May 12th - Every Day in May

I pulled together a few quick data points comparing the first 12 days in May to the last 12 days in April from my Garmin App. I looked at Stress, Sleep, and Steps and I was kinda shocked. I feel like I have been having a lot more fun in May, and this month has been easy. Sleep is up over 80 minutes a night! Stress is down 6 points and step count is massively up. That’s flipping awesome

Health is Physical:

Today was a very physical day! I took loads of healthy action including a nice road ride with my buddy Johnny who I haven’t ridden with for weeks, and also a post dinner run around the neighborhood with Troy on bike. I was debating whether I would go for a run when a package arrived with two new run outfits that I ordered from Rabbit Running. Years ago I got a shirt from Rabbit, a local Santa Barbara company, at an ultra I didn’t actually end up racing and it was the softest most cozy shirt I own, so I thought I would give the brand a try. It’s been over a year since I had something new to run in, and it was awesome, I had to take it for a spin….er run I mean. I’m still in the run across Tennessee challenge and I’ve made my way up from about 12,000th place to 8,000th place. Something tells me I’m going to be either a solid middle of the packer, or a late bloomer. We’ll see what the attrition rate is…

Health is Mental/Emotional:

Today I really spent some time with “The Beautiful Cure” book, we got some listening hours in together big time. The sad part is I have very little to show for my investment. I’m learning A LOT of science, and a lot of history. The subtitle of the book is “The revolution in immunology and what it means for your health,” well… I’m in the first part.. the revolution, and I don’t know when I’ll get to the second part, my health. But I am holding tight, and I’m trying to keep the bigger facts straight while following the history. What I’ve taken away so far is there were a lot of Nobel Prizes awarded, a lot of people trying to take credit for other’s work, lives were ruined, reputations tainted, lots of divorces, strange deaths, and through it all, many people made discoveries without knowing exactly how monumental they would end up being.

I did find one area interesting when they were talking about these dendritic cells (oh lordy I hope I don’t botch this) and how they recognize germs, worms, foreign objects, etc. If it’s the kind of foreign body they are personally on the lookout for, they fight the foreign object a little bit and kind of imprint the dead guy in them (with proteins and stuff). Then they run through the blood stream up to the Lymph nodes and alert them, which sends the t-cells, but only the right kind of t-cells based off the dead body they imprinted, to the scene of the crime where a second t-cell attack happens. And those dendritic cells running to the lymph nodes to tattle with their imprints is why our lymph nodes swell when we are getting sick or having an immune response. The swelling is a party… where attack #1 is rounding up troops for attack #2.

How’s that for my interpretation of the situation? I will keep pushing on, in hopes of arriving at the “what it means for your health” portion of the book.

Health is Spiritual:

I’m back diving into the juicy Emmanuel’s Book II about the Choice for Love. A few nuggets came up.

Fear lives on the belief that you grant it. There is never a circumstance where fear is not a choice.

This hit me deep and my mind immediately jumped to a million fears that are not a choice. They are automatic, fear happens, we have triggers, I yelled. How dare you tell me I choose my fear. Immediately my brain has got my back. It’s like “yea… how dare you tell her that?” But then I thought more about it. Well, what about when I jump out of the way of a car who comes too close to me during a run. That’s fear, it makes me jump, fear is good, it keeps me alive. But when I really think about it, the fear comes after. The body reacts, but the fear comes when I lived through it and I started thinking about what if I had been hit? What if I died? And there comes the fear. Fear is the brain processing the Earthly consequences of Earthly actions. Fear is not present in the automatic responses… I don’t think…

True intelligence is the capacity of the mind to honor the wisdom of the heart.

I think this says a lot, and it makes me a little weepy. It’s been so easy to work it backwards, prioritizing thoughts over intuition. It seems like the wisdom and intuition of the heart has to convince the brain that we will be okay if we take heart action. I think about moving here to Los Osos, such a longing, and then on the coattails, so many mental objections. My heart was in service to my mind, and the opposite need to be cultivated. Faith, wisdom, and intuition as the primary driver, with the mind completing the picture answering “how do we make it so?”

Insights

I like the adventurous nature of this Every Day in May challenge. It’s keeping things very fresh and fruity, a state in which I thrive. So much variety, and nuance. Keeps me alive!

Until tomorrow… in good health.