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Summary
On episode 117 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan sits down with Dr. Victor Strecher, a professor and director for innovation and social entrepreneurship at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, who has published more than 100 scientific articles and co-edited a book on oncology.
Vic argues that a strong sense of purpose is not just a feel good idea. Research tied to it shows lower rates of heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer's, and depression, along with better sleep, more antibody production, and longer life.
He walks Allan through the 6 steps he uses to help people find and live their purpose, the SPACE framework for the daily energy and willpower purpose requires, and the science behind why loving kindness meditation appears to slow the aging of DNA.
Links
- https://www.dungbeetle.org
Key Takeaways
- A strong purpose in life is tied to measurable health benefits. Vic cites research linking purpose to a lower likelihood of heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer's, and depression, plus greater antibody production, less inflammation, and a longer life.
- Finding purpose starts with naming your core values. Some values are self enhancing, like appearance or money. Others are self transcending, like family or community. Vic has people build goals around the values they care most about.
- The headstone test adds urgency to the search. Vic has people imagine they die tomorrow and ask what they would want said at their memorial or written on their headstone, a practice he ties back to the Stoic philosophers and to Buddhist meditation on death.
- His 6 steps move from values to a public commitment. Name your core values, build goals across the domains of your life, take the headstone test, try the resulting purpose on like a new suit, adjust it until it fits, then say it out loud to other people.
- Purpose needs daily fuel, which Vic calls SPACE. Sleep, presence (meditation, prayer, yoga, or anything that builds mindfulness), activity, creativity, and eating in a way that keeps blood sugar steady, including snacking on fruit, vegetables, and nuts instead of clearing your plate.
- Loving kindness meditation appears to repair DNA. Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn found that a 3 month meditation program increased telomerase activity, the enzyme that fuels the protective caps on chromosomes, and that the effect was driven by an increase in purpose in life rather than the meditation itself.
- The meditation moves outward from someone you love to a stranger to someone you actively dislike. Vic says wishing that last person well is what helps people transcend their own ego and defensiveness, and it is the step that produces the biggest benefit.
- Vic built a free app called On Purpose to keep people accountable. Named for a dung beetle character, it has people check in every few days on their purpose alignment and their SPACE habits, and roughly 1 in 4 users chooses to visit the app's “Grim Reaper” feature and write out what they would want on their headstone.
“If this were a new drug, it would be on the cover of the New York Times and every talk show and every podcast.”
Dr. Victor Strecher