5 WAYS TO VALUE YOUR BODY
How much do you value your body?
In the film noir classic, The Third Man, Orson Welles (as the supposedly dead Harry Lime) looks down from the top of a Ferris wheel and asks Joseph Cotton (as the very naive Hollie Martins) about the people moving about on the ground..."dots" he calls 'em. Welles poses the tantalizing question of just how many dots Cotton would allow to "stop moving" if offered $20,000 for each (remember, this was over 60 years ago). How might we respond if presented with such an offer? Surely, it's obscene to talk about humans having a monetary value?
Perhaps so, but here's but one example of human life as commodity: the Ford Pinto scandal in the 1970s. It seems that the hapless Pinto couldn't withstand a rear-end impact of 30 mph without risking a fuel tank rupture. The government stepped in and actually tried to create a new regulation. The Big Boys at Ford balked, providing a mathematical formula to prove their greedy point. Here's how consumer advocate Ralph Nader explains it:
"Ford set the cost of a human life at $200,000, a burn injury at $67,000, and the value of an incinerated auto at $700. Ford then figured in that in Pintos there would be 180 deaths, 180 burn injuries, and 2100 burned vehicles per year. Using those figures, Ford set the benefit of the 30 mph standard at $49.5 million per year. Ford then stated that it would cost the company $11 per auto to meet the standard for a total cost of $137.5 million."
Fortunately, the type of "value" I'm talking about here in relation to our bodies is far more positive. It's about the steps we can take to demonstrate how much we value our precious time here on Earth and how that value can translate into us being better earthlings.
Keep reading to learn 5 Ways to Value Your Body.
1. Avoid Toxins
There are 63 synthetic chemical products found in the average American home, translating to roughly 10 gallons of harmful chemicals. According to US EPA estimates, indoor air pollution levels can be 100 times higher than outdoor air pollution levels. So, whether you choose to remove tour shoes before entering your home or leave windows open to circulate fresh air or make the crucial switch to more earth-friendly cleaning products, start taking steps to detoxify your body.
2. Exercise
Thousands of books have been written on the thousands of benefits of exercise so here's just one factoid to pique your interest: Research studies have found consistent moderate intensity physical activity may reduce a person's risk for developing type 2 diabetes by 40% to 60%. As fitness expert and owner of Core Fitness, Michael Margulies toldme: "Exercise is the fountain of youth."
3. Stress Relief
Two thirds of Americans say they are likely to seek help for stress and 54% of Americans are concerned about the level of stress in their everyday lives. Here are 12 ways a stressed but Earth-friendly human find inner peace without the stress of substantially deepening her/his carbon footprint.
4. Planet-Based Diet
At 98.7° (body temperature), animal fat is solid (think: pork chop) while plant fat (think: olive oil) is liquid. Not surprisingly, the risk of death from heart attack for the average American is 50%. For a vegan: 4%.
5. Green Your Mind
The above steps can value our bodies and our minds. More abstractly, we can green our mindsin a few other ways, like mindfulness, interdependence, awareness, and speaking out. As some guy named Proust once said: "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."
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