Longer and healthier with Alex Lam
Retired Caledon architect Alex Lam has been dubbed “the architect of wellness and longevity” thanks to his new book, Long Life, Mapping Your Well-Being with Purpose and Meaning.
Lam has travelled the globe giving lectures on how to live a longer, healthier life with meaning and purpose. And although he said the book was written for university-aged readers and young professionals, it has plenty of important takeaways for every age group from students to seniors.
“My wife says it’s a scientific book for scholars, but it was written for everybody,” said Lam, MRAIC (Life), IFMA Fellow. “What I tried to do was to open doors and bring to people’s attention that we are living longer so we also need to live healthier. Otherwise your life and activities may become restricted, and you may become a burden to your family and society. Suppose you retire at 65 or so, you may still have 30 or more years ahead of you and you can enrich those years by finding meaning and purpose.
My goal is to spread the message through my book and lectures that it’s important to start early and make choices now to ensure you not only have a long lifespan, but also a good health span to match.”
How do we find meaning and purpose when we are busy juggling a family, a career, while strapped for time?
The key is to make yourself pause and be mindful of these things, according to Lam. His book is packed with unique maps and charts including a Well-being Competency Model which is a self-assessment for personal growth and discovery. Through his research he discovered commonalities among the books and journals he read on longevity and wellness. From this, he created a 10-point chart which lists the 10 essential aspects of our lives which are key to a well-balanced life. These include community, family, rest, careers, nutrition, interests, fitness, mind, faith and purpose.
Asked if there are one or two aspects of life that are more important than the others, Lam said they are all important.
“It’s like a gyroscope where everything is interconnected. You don’t have to do everything perfect, but if you are doing three or four consistently that means you are doing well. If you want to single out one or two things, I will say that rest is the most important thing. When you rest your whole system resets to repair itself. The mind is the other one that’s so important. If you are worried about things, you don’t get enough rest. Also your attitude. If you are uptight this affects your wellness. These are all things you can improve.”
Relationships are important to wellbeing. Having family, friends, community and other types of relationships is important. Loneliness is one of the worst things people face. The problem today is that social media can replace in-person conversations and Alexa and Siri are not real people.
“A friend of mine was almost having social chats with AI every day, which can be good when you need information, but dangerous when you start relying on technology for conversation.”
Lam spent approximately 25 years with Bell Canada as General Manager of Facilities before taking early retirement. He has more than 28 years experience as a global consultant working with major Fortune 500 firms across the Asia-Pacific region and North America. He is currently the Chief Design Officer at Aviemore Stirling Inc. in Toronto. As a highly regarded guest speaker, he has shared his insights at international conferences across the globe. He and his wife have lived in Caledon for more than 10 years.
“My interest in wellness and longevity happened by chance,” he said. “In 2017, I was mentoring a student at Sheridan College who was taking a humanity course called Aging and Society – Canadian Perspectives, so I read the textbook, and even though some textbooks can be quite dull, I found it so interesting that I read every page. This is what inspired my interest in health and living well. I started doing a lot of research and one thing led to another and hence the book. I didn’t realize that writing a book is really difficult. It took me about nine years of doing research and then I prepared several presentations to deliver at conferences to test the waters for a book. The actual writing took about a year, thanks to the pandemic.”
Moderation is the key to aging well. The stomach is considered the second brain. Lam calls it the gut-brain highway and said it’s getting more publicity now, but it dates back centuries in Chinese medicine. He thinks that is important because now science is supporting it. This relates to nutrition and what you are eating.
“It’s important to eat a rainbow of colours in terms of produce and don’t eat things that are loaded in additives or chemicals that may be dangerous to your health. I’m a Type 2 diabetic and I do eat chocolate and ice cream, but I don’t overdo it. Everything can be enjoyed in moderation.”
Lam believes in moderate daily exercise and encourages readers to find a sport or activity they love, but again, moderation is important.
“I love to play basketball, but when I play, I put my whole being into it and when I do that, I always hurt myself,” he said. “I sometimes forget that I am 81 years old and can’t run around like I used to. We need to understand that we are aging and although we are aging healthy, your body structure is not the same as it was when you were 45. It’s important to know our limits.”
While the author said many of the references in the book were discovered through his extensive research over the last decade, other concepts date back to ancient Chinese medicine.
“It’s not new—it all comes down to common sense. It’s not high-tech stuff. It’s soft tech. We all know what happens if we drink too much beer or overeat constantly. I am not a medical doctor, but I consulted with three physicians who reviewed my book including Dr. Peter Lin, medical contributor for CBC TV and Radio. The most important thing you can learn from this book is how to live healthier, and the earlier in life you realize this, the better you will fare in the future. My key takeaways are this: you must find your purpose in life and belong to a faith community; you must consider ways to relax because worry doesn’t solve problems. It’s also important to eat properly and have a good attitude. This is the secret to living and aging well into our 90’s or 100 or more.”
Long Life: Mapping Your Well-Being with Purpose and Meaning by Alex Lam is available at The Booklore in Orangeville.
Before making any changes to your health or wellness routine, please consult your physician for medical advice.