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This podcast is focused on challenges that are routinely encountered by men aged 50 - 70, but
not often discussed. Although targeted to them, this is also applicable to older / younger men
who are looking for ways to age differently, as well as the women that are involved in their lives.
Stress, relationships, male friendships, diet, mindfulness, aging with vitality and dying are just
some of the many topics that are covered. A rotating series of guest speakers join the podcast
to provide insights and wisdom relating to other relevant topics such as EMF radiation,
emotional intelligence, mindfulness and hair health.
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Unknown
Background music
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Peter
Good day. Welcome. Welcome to this next episode of our podcast 50 to 70. Meaningful conversations between men. My name is Peter Callin. I'm delighted to be here with my co-host Darius Naigamwalla
.
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Darius
Every time it gets better, Peter.
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Peter
And, I'm glad that the audience is also here with us.
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Peter
Do I say hello to the audience?
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Darius
If everybody. This is, hopefully a lot of you guys have been our gals have been listening to these podcasts and, special invite any women that are listening to, better understand the men in their lives. Great to have you guys here with us as well.
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Peter
Yeah, it's a good point. We don't want to exclude the women, but we feel there's such a need for men to have meaningful conversations. So our focus is there. So what are we talking about today?
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Darius
So today's conversation is going to be it's evolved. We were going to initially focus in on the benefit of micro stressors, micro stressors being anything that stimulates the body to repair and grow. But for those listeners of the podcast you've hopefully picked up by now that we're not just about physical wellbeing, we want to integrate the mental, the emotional and the spiritual wellbeing.
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Darius
So today's podcast is going to be about continuing to grow and to challenge yourself in this 50 to 70 time period, to try new things, to learn new things. We'll give some examples. We'll talk about some of the benefits and our experiences with them. But that's what we're going to be talking about today is the need to grow.
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Darius
And you know, the one somebody once told me, if you're not growing, you're shrinking. Now, I don't know if I agree with that binary mentality, but if you're not growing well, then you're not changing. Then you're not evolving. And in my mind, you're taking a back seat. You're letting forces dictate where you go. This is being more active and making a conscious decision to try new things, and to open yourself up to those experiences.
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Peter
So what comes up for me is so what? Why is growth and evolution important?
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Darius
Yeah, I guess is all the ones. I'd love to have you answer your own question, but.
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Peter
Well, I just don't see how you can live a life that's fulfilled. Joyful experiences, love experiences, pain. Success. Failure if you're not pushing yourself to grow and learn.
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Darius
Okay. In the in my mind, you don't have the experiences. If all we do is that which we are accustomed to, and it is our habit. We're essentially living the same day over and over again. I mean, I love that movie Groundhog Day. And I think one of the things that Bill Murray does in that movie, he takes advantage of the situation that is presented to him, and he learns new things.
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Darius
Not easy of service to everybody in that town, which is the overarching message. But he learns things along the way as well. Yeah. So let's talk about something that something new you've tried. And what prompted you to do it. Your experience with it.
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Peter
Let me guess. Does it have anything to do with.
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Darius
Be anything you want.
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Peter
Oh how about cold.
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Darius
Cold. There's quite a trend these days about cold therapy. Well, why don't you share your experience?
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Peter
Well, it's it's not the first time as a young athlete in Michigan. We we dropped into ice baths periodically, and I did it a couple times. But now, fast forward decades later, and it's become, a trend. It's become an, a practice that can invigorate, help heal, promote the well-being of the body. And so you have been doing it, for a while, and you invited me to, share with you your infrared sauna, which I'm guessing a lot of people have done hot saunas.
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Peter
But then you've invited me to step into an ice bucket. I call it a bucket. It's a little bit better. Bigger than.
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Darius
A bucket. Not much.
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Peter
And, And sit in it for as long as I could tolerate it. And what are the benefits of that again?
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Darius
Well, there I mean, for me, the benefits one and I'm. I have a cold shower every morning, so it's something.
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Peter
That. Yeah, that's another thing I forgot to mention. Darius has been trying to get me to take a cold shower.
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Darius
So hot shower, cold shower. And I can tell you a it takes a year for it to become a habit. Most habits are formed in 60 days. This one takes a year. The benefits stand to your question. Well, one you have the mental benefit of if I can sit in this ice for 2 minutes or 3 minutes, I can do anything.
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Darius
The cold shower in the morning, the benefits. I wake up in the morning. Not primed, I guess is the best way to say it. I get in the shower and seven minutes warm, and then I go cold. And about four minutes into the cold, the body wakes up and running down the stairs. In the morning, everything feels loose, ready to go.
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Darius
The cold benefits are. I mean, when you go from the sauna and the sauna takes your body temperature up well above normal right to the cold. The best way is explained to me. It's like. It's like kickstarting an engine, right? You going from the heat to the cold? The heat is dilating. Everything. Everything is relaxed, everything is flushed.
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Darius
And then you get in the cold and everything contracts so that lint, it gets circulated right through you and pushes it through. There's a lot of biochemistry around the release of heat shock proteins and cold shock proteins and the beneficial effects on the body. And I can tell you, getting out of it, I feel great.
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Peter
Yeah. And I can relate. I have, each time that I've tried it, when I've been visiting you and you've shared that experience with me, but you said something that I want to highlight for our audience about the the effects on the mental, and beyond mental acuity. I want to say, I mean, there there are tales of yogis and, you know, monks who sit in the snow and, you know, in the Himalayas and are able to generate heat through the control of their minds.
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Peter
And so I wonder about things like that, if they're really possible or if it's just a myth, if it's true, there is some video on it. But, what I would focus our audience on is what if what if there's this capacity to train your brain in ways that you haven't learned? And so here's another way of practicing and training your brain, like you said, to sustain discomfort, to sustain, to focus and be clear.
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Peter
And I have noticed that each time that I've gotten in the ice bath, it's I, I have focused on keeping my mind present and not on the discomfort I'm noticing. Just as in my meditation practicing, noticing what else is around, what else is going on in that moment. It's not just the cold, it's other thing. So that's a training and a reframing of the brain.
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Peter
It is.
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Darius
And you can do that. The cold in my mind is a catalyst. It's an accelerant for that reframing. Because when you get in, your body has a reaction, right? You gasp. You hold your breath, your heart starts racing, the sun is the same thing. You can get in and you can choose to watch something on TV, or you can choose just to be feel your heartbeat.
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Darius
One of the things I love to do, and I told you this the other night, I just love to count the sweat as it drips off of my head onto the ground.
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Peter
I tell you, I thought that was a bit peculiar. Anyways.
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Darius
I'm not good at making judgment, peculiar judgments. It's just it is that I enjoy it because. And for those two minutes, just my whole focus is on that beat of sweat.
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Peter
So two minutes comprised of how many seconds, right. Nine, 100 and 20s.
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Darius
And 20s.
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Peter
A lot of.
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Darius
Moments. It absolutely is. So you're talking about training the brain in different ways. I think that's really important. When was the last time you learned something new? When was the last time you did something different out of your comfort zone, and what prompted you to do that?
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Peter
Feels like all the time.
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Darius
See, that's the way it should be.
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Peter
Feels like I try to look for places where I can learn and make adjustment.
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Peter
Knowing that that in and of itself is, promotes being present, living in the now as opposed to relying on only my past experiences. What I've learned, which is already changed because the environment, situations, everything's changed. You've changed as opposed to having again, reference to mindfulness, a beginner's mind, a curiosity, a learning for the first time, because things are not exactly the same where you learn them, whatever it is.
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Peter
Yeah. Develop the habit or conditioning.
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Darius
I think what you're saying is just so important. Because if we don't learn new things, the circuitry in the brain gets locked, right? We always write with our right hand man. When I was in my early 20s, I broke a couple fingers on my right hand and so on. My senior year of undergrad, I had to take notes with my left hand for a couple of months, and there was a ton of new wiring that had to get put in my brain.
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Darius
So something as simple as writing with your off hand, or if you always brush your teeth with your right hand, brush it with your left hand. Try things that are different to create and propagate the neuroplasticity of the brain. And neuroplasticity is a fancy word for flexible and acuity, right? Keep that blood flow going to the brain. Keep the brain challenged.
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Darius
Peter and I were talking about with the ice plunge in the sauna, the challenges you physically, were telling you, we're offering people the opportunity to incorporate the mental practice as well. But it's the same thing with everything you do look for opportunities to challenge the brain, to keep that brain young and vibrant and learning and growing as we progress from 50 to 70 and then to 90.
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Peter
Yeah, yeah. And not only have you shared the ice baths in the sauna with me, but you've also introduced me to the hyperbaric chambers, the, oxygen in hand, cement in the capsule. You you're more familiar, and you know the science better. You want to share that with the audience? Yeah.
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Darius
So it's, hyperbaric oxygen has been approved as a therapy for a number of different indications. Most notably wound healing, diabetic foot ulcers, burns. But there is clinical evidence for a range of other ailments or a host of diseases, ranging from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, all the way down to joint healing. And so Peter and I do partake in hyperbaric oxygen, where you get in a chamber, the pressure is increased.
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Darius
It's kind of like scuba diving, and then oxygen is pumped in. And the theory is that oxygen normally saturates your blood. Red blood cells, but goes directly into the blood itself so it can get into spots where it otherwise couldn't. And, it has effects on me physically that I've noticed on my skin, on my hair, on my energy levels, lingering tendinitis that I've had.
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Darius
And if you hear anecdotal reports of professional athletes that have suffered serious injuries, they're all using this. Know one of the premier football leagues? I can't remember which one it is, but a four person hyperbaric oxygen chamber for their athletes to aid in post recovery after workout.
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Peter
Yeah. So that's the physical and physiological. Are you aware of any mental brain benefits? If you oxygenate the brain or are there.
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Darius
It promotes one of the things that hyperbaric oxygen does. It promotes the formation of new vasculature, new blood vessels, and not just in areas where, they're not well oxygenated like the ligaments and the tendons, but in the brain as well. And that makes sense how it's having the effect on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. It's getting blood and new blood vessels and flow up to the brain.
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Darius
Yeah.
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Peter
Yeah. So how does this, this modality relate to our emphasis of this episode in learning and.
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Darius
Learning and trying new things? Right, because that's what we're talking about. So, when I got divorced, I had more time on my hand, and I'm like, well, what am I going to do with myself? I'm going to learn to play guitar. Okay. I'm going to learn to play guitar. And I'm a, I'm a good rhythm guitarist, I'm not one of those guys that can make the guitar scream and do all sorts of crazy stuff.
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Darius
But a couple of years ago I was taking my sons to music lessons and they were taking voice lessons. So I was sitting there in the lobby playing on my phone while they took lessons. After three months of this, part of me said, why aren't you taking lessons? So I emailed the teacher and said, well, I'm going to be here, so I may as well start taking lessons too.
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Darius
So sign me up. At the same time that we had a wonderful conversation about how I might not be the oldest student there, but I'm one of the three oldest students out there. You're never too late to learn.
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Peter
Had you ever taken guitar lessons before? I ever wanted to be so.
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Darius
Guitar lessons I had wanted to. I'm taking voice lessons and that is the I'd never want to do none.
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Darius
Okay. But now I enjoy it. So it's always learning. And the other thing I'd encourage our readers to do is something I stopped doing but have picked up in the last couple of years. Just read a book.
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Peter
Yeah.
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Darius
There's so much out there. And we've mentioned this in one of our other podcasts that the book that you need to read will find you. Yes, it might already be sitting in your living room. It might already be sitting on your bookshelf. Something is going to call to you. Just pick up that book and start reading it.
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Peter
Just keep evolving at all levels and recognize that all levels means your brain and your body emotionally too. Because we sometimes forget that and then spiritually or energetically also all areas that have continuous potential for growth. And we forget, we ignore.
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Darius
Yeah. Well, if you think about it, let's use a very visual example. You go to the gym, right? You're working out your muscles, you're practicing your muscles, your muscles are getting bigger. What we're saying is do the same thing for your mind.
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Darius
Right. Focus on things. Focus on trying new things that your mind continues to expand. Because if you don't expand your mind over time I see a couple things happen. One, people get become what's the word I'm looking to victims of their own habits. That's it. This is what we're going to do. Very regimented, very stiff, very stale. And that precludes opportunities for growth.
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Darius
You don't even see the doors that are open in front of your eyes.
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Peter
Hold on a second. It's comfortable, it's pleasant, it's pleasant.
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Darius
Is it pleasant? Let's actually challenge that. Is it pleasant or is that what you've been conditioned to do? Are you afraid to try something new, or have you forgotten how to try something new? Just try something new in case you guys can't tell, we have a call to action in a few minutes. Call to action is going to be pretty simple.
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Darius
Just try something new. Yeah. Do something you wanted to do. Something you have haven't done in a long time.
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Peter
Yeah, and just a reminder, when we were younger, when I was younger, nobody had to remind me to try something new. Nobody reminded me to learn and be curious and explore. As a matter of fact, probably was kind of suppressed a bit.
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Darius
I agree with that.
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Peter
And, but it it set the foundation for the rest of my life, and it just as the experiences of living and life, even with the values and the successes, I look back now, I'm so delighted. I'm so happy. I have had so many joyful experiences. I've had some really sad and difficult ones too. But that's that's just life in the classes I teach, the mbsr and the coaching that I do.
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Peter
I try to share that life is just an odyssey and every Odyssey is an adventure. Life is an adventure. It's a challenge. It'll be a challenge. But they're also treasures.
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Darius
Every point of the journey is the destination. Yeah, right. That's what you're talking about. So we're encouraging or inviting our leaders to our listeners to try something new, to find ways to stimulate your brain. And, you know, it might be a crossword puzzle. That's a great way to stimulate your brain. Yeah, it might be doing a regular jigsaw puzzle.
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Darius
It might be sitting down and playing a game with your kids of trivia. Just do something that starts you learning again.
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Peter
Yeah, and I'll say something related, important, related to aging, the importance of these little trivia games or puzzles and crossword puzzles to keeping the brain sharp and keeping the mind from eroding, slowing down the degeneration. And there's plenty of science that evidences that.
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Darius
And the other thing I'll say, when we're we're talking about learning something new, learn something that you're passionate or interested about. If you choose to go down and do something because of an external force, well, you might make it through, but odds are you're going to quit. Versus if you do something that you're passionate about. Odds are, as you get good at it and get better at it, you can become more and more passionate about it.
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Darius
So find something. Find an area of interest, right? Maybe you want to take piano and you haven't taken piano, or maybe you wanted to learn how to play a different instrument, or you want to take interpretive dance. Go ahead and take it.
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Peter
Yeah. Something you had maybe thought of doing hope to do one day. Now's the time.
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Darius
Yeah. Present. Peter, other thoughts on this subject? It's the lifelong learning. Any challenges that people need to be aware of as they embark on this? Because I will say one thing, there's always going to be a reason for you not to.
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Peter
Well that's true. It's always excuses. But those excuses are based on right things you've learned and behaviors that have been conditioned. They're not necessarily valid. I don't want to invalidate anybody's excuses, but I'm trying to open up space to consider.
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Darius
That's what they are. Peter. It's an excuse.
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Peter
That justification is another option available to our audience. And that option is an evolution at levels that we already have. The capacity for some. But we get locked in, we get stuck by our social, cultural, our familial, our, you know, all the. The some scars, the imprints in our psyche that we've learned over millions of moments. But if we're present and if our mindset, my mindset has been, I'm just going to see what's happening now and see what's new that I can learn.
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Peter
If I don't know it, maybe I should explore it.
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Darius
That's exactly right. It's exactly right. Infuse the passion.
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Peter
Yeah.
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Darius
Avoid the excuses and be judgment free while you're doing it.
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Peter
Yeah that helps a lot.
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Darius
It really does. So Peter our call to action I know we touched on it earlier.
00;21;42;02 - 00;21;59;16
Peter
Well our call to action is just go learn something. I mean that's not it's not difficult. Go out there and learn something hopefully that you're passionate about or interested in. And something that's different, that's not in your wheelhouse right now.
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Darius
And yet it's a little out of your wheelhouse. Yeah. Just a little out. Yeah. Try something a little new.
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Peter
It's okay to challenge you and to fail and learn from that experience. It's.
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Darius
Yeah, that word failure, it's so subjective. What may be perceived as a failure is a blessing in disguise. I can tell you, as a surfer, I have quote unquote, failed hundreds, if not thousands of times.
00;22;23;06 - 00;22;33;06
Peter
There are some philosophers who say that, there's not it's not an experience. It's you don't fail, you learn.
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Darius
That's it. That's exactly it. So I've got a good poem on challenges.
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Peter
Excited to hear this.
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Darius
By Richard Williams. It makes no difference who you are, your age, your sex or what you do. And though you may not be a star, you can't avoid not being you. So take a moment to think bit. You don't know what you're missing until you take the plunge of trying it. And all that's needed is the will. So when's the last time you dare to do something not done before?
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Darius
Just view it as adventure faired to then enjoy the pleasures stored so far more eloquently of what we've been saying, which is quit hesitating, learn something new.
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Peter
Nice.
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Darius
You're never too late.
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Peter
Nice. Great job with that.
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Darius
As always will be posted at age differently.com feedback. Welcome comments. Appreciate it. And that's it for this episode. Again I'm Darius. Snag them all. My co-host Peter say thank you and have a wonderful day.
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Peter
Take care everyone.