A big part of this influence comes from what we inherit from our genes, which we don’t have much control over. However, diet and exercise also play an important role in maintaining a healthy body and healthy mind – and those are things that we do have the power to change.

Here are some of the latest findings on the importance of diet and exercise in mental health, as well as some suggestions on how to improve these aspects of our lives.

What you eat affects your brain.

Your brain needs nutrients and a healthy diet in order for it function at its best.

High-powered brain foods are rich in complex carbohydrates (your brain’s primary source of energy), fiber (which improves absorption of necessary vitamins and minerals), lean protein (for building new neurotransmitters), and unsaturated fats (especially omega-3 fatty acids, which improve cognitive abilities).

You can satisfy most of these nutritional needs by following a healthy diet rich in fresh vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and high-quality meat and fish. Psychology studies have found that a healthy diet that follows these core food groups can significantly lower the risk of psychological disorders such as anxiety and depression.

In contrast, an unhealthy diet contains a lot of processed foods and saturated fats, like potato chips, fried foods, chocolate, sweets, ice cream, and other junk food. These are not only associated with physical problems like heart disease and obesity, but have also shown in recent studies to lead to long-term problems in mental health.

The scientific journal PLoS One published a longitudinal study in 2011 showing that changes in diet correlated with changes in mental health. Among 2,000 participants, those who made healthy changes to their diet experienced improved mental health, while participants who made unhealthy changes to their diet experienced a deterioration in mental health. This is one of many empirical examples of how our diets affect our brains.

Key “brain foods” to keep in mind and why.

• Fish, eggs, and grass-fed meats. Several studies have shown a strong association between seafood consumption and mental health, especially mood disorders. This is because most fish (as well as eggs and grass-fed meat) contain high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to lower depression and anxiety levels, as well as improve memory and cognition. Limited research also suggests that omega-3 fatty acids may be effective in preventing psychotic symptoms in those with schizophrenia. In a six-month study of those with schizophrenia, those who were treated with E-EPA supplements (a concentrate of omega-3 fatty acids) showed a significant increase in grey and white matter, while those who took a placebo had shown a loss in cerebral tissue. Foods such as fish, eggs, and grass-fed meats are widely considered to play an important role in neural growth and healthy brain functioning.
• Nuts and seeds. Many nuts and seeds are also good sources of omega-3 fatty acids, especially butternuts, walnuts, chia seed, and flax. Nuts and seeds are also a great source of protein, fiber, and vitamins – all of which your brain needs to function most effectively. If you are vegan or vegetarian, nuts and seeds are essential for maintaining a healthy body and mind, since they provide a lot of the same nutritional value that can’t be found in other non-animal food products.

• Whole grains. Whole wheat breads, grains and pasta are great sources of complex carbohydrates, fiber, and B vitamins. Your brain needs a steady supply of carbohydrates, which your body breaks down into glucose, the brain’s main source of energy. When glucose is low, psychological processes that require mental effort (like self-control and conscious decision-making) are impaired. Therefore, it’s important that you give your brain the energy it needs to function effectively throughout the day. Without the right amount of complex carbohydrates, your brain will become fatigued and inefficient – it needs energy to function! Other excellent sources of complex carbohydrates include beans, legumes, fruits, and vegetables.
• Many fruits and vegetables. Many fruits and vegetables contain loads of essential vitamins, dietary fibers, carbohydrates, and antioxidants which improve brain function. Blueberries and strawberries, for example, have shown to improve memory and cognition by cleaning out toxins in the brain that cause age-related memory loss and mental decline. Most fruits and vegetables play an important role in maintaining a healthy and balanced diet. It is therefore preferred that you eat a variety of different fruits and vegetables throughout your day, rather than just increasing the quantity of any one specific fruit.
• Water. Up to 70% of our brains are water. Drinking water is therefore essential for keeping our bodies and brains hydrated. When we don’t get enough water each day, this can lead to long-term declines in brain functioning, including stress and fatigue. Water is key for delivering nutrients to our brains, keeping them healthy, as well as eliminating toxins.
• Coffee or tea. Studies show that a moderate amount of caffeine can be beneficial toward brain health. For example, one study found that coffee can slow down dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as improve cognitive functioning and alertness. Similar effects have been found in green tea, which also includes powerful antioxidants that help clean out the brain. Some research has also suggested that caffeine can mimic some of the effects of antidepressants.

There’s no conclusive research on what exactly the “best diet” is for mental health. In all likelihood, there is probably no such thing, as it probably depends on many factors including each individual’s biochemistry and the combination of foods they consume as a whole.

That being said, I think we all have an intuitive sense of what makes “healthy” foods and what makes “unhealthy” foods. The truth is most of us probably don’t need to read a book on nutrition to begin making more health-conscious choices. When we choose to have that piece of cake while watching our favorite TV show, instead of the bowl of salad, we know deep-down that we are choosing the less healthy option.

So while some of these health suggestions may seem like commonsense, please remember that the bigger point here is that what we choose to eat matters to our brains and mental health. Therefore, maintaining a healthy diet plays a significant role in also keeping our brains working properly.

Please talk with your doctor and do more research before making any dramatic changes to your diet.

Exercise improves mental health and cognitive ability.

Over the past decade, research has shown that exercise is just as important to our mental health as maintaining a balanced diet. In a 2011 issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers did a meta-analysis of over 100 studies looking into the effects of aerobic exercise and strength training on mental health and cognitive ability.

One finding was that exercise during childhood led to a faster rate of cognitive development. Children who were physically inactive tended to perform worse on academic exams and neuropsychological tests, while children who exercised showed improvements in memory, attention, and decision-making.

This was also found to be true in younger and older adults. According to researchers, there is solid evidence that exercise can benefit a variety of executive functions, including multi-tasking, planning, and self-control. Neuroscientists have also done fMRI scans in humans and rats showing that exercise can lead to increases in brain volume, specifically in areas of the brain associated with cognition and memory.

Exercise has also proven to be an effective treatment for several mental disorders. One study published in a 2011 issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry found that exercise can substitute as a second medication for those with depression. Often depressed patients begin to feel better when they receive their first medication, but they don’t feel completely well. In the past, psychiatrists have prescribed a second medication, but now research shows that prescribing exercise instead can be just as, if not more effective.

One of the reasons exercise may help alleviate depression is because it releases neurotransmitters like endorphins, serotonin, and anandamide, which are known to elevate mood and feelings of pleasure. This experience is sometimes referred to as “runner’s high,” and these biochemical levels are known to stay elevated in the body for up to several weeks at a time, contributing to improvements in happiness and increased self-esteem.

Exercise has also been known to increase neural growth and neuroplasticity, which helps protect against neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia and other age-related declines in mental health and cognitive ability.

Minimize alcohol, cigarettes, and drug use.

The other aspect of our physical and mental health are dangerous habits that include excessive alcohol, cigarettes, and drug use. In many ways, substance abuse is a mental illness all on its own. It’s also true, however, that many people who engage in substance abuse can develop other brain abnormalities and mental illnesses later in life, such as alcohol-induced brain damage.

Of course, some drugs can be taken in moderation and not have any adverse effects on your physical or mental health. Every now and then a study comes out showing how the occasional glass of wine or marijuana joint can actually improve certain aspects of our physical and mental health. But even so, it’s important to keep moderation in mind at all times.

There are also some drugs that are probably best avoided altogether. Hard drugs like heroin and cocaine often serve very little long-term benefit physically or mentally (if at all), and the costs just far outweigh the gains.

Make a conscious choice to be smarter about drugs. I can’t realistically tell everyone to avoid alcohol or smoking altogether, but I think it’s wise to do these things with some caution and mindfulness. Because like all things that you consume into your body, it’s going to affect your brain and mental health in some way.

Try one small habit change – just for this week.

I’ve now covered 3 different aspects of your physical and mental health that you could begin improving on today if you really wanted to.

Of course, I understand that making these changes can seem daunting at first. There’s a lot to chew on in this article, and you certainly can’t transform yourself overnight.

By taking small steps, however, you can begin to make changes for the long-term.

If you want to start making changes in your health today, I recommend checking out Try One Small Habit Change – Just for This Week. This article challenges you to a one week experiment on changing one habit. For example, practice substituting soda with water for one week.

By making steady, gradual changes over time, we can instill habits that greatly improve our physical and mental health in the long-term.

David Sloan Wilson, an evolutionary biologist from Binghamton University, did a couple interesting experiments with sitters and rovers. In one study, he put metal traps in a pond of pumpkinseed sunfish. The rovers, being more active, were the first to check out the traps. Consequently, they were also the first ones to be caught. The sitters, because they were more likely to sit on the sidelines, were impossible to capture using these traps.

However, in another experiment, Wilson transported all the fish to a new environment. He found that the rovers were most likely to begin investigating their new surroundings and finding food. Due to this, the rovers began eating five days before the sitters started. In this example, it was the rovers who were most likely to survive.

In some cases, the sitters’ passiveness directly led to their survival (especially when their passiveness helped to avoid a dangerous situation). But during other times this passiveness actually hurt their ability to adapt to new surroundings when necessary.

“Just Do It” vs. “Look Before You Leap.”

In a lot of personal development literature we hear the mantra, “Just do it!” Take the common example of diving into a cold pool. Often, when we try to go step-by-step, the coldness becomes that much more unbearable. This can actually inhibit us from adapting to the temperature fast enough to act and fully immerse ourselves into the water. Sometimes it’s easier to just “jump in” and get it over with. This is when the common attitude of a rover becomes most beneficial.

A less popular phrase in personal development is “Look before you leap.” This strategy is different than “Just do it.” It means we take a step back and evaluate our situation more carefully before diving in. Take for example addictive behaviors like gambling or sex. If we always act impulsively (automatically, without thinking) then we tend to engage in these risky behaviors without inhibition. Then we are more likely to end up with an empty bank account or an STD.

Thinking and doing need to be balanced.

Sometimes “thinking” gets a bad rep. We hear of people planning and contemplating ideas all day, but never doing anything productive about them. Maybe we want to approach a girl at a bar, thinking of all the things we want to say, but then we over-analyze the situation and cripple ourselves from ever approaching. In these kinds of cases, too much thinking can turn out to be a bad thing. For some people it is very easy to get “stuck in their heads” and never step into their bodies.

On the other end of the spectrum, too little thinking can often cause us to be foolish or reckless. If we never think about the consequences of our actions, then we may neglect something important and pay the costs later. People who live impulsively (with no projection of the future) tend to not have very positive futures, because they fall into mistakes that they could’ve avoided by being a little more thoughtful and cautious.

Smart and healthy risk-taking.

The balance between thinking and doing is going to largely depend on what you are trying to achieve.

As I mentioned earlier, approaching a girl at a bar may be something that is easier to “just do.” What is the worst that can happen? You’ll say something stupid and embarrass yourself? You’ll get rejected? Maybe worst-case-scenario you get slapped?

The risks and costs are relatively minimal, so there is little sense in worrying about it. Yet, some people never face this anxiety because they convince themselves that this minor embarrassment is the worst thing in the world. That’s not smart risk-taking – that’s dumb risk-avoidance. You’ll probably never see the girl again and she’ll forget about the experience by the end of the week. Don’t make a big deal out of nothing.

The same goes for jumping into cold pools.

Of course, there are other situations we may find ourselves in where the potential risks and costs are much greater. Like investing your retirement funds. That is something that is worth deliberately thinking about and making sure you go over every detail before making your decision. Making a mistake here could cost you all the money you’ve saved over the years – that’s a biggie. That’s when you need to act smarter, minimize the loss of risk, and try to play it more safe. Acting impulsively with your savings is a disaster waiting to happen.

Anxiety and uncertainty.

All risk is a result of uncertainty. The future can be somewhat predictable, but we can never quite know what will happen. It is often this uncertainty that causes us to experience anxiety before choosing a course of action.

Anxiety is a type of forward-thinking – it looks into the future and sees where things may go wrong. We feel anxious before giving a public speech because we don’t know if it will go over well or if we might embarrass ourselves.

The same is true for any other kind of social anxiety or performance anxiety.

Of course, some anxiety is good. Distinguishing “good anxiety” from “bad anxiety” is an important part of smart decision-making and risk-taking. Sometimes anxiety is an important signal that we should not follow a particular course of action because the potential consequences are too great. Sky diving is going to typically make us more anxious than petting a bunny because the risks of sky-diving are much higher. When people develop “irrational” fears about bunnies, that is usually a sign of an unhealthy phobia – because the fear doesn’t necessarily match the risks.

Mundane activities (like tying your shoes or taking a shower) don’t usually elicit much anxiety because they are more familiar, and therefore you go in with greater certainty of how the event will unfold. Only if someone has a bad experience in a shower will they develop that anxiety and uncertainty that the bad event may repeat itself.

Does your anxiety match the risks?

As I mentioned before, anxiety is often deemed “irrational” if it doesn’t match the potential risks. Some people are afraid of being in the same room as mustard, even when they understand that it poses no real threat. Anxiety may mismatch with risks depending on a number of things: unfamiliarity of an experience, a faulty belief system, or a traumatic experience.

Some unhealthy anxiety can be overcome by trying to change our thoughts (like in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy). We can reframe our perspective by looking at a situation from a different angle.

Sometimes we put too much importance on the present moment, but miss the bigger picture.

Let’s go back to the approaching a girl at a bar example. In the moment, you may know that it will completely SUCK if the girl rejects you and embarrasses you in front of your friends. You’ll be the laughing stock for the rest of the night.

But if you zoom out and see the bigger picture, you often realize that this event isn’t as important as you were making it out to be.

Imagine yourself 90 years old looking back on your college experiences at the bar: are you really going to care that 70 years ago some girl poured beer on you, or slapped you in the face, or told her friends your cheesy pick-up line? Probably not. In fact, you’d probably have more regret if you never took those little risks in the first place. Those little mistakes are what make your life richer (and besides, you now have good stories to tell your grandchildren!)

This is one simple example of how reframing your perspective can give you the freedom to take these little risks. Because they’re just that – little risks. And although in the moment you may experience a little pain and discomfort, in the end these short-term costs can often lead to long-term gratification.

Too risk-avoidant.

When individuals become too risk-avoidant, they are chronic “sitters” – always sitting on the sidelines, never doing anything, and never taking any chances with their life. As we know, sometimes this temperament can be quite beneficial, but other times it inhibits us from adapting to life in a more effective way. It inhibits us from personal growth.

Even when we try to avoid risk-taking altogether, it is something that we can’t completely avoid. Every time we don’t act, we risk losing opportunities to improve our lives. On your death bed, you may find that you regret all those times you didn’t take risks. “What ifs” can haunt you, and sometimes it is better to try something and fail (and fail) than to never try at all.

In the end, healthy risk-taking is about balance.

By the end of the day, I think it is clear that we need to find a balance between risk-seeking and risk-avoidance. We should try to identify times where we should be more cautious and safe in our decision-making, but also identify other times where the risks may be worth taking.

Check out this online course by Sean Cooper designed to help you face your social anxiety and shyness.

The experimenters had participants watch a video presentation of a small girl visiting her grandparents. While the girl and her grandfather were trying to build a bird house, the girl accidentally caught her hand in a saw. To increase the effect of the story, the participants were shown a picture of the girl’s hand after the incident. Objective measures of cortisol in participants’ saliva (before and after viewing the video) indicated that participants had a strong reaction to the presentation.

Three days later, the participants were brought back. One group took a placebo, while two other groups took different doses of a drug that cuts back cortisol from being released into the bloodstream. The researchers discovered that those who took the cortisol-diminishing drug were less able to recall details of the memory involving the small girl. Meanwhile, those who had average cortisol levels were more likely to remember the memory, especially the more gruesome details.

Lead researcher Marie-France Marin theorizes that this study depicts how cortisol affects the recollection of memories. Marin believes that cortisol-diminishing drugs may be beneficial in the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), by minimizing the intensity of memories that triggered the condition.

Further implications suggest that our ability to relax (sometimes called “rest and digest,” the opposite of “fight or flight”) is important in our capacity to move on from emotional events and continue our lives “as normal.” In contrast, a stressful life can add to our emotional distress and increase our tendency to recall negative events in our lives. Perhaps the more stressed out we are, the more we tend to reflect on these negative ruminations. This can become a vicious cycle.

The answer seems to be pretty simple: engaging in activities that promote relaxation can be a helpful aid in overcoming memories of negative events in our lives. Exercise and meditation are two of the best known methods to help minimize stress and cortisol in the long-term. I imagine also engaging in more leisure activities, and perhaps looking at our lives from a less “busy” and more “playful” mindset, can also make drastic changes in helping us live more relaxed lives.

This isn’t to say that all stress is bad. Stress can obviously serve a useful function in motivating us to change behavior when we need to. But I also find that a lot of today’s stresses are unnecessary and unhealthy, and therefore worth eliminating. As most of us know, society is more busy-minded than ever before. There are so many distractions we experience on a daily basis, and many fairly insignificant things to worry about. In my honest opinion, most people are way more stressed out then they need to be (and often times this increases the emotional baggage they carry with them). Having a clear idea on what brings us relaxation is key to a healthy mind.

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The biological-basis of psychology is widely prevalent in our mainstream culture. We often see news articles on the “Altruism Gene” or “Gay Gene” or “Hunger Gene.” To some it may seem as though our whole existence can be reduced to the genes we have inherited. Thus we either have these genes or we don’t, and we tend to view ourselves as more fixed in place than we really are. This is emphasized whenever we say things like “this is just how I was made.” Don’t get me wrong, I definitely believe that genes play a big role in who we become, but I want to emphasize that not everything about ourselves is strictly dependent on genes.

One effect of this emerging scientific viewpoint is that many are under the impression that the more we can reduce the mind to a biological level, the better our understanding of mental health. This is the viewpoint modern psychotherapy has adopted over the past half century, which has led to a tremendous growth in psycho-pharmaceuticals (although I will mention other forms of modern psychotherapy, like Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, later in this post)

This biological bias in modern psychology has already seeped into our collective unconscious. We often find everyday people describing the mentally ill as having “chemical imbalances,” and rarely questioning how past history, culture, and habits of living affect our mental well-being and sanity.

The problem with studying the mind on a biological level is not that it is wrong, but that it only takes into account a fraction of the picture. A strictly biological viewpoint ignores how our environment and culture affect the expression of those genes. A recent post at Mind Hacks gives a wonderful example of how this phenomena can come into play:

“Neuron Culture has a fantastic piece on how a long touted ‘depression gene’ turned out to reduce the risk of mood problems in people in East Asia and why we can’t always understand genetic effects on behaviour without understanding culture.

The piece riffs on the long-established finding that the short variant of the serotonin transporter or 5-HTTLPR gene is more common in people with depression, until psychologist Joan Chiao found that East Asians are more than twice as likely to have the gene but only have half the rate of mood problems.”

While biology and neuroscience are great fields of study, we cannot mistaken them for a “more scientific” or “more accurate” view of the human mind. They will always be but one piece of the puzzle.

Psychology (and psychotherapy especially) should instead take heed to the biopsychosocial model of mental health. This is the view that mental health encompasses not just biological factors, but also psychological factors (thoughts, emotions, and behaviors) and social factors (family, traditions, culture).

The biopsychosocial model isn’t anything new. It has been talked about since the late 70s and has also been criticized several times for being overly broad and vague. The problem seems to be that we have many different subfields of psychology: Cognitive, Behavioral, Social, and Biological, but science has yet to integrate them all into a coherent whole.

American psychiatrist Steven Sharfstein pointed out in 2005 that “We have let the biopsychosocial model become the bio-bio-bio model.” He warned about modern psychology’s over-emphasis on pharmaceuticals as solutions, and our lack of focus on other factors that influence mental health.

However, other forms of psychotherapy have been developed over the past few decades that aren’t pharmaceutical-based. One such system is Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) which focuses on building new skills in patients, like mindfulness, to help patients become more aware of their thoughts and emotions and how they influence their actions. CBT has shown to be effective for a wide-range of different mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, OCD, and clinical depression. It has also shown to be a worthy complementary medicine for disorders like schizophrenia. CBT has since been adopted into other forms of psychotherapy including Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which have shown moderate success with some mental disorders.

Often times these kinds of psychotherapies are more effective in combination with pharmaceuticals. This at least shows one step in the right direction when trying to form a more comprehensive view of mental health. One that is not only biology-based but also takes into account cognitive factors.

On the other hand, the social aspect of the biopsychosocial model is a more difficult aspect to turn into a treatment. Most psychologists today only use social factors to assess the risk in certain mental disorders. For example, those who are raised in the city are more inclined toward schizophrenia.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) too is an illness specifically caused by a person’s history. It could be caused by experiences of war, rape, a terrorist attack, or the experience of a natural disaster. These all fit under the “social” or environmental aspect of mental health. Other common factors to look at in social psychology include relationships, socio-economic status, culture, tradition, and geography.

One example related to geography affecting mental health is that many people who live where there are polar nights (24 hours of darkness) are prone to depression. To a lesser extent, this can be seen in those who experience seasonal affective disorder (SAD), otherwise known as winter depression. These are disorders triggered by changes in light, and they can sometimes be treated using light therapy. If you have ever seen the movie Insomnia with Al Pacino than you are familiar with some of the psychological effects darkness can have.

The takeaway message here is that humans are variables of multi-variables. They are never static, and always changing over time depending on new conditions, new relationships, and new habits. Everything seems to have some effect on our mental well-being, and a comprehensive science of the mind must look at the whole picture.

The article was rather short (and not too informative), but one excerpt suggests a compelling parallel:

“Staff at Blair Drummond Safari and Adventure Park in Stirlingshire used video cameras to document the death of a terminally ill female named Pansy, believed to be more than 50 years old.

When she became lethargic in the days leading up to her death, other members of the group became quieter than usual and stayed with her at nights, grooming her more than they did normally.

After her death, her daughter stayed near the body for an entire night, even though she had never slept on that platform before.

All of the group were subdued for several days afterwards, and avoided the place where she had died, spending long hours grooming each other.”

Visit here to see two excerpts of some of this footage: the first video reveals a moment of death in a chimps life with surrounding family, and the bottom video shows a young chimp playing with a dead one until the mother takes it away.

Primal Empathy: Your Suffering Is My Suffering

When a chimp notices a family member is dying they become more attuned to that member’s needs (in the same way a mother becomes attuned to the needs of her baby). Like chimps, our brains “sync up” (as Daniel Goleman puts it in his book “Social Intelligence,”) and we feel what another being is experiencing. In social neuroscience this is referred to as primal empathy or “the ability to sense the non-verbal emotional signals of others and to feel what they are feeling.” Evolutionary psychology tell us that we are biologically driven to respond to those needs; in other words: they are instinctual.

We all experience primal empathy in one form or another. Narcissists and sociopaths show weak empathy for others while those who are charitable and compassionate are seen as more empathetic.

Whenever I think about empathy I am reminded of the teachings by Buddha. He emphasized the wisdom of interconnectedness and described loving-kindness and compassion as a logical moral consequence of this insight.

Science is bringing us one step closer to this knowledge. Through neuroscience we are seeing the biochemical effects of brains and minds feeling connected. In evolutionary psychology we are witnessing high-order thinking mammals exhibit empathy and compassion for one another.

Animal Consciousness

Who knows what it’s like to be a bat, or a whale, or even a tyrannosaurus? Each has a completely different sensory system and a completely different way to interact with its environment. If we were to zoom into the consciousness of any animal it would probably be akin to a psychedelic experience. Yet at the same time we are all united by the fact that we live, we breath, and we are all fighting to stay alive and satisfy our desires.

We often like to see animal consciousness as inherently distinct from human consciousness. Some claim animals aren’t even conscious at all (even to the extent that they don’t experience pleasure and pain). But this assumption seems to ignore even a basic commonsense understanding of other living things.

When viewing these videos of these chimps, when looking at animals at the zoo, or even when just observing our own pets, we are peering into the minds of these living creatures. For humans, empathy is inter-species.

Where Is Evolution Heading?

I don’t think anyone is truly qualified to say where nature is heading. Nature is always changing and adapting in unpredictable ways. If empathy proves to be a dominant force in our evolution, then perhaps we can conclude – to some extent – that nature is a scientific, moral, and practical argument to act good? Perhaps, nature is heading toward a direction of less suffering and a greater sanctity for life?

Maybe sometime in the far away future the golden rule can even beat out natural selection and “survival of the fittest.” Maybe nature does have the potential to be divine? Maybe I am also just dreaming, but one can have their suspicions…either way it won’t be in any of our lifetimes.