Midlife Euphoria

Midlife euphoria Day 16

                   

                Sooner we realise, the better..................

His Holiness, The Dalai Lama was once
asked what thing about humanity surprises him the most.
His reply was: "Man.
Because he sacrifices his health to make money.

Then he sacrifices his money to regain his health.
And then he is so anxious about the future, that he doesn't
enjoy the present.
And as a result, he doesn't live in the present or for the
future.
And he lives as if he's never going to die.
And then he dies having never really lived."

I read this somewhere and realized how true this rings and on further reflection saw the wisdom that is implied in these words of his Holiness, The Dalai Lama.

Isn’t it true that most of us work fanatically putting in 10-12 hours of work (not taking the commute time which takes up a couple of hours more) when we are young? Not only that we then party till the wee hours of the morning and resume work the next day.

This pace of life is to protect ourselves financially and be able to take care of ourselves and our health when we are old. Firstly we are earning money to safe guard our health in the future, the very thing that we are abusing in our youth.

These days the young people start their careers with astounding pay packages. The remuneration looks very attractive but an employer who pays this kind of money wants his pound of flesh.

Result, these greenhorns work their buts off (literally- sitting on a computer from morn to night) labouring for 12-14 hours. Then they are expected to entertain, travel and meet deadlines. These naïve fools do not comprehend that the cunning employer is getting the work of two with wages for one and a half. Both go laughing to the bank but the poor worker is burnt out by the time he is forty and on top of it has a list of disorders that chase him for the rest of his life.

Gone are the good old days when government offices used to shut at five in the evening and the defense personnel put the shutters down at one noon. After a leisurely lunch and a nap at home, the evening was meant for out door games, brisk walks, exercise and socializing in the evenings. The scenario is no longer the same. You see harassed employees sitting in their chambers much after 8 pm. On reaching home they have no energy for outdoor or any other recreational pursuit. Invariably what becomes the refuge is the television which has been called the “The idiot box” by many. It is an indolent and inactive form of entertainment stifling communication skills and curbing intellectual stimulation. Not only that, creatively is massacred and we tend to become slaves of sluggishness swallowing any trash that is doled out. The exposé turns us off but one is too apathetic to think otherwise and slowly resign ourselves to our helpless fate becoming couch potatoes a term synonymous with obesity.

Obesity and insomnia is a root of sleep apnea, a term I was recently made familiar with. Inactivity in their life styles brings about obesity while trying to catch 36 hours from a normal cycle of 24 hours sets off insomnia. Shift work and jet lag are the other causes which makes one more prone to this disorder. In sleep apnea the throat collapses or becomes obstructed, causing breathing to stop for several seconds. Sixty to seventy percent of sleep apnea patients are obese.

The frequent drops in oxygen level and reduced sleep quality trigger the release of stress hormones. These compounds raise your heart rate and increase your risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, and arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats). The hormones also raise the risk of heart failure. These are some of the ailments the young are suffering from much ahead of time.

Doesn’t this scare the daylights out of you?

None of us start eating right, exercise or relax unless prescribed by the doctor. More and more people are going to dieticians, spiritual healers and meditation workshops, yoga instructors etc in their quest to obtain peace, equilibrium and general well being.

Young people sport grey hair, suffer from hypertension and diabetes and undergo cardio-vascular disturbance much before age.

The reason behind it is “A life style change” and the remedy is “A life style change”

Why is the youth emulating us the mid- lifers in the way we look. Too early they have grey hair, paunches and stiffness of bones and other medical issues we may or may not have. Instead why don’t they embrace the life style of “take it easy”, working at our pace, more tolerance, eating right and exercising enough to keep our limbs working? Why must they first accumulate wealth by destroying their wellbeing and then nurse themselves back disseminating the very assets they killed themselves to earn?

We must learn to live moderately, value our possessions and have the capacity to enjoy them for the longest time.

It is easier said than done. Each one of us has to tread on this path, learn from our faults and chalk out our own future plans and reach this level of realization.

Thankfully we at midlife have moved on to this comfort zone. We have done it and seen it all and moved on. Therefore we are happier, more relaxed and moving at a healthier pace of life. There is no rush in our lives. If we can’t get something today we can wait till tomorrow. We are calm and a lot more tolerant, maintaining a better equilibrium in our life.

Three cheers for Midlife!!!!