Mappy May!
90 y. old's Longevity Secrets / Psychedelic Conference / Vietnam trip 2&3 / Last Minute Campsites / Meditation and productivity / Book: Outlive by Attia, MD / $400 Chase Referral Bonus / Sylvia Plath
New on MappyEverAfter.com: Mark’s 90-y.o. Mom’s birthday and longevity “secrets”, and our Vietnam trip, Parts 2 and 3
From the Archive: Yosemite for procrastinators: Book last-minute campsites
Experiment: Meditating for an hour a day and productivity
Travel: We’re going to volunteer at the biggest Psychedelic gathering in the world! Psychedelic Science 2023 in Denver, Colorado, 6/19 - 6/23
Health/Read: Dr. Peter Attia’s Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity
Money: Chase Ink is still offering the staggering $400 referral bonus!
Mental Hack: Make choices while there are choices to be made
Just because: An Oscar-nominated, Stop-action Guacamole
Note: I will always tell you if I’m getting any referral bonuses and how much they are. There is one in this letter, a $400 referral bonus (for the first five of you) if you’re itching to get a Chase Ink credit card and choose to use my link. I’ll also tell you how to generate your own links to earn your own bonuses.
New on MappyEverAfter website: Vietnam trip and Mark’s Mom’s 90th Birthday
If you’re new here (like my friend Beau 😊), welcome! In this section, you’ll find out what I’ve been up to on my MappyEverAfter website each month:
I just wrapped up my 3-part post about our Vietnam escapades. We traveled over 1300 miles by the notorious local buses, from south to north, Saigon to Hanoi. Each stop along the way was amazing in its own way. Here’s the whole series:
Part 1 - Saigon (that I told you about in the last Mappy Monday),
Part 2 - Can Tho and Dalat, where we rent a boat to experience the famous floating Market, take a white-knuckle ride on a night bus, eat crickets, see how silk is made, and roam the psychedelic Crazy House, and
Part 3 - Hoi An and Hanoi, where we stay in the ancient UNESCO Heritage town and get hooked on egg coffee in the capital.
Mark’s Mom turned 90 last month. She’s a medical marvel. She’s been smoking for 70 years, drinking vodka daily, and sustaining on processed food. Her main form of exercise has always been getting in and out of her car. She does have a few healthy habits: a modest appetite (she eats whatever she wants but never overeats), she’s an expert sleeper and napper, and has a very nonchalant approach to life. She definitely doesn’t sweat the small stuff. Or the big stuff either 😊.
I made 2 videos of her:
45 seconds of her “Longevity Secrets”
5 minutes of the Birthday Celebration where she tries to blow out 90 candles.
From the Archive: Yosemite for Procrastinators - Book Last-minute Campsites
If you missed the bus on getting your campsite in Yosemite (or any other US National Park, for that matter) in early spring when the bookings opened, don’t despair. Not only is nabbing last-minute camping spots possible, but it can be easier than booking months ahead. We’ve been doing it for several years now, smack in the middle of the busiest season. I wrote about it here, have a look.
Experiment: Does Meditation Increase Productivity?
I wanted to start meditating again but my schedule was too full. I felt frantic, checking my emails 2 minutes before falling asleep, my to-do list getting longer and longer despite my best efforts. So I put the old Zen saying "You should sit in meditation for 20 minutes a day; unless you're too busy, then you should sit for an hour" to the test. I scheduled a 60-minute meditation into my afternoons as a month-long experiment. Here are the results, Day 0 vs Day 30:
My To-Do list hasn't magically shrunk, but the stress surrounding it has significantly diminished, and I now find joy in tackling the tasks. Interestingly, many items on the list no longer carry the same sense of urgency they once did.
For those inclined toward scientific analysis, here's a meticulously crafted graph providing precise data:
Travel: We’re going to PS 2023, the Biggest Psychedelic Conference in the World!
I Love MAPS (founded in 1986, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization specializing in research and education that develops medical, legal, and cultural shifts benefiting the careful uses of psychedelics and marijuana for mental and spiritual healing).
I’m a late bloomer and an extremely infrequent user but ever since I had Philosopher’s Stone truffles in Amsterdam and felt elated for a month afterward, old worries and anxieties vanishing into thin air, I knew there was something, well, magical, about magic mushrooms. I could not understand why alcohol is legal and psychedelics are not. And then I learned about MAPS, an organization on a mission to bridge the gap between plant medicines and the people that could benefit.
I looked for ways to get involved and volunteered on a translating project for MAPS. Then I heard about the Psychedelic Science 2023 conference. Everyone who’s anyone in the field is going to be there. If I went, I might even get to see Paul Stamets’ mushroom hat in person! 🍄😊
As I was mulling over the price of the tickets one day, I got an email from MAPS with an offer to lead a group of volunteers at the conference. I immediately leapt at the opportunity and my partner in crime, aka the hubby, happily signed up to be my wacky lackey.
Denver, Here we come!
If you plan to be there, let us know and we’ll show you around.
Health/Read: Outlive - The Science and Art of Longevity by Peter Attia, MD, with Bill Gifford
I gave a shout-out to Dr. Attia's latest book in the Mappy March issue (make sure to check it out for a great chat between him and Tim Ferriss, two of my favorite health nerds). Now that I have read it, here’s the scoop:
Several years back, Attia got an email from a friend frustrated about all the conflicting advice by the exercise “experts”. To stay healthy, should he do strength or endurance training? And how much and why? Could Attia shed some light? Attia started typing a reply and, instead of a quick email, he wrote a 2000-word memo. He later expanded it into a manifesto on longevity, which eventually grew into the Outlive book that’s on the bookshelves (and in libraries) today.
He dives deep into the leading causes of death and gives strategies for dodging health curveballs, starting today. It's not just about adding more candles to the cake; it's about living all our years to the fullest, thriving in a healthy body and sharp mind until that (hopefully) distant horizon.
Peter Attia’s credentials: He received his medical degree from Stanford and trained at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in general surgery. He was a surgical oncology fellow at the National Cancer Institute. He founded Early Medical, “a medical practice that applies the principles of Medicine 3.0 to patients with the goal of lengthening their lifespan and simultaneously improving their healthspan.”
Money: Chase Ink Card’s $400 referral bonus
When I first wrote about the $400 referral bonus for Chase Ink Business cards in March, I thought it was a short-lived promotion. But the offer is still here. It can be redeemed for a $400 statement credit or for booking travel, in which case it can be worth 2x as much. If you’re new to using points for hotels and flights, I wrote about it here: Travel hacking with US Credit Card Points. If you still have questions after reading it, ask me in the comments below or reply to this email.
So, if you have any of the Chase Ink cards (Premier, Unlimited, or Cash), here’s the Chase Bank page to generate your own referral link to send to your friends and family (even if they live at the same address as you).
And if you don’t have a Chase Ink card and would like to apply (you can get $750 - $1000 bonus if you spend $6-10k in the first 90 days of card ownership, so only get it if you have big expenses coming up (I usually also prepay many of my bills with it). Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited have no annual fee. Here’s my referral link you can use (please and thank you). I’ll do a happy little dance if you do.
Mental Hack: Make Choices while there are choices to be made
Sylvia Plath, the acclaimed poet and author (awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry in 1982, posthumously) wrote in her semi-autobiographical book, The Bell Jar, a passage that deeply resonated with me. It talks about decision-making (my Achilles heel) and the price of inaction. At first, I found it a bit disheartening but the more I thought about it, the more energized and driven I felt. May you bypass the sadness and arrive straight at the inspiration.
Illustrator Gavin Aung Tha of Zen Pencils brought this passage to life in his artwork. You can see the first slide below and either click on it to see the complete piece or follow this link.
Does anybody else have a craving for figs now? 🙂
Just Because: A little something for Cinco de Mayo: Oscar-nominated, Stop-action Guacamole
So there you have it. Máj - lásky čas (May is the time for love) as we say in Slovakia. Hope yours was filled with love, in any form. And if it fell short, here comes June to make up for it!
Be Mappy,
Mags