From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
The scale and scope of this threat is extraordinary. It amounts to US$320 billion per annum or, to put it another way, half a percent of global GDP. That is just the economic cost of drug trafficking. As far as the social and health risks are concerned, we believe that around 250,000 people each and every year die because of drugs.
Only one second in time you can find peace – now. There's only one second you can be happy – now. There's only one place you can find peace and happiness. Where you are. This is it, it's not out there somewhere, it's in you.
We get more energy from air than from food or drink. So, if we're absorbing that energy inefficiently, it's bound to catch up to us. A useful analogy is food: you can survive on a diet of 12 cookies a day, getting enough calories, but it's not nourishing, nor does it allow your body to operate efficiently.
The adjustment to life post-hostage varies significantly from person to person. Some adapt swiftly, while others may take years, and a few, unfortunately, never fully recover from the trauma—though they are the minority.
Loneliness is thought to be as bad for our health as smoking 15 cigarettes per day. We're essentially creatures of togetherness. We are hardwired to connect and so when we're lonely, an alarm bell goes off within our bodies that triggers fight or flight mode. Our heart rate goes up, our stress levels go up, our pulse rate goes up and our blood pressure goes up.
People have been told that asthma is an incurable condition, that they'll need to stay indoors and rely on a bronchodilator every few hours for life. But that's just not true. The way you breathe is deeply connected to asthma symptoms, a message that asthmatics rarely hear from anyone.
When we're in this situation, under all these restrictions and lockdowns, our emotions have been dialled down. We can't spend our emotional energy on the things we normally would- like having friends over for dinner. We have to be good citizens, and music gives us a place to put that energy.
The fact that you and I are alive is against stupendous odds. One day we will die, and that's sad, but there are people who will never die because they were never born. We're the lucky ones, we get to die. You can only die if you were alive.
Chosen suffering is part and parcel of a meaningful life. If you don't have any chosen suffering in your life, you're probably not living the best life you could.
Many people think the role of bioethics is to go and see what the scientists or doctors are doing and tell them to stop because they are acting, by hypothesis, unethically. However I often find when I go and see what the scientists are doing, they are doing wonderful things and I'm very inclined to say 'great guys, keep going!'
Many of our health problems challenges cannot be solved within one specific border. In the old days, we had 'tropical medicine' which was a colonial approach. This led to international-health during the cold-wars which simply meant the health of those far away. Now we have the concept of 'global health' which reflects the globalisation of the world.
Thanks to the incredible concept of neuroplasticity, we can reshape our thought patterns. Techniques like affirmations, altering our language, or refining our thought processes are invaluable.