Adventures Keep Us Young

This morning I crawled into a mine. The first in a series on exploration and longevity.

Extreme sports are usually not associated with longevity. The mortality rate of base jumpers after a few years in the sport is notoriously high. And yet – an adventurous lifestyle plays an essential role in keeping us young. You don’t have to go to the extreme to feel the thrill. What counts as an adventure is different for everyone.

Here’s mine from this morning:

I’m on Crete for two weeks. One of my favorite things to do here is pick a random rock formation I can see from my terrace and decide to climb to the top – without knowing if that’s even possible. Possible, that is, for someone with no climbing experience and a serious fear of heights.

This morning I chose a colossal rock overlooking the south coast bay. I ran toward it. Before long, the terrain got rough. I found myself walking along a cliffside, the ground dropping vertically to the sea below. My heart started pounding and my knees were going soft. But the curiosity of what lay beyond was stronger than the pull to turn back.

Then I saw something strange. A dark hole in the mountainside. It looked deep and mysterious. Claustrophobia started whispering to me. But I knew I wanted to go in.

It turned out to be an entrance to an old mine. I started crawling. After a few meters, total darkness – the light from my phone reached maybe half a meter ahead. Then the passage widened. I could almost walk upright, but the ceiling was jagged and uneven, forcing me to move slowly, one hand above my head.

Deeper into the mountain. Would this lead anywhere? At any moment, a vertical shaft could open beneath my feet. Then – a point of light! It flickered like a single star in complete blackness. I crawled and stumbled another hundred meters toward it.

The passage ended at a rocky ledge. Below me: a 30-meter drop. Above me: a massive dome, a half-open cave carved into the cliff. The sea crashed through the opening, pounding against the rock walls. And that light I’d followed – the setting sun, breaking through evening clouds on the horizon.

I stood there for a while before turning back. “How much of this is out there, waiting? I know I want to see it all.”

Why am I telling you this?

I try to build adventures like this into my life regularly. And I’ve noticed it does me good: Adventures force me into the present – no bandwidth for the past or the future. They teach me to handle uncertainty, deal with the unexpected. They show me, again and again, that my limits are mostly imaginary. And they let me walk toward my fears instead of away from them.

Over the past few months, I started digging into the research: How do adventures actually contribute to health and longevity?

The findings are fascinating. And best of all: there are simpler ways than you might think to integrate adventure into everyday life – even with a full calendar of work and family.

I’ll share what I’ve learned over the coming weeks.

Coming up:

• What Counts as an Adventure? – You Don’t Need a Mountain

• Why Do We Seek Adventure? – Evolution and the Pull of the Unknown

• Adventures as Medicine – The Physical and Therapeutic Benefits

• The Comfort Trap – What We Lose When We Stop Exploring

• Make Adventures Part of Your Life – The Habit of the Unexpected

What are your thoughts on adventures? How have they influenced your life? → Always looking for inspiration and good stories.