It begins to feel as though you’re failing at life, in some indistinct way, if you’re not treating your time off as an investment in your future. Sometimes this pressure takes the form of the explicit argument that you ought to think of your leisure hours as an opportunity to become a better worker (“Relax! You’ll Be More Productive,” reads the hea... See more

Studies show that physical stressors like exercise or fasting trigger adaptive responses in our cells, boosting resilience and longevity. Mice exposed to mild stressors (e.g., temperature changes) outlived their pampered counterparts. Apply that to humans: a 2021 study in Nature Aging linked regular physical challenge—hiking, running, lifting weigh... See more