Today’s modern life is different isn’t it. It’s different to how our predecessors lived and almost certainly is different to how the next generation will live. Change is inevitable but the pace of that change has significantly increased over the last 10-15 years. Let’s reflect on some of the key changes.

The modern workplace is completely different.

• We sit at desks in front of screens all day
• We work in open plan offices, with big headphones
• We work in teams and deal with the conflict that can arise with this
• We work from anywhere
• We work longer hours
• Concept of a career is being eroded
• Multiple jobs in a lifetime, the job for life is dead

The modern family is completely different.

• We are having less children
• We are carrying more debt
• We are more time poor than ever before
• We have same sex marriages and families
• We have more separations and divorces

The modern state of health is completely different.

• Levels of chronic disease are at record levels
• Heart disease will kill 1 in 3 of us (1)
• By 2020, 1 in 2 people in Ireland will develop cancer (2)
• 1 in 4 children are overweight or obese (3)
• Work related stress in Ireland doubled between 2010 and 2015 (4)

Advances in modern technology and widespread internet adoption has certainly brought alot of positives and enabled alot of change in today’s modern society.

With this change, we now have a faster pace of life than ever before. But are bodies are not designed for this faster pace of life, with little rest to recover and repair, our always on 24/7 connected world keeps us up and awake for longer yet keeps us more stressed and sick too. Despite it’s claims of connecting people, I believe the opposite is true. We have never been more isolated or disconnected.

In the coming years, it is going to get harder and harder to achieve and maintain good health. The fight against disease will force us, in some ways, to go back to basics.

These basics for me are:

It sounds so simple right? It many ways it is but all too often we let distractions muddy our vision back to these basics and we lose our way.

Renew your focus on the important things and just forget the rest.

Yours in health and happiness,

JP