The Most Life-Shortening Habits: It's Not Smoking or Drinking but These Three

There is an alarming decline in health among urban dwellers. It draws attention to modern lifestyle habits that are increasingly detrimental to both physical and mental well-being. Here’s a deeper look into the key points and recommendations:

1. Chronic Sleep Deprivation: The Silent Killer

My uncle suffered severe health complications due to long-term sleep deprivation. He worked nearly a decade on only 4-5 hours of sleep per night and developed acute liver failure at the age of 36, a condition with an 85% mortality rate. His case illustrates how ignoring the need for proper rest can lead to life-threatening outcomes.

Scientific Insights

• During sleep, DNA repair mechanisms are highly active, helping to counteract the daily wear and tear on the body's cells.
• Research from Molecular Cell shows that high-quality sleep of at least 6 hours optimizes the body's repair processes. However, sleeping less than 4 hours severely disrupts this balance, leading to accumulative DNA damage that increases the risk of cancer, heart disease, and neurodegenerative disorders.

Consequences of Poor Sleep

• Cognitive Decline: Damaged neurons lead to memory issues and reduced mental clarity.
• Metabolic Issues: Impaired digestion and abnormal metabolism cause obesity and diabetes.
• Reproductive Challenges: DNA damage in reproductive cells can lead to fertility issues.
• Heart Problems: Prolonged poor sleep increases the risk of heart disease and hypertension.

Recommendations for Better Sleep

• Establish a consistent bedtime and wake-up routine.
• Avoid using electronic devices before sleep to reduce blue light exposure.
• Replace overstimulating nighttime habits (e.g., gaming, scrolling social media) with calming activities like reading, taking a warm bath, or listening to relaxing music.
• Strive for a minimum of 6 hours of quality sleep every night.

2. The Toxic Impact of Negative Emotions

The second harmful habit is the failure to manage negative emotions. The article recounts the story of a woman who developed breast cancer largely due to her tendency to harbor resentment and stress. Prolonged negative emotions—anger, sadness, jealousy—can significantly harm physical health.

Scientific Backing

• Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn discovered that stress accelerates the shortening of telomeres, which protect DNA. Shortened telomeres are linked to faster aging and higher risks of chronic diseases.
• Studies also show that chronic stress and emotional suppression can weaken the immune system, disrupt hormonal balance, and increase vulnerability to diseases.

Real-World Examples

• Caregivers under constant stress exhibited accelerated aging due to shortened telomeres.
• Conversely, those who practiced mindfulness and meditation saw improvements in telomere length, effectively slowing biological aging.

Recommendations for Emotional Health

• Practice mindfulness or meditation to reduce stress.
• Engage in activities that promote relaxation and joy, like yoga, art, or spending time in nature.
• Seek therapy or counseling if negative emotions become overwhelming.
• Cultivate gratitude and positivity, focusing on solutions rather than dwelling on problems.

3. Prolonged Sedentary Behavior: The Lifestyle Disease

Modern jobs often demand hours of sitting, leading to what experts call "sitting disease." The article recounts the story of a young woman diagnosed with “dead butt syndrome” (gluteal amnesia) and a retiree who suffered life-threatening blood clots after prolonged sitting. These stories underscore the dangers of a sedentary lifestyle.

Health Risks of Prolonged Sitting

• Muscle Atrophy: Inactive gluteal muscles weaken, leading to imbalances that strain other body parts like the back and knees.
• Blood Clots: Reduced circulation increases the risk of deep vein thrombosis, which can be fatal if clots travel to vital organs.
• Chronic Diseases: Sitting for long periods contributes to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and even cancer.

Supporting Research

The World Health Organization lists prolonged sitting as one of the top ten causes of death and disease globally. A study equates the harm of sitting for one hour to smoking two cigarettes, reducing life expectancy by 22 minutes.

Recommendations for an Active Lifestyle

• Take a 5-minute break every hour to stretch or walk.
• Use standing desks or incorporate activities like walking meetings.
• Integrate exercise into daily routines, such as cycling to work or taking the stairs.
• Pursue hobbies that require movement, like dancing, gardening, or playing sports.

Final Reflections: Health as the Foundation of Life

The article concludes with a powerful message: Health is the foundation of everything. While the modern world pushes people toward endless hustle and ambition, neglecting health can have irreversible consequences.

Key Takeaways

• Work-life Balance: No job is worth sacrificing your health. Your body is irreplaceable, but work can always be delegated or replaced.
• Preventive Care: Regular exercise, healthy sleep, and positive emotional habits can drastically improve both the quality and length of life.
• Self-love and Awareness: Prioritize self-care and listen to your body. Small, consistent changes can prevent future health crises.

In a fast-paced era, it’s easy to be consumed by external pressures, but true fulfillment lies in nurturing a healthy body and mind. By taking care of ourselves today, we ensure the ability to enjoy life’s beauty tomorrow.

Read Also:

What do the wealthy people teach you? Part 1

Mastering Rest: The Art of Truly Capable Individuals

After toiling for more than 300+ days, as the year draws to a close, fatigue fills the bodies and eyes of every worker.

In the past year, many have experienced this: When work becomes challenging, the more you rush to finish quickly, the more mistakes you make. When temporarily unable to find solutions, the more anxious and panicked you become, the more counterproductive it is, resulting in chaos.

With the rapid development of the times and increasing competition around us, we dare not stop.

Humans are like rubber bands—the tighter they are stretched, the easier they break. Those who know how to rest also know how to work; resting is the first step to improving work efficiency.

As the end of the year approaches, giving yourself time to breathe after a year of hard work enables you to handle things efficiently and orderly, and life and work will progress and develop as you wish.

More important than working hard is knowing how to rest.

Henry Ford, the automotive tycoon, once said: "People who only know how to work without knowing how to rest are like cars without brakes—extremely dangerous." Indeed, a person, like a machine, if relentlessly pursuing efficiency without understanding the need to stop and rest, will only backfire.

I recalled a story my friend shared with me before. One school vacation, she and another girl, both graduate students from top universities, interned at a bank. To secure a permanent position, my friend worked tirelessly, barely leaving her seat except for meals and restroom breaks, often working overtime until midnight.

The other girl, however, left punctually at the end of each workday, sometimes slipping out during office hours under the pretext of getting water. During lunch breaks, she wouldn't return until it was time to work. Surprisingly, after the internship, the supervisors decided to keep the other girl.

When my friend later chatted with her, she understood: every time the girl slipped out, she sensed her concentration declining. To maintain efficiency, she took short breaks to relax and refresh her mind. This balanced work rhythm made her more efficient, composed, and allowed her to carve out more leisure time for self-improvement.

Often, working hard is not a display of ability; knowing how to rest is.

Frederick Taylor, the father of scientific management in the 20th century, took over an ironworks factory and, to improve efficiency, made three requests to the workers:

1. Mandatory 5-minute breaks every hour, even if they didn't feel tired;

2. Reduce the daily working hours from 10 or 12 to 8.5 hours;

3. Ensure everyone is focused and efficient at work.

These seemingly simple requirements miraculously improved worker efficiency. Previously, workers could handle about 12 tons of iron per day on average, but under his management, they could handle about 48 tons per day without feeling fatigued.

"Resting" is as essential to "working efficiently" as a charger is to a phone—indispensable.

To work efficiently, one must first learn to rest efficiently. The most admirable quality of truly capable individuals is not their diligence at work but their "laziness" when resting. Progress is a capability, but pausing is wisdom. Every break charges the body.

You need to prepare for Monday. To do this, use the weekend to rejuvenate yourself rather than ending up exhausted. In the past year, perhaps you've had experiences like this: to finish remaining work from weekdays, you canceled all plans over the weekend.

When Monday came, although you completed the work, the quality was poor, and you felt exceptionally tired. Because you didn't rest well over the weekend, your work efficiency for the new week was low. By Friday, if the work wasn't finished, you'd enter a cycle of exhaustion.

True high-quality rest is never a waste of time but a period of recharging for the body and mind. When a writer faces writer's block, the more they force themselves to write well, the more difficult it becomes. Yet, they refuse to set it aside. So, they write with increasing frustration and decreasing quality.

Whenever they realize their state isn't good, they immediately leave their work and take a walk in the countryside to relax. Returning to their writing desk, they feel rejuvenated, and tasks they once thought impossible become effortless.

This experience taught them that, not only in writing but in anything one wants to excel in, ensuring one is mentally fresh at the beginning is crucial. To them, the smarter a person is, the more they understand the need to rest.

The body is the capital for survival, and resting is the prelude to sprinting. In fact, scientists have found that the brain is as active during rest as it is during work. When resting, some areas of the brain may even be more active, and the level of connectivity between some areas is higher, indicating stronger cognitive abilities.

Conversely, the more one struggles to think when lacking ideas, the more counterproductive it becomes. Our bodies, minds, and brains are like rubber bands—the tighter you stretch them, the more likely they are to break. When work becomes directionless, it's better to set it aside, giving the brain a buffer period, which may lead to new discoveries.

Rest is not a singular activity but a synonym for achieving a better state.

Learning to rest is not only giving the tired brain a period of recharge but also giving a busy life a buffering period. Learning to recharge enables efficient release of energy; learning to buffer maintains a positive mindset at all times. Treating oneself well starts with learning to rest.

Rest is not doing nothing; it's actually compensating for certain losses in the body.

Sometimes, life seems short, and time seems scarce, so we rush headlong, but this only leads to loss. Only when one learns high-quality rest can they take care of their body and gain irreplaceable wealth and capital. So, how does one become someone who knows how to rest?

Start with the following:

1. Stick to an early bedtime to rejuvenate your spirit. Late nights have become a habit for modern people. But early bedtime is a common trait of those who know how to rest. Going to bed at a reasonable time is the first step in ensuring sleep quality and the first step in learning to rest. Early sleep and rest allow life and body to gradually enter a proper state, not only beneficial for physical and mental health but also for better immersion in life and work.

2. Cultivate a hobby to awaken your passion for life. Hobbies are like seasoning in life. When you feel tired, they can quickly replenish your energy; when you encounter difficulties, they can help you temporarily escape. In the face of a fast-paced life, some people enjoy gardening, some enjoy reading, some enjoy sports... Find something that allows you to completely relax and immerse yourself.

3. Alternate work to give the brain a break. After observing the working habits of many celebrities, I found that they always work for a period of time before doing something else. Although it may seem less focused, it's actually a form of rest.

Psychologists have found that the brain can only maintain a high level of concentration for about 53 minutes. So, to ensure work efficiency, give your brain a relaxation buffer time.

For example: work for an hour, then take a break; or after completing a segment of work, switch to another task to give your brain a change of pace and relax. Learning to "distract" appropriately is the key to true efficiency.

The longer you walk without resting, the slower you walk. Many accomplished individuals spend what seems like effortful but inefficient time resting. Mindlessly rushing forward is less effective than slowing down to admire the scenery along the way; ineffective work is less beneficial than high-quality rest, giving your body and mind a "cleansing" treatment.

Read Also:

Ghosted: The Ultimate Adult Rejection

Listen: Podcast

Why the Most Comfortable People Are Often a Little Selfish

"Being soft-hearted and shy will only kill yourself. Rational indifference and coldness are survival tools."

At first, this may sound somewhat cold-hearted, but upon deeper reflection, it actually makes a lot of sense. People tend to prioritize others' feelings over their own in many situations. This could be due to a tendency to please others, accommodate their needs, or avoid conflict. But by doing so, they end up neglecting their own emotional health and well-being.

The Issue of Prioritizing Others Over Yourself:

The common human tendency to put others first, which, although often seen as a virtue, can be self-destructive if taken too far. For example, the passage illustrates how some people will go out of their way to help others, even at the cost of their own comfort or desires. One example is the story of a self-proclaimed "easy-to-please" person, someone who constantly accommodates friends and coworkers even when they’re exhausted, only to find that their own needs are unmet. This behavior can lead to emotional exhaustion and even health problems, as seen in the case of a woman who, after years of pushing her own needs aside, developed a health issue linked to emotional suppression.

Learning to Say "No" and Set Boundaries:

It is okay—sometimes necessary—to put yourself first. It tells the story of a woman named Jane, a social media influencer who used to be overly accommodating to others. She would work through exhaustion, help friends even when she was too tired, and sacrifice her own rest to meet others’ demands. However, after a health scare and receiving advice from her doctor, Xiao Xiao began to make changes. She started saying "no" to things she didn’t want to do, even when it was uncomfortable. Surprisingly, she found that by not overextending herself, her life became lighter, and her health improved.

This story highlights the importance of setting boundaries in order to preserve one’s mental and physical well-being. Saying "no" can be difficult, especially when people fear disappointing others, but it can ultimately lead to a healthier, more balanced life.

The Dangers of People-Pleasing:

A key insight comes from a popular online discussion about why people feel increasingly tired and unhappy. The most upvoted response points out that the main reason people feel this way is because they spend too much energy trying to meet others’ expectations while neglecting their own. This often results in a lack of fulfillment and a sense of emotional depletion.

The passage asserts that we frequently misprioritize in social interactions: we give too much importance to how others feel and ignore our own emotional needs. This imbalance can lead to feelings of resentment and burnout. In fact, people’s emotions, while important, should never outweigh our own. The suggestion is to practice a healthy level of "selfishness"—to prioritize your own emotional needs, even when it means disappointing others.

Selfishness as a Tool for Healthy Relationships:

 “Selfishness” can be a form of self-preservation. It doesn’t mean disregarding others entirely, but rather ensuring that your own needs are met first. You can still be kind, helpful, and generous, but you must never allow others to take more from you than you are willing to give. The key is to maintain your own emotional health and not overextend yourself for people who might not appreciate your sacrifices. In doing so, you ensure that your relationships remain healthy and mutually supportive.

The Importance of Knowing When to Step Back:

The passage includes an example from a TV show, where a character, B, tries to "rescue" her friend W by offering career advice, even though W is perfectly content with her current job as a taxi driver. Despite her friend’s resistance, B continues to push her own idea of what is best for W. This behavior reflects the “savior complex,” where one person tries to impose their beliefs or solutions on another, even when it’s not wanted. This kind of behavior can be damaging and lead to conflict, as seen in the show when the two characters fall out after a heated argument.

The advice here is to respect others' choices and not impose your own standards onto them, even if you believe you are helping. Not everyone wants or needs your advice or assistance, and sometimes, your actions can feel intrusive or overbearing.

The Energy Exchange in Relationships:

Relationships are an exchange of energy. People bring different levels of energy to interactions, and for relationships to thrive, both parties need to contribute positively. If a relationship consistently drains you, it may be time to reevaluate it. For instance, there is a story of a woman who distanced herself from a negative, pessimistic friend in order to preserve her own mental health and well-being. By cutting ties with this draining relationship, she found space for more positive, supportive friendships that helped her grow.

Conclusion:

The overall message is clear: prioritize your own well-being, set boundaries, and don't be afraid to be a little selfish when it comes to your emotional health. This doesn’t mean being unkind, but it does mean understanding that your needs are just as important as anyone else's. Taking care of yourself first is the key to leading a balanced, fulfilling life. Life is short, and there’s no need to sacrifice your own peace for the sake of others who may not appreciate your efforts. By practicing self-care and setting boundaries, you can build more meaningful, mutually beneficial relationships.

Read Also:

Things I learnt from the past 10 years of work