The pursuit of my own health and longevity for myself and, especially, for my daughters that I write about in my book has led me to explore many avenues that are fueled by my curiosity, thought, and inspiration that I never expected to explore when I started this journey. Once I realized just how amazing and resilient my body is—and thought about the miraculous human body in general—I couldn’t help but wonder about how we got here and the dynamics that created and evolved us into the creatures we are today. This inner journey has led me to everything else I’ve done for almost 20 years now. This inner exploration has been a huge bonus to both my health practice and my life at this age, keeping me highly curious about the human condition as I explore health in all its dimensions.

Considering Our Wondrous Place in the Cosmos

The greatest riddle in the cosmos is, and probably will always be, us! From my perspective this has become a deeply personal quest. The fascination I have with my complex biology, behavior, psychology and how I interact with others, and fixing those aspects that aren’t working well for me, is endless. It is how I fix myself first and find solutions for myself as well as to better understand and help others. It has also become a deeply satisfying way to live at this stage of life, employing wisdom and a sense of freedom I never had when I was younger. What follows is one of those threads of curiosity, thought, and inspiration.

Deep Thoughts a la the Axial Age!

There is an exciting period in human history that we call the Axial Age. It took place around 2,500 years ago, spanning several hundred years. It was the time of the Upanishads and Buddha in India, Lao Tzu and Confucius in China, Socrates and Plato in Greece, Zoroaster in Persia, and the first Judaic ideas that eventually laid a foundation for Christianity and Islam. It was a time of great change and the development of new ways of thinking that have survived and influenced our lives to this very day. All those great men (and I’m sure there were some great women as well who haven’t fared as well in the male-written history books) spent most of their time pondering the wonder of the world around them as well as the wonder of the world inside them.

All their teachings came from the single source of “I exist as a living being in a great cosmos. What is that like? What does that mean?” Their answers, teachings, and philosophies still form the basis and origin of most of our human knowledge today. They either created or significantly influenced many great civilizations as well as our modern culture, society, religion, morality, and our individual experience of life.

The greatest philosophers we’ve ever known started with a simple set of circumstances. They had the same wondrous, evolved bodies and brains that we have. They were surrounded by the same miraculous universe of night and day, stars and sunshine, land and sea, and bountiful other life that we are. (Even those of us who are city dwellers can experience much of this!) Their enduring ideas came from within them, from curiosity, wonder, time, awareness, and concentration.

As human beings we aren’t that different from these great thinkers, and fundamentally our world has not changed that much. We can have similar, deep thoughts and realizations that they did. But think about this: They could not have developed their revolutionary insights if they were constantly being bombarded with new, useless information from mobile phones, laptops, and other devices. They needed to listen to their inner voice (God-given voice, if you will) in order to experience those insights. As human beings we have only one way to experience things greater than ourselves, and that is through our individual bodies and minds.

A Quiet Mind Opens the Door for Wonder and Inspiration

I spent much of this summer at my beach house in Long Island, often simply watching the waves lap the shore. Yet I saw people glued to their phones while walking on the beach, an activity that was once the epitome of doing nothing—a wonderful and timeless way to enjoy life, let your mind relax, and think great thoughts (or think of nothing at all!). For me, staying glued to a phone would rob me of that relaxing, revitalizing experience. How important is it, really, to see the latest message, email, video, or news item or to take a picture of yourself to broadcast to others?

I spend much of my day appreciating my body and the life it gives me. It is my way of living in a universe that has given me the great gift and privilege of even being alive at all. To be alive as a human being is an even greater gift knowing I am alive and that all this is temporary and will one day end for me. I believe the universe gave us this marvelous power of knowing in order to be grateful for our unique place in the cosmos. The wonder of just being alive in the first place, and all that it has taken to get here and keep it all going, sometimes brings me to tears in simple amazement. My inner voice, my axial voice, continues to bring me so much wonder and inspiration.