Alzheimers and other age related disorders.

Whether volunteering in your community, taking adult ed classes at a school, bowling, bingo, square dancing, joining a writer's or reader's group, it's good for you.

And no, I don't think playing farmville on facebook is quite what the researchers have been looking into...

7. Reduce stress

We've written before about the value of optimism and meditation. 

It's long been known that some stress, acute stress, can be good for you.  

We evolved to run from giant predators.

But chronic stress, long term stress, is terrible for you. It accelerates aging, contributes to dementia and Alzheimer's, increases the severity of cardiovascular disease.

Eliminating chronic stress is one of the most successful methods you can adopt for increasing your overall health.

Exercise, meditation, gratitude practice:  there are a lot of mechanisms to help you deal with stress.  Find one that works for you.

Ebola - should you worry?

The Ebola virus is incredibly virulent, killing 50-90% of those that have become infected. 

There's no vaccine and there's no cure.

Should you worry that we're bringing a patient back to the US?  This article suggests that no, the facility was built to contain diseases far more infectious than the Ebola virus.

Is this the worst known Ebola outbreak in history?  Yes, it appears to be...but I encourage you to browse this quick article about Ebola...it's not all doom and gloom.

6. Quality Sleep

Quality sleep.  

You need it.   

We've written about it before, but good quality sleep is one of the most effective mechanisms for keeping your body and your life on track.

And you might want to check out this article about surprising signs that you're sleep deprived.

9-1-1 friday fun

You know the emergency number.  But how did it BECOME the emergency number?

Here's a fun article from gizmodo about how 911 became our national emergency line.

In the meantime, some facts:

• The first call to 911 in the United States: Haleyville, Alabama on February 16, 1968. The person who placed the call was Senator Rankin Fite.
• Nome, Alaska, established the country’s second 9-1-1 emergency system only a few weeks after Haleyville
• Great Britain was the first country to establish a universal emergency number (999) in 1937
• An estimated 200 million calls are made to 9-1-1 in the U.S. each year.
• 99% of the population is covered with 9-1-1 service

9-1-1 calls should be reserved for true emergencies.  Otherwise, you might end up here or here.

<- or here.

 

5. Keep mentally stimulated.

Learn to play a musical instrument, a new skill, a new language.

Keep actively engaged with learning new cool things.  It's now well documented that staying engaged and lifelong learning can stave off cognitive and memory decline.

Watching TV doesn't count.  It's got do be doing something where you participate, engage, get involved.  

So no, TV doesn't count...not even if you're throwing things at it.

Music.

Yes, another post about music.  And it won't be the last.

I take it as given that when music no longer moves you, you've lost something irreplaceable.

A friend of mine volunteers in his community by playing guitar in a hospice.  This article is from a friend of his also working with the elderly and music

If You Had Dementia, What Songs Would Be on Your Playlist?

So pick up that instrument you played in Junior High.  Or pick up another.  Or just sing.

If nothing else, turn off the tv and turn off the talk radio: that stuff isn't helping you.

Turn on some music and let your soul fly free.