#002. Maps, Master Life Switches, and Blind People on Bikes
Hi friends, family, and extended internet family!
This week I’ll start off with a provocative idea: You don’t really care about your health.
What?! Let me elaborate.
People look at health the same way they would look at a map. No one really cares about maps... except maybe map collectors. Similarly, no one really cares about getting more sleep, more veggies, more exercise, less stress, less alcohol, less screen-time, or really any health practice. What we really care about is its utility, "Will this get me where I want to go?" If not, why bother?
On my journey to regain my health, I went through a LOT and have thousands of dollars in receipts to show for it. Which is why I couldn't understand why when I no longer had cancer, when my labs looked great, and my joints stopped hurting, I still didn't feel THERE yet. What was the point of me putting myself through all those tests of will and endurance to get my health back if in the end, “I” wasn’t there?
The reason was this: Having been on the health journey for so long, I had forgotten there was a destination. For me, that destination was joy, freedom, connection, self-expression - an authentic me to be. And what that looked like was saying "hell yes" to adventure, connecting to people, feeling damn good in my body, sharing my slice of life through writing, and building a legacy to make the world a better place.
THAT is what I truly care about. To quote myself, "It's not about the f**king vitamins!"
Who knew that the hard part might not be getting to the destination, but rather remembering why you started the journey in the first place?
So where you are at now, whether you are well or unwell, might you take a moment to share with me your destination? What do you want for yourself? Where would you be in life if your body kept up with your hopes and dreams?
On that note, here's what I learned, shared, and paid attention to this week:
ONE CHALLENGE I’M UNDERTAKING:
After reading James Nestor's Breathe and Deep, I was inspired to learn to free dive for longevity. Turns out, we humans have this amazing reaction to water called the Master Switch of Life. When you submerge your face (and not just a hand or foot) in water that is cooler than the surrounding air, your body responds by slowing your heart and shunting your blood away from your limbs towards your vital organs. It counteracts the fight, flight, freeze stress reaction from your Sympathetic Nervous System. My goal is to get to 5 minutes by my free diving class’s ocean day in October.
ONE THING I'M GRATEFUL FOR:
This week, the Wisdom of Trauma had its second global broadcast. It is a documentary film featuring the work of Dr. Gabor Mate on the individual, societal, and global effects of trauma. I'm grateful for the conversations opening up from this film, Gabor Mate, as well as the countless social workers, body workers, family members, non-profits, etc. working to create a trauma-resilient world. For me, that means having compassion and being present to my patient's experience of trauma which physically manifests as chronic pain.
ONE THING I'M WONDERING:
What would the future look like if most of the human race was wiped out by a virus and the survivors as well as their descendants were all blind? The Apple TV show See attempts to answer this with one possibility. BUT, considering how this man and this boy have adapted to being blind using echolocation, and the civilization in See had CENTURIES... I think the writers came up short. I imagine we would all be badass blind ninjas, so I'm holding out for that in Season 2
That’s it for now.
At this point, I know ALL of you, so thanks for your love and support!
In case you missed it, here is my last post.
Want to hear more about something? Have a thought on something I wrote? Let me know! I read all your responses.
Until next time, show 'em what you're made of,
Maymie