Yes, Lying on a Sun-Baked Beach Makes You Happy

Ok, I am not making this up. "As the thermometer goes up, so does your mood -- according to a new University of Colorado study. CU scientist Christopher Lowry, an assistant professor of integrative physiology, received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to continue studying the link between temperature and mood." At first, I was going to make this about place, one of the four elements of the "good life" in the study done by the MetLife Mature Market Institute with Dr. Richard Leider. Leider hypothesized that the Good Life was composed of four elements—Money, Meaning, Medicine and Place; and went on to discover that Meaning trumps all of them in the minds of the majority of more than a thousand persons aged 45-74 in this study group.

But enough about that, I was using the sun-baked beach headline to congratulate myself on the fact that I have settled on an island off the Carolina coast. But as I read on, I learned that warmth can come from within as well. The sense of well-being that comes from warmth can come from elevating your body temperature with exercise. Another data point on why we feel better after we exercise, isn't it? It seems that we have known since the 1970's that warming a small area of the skin on rats in the laboratory produced heightened levels of serotonin in the brain. So, we can get this mood-elevating boost from lying on the beach, or from exercising. What about the warm feeling that doing something for someone else can produce? Let's ask Dr. Lowry to work that into his study. I think I know already, but I'd like to know if science backs that up.

Persistence and Integrity

On a recent Saturday, my barber and I were having a discussion about persistence and integrity. Huh? It seems she asked me how I planned to spend the rest of my day off. Being honest, I told her I had to go home and finish my vacuuming. She giggled at this, and I explained that I am the designated vacuumer in our house, thanks to my commitment to my position on the subject of whether we buy another vacuum. You see, we replaced our last vacuum while it still had some useful life. My spouse was tired of the fact that it was a nuisance to empty it as you tended to spread dust around when doing so. The dust could have been controlled with a little caution. She tired of the new vacuum quickly ("It's too hard to push"). Being the man, I refused to buy another vacuum so soon when we now had two serviceable vacuums. Always a step ahead of me, she promptly informed me that I could do the vacuuming, then. My barber thought I might be a bit "stubborn," I called it "persistence." I acknowledged to her that I am weakening, and may be buying a vacuum shortly.

She asked if I had tried doing a very bad job of vacuuming and I said it was another weakness of mine, I just couldn't do a bad job on purpose. She paused for a while, then remarked, "I guess you probably call that 'integrity' instead of 'stupidity,' don't you?"

Is it Being Laid Back or Procrastinating

I live on an island. In this insulated atmosphere, many people are described as "laid back," which I take to mean the opposite of "hyper," or "wound too tight." If you are laid back, you tend to be more patient, accepting of others, and possessing something close to equanimity about others whom you encounter. In other words, in this case, the Dalai Lama's, to you "Each and every being wants/strives to be happy and to avoid suffering. In this fundamental way, all beings are equal." That may be a bit too lofty, but I think it is the logical extension of the feeling that comes over me here in this place. This is not the view held by some who visit, and even some who have lived here for years. Their perception is that things move too slowly and that there is no sense of urgency. People just find reasons to procrastinate on everything.

I can accept that fewer show the outward signs of urgency (the frown, the bent forward posture when walking forward—always briskly with the head down, or the car weaving in and out of traffic, etc.) in this place. I can also accept there are some who have nothing to do, but there are people like that everywhere. But joy gets people alive and moving, too. You can be driven by externals or drawn by what you feel inside of you. Capturing the latter seems more possible here. Procrastinating is, literally from the Latin pro + cras meaning "for tomorrow." Hence, it becomes leaving things for tomorrow. But, responding to today is not procrastinating. It's living in the present, which is literally all we have. As long as what we pursue in the present is not merely pleasure or gratification, then living for today is not procrastination, it's the pursuit of happiness. I'll take living "laid back" for one more day, I think.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yes, it's true. I have a birthday. Thankful to be around for one more. Getting over the flu this week has reminded me how important feeling good can be to making progress. Everything I usually initiate ground to a halt, and I just reacted to what came along. Not exactly living the life you imagined. Makes me marvel at those who struggle with chronic health challenges, and wonder how they cope. That takes me to where I want to be in another year.

I'm finding that progress for me can be measured around birthdays far more effectively than the passing of calendar years. You see, each calendar year measures the time of the planet earth or of civilization, not my time. On the other hand, each birthday I know my little window of opportunity has shortened by another year. It's probably why Tim Crowley's book, Younger Next Year, appealed to me so when I first ran across it. I have adopted a few of his recommendations, but have a long way to go in restoring myself physically. But I take courage from the fact that I get twice as much exercise and weigh 30 lbs. less than I did just two birthdays ago. But, I digress. In the coming year, I want to upgrade my level of exercise (to five days a week of aerobics and 4 for strength) and drop another 10 lbs. I also want to show up here and exercise my brain a whole lot more. That means writing twice a week, so let's get going.