We are f*cking defeated. (2 minute rant coming up….)
Just look at our postures. Look at our diets. Look at our addictions. Look at our diseases.
Scarier yet, look at our thoughts….
How many hours did you spend with your smartphone today? I woke up and spent every waking second with it in contact with my body. If it wasn’t in my hand it was in my pocket. Oh, cell phone radiation causes cancer? Lemme put this thing right next to my nuts…
The modern, Western lifestyle is bullshit. We’re hunched over these computers 8 plus hours per day. “Blood glucose (sugar) levels spike with sedentary lifestyle”– Kelly Starrett.
Yes, we are responsible for making ourselves fat, sick and stressed.
After work we drive home in our cars that pollute the very planet we rely on, just to sit ourselves in front of a television while scrolling thru phones, iPads and computers to “de-stress”. Three devices? That’s 3 times the radiation and 3 times the advertisements to bait us into buying a bunch of shit we don’t need while we are already leveraged in debt. Better go back to work so we can keep up with the Kardashians. High paying jobs aren’t stressful. Stress doesn’t cause disease. Nope.
Humans as we know them have been around for 250,000 years but in the past 50 years we let the industrial revolution get the best of us.
Buy a house. Check the box. Feel accomplished. Feed our egos. Why? So we can be trapped to one geographic location and have to stick it out with the corporations who employ the local economy even if we disagree with the jobs we are given. It’s what James Altucher calls the “American Religion”.
I could go on, but more importantly: WTF can we do about it?
- Start thinking for ourselves.
- Have more meaningful discussions (even if they hurt).
- Do honest work for honest pay and don’t be the asshole who spent it all.
- Stop doing things that put you into debt.
- Stop putting processed foods into your body.
- Screw the cable company and spend $100 per month at your local bookstore.
- Burn your trashy novels and start “feeding your mind good stuff” as Tim Sanderstold me.
- Start with a book on good food. (I suggest Bulletproof.)
- Learn about health. It’s literally our livelihood and we don’t know shit about it.
- Don’t wait for politicians, government, your employer or your family to take care of you.
- Take care of yourself.
- Think exercise is important? Yeah? What kind?
- Learn how to workout. It’s a massive topic everyone needs to understand.
- Go outside and breathe the air. Does it suck? Move. Environmental factors make us sick.
- Stop trusting our healthcare system blindly. Doctors are doing their best, but they are trained to fix symptoms, not make you well.
- We all need to heal on some level. There is no such thing as a cure or a magic pill.
- Ask yourself: am I thriving or just surviving? (In all areas of your life)
- When was the last time you were in nature?… Sucks doesn’t it.
- Are the people around you awesome? If not, make major life changes.
- Be honest with yourself. No really. It is way harder than you think.
- Do yoga. Learn to meditate. Spend time alone.
- Think you might need therapy? Go. Ain’t no shame in it.
- Cut the excess out of your life. Donate your crap to charity or sell it on eBay. Just say fuck it.
- This will free up your mind to think deeply, instead of about the superficial.
- Be kind.
I know I wasn’t very kind in this post… I’m angry and I am very aware of it.
Why?
Because I come from a normal American family, from a normal American town where everything has always been just “fine.”
But guess what?
Being normal is the enemy and being fine sucks.
If you are tired of being normal, have this discussion today.
Image Credit: CC by Under30CEO.
