I got the opportunity last month to go to a functional medicine and compounding pharmacy conference where one of the keynote speakers was none other than Dave Asprey. For those that don’t know, Dave is considered the ‘father of the biohacking’ movement. Biohacking the idea of using any and all tools, whether lifestyle or technology to ‘hack’ your biology and help your body live optimally. If you want to check him out, I’d recommend his podcast as a good start. He started the company, Bulletproof, which notably made bulletproof coffee (the idea of adding grass fed butter to your coffee or MCT oil for added fats.
His talk was focused on how to fail like a boss, but was more general than that in scope. He discussed his 5 F’s for life:
- Fear: This is primal and serves as an acute reminder that our body is going to pursue survival at all costs–Fight or Flight! Fear and pre-emptive anxiety may help us survive and look out for a unknown future-however, it can also keep us stuck and prevent any growth. Growth only happens outside of our comfort zone–it can be and usually is scary, but you can’t get so riddled with fear
- Food: Not much to expand on here except the idea that food provides not only macronutrients like protein, carbohydrates and fats, but micronutrients and minerals as well in which the body’s biochemistry runs on. Take home: Choose quality and whole foods!
- Fertility; Of course humans need to reproduce in order to keep the species going. Now these first three ideas happen before you can think about them–we may even use logic to justify getting ‘stuck’ in these first three F’s. Your mitochondria are actually driving this.
- Friends: The idea of finding a community of people to surround yourself with. This can be found anywhere from your local library or church to your work community. Having people around you that you can share this experience called life with is important. This is why loneliness, all by itself was associated with a 14% increase in all-cause mortality!!! All by itself–no hypertension or smoking required. Search online for groups associated with a particular hobby or interest, stop by the library to look for events, swing by city hall and check out what’s going on, find a book club, volunteer, I don’t care what it is, but find a way to ensure you have some in-person social network!
- Forgiveness: This is a powerful one. Forgiveness is the way we can get out of fear or anxiety. There’s a book out there called ‘Why Zebras don’t get Ulcers” which discusses how prey, in the wild, may be running for their lives one second, but as soon as they get away and are safe; they can be seen physically shaking off the stress and go back to mingling at the water hole. They don’t hold onto a grudge against the lion, they don’t ruminate on their revenge. We can take note of nature and use forgiveness as a way to get out of the fear-anxiety-doom loop. I’ll end with this quote:
“Are there things that aren’t real that you are acting as if they are real?
-Dave Asprey, PCCA International Conference 2024
If you’re ready to break out of the fear and jump into thriving, Book a free discovery call to see how the Hansen Health team can help!
