Each of us is born with something we will call life chips. Think poker style. These chips are usually based off genetics and sometimes circumstance. We use these chips to "pay" for many experiences in life, most commonly those types of experiences that someone has warned us about. Drinking, smoking, processed foods and situations that shock the nervous system are great examples of these. All of these have a cost, and the payment is your very vitality. This supply is not endless, and these chips cannot be gifted. They are so easy to spend that one most likely will never notice them disappearing at all. But you will feel it, eventually. When the chips are cashed out and you have to borrow from the house, the interest makes this debt nearly impossible to pay. Your health, energy levels, hair density, skin, and attitude will suffer. Premature aging, ED, all kinds of nasty stuff. And if we don't know how many chips we have, or even that they are being spent, well we have ourselves a real problem.
On Genetics, Circumstance and sometimes just Rotten Luck.
We do not all start with a global chip distribution guarantee. We get what we get. We aren't told what we get either. But you do get signs. Much like a hangover, our bodies do give us a heads up. By paying attention and learning even the very basics on nutrition, toxicity, and addiction, we can tabulate the stash vs spending to get an idea of where we need to be to balance happiness, indulgence, and longevity. Easy, right? Yeah...
On Spending, Saving, and Splurging
I used to work with a guy that swore the cigarettes, and an aversion of food didn't have any effect on him, even while he was complaining about his own lack of energy, hair and body shape. Your own ignorance of the effect does not negate it. Another friend of mine was about 80 pounds overweight and constantly told me that the food he ate had no effect on him, it's how he had always eaten. Quite frankly he'd always been fat, too. What he saw as normal was the baseline from his perspective. His whole family was large, and he had the mentality of "that's just the way we are". He had no idea of the rate he was cruising through his chips, because the spending was normal in his family. Normal, in America, is very unhealthy. So, the normal rate of going through chips can be quite high.
Think back to your 20's. You may have felt that you could work, drink, smoke, and... do other things... all night long. You actually may have been able to, as well. Maybe even still do. These are instances of us cashing in large quantities of chips all at once. We enjoy a good party, but as we get older we learn very, very well that the partiers age horribly and prematurely. That's them chips, baby. And in fact, the older you get, the more chips it will cost you, for a real fun sort of age scaling life tax. So that's fine. It's fine. We're fine.
No one here is going to tell you not to do anything, only never to do too much of it. Balance exertion with rest and nutrition, so all needs are met. Intense emotion should always be balanced with intense reflection, or meditation, in order to best understand you, your actions, and your desires. Keep tabs on them chips, spend wisely, and the overall quality of life will go up so much farther than the value of indulgence. The reason for this is that you will be paying attention, and when you pay attention you can see that many, many great and wonderful experiences do not actually cost you any chips at all!
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