Sunday Story…The Third Pillar

“No cure that fails to engage our spirit can make us well.”

---Viktor Frankl

I came across this quote the other day and I thought it particularly relevant to our discussions over the past few weeks about living longer better. This is the third pillar of increasing your “health span”.

First, we have exercise and fitness, then nutrition, then your emotional health. Failing to address all three pillars is like having a two-legged stool…you might be able to sit on it, but it is going to be very precarious.

You can be the fittest on the planet but if your emotional/mental/spiritual health is not right your fitness will suffer. We have seen many cases of prominent athletes needing to step away from their sports due to mental health issues. The same can be said of your nutrition…it can be dialed in tight but if that third pillar is crumbling, you may as well eat sawdust.

So, on my journey to the Centenarian Olympics, I am going to need to engage my spirit to fully realize all the benefits of increasing my health span. This means having healthy and varied relationships. Think of close relatives, friends, and acquaintances, as well as other human interactions. We humans are designed to be social. Another important tool for this pillar is the practice of gratitude. Another is finding joy in the mundane everyday practice of living. A connection with the divine will also put you in a place that is going to allow you to access all the benefits of the three pillars.

Our goal is to live life fully human utilizing all the benefits we can derive from outstanding fitness, close care of our nutritional biochemistry, and a functioning relationship with those people around us and the world we live in as well as the divine source.

 

John Mariotti

www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com

www.crossfitodyssey.com

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