A Theory on Diminishing Subjective Wellbeing

There is the widely held belief that after about our mid twenties our bodies simply start "falling apart", unwanted extra weight seemingly just starts to accumulate for no reason, and the glorious youth we experienced for so long has evaporated and we're now firmly rooted in adulthood and the negative physiological consequences that come along with that.

There is some truth to the physiologic effects of aging however for the overwhelming majority of us these age related decreasing hormone levels aren't something we truly have to battle from a physiologic aspect until our mid to late 50's.

So what gives? Why are we slower, have less energy, less zest for live in our thirties and forties than in our twenties. The short answer is simply...we don't live the same lifestyle. We work more, sleep less, eat more calories, do less physical activities, and have more stress than we used to.

However these changes don't occur overnight, they compound slowly and in daily changes so subtle it's hard for us to even realize what's going on until some large negative catalyst happens or we realize we weigh 20 pounds more than we thought we did, or one day your go-to wedding outfit doesn't fit like it did last summer.

Most of us establish a slowly diminishing baseline of "normalcy" that just gets worse over time, although our perception of the baseline remains more or less the same.

In this video I dig deeper into how this happens and the reasonings behind it.