Hormesis and the Golden Mean

Let me tell you about this really cool thing call hormesis. Hormesis is the biological phenomenon of "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" and is the body's way of handling environmental stresses and adapting to them. We, as humans, have evolved to become incredibly adaptable, handling and mitigating environmental stresses and overcoming them time and time again. When we encounter stress in small doses we benefit from those stresses. That's not to commend stress, too much of a stressor can be pathological and even lethal. Therefore most environmental stressors, and even what we consider to be "stress", aren't good or bad. The dose is the poison.

A model of hormesis

Some examples:
Exercise: Exercise breaks down tissues and forces regrowth in those tissues at an accelerated rate. Short doses of high intensity exercise has been shown to increase maximal oxygen uptake, muscle mass, fat loss, metabolism, resting heart rate, cognition, and immune function.

Cold Exposure: Acute doses of very cold temperatures works wonders on the immune system and stimulates brown adipose tissue, or fat-burning fat.

Fasting or Caloric Restriction:  Fasting and caloric restriction help to increase longevity, fat loss, immune function and mental clarity while helping to regulate tissue systems in the body and down-regulate occurrences of cancer and metabolic disease. This models the feast and famine cycle our Pleistocene ancestors (potentially) followed

Alcohol: Brief exposure to alcohol can aid in improving cardiovascular health, immune health, and longevity.

Prescription Medicine: Literally, the dose is the poison. Almost all prescription medicine is lethal or otherwise very harmful at sufficient doses, that's why they're prescribed. At small enough doses these substances can be potently beneficial and carry out their desired purpose.

Psychological Stress: Actual psychological stress registers in the brain the same way as physical stress and in small enough doses is very pleasant. This is known as eustress -as opposed to distress- and is paramount to living a happy, busy, productive life.

The list goes on. The point is that any stressor in a high enough dose can be pathological and in extreme cases lethal. But in sufficiently small doses can be incredibly beneficial. This is wonderful because there's no way to eliminate stress in our lives; but if we discover the minimum effective dose of stress that provides the most benefit we can take advantage of environmental stressors rather than be worn down by them.

For any individual, the actual amount of something isn't so important as moderation of that amount. And moderation is context-dependent. For example, a sedentary individual new to exercise may walk for 10 minutes a day; an elite athlete may spend up to 6-8 hours a day conditioning, practicing skills, working on mobility, and focusing on healing. That same sedentary individual might drink 6 cups of coffee each morning, having built up a resistance to caffeine and requiring large doses just to feel an effect. The elite athlete might only require a cup of joe a day to get herself up in the morning; any more and she gets the jitters. Because the body adapts to and builds up resistance against environmental stressors, the degree of moderation is dependent on the context of the individual moderating.

Hormesis refers specifically to the body and physiological processes. The body is a dynamic, ever changing system. It is simultaneously autonomous and adaptive. Autonomous in that it likes to maintain homeostatic setpoints and keep order within the internal environment. The body likes routine, stable, redundant processes that follow a certain order. It's adaptive in that in order to survive it must continually self-regulate itself in accordance with the external environment. The body likes variety, chaos, randomness, without those things it would become stagnate and rigid. Autonomy and adaptivity serve to maintain equilibrium within and without.

Within the mind and social processes we see the golden mean (in philosophy) or middle way (in Buddhism): between any two extremes the best route is a mean or middle way that balances both extremes. These extremes typically manifest as autonomous (maintaining individuality) or adaptive (cohesiveness with a group) in their own respect. Problems arise when too much of one extreme dominates rather than both being held in balance.

For example, too much autonomy or individuality results in aggression, manipulation, stagnation/lack of growth, inability to socialize, covert behavior, selfishness, hyper-analytical, etc. Too much adaptivity results in cowardice, willingness to be manipulated, dependency, lack of self-identity, being a people pleaser, overt behavior, selflessness at the expense of personal health, disorganized behavior, etc.

So the middle way is the most appropriate path between these two extremes. However, this does not necessarily mean a specific middle point between extremes, it could mean dancing between extremes. For example, someone may be fiercely independent, stubborn, and arrogant most of the time. They lead naturally and use their authority to effect change; but when it's required of them they back down, admit mistakes, and allow themselves to be vulnerable. Or perhaps someone is affable and a bit of a pushover the majority of the time, but when it comes to things they truly care about they stand up for what they believe in and become aggressive in short, contained bursts.

In short, autonomy is individuality, adaptivity is communion-with-others. Neither is good nor bad, both are absolutely necessary. In fact, the extremes themselves aren't bad as long as they are held in balance. Pathologies occur when one extreme is biased at the expense of the other, just like physiological pathologies occur when any good thing is taken in excess. The point is balance and doing exactly what is necessary for the context of the situation.

However, the hard truth of things is that balancing is really fucking difficult and we can't always do what is necessary for whatever context we're in. Furthermore, life is far too random to predict or control and pathologies are inevitable. Shit hitting the fan will and does occur. We can't change any of that, just like we can't eliminate stress out of our lives. All we can do is accept the stress and use it, appreciate things in moderation, and do what's most appropriate for the context of any situation.

Read Good Books

Have you ever passed by some fast food joint, saw the tasty options available, and decided on the spot to roll into that greasy cafeteria? The food is crap, it makes you feel terrible, but damnit it's so good you could eat it all day. And have you ever sat down to a really special meal? Whoever made the food took all day long to make it, they used the freshest ingredients, they took time and effort to make this food really beautiful. The food is so righteous that the first bite is a slice of heaven melting into your mouth like a snowball in July, sweeter than a December suntan. You can taste the love. That meal lasts an entire lifetime. The memory ... unforgettable.

Most of the media we consume nowadays is fast food. It's short, simple, easily digestible, nice to look at but lacks substance. Whether it's polarized political soundbites, the latest celebrity nip slip, kittens being way too adorable, the newest fat loss magic bullet, or advertisements sensationalized with half naked glittery unicorns seducing you with their scantily clad flanks there is a whole shitstorm of useless information floating around nowadays.

You could argue that all this information is harmless, but I'll argue otherwise. If you're in the West, you're in an environment that is being constantly bombarded by information, people, experience, etc. Because life is so short and we can only pay so much attention to any one thing at a time, the opportunity cost of everything is incredibly high. To do one thing means not doing another, so that if we invest our time attention on useless endeavors, we waste time that could be spent doing or learning incredible things. Furthermore, a lot of the information available to us lacks substance, is poorly researched, makes outrageous claims, or is simply a distraction. You can spray paint shit gold... but it's still shit.

It's easy to read sensationalist journalism, watch vines, look at memes, or read some out of context, over-generalized interpretation of a single research study. It's quick. It feels good. But The intent of these information doritos is to attract attention, not to provide accurate or useful information. When we absorb shallow forms of information we get a shallow understanding of reality.

Don't get me wrong, there are legitimate sources of information on the internet and from the media. There are some really talented writers and journalists out there who communicate some incredible information. The difference with their information is that time and effort and mindfulness were put into the work. Good writing (and good art in general) comes from writers who care about what they're writing and about communicating honestly. Just like a really quality meal comes from an individual taking the time to direct heart and soul through masterful skill, good writing comes from an individual putting in the time, care, and respect to communicate something powerful and important.

And that's what you see with good books. Works like Stephen Pinker's Better Angels of Our Nature, Nassim Taleb's Black Swan, or Rachel Carlson's Silent Spring took years of effort, research, and creative output to accomplish. The people writing the books had a passion for their topic, the tenacity to research and put together these works, and the mastery to elucidate their message to the world.

That includes novels too. We like to absorb information exactly as it is, a lot of us "don't have time to read fiction". But we can't forget that the narrative is our most primal form of communication, we crave stories. The best novels -just like the best art, music, poetry, dance, etc.- impart fundamental lessons about life by taking you through a fantastic journey and allowing you to live in another's shoes, if only for a moment. Books like Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, or George Orwell's 1984 impart incredible lessons and change how you see the world.

When it comes to any form of art -and writing especially- the more effort, beauty, honesty and largesse put into the work, the more worthwhile the read is and the more your life will be changed for the better. So don't waste your precious time on silly soundbites and glitzy gunky glib goo. Read good books, follow good blogs, watch good movies, listen to good music, see good art, visit beautiful places.

You only live once. That's not an excuse to selfishly pig out and take everything you can out of life. It's a warning: life is so precious, and so short, and so chaotically beautiful. We can only capture our little corpuscle of it before it's all over. So worship your little corpuscle, spend your time wisely, and read good books :)