Why is emotional health important for longevity?

Emotional suppression contributes to chronic stress, elevated cortisol, reduced HRV, and systemic inflammation. Processing emotions through laughter, critical thinking, and vulnerability supports parasympathetic activation and immune function.

What are the health benefits of laughter?

Genuine laughter reduces cortisol, increases endorphins, improves blood vessel function via nitric oxide, and activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Research shows it improves immune function and reduces inflammation.

Think, Laugh, Cry: The 3 Things You Should Do Every Day (And Why Longevity Is Meaningless Without Them)

Published: March 2026 · Read time: 10 minutes · Category: Philosophy
Last updated: March 6, 2026

The Bottom Line

I spend $336 a month optimizing my body. I wear two devices 24/7. I track 41 biomarkers. I've dropped my functional age 9.5 years below my actual age.

But none of that matters if I'm not living a life worth extending.

There's a question that sits underneath every longevity protocol, every supplement stack, every blood panel: why? Why try to live longer? Why fight the four horsemen of metabolic disease, heart disease, cancer, and neurodegeneration? Why sacrifice the extra drink, the late-night pizza, the path of least resistance?

The answer can't just be "to not die." That's running from something. The answer has to be "to live fully." That's running toward something.

I've landed on a simple daily framework for what "living fully" means to me. Three things. Do all three every day and you're not just surviving — you're inhabiting the full range of what it means to be human.

Critically think. Laugh. Cry.

Critically Think

Critical thinking isn't being smart. It's being willing to challenge what you already believe — including your own assumptions, biases, and comfort zones.

Most people spend their days in autopilot. They consume information without questioning it. They accept the default: the diet they grew up with, the training program someone handed them, the career path that was expected, the opinions they absorbed from their environment. They never stop to ask: is this actually true? Does this actually work? Is this the best I can do?

I built my entire protocol on critical thinking. When AG1 was everywhere and every podcast had the ad read, I didn't buy it — I pulled up the ingredient doses, compared them to clinical research, and discovered that a $49/month alternative had better dosing and full transparency. That decision saved me money and gave me better results. But it required the willingness to question the popular thing.

Critical thinking is how you escape mediocrity in every domain. It's how you question the doctor who says "your numbers are fine" when fine isn't your goal. It's how you evaluate whether a supplement is actually working versus whether you just want it to work because you spent money on it. It's how you build systems that compound rather than collecting habits that collapse.

The daily practice: Ask yourself at least once a day — "what am I assuming right now that might not be true?" Apply it to your work, your relationships, your health, your beliefs. This single habit will change more about your life than any supplement.

Laugh

Real laughter — not the polite exhale you give a coworker's joke, but the full-body involuntary kind — is one of the most powerful physiological responses humans have.

Laughter reduces cortisol and epinephrine. It increases endorphin production. It improves blood vessel function by increasing nitric oxide production. It activates your parasympathetic nervous system — the "rest and digest" state that your body needs to recover and repair. There's research showing that genuine laughter improves immune function, reduces inflammation, and increases pain tolerance.

But beyond the biochemistry, laughter is a signal that you're present. You're connected. You're experiencing joy or absurdity or surprise — all of which require you to be engaged with the moment rather than running on autopilot or drowning in anxiety about the future.

I have a toddler. Emmett makes me laugh every single day without trying. The way he says new words, the way he runs, the things that fascinate him — it's an involuntary reset button. But even before Emmett, the principle holds: seek out what makes you genuinely laugh. Not scrolling, not passive entertainment, but the stuff that catches you off guard and breaks through.

The daily practice: Don't let a day pass where you don't genuinely laugh. If it's not happening naturally, seek it out. Call the friend who always makes you lose it. Watch the thing that gets you every time. Play with your kid, your dog, your partner. Laughter isn't frivolous — it's physiologically and emotionally essential.

Cry

This is the one nobody wants to talk about. Especially men. Especially in the biohacking and optimization space where everything is about performance, control, and measurable outcomes.

Crying is the emotional release valve that allows you to process grief, vulnerability, beauty, gratitude, and overwhelm. When you suppress it — and most adults do, systematically, for years — those emotions don't disappear. They accumulate. They manifest as chronic tension, emotional numbness, relational distance, and the vague sense that something is missing even when everything looks fine on paper.

I'm not saying you need to break down sobbing every day. Crying comes in many forms. It's the tightness in your chest when your kid does something that floors you with love. It's the moment in a song or a film that hits a nerve you didn't know was exposed. It's the grief that surfaces when you think about someone you've lost, or the vulnerability of admitting you're scared, tired, or struggling.

The willingness to feel that — to let it happen instead of swallowing it — is what keeps you emotionally alive. And emotional aliveness is the entire point of longevity.

I track my HRV religiously. I know that emotional stress craters it just like physical stress does. But I also know that emotional suppression doesn't eliminate the stress — it just hides it from the wearable while compounding it internally. Letting yourself cry, process, and release is the emotional equivalent of a recovery day. You can't just train. You have to recover. That applies to your emotional life too.

The daily practice: Don't resist the moments that move you. When something hits, let it hit. When gratitude swells, feel it fully. When grief surfaces, give it space. The goal isn't to be sad — the goal is to be open enough that the full spectrum of human emotion can flow through you without getting stuck.

Why All Three Matter Together

Critically thinking without laughing becomes cynicism. Laughing without thinking becomes distraction. Thinking and laughing without crying becomes emotional disconnection.

All three together create something rare: a person who is intellectually engaged, emotionally alive, and genuinely present. That's the person worth optimizing for. That's the person who makes "living to 100" actually mean something.

I've talked to people in the longevity space who have incredible biomarkers — HRV in the 90s, VO2 Max above 50, blood panels that would make a doctor weep — but who are emotionally shut down, relationally disconnected, and grinding through an optimization protocol that feels more like a prison than a practice.

I don't want that. And if you're reading this, I suspect you don't either.

The protocol isn't the point. The protocol is the vehicle. The point is to be fully alive for as long as possible — to think deeply, laugh freely, and feel everything. To be there for your kid's milestones not just physically present but emotionally available. To pursue work that matters with a clear mind. To connect with the people you love without the fog of chronic illness, brain decline, or metabolic dysfunction standing between you and the moment.

The Question That Ties It All Together

When I look at Emmett — this small, fearless, endlessly curious human who laughs 50 times a day and cries when he's overwhelmed and studies everything with total concentration — I see all three happening naturally. He hasn't learned to suppress any of it yet.

The irony of growing up is that we systematically shut down the three things that make us most alive. We stop questioning because conformity is safer. We stop laughing freely because we're too busy or too stressed. We stop crying because we're told it's weakness.

Getting those three things back isn't weakness. It's the most important optimization you'll ever do.

Stave off the four horsemen. Extend your lifespan. Compress your morbidity. Track your biomarkers. Run your blood panels. Do all of it.

But do it so you can think deeply about things that matter, laugh until you can't breathe, and feel things so fully that tears are a regular visitor.

That's the protocol. The real one.

See my full protocol: My Protocol →
Read why I do this: About →

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