That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
–FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHEFinding stagnation in the universe is a difficult task. It
simply doesn’t exist. Celestial bodies are being either slowly
created or slowly destroyed. Here on Earth, stagnation is
associated with rot and decay, like a pond that has lost its
inflow. For our brains, it is a death sentence.
Like all matter in the universe, we are subject to the
second law of thermodynamics: entropy. This fundamental
law of physics states that all systems, over time, decline
from states of higher complexity to lower complexity. This
slow transition from order to disorder is what occurs to stars,
planets, and entire galaxies, and is also what happens to us
during the aging process.
At first, however, human life seems to defy this law, in
the profound regenerative abilities that a child exhibits.
Children don’t often develop cardiovascular disease (stop
the presses: signs of it are creeping up in children as young
as eight due to the ravages of the Standard American Diet).
They don’t get dementia, and almost 90 percent of pediatric
cancer cases are curable. These “superhuman” abilities are
seemingly lost during our elder years.
What if we could turn back time and regain the level of
resilience we’ve all exhibited in youth? To “rage against the
dying of the light,” so to speak. I’m here to tell you that it
may be possible, in a form that has for a long time been
demonized in mainstream and medical literature alike:
stress, the antidote to stagnation.