DECEMBER 2022: What seems risky to you?

Helen Keller said it best: “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” Being deaf and blind, Helen Keller pushed herself to take risks every day. Each of us has a different appetite for taking risks. Some people are risk averse. They won’t do anything that puts them at risk. Others like the feeling and take risks for the thrill factor. Repeatedly. I’ve done this at certain times in my life. Have you? Sometimes there just doesn’t seem like there’s much to lose.

Some risks aren’t really risks at all – but they feel that way. Did you know that flying in a plane is safer than driving in a car? The numbers don’t lie. Do you prefer to ride on motorcycles or in cars?

I find that I’m becoming more conservative with age. I want to live a long healthy life and watch my granddaughters grow up and witness what happens next. I do try to spice life up with fun stuff that feels a little risky. Shark cage diving is a great example. Sounds risky, but it’s not. The CN Tower Edgewalk was a thrill, but there no risk was involved.

We can manage our behavioural risk factors. When we eat a poor diet, smoke, or carry extra weight around, we let our lifestyle put our health at risk. We don’t always weigh out the pros and cons of these threats. These risk factors can be reduced through behaviour modification. Changing these risks can lengthen our lives.

The risk factors that cannot be controlled include family history, ethnicity, age and gender. It’s well known that women live longer than men. But many people don’t appreciate how their ethnicity impacts their life expectancy.

On average, Japanese people live the longest. Black and Indigenous people have far shorter life expectancies than Caucasians. Looking at your own family tree helps you understand which risk factors need to be monitored.

It’s important to let our family members know about health challenges so they can monitor themselves. They are wiser by being aware of the risk factors at play. You may know about a few family health issues that your cousins don’t know. Share what you know.

I feel that it’s important to not reduce our lives or make them too small. Keep pushing your own boundaries to find out what feels right for you. Have fun and be responsible. These are not mutually exclusive. There are many risks that feel edgy but aren’t. Those are worth doing!

We are curating new courses from other people in 2023. If you know an expert who’s interested in offering a course online, please introduce them to me? I’d like to find out more about their area of expertise to see if it’s a good fit for our boutique site.   

Thanks for reading my lingering thoughts. I look forward to sharing more with you in the future. Please visit my new website and passion project, Grow at Your Pace to find out about the other things that I’m creating.

 

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