Any philosophy is ultimately a basis for developing a behavioral model that a person should follow in his daily life. Ultimately, philosophy is like a compass or a guide. It offers a set of views and criteria for assessing everything that is happening around us.
A human, like any other biological organism, is an adaptive creature. He learns quickly and can adjust his behavior to the changing environment. At the same time, as an intelligent being, a human can create his own behavioral algorithms based on his priorities, accumulated experience and social morals. This is actually how the process of developing a philosophical concept works.Nature vs Nurture
Human behavior is determined by the programs embedded in us, in both our subconscious and the programmable section that we call consciousness.
At the subconscious level we have programs that we inherit from birth and that form the basic instincts and models of how to respond to different external and internal impacts. These programs do not change throughout the life, except in cases of mental illness or brain injuries.
The programmable section that we call consciousness collects and stores the behavior models that are introduced to us during the learning process. This happens either through the imposition of moral norms and rules of the society or through development of our own models of behavior in certain situations based on accumulated experience and knowledge.
In essence, a set of programs in the programmable section is a system of philosophical principals, as it determines human behavior on the basis of certain approaches and certain views. Usually, the model of human behavior is formed in line with the rules of the society, which have been developed in accordance with the philosophical paradigm of this society. Therefore, without even realizing it, a person lives by the rules of a particular philosophical system.
This human's ability to form and adapt the system of philosophical principals during his life, as opposed to relying only on basic instincts, opens up a potential to control the aging process, "intercepting" these functions from the subconscious.
How we approach the development of philosophical principles
While there are many philosophical doctrines that often intersect and intertwine with each other, it is very important to choose a system for yourself that would best fit your personality and help effectively overcome the life challenges.
With that in mind, instead of becoming a blind apologist of one particular philosophical school, it is much more effective to combine certain elements of different schools, creating a balanced philosophical system for yourself.
We used exactly the same approach while designing the philosophical principles for our movement. We wanted to develop such a behavioral model that would be focused on achieving longevity and creating comfortable living environment.
Rational utilitarianism
We believe that one of the most important approaches to achieve longevity and maintaining good health is simplifying our life. This can include a lot of things like: applying the principle of minimalism in arranging our personal space; revising our relations with others and reducing our dependence of their opinion; changing our life priorities and focusing only on the most important things.
One of the main principles for any system is that the more complex it is, the more it is prone to a failure. The same applies to people, given that a human being is a complex biochemical system.
The more complex our life is and the more worries we have, then the more stress we put ourselves under. As a result, we miss big and important things in our life while being distracted by the trifles. This is while even in ideal circumstances, the task of maintaining a healthy body and active lifestyle on its own requires considerable effort and time.
And we are not talking about escaping reality, as many philosophical and religious doctrines suggest. We do not in any way encourage withdrawing from the surrounding world, immersing in Nirvana, and devoting your time only to yourself, your own body and your consciousness.
For most of us it is simply not possible and, frankly, not needed. On the contrary, our goal is to make our lives fulfilling and gratifying, we are not talking about any self-isolation and self-limitation. What we mean is just outlining our priorities and having the ability to cut off all the little things that are eating out our time and energy.
For example, when it comes to everyday life, we are proponents of the principle of minimalism. The essence of this principle is filling your living space only with what is most necessary, managing to live on the bare minimum, and stop constantly worrying. Such approach saves time and frees your brain from making constant decisions, allowing it to focus on other, more important tasks.
Minimalism also teaches us to look at the world more rationally and concentrate on the most important things. It helps change our approach to building relationships with others and revise our life priorities.
Therefore, focusing only on the essentials and utterly simplifying our life - this is one of the cornerstones of our philosophy.
Stoicism and hedonism
We also consider ourselves as proponents of hedonism and stoicism.
Hedonism is based on the notion that the main purpose of human existence is the pursuit of pleasure. We think that a person should strive to make his life better, to feel satisfied with his lifestyle, and to do what he likes or what at least does not create discomfort and stress.
For example, when it comes to training, diets and mental exercise, it is important to select the activities that are pleasurable for you to perform and that suit you personally the most. If you enjoy doing something you'll be doing this whenever you get a chance. But if you have to force yourself into doing something you don't like, then anyway it won't be useful and effective.
The same applies to all other activities. Therefore, our main principle is excluding from your life everything that creates a negative, and surrounding yourself with what brings joy.
In connection to that, we follow the rule to be independent from what society dictates, because it limits our freedom and poisons our life. You should not be held hostage to the opinions of others and do not have to act in accordance with the expectations of others. First of all you should care about what you want and what is good for you.
This doesn't mean that we call for violation of social norms, neglecting the law and disregarding others. What we are talking about is an internal freedom and the right of every person to live and act as his nature dictates.
Furthermore, we think that the philosophy of hedonism must be supplemented by the philosophy of stoicism. The essence of stoicism is to be calm about everything that happens to you, without letting the negative break you.
If something doesn't work out, don't get upset. You should focus only on what you can really change in order to fix the situation and get what you want. If this is not attainable, just accept it and move on as soon as possible to where you can achieve the desired result.
Conclusion
Ultimately, all these principles serve for changing your life for the better, maintaining psychological balance, being open to everything new, and spending your time and energy only on what is most important to you. As a result, this helps the body keep its strength, slow down the aging process, and in general makes your life much more enjoyable and rich.
We are well aware that most people probably have the life concepts that are very different from what we offer. While we have no intention of converting everyone into the like-minded people, we nevertheless want to remind what we said at the very beginning, that any system of views and moral principles is the result of teaching and indoctrination. But this system is not "carved in stone", and we live in the ever changing environment. Therefore, at least we should not stubbornly cling on to the old views, and try being more open to changes, reassessment, and adjustment.