Architecture, building, and community are extremely underrated when it comes to health. The most attractive and sought-after areas are ironically usually the oldest neighborhoods because of the way they're built. When Seaside in Florida was built, they basically used the older model for town development. The areas of Atlanta that are most like this are the areas around Decatur, Virginia Highland, Inman Park and some other older neighborhoods. As a result these are the areas most pleasant to walk in. I enjoy driving off of the interstates and visiting small towns across the south, and I'm always thinking how much like Seaside most of them are built. Georgia in particular, because it has 159 counties, has the infrastructure for countless attractive cities built around town squares. There are so many picturesque courthouses in this state, it's amazing. I hope the trend away from sprawl, and self-defeating and unsustainably expensive building practices keeps trending towards places like Seaside.  It could help with addictions, depression, obesity, crime, isolation, even mass shootings.  I hope we start buildings communities, not just houses. 

From the linked article below:

12 ways Seaside (Florida) changed history

• Walkability: Seaside stands as one of the first newly-built communities since the 1920s to accommodate pedestrians—thanks to traffic calming, small lot sizes and shared-space streets where people on foot, bike and cars co-exist. 
• Mixed-use development: A fresh approach to urban planning which recognizes that a healthy mix of live/work/play activities enlivens a community.
• New Urbanism: An design movement restoring key urban features like street life, local businesses and neighborly gathering spots to modern life.   
• Compact communities: The realization that living close to shopping, services, recreation and your neighbors fosters lively social connections as well as saving time, money and stress.
• Traditional neighborhood design: The resurrection of enduring design elements that define the character of places we love from Santa Fe to New England villages, but which were outlawed under most 20th Century zoning codes.
• Urban village: Boosting everyone’s sense of community and personal ease with a town center where people can meet most everyday needs within a 5- to 15- minute stroll. 
• Traditional affordable housing: A revival of overlooked practices that sprinkle lower-income homes into neighborhoods, including small houses, apartments tucked above shops, and backyard granny flats (also known as accessory dwelling units, or ADUs.) 
• Natural sustainable landscaping: Instead of planting yards with grass, using native plants that require minimal water and provide shade that keeps houses cooler (also known as xeriscapes). 
• Public space and commons: Setting aside natural or community amenities to be enjoyed together rather than hidden behind someone’s backyard fence—a trademark of great 19th Century designers but largely forgotten until recently.
• Form-based codes: A 21st Century approach to zoning that ensures safe, stable communities but also fosters the essential ingredients for vibrant place—flexibility and evolution—by paying attention to the physical characteristics of buildings, not just how they will be used.
• Incremental development: Building a new community a few blocks at a time—rather than all at once—which opens opportunities to improve and refine plans based on real-lived experience. 
• A town, not a development: The Florida real estate industry was shocked when Seaside developer Robert Davis gambled on creating an entire beachfront community, not just a strip of condos on the water.  

Only one measure of an economy matters. When politicians talk about the economy, there is only one question to ask them:

Can a man who 'did not' go to college but who 'did' finish high school support a family of 4?

GDP doesn't matter, Unemployment % doesn't matter, the Stock Market doesn't matter, Iran definitely doesn't matter, until this question is answered, these are all secondary. All parties have failed in leadership on this issue. Industrial policy, illegal immigration, easy divorce, college loan debacles, outsourcing of jobs, identity politics, corrupt and morally bankrupt elites, Wall Street, greed, welfare and many other factors are to blame but the only measure that matters in an economy is how working men are doing in respect to their ability to provide for a family. I credit the current administration for  at least trying to talk about these issues even though there's still a lot of fluff and hype from them over things that don't make much difference compared to the most important economic factor, which is- can a working class man provide for his family?

​Oren Cass has some great ideas in his book "The Once and Future Worker."  There's a link to a video below of him discussing it.

I tried to write about some of these issues related to work in my book "Healthy Work", though it was only a survey of some of the problems, and an extended essay on how important work is to a healthy society.

When people are working and doing something productive, they're healthier and happier.  It's that simple.  And the research shows that this matters for working men than any other group.  When they struggle, the whole society struggles.  

Read Next:  Healthy Work, by Scott Godwin

​There are many factors which come in to play in a lifetime of fitness.  Just to start, recovering from common injuries, training smart, hydration, proper nutrition, knowing how to use safe training techniques, and of course motivation and discipline, are all essential. There are many other important things to consider. Fitness is simple in some ways, and complex in others.  1000s of books have been written on the subject.  
 
There are some fitness factors that many of us never think about, but which can go a long way towards staying “in the game” for a long time.  Three of these are camaraderie, fun, and celebration.  When I think of the 2019 Spartan Ultra World Championship, which I did with my client and friend Robert Bradshaw, that’s what comes to mind- camaraderie, fun, and most importantly celebration, of life and of fitness. It may not always be easy, but life is a gift.  It’s pretty simple, we’re lucky to have these bodies, this moment, and this ability to move and to be fit, and that simple fact is worth a yearly celebration.  
 
I met Robert through the fitness center I train most of my clients at about 6 years ago, and we immediately got to work achieving his goals.  Even though this club has all sorts of advanced equipment, this was a partnership immediately based on bigger ideas and bigger goals.  When Robert asked me during one of our sessions to do this Spartan race, which I’d never done, I hesitated at first.  “It’s in northern Sweden, in arctic weather in November, 8 miles up a 5000 ft. mountain with 25 obstacles?” “Hmmm…ok, sure why not.”  To be fair, I may have inspired him in writing about fitness and its powerful effect on you inside and out, but he also inspired me with his positive attitude and his idea of a yearly celebration like this.  That’s what good teams do, they learn from each other, inspire each other, and do hard work together.  Iron sharpens iron.  

So we went to Sweden and did the race and completed it.  Yes, it was cold, 7 degrees at race time and snow was piled up in places knee deep, but we both finished and had a blast.  No records were set, but many laughs were had and many obstacles were overcome.  If you’ve never done a Spartan race, I recommend trying one.  Exercise and fitness are not the point of life but they can be a symbol for something bigger, a celebration of the ultimate things. 
 
There’s a large community of fellow fitness-lovers interested in setting new fitness goals and achieving great things.  Many lifelong friendships and memories have been made in the "fitness game".  Come join in the fun.  Let’s make 2020 a year to celebrate.  

Read next: 20 Minutes to a Better Back and a Stronger Core

I was talking with a friend today about meditation who had some good feedback.  If you re-read what I wrote you'll notice I didn't bash meditation per se, only the "cult of the self" so common to everyday life.  The health and wellness world is often focused on the self, and I think one of the great things about meditation is getting outside of the self.  Ironically, hyper - focusing on the self and yourself too much could actually make us more stressed and less healthy!

If we meditate, we want to get outside of ourselves, our thoughts, our junk, our stress, our anxiety.  Simply not focusing on yourself can be enough to make it worthwhile.  Going through a liturgical church service with repeated prayers can have this effect, just like meditation, drawing the mind to higher things.  Doing yoga and taking a certain class is not required for meditation.  But you can do that if you want.  Personally, my thoughts over the years have changed in regards to yoga.  I think for me it is too closely associated with Hindu dogma and philosophy.  I prefer stretching and breathing to yoga.  

Our tradition teaches us to focus on communion, whereas some Eastern traditions like Yoga focus on Nirvana, or obliteration of the ego into a spiritual state.  This is not part of the Western Christian tradition, so I was trying to make that distinction, but perhaps didn't make it clear enough in my other post.  If you don't have any religious beliefs, and / or don't care or want to do it, then yoga is a good form of exercise.  Or if you're concerned about that then just do stretching and breathing.  There are also mindfulness exercises which are great to learn to relax and breath, and have been proven to lower anxiety.  And I like the Japanese philosophy of Zen, which can really help us to develop agency.  Agency would be learning new things or working with our hands to repeat certain patterns in work, exercise, or in a hobby.  The famous scene from Karate Kid illustrates Zen quite well, learning to be humble, breath, and be present, which is a form of meditation.  

Meditation is great but If you meditate, think outside the box, and most importantly get out of the destructive silliness that goes in all of our heads. 

Read Next: Meditation 2020