Bear Grylls has confessed that hitting the milestone of 50 last year hasn’t been easy for him. The world-renowned adventurer and TV personality is struggling with middle age despite his headstrong image on survival shows.
Talking to Saga Magazine, Bear said he feels far from brilliant about getting older but remains hopeful due to technological progress, hinting that we might live up to 200 years soon. He explained: “The honest answer is I don’t think I’m dealing with it very well. For the first month or so I threw out all the clichés of age being just a number.”
He adopted a unique perspective on ageing: “I’m going to look at it not in years, but in percentage. I’m sure we’re going to be able to live to 200 in the next 30 years, so the way I see it, I had a very good 25 per cent birthday.”
During the interview, Bear touched upon his daily battle with pain stemming from a near-fatal accident in Zambia back in 1996 when his parachute malfunctioned. Despite living “every day” with discomfort and the details of the painful event that still lingers, he maintains a zest for life, continuing to skydive frequently.
On Instagram, Bear reflected on the long-term impact of his injuries from the dramatic incident at 21, revealing: “People sometimes ask me if my back ever hurts having broken it all those years ago in a parachuting accident,” reports Lancs Live.
“The answer is ever day. And the treatment I get for it can be quite intense but life can at times be a battle for everyone and most people have their stuff to carry with them through the adventures. I choose just to be grateful for the opportunity to still be able to live life as best I can.”
Bear’s resilience in continuing to embrace life fully, despite enduring constant pain, has served as an inspiration to many. His positive outlook on his potential lifespan comes amidst a global trend of affluent individuals seeking ways to prolong their lives.
Bear joins a list of celebrities living with chronic pain, including comedian Stephen Fry, who has shared his own coping mechanisms for dealing with his condition. The 67 year old revealed on The Dish podcast that he combats his chronic pain, which often wakes him in the early hours, by descending the stairs to make mayonnaise.
He believes this ‘mayofulness’ helps soothe his brain back to sleep. He elaborated: “It’s a mixture of concentration and rhythmic relaxation that I think calms the brain down. Unusually, then I can go back and go to sleep in the happy knowledge there’ll be a jar of mayonnaise. I call it ‘mayofulness’.”
In addition to discussing his unique method of alleviating discomfort on one podcast, Stephen also spoke to Professor Irene Tracey on Radio 4’s Today programme about the significant psychological aspect of chronic pain.
He expressed: “You become afraid of basic movements and you become annoyed with yourself being afraid of them so you start to make bargains with yourself. You talk about your pain as if its first of all an alien, something you have to defeat, you give it a name, maybe of someone you really dislike.”
He added: “Or you do that other strange thing which is…you almost call it a friend and say ‘It’s OK, I know why you’re there’ and you’re not a failure on the part of evolution, or God, or whatever you want to call nature, you are there for a purpose.”