Healthy Hedonism — How Maximizing Long-Term Pleasure Necessitates Healthy Living | by K. Albasi - Freedium

Health and pleasure are often thought of in opposition. We position a healthy lifestyle as an exercise in denying gratification and submitting ourselves to grueling workouts, while to indulge in life's comforts means putting aside such concerns for health or longevity. The picture of the hedonist is one of reckless abandon and self-destruction in the pursuit of greater highs while to be overly health conscious is to be devoted to such banal and joyless pursuits that life simply becomes not worth living. But, stepping back from these stereotypes, these two drives can actually exist in harmony. In fact, if one were to seek to only maximize pleasure across their natural lives that would in fact necessitate to a large degree healthy living and moderation. It is only by prioritizing immediate gratification at the expense of future happiness that pleasure seeking becomes altogether damaging. Healthy hedonism is a wholistic approach to the question of long-term happiness. It recognizes that t

Health and pleasure are often thought of in opposition. We position a healthy lifestyle as an exercise in denying gratification and submitting ourselves to grueling workouts, while to indulge in life's comforts means putting aside such concerns for health or longevity. The picture of the hedonist is one of reckless abandon and self-destruction in the pursuit of greater highs while to be overly health conscious is to be devoted to such banal and joyless pursuits that life simply becomes not worth living. But, stepping back from these stereotypes, these two drives can actually exist in harmony.