I am sending a note of what we discussed so that those who could not attend can keep up with our thoughts and discussions.
1. Next meeting date
We discussed our next meeting date, and agreed to meet on Wednesday Apr 17th at 9.30pm (this is the day after Songkran finishes). I will send round an agenda closer to the date. Please put this date in your diary if you are going to be in Chiang Rai then.
2. Future topics and speakers
We invited suggestions for future topics and volunteer speakers:
- Jan volunteered to develop some mini-talks on the effects of aging on different parts of the anatomy (such as bones).
- Jantima asked if we could develop a talk on Vitamin D, supplements, sunshine and other related issues (see link to a recent article on Vitamin D and sunscreen)
We mentioned that we would like to organize a session around preparing an Action Plan for Aging (as described in Agronin's book), but would like to make sure we do this during a month when most members will attend.
3. Volunteers to discuss future topics and plan meetings
We invited names to join Steve and me in planning the group's direction. Bruce and Jan volunteered, and others would be welcome.
4. Making friends and increasing your social life in Chiang Rai
I presented some slides (link here) about how loneliness and social engagement can have a dramatic impact on longevity, what we can do about increasing social engagement in Chiang Rai, and how to make new friends. We also had two group discussions about increasing community activity in Chiang Rai and what qualities we all prefer when making new friends. Summaries of the whiteboard results of the community activity suggestions are here, and those relating to the characteristics of good friends are here.
Also mentioned was the book "How to Win Friends and Influence People", summarized here.
I showed a short video indicating some good and bad ways to build friendships. The link is here.
Because we had to cut short the discussions on both group topics, we will probably return to these at a future meeting to try to conclude them and turn some of your suggestions into actions.
5. Fasting
Steve presented an overview of fasting - why and how it works, and different models. Some people in the audience shared their experience of different variations on the theme. The link for Steve's slides is here.
6. Jan's presentation on "Skin"
Because we had over-run the earlier presentations, we decided to postpone Jan's presentation to April.
