Why You Should Join this “New Health Revolution”

Our planet is sick. If you follow what’s happening to the environment around us – with bees dying off, oceans rising, entire villages having to move – then you know there’s trouble afoot.

Our people are sick. There are all of these things going on that we don’t understand and cannot explain. We label them with frightening terms like chronic illness, auto-immune disease, diabetes, alzheimer’s and cancer (among others). We fear them. Yet we don’t really know what they mean.

But let’s look at the brighter side…

We’re living longer than ever before!

This is also true. Our lifespans were much shorter just a century ago. That means you will likely live considerably longer than your great great grandparents. Much of the credit is due to modern medicine. Infant mortality is low. When you are acutely harmed – with, say, a life-threatening bacterial infection or, more commonly, in a car accident – your doctor does a great job of fixing you up.

But this begs the question:

Are you healthier and happier than ever before?

This takes us back to my first two points: (1) Our planet is sick and (2) our people are sick.

Living with chronic illness has some drawbacks. On the plus side, modern medicine has some good ways to manage your symptoms. But the downside is too often that taking one drug to manage one symptom then leads to other unwanted symptoms.

So what do you do for those new symptoms? Too often you’re prescribed more drugs! It’s like you’re a dog chasing its tail.

But let’s back up a bit…

How did you get in this predicament in the first place?

Well… this is going to be a tough pill (metaphorically speaking) for you to swallow…

If you want to blame someone or something for your metabolic / biological dysfunctions then all you need to do is look in the mirror.

That’s right, the problem is you! For the most part, these chronic illnesses are self-inflicted. We do it to ourselves. You do it to yourself.

But don’t beat yourself up because:

It’s not (entirely) your fault.

Yes, you got yourself into a state of dis-ease by leading a less-than-optimal lifestyle.

But don’t beat yourelf up over it. It’s not completely your fault. You see, you’ve been influeced (brainwashed / indoctrinated / put in the mind-fuck matrix / etc) by the world around you. For example, just imagine some of those marketing messages that tell you to drink Coca-Cola because it will make you happy, make you money, and get you laid. In your mind it’s about as simple as this equation:

Happiness = Coca-Cola

And that’s just one example out of millions of messages you’re bombarded with on the daily.

But it gets worse (or better if you look at it as not being your fault!). Your biology is such that it wants to do things like eat the as much of the tastiest, sweetest, and oft-times most unhealthy of foods. It’s simply a survival mechanism. You see, there wasn’t always a time where food was so overly abundant. We used to have to work to get our food. So, when we found it, we ate it! You’re doing the same thing but now you find it all day and night. And to make matters worse, the food has very little nutrition and, instead is full of things that make you sick.

What is the “New Health Revolution”?

This isn’t my term. In fact, this is part of a question I received today from Ben Greenfield. He’s a bit of a health and fitness superstar – if you’re into this new health revolution, that is.

In his newsletter, Ben asked for people to join in this revolution:

You and I need to create a community that encourages a new brand of health enthusiasts – people like you and me who care not just about our bodies, not just about our minds and not just about our spirits, but about all three elements of being a complete and happy human. People who can climb mountains, memorize a deck of cards, create amazing music, help feed people in our local community, and experience the true 100% of our human potential.

Imagine an optimized body. From gut to muscles to joints, everything works the way it is supposed to.

Imagine an optimized mind. You think clearly, with no brain fog, and a sharp, keen ability to learn and communicate.

Imagine an optimized spirit. You have the invisible elements necessary for happiness, longevity, meaning, purpose and direction in life.

Ben asked if this mission resonated with me. Here’s my answer to Ben’s question:

YES! Of course it resonates with me. That’s why I follow this stuff; listen to all the podcasts; try these things for myself; and spend what most people would think is an inordinate amount of time learning about and hacking my own well-being.

I’m currently most interested in re-wilding (a la Daniel Vitalis) as a means to optimize health and well-being. That is, reuniting people with nature – for better health. It seems to me that we have this paradox of new technologies serving both to help us and to harm us (from a general health perspective). I’m all for keeping the things that help.

However, it turns out these things are not so black and white. That is, anything (like a new technology) that helps us generally has a harmful downside. We see this play out over and over again. Just look at light technology. We went from incandescent to fluorescent to LED…and now we’re seeing the harmful health effects of these advancements in tech.

I’m all for keeping things simple. If we go for the wild and natural option, we have the advantage of killing multiple birds with one stone. For example, If I go out and forage for food, I’m not just getting some energy and nutrients for my body from the food. That’s the simplistic view (that my sister saw when I told her about learning how to trap wild animals). It’s not just a food source.

Better yet it’s a way to connect with nature. To get sunlight. To balance hormones. Reduce stress. Sleep better. Move and get exercise. Challenge the brain in new ways.

I could go on but, in sum… YES, Ben, I am a part of this new health revolution and I’m excited to see where we take it…

So now you might be asking yourself:

What the f does all of that have to do with me, people and the planet being sick???

A lot. The way I see it, we can learn a lot simply by looking at our natural, wild world around us. And we can benefit by re-uniting with it.

I’m not saying that you have to go to the extreme and live in a cave. Not at all. Let’s keep the good stuff that supports our well-being. But let’s also get out into nature as a means to heal – both ourselves and our planet.

Nature can heal you

Yes, nature can heal you. I’m not going to claim that if you step out in nature it’s going to quickly cure you of cancer. Not at all.

But from more of a preventive approach, getting out in the wild will very likely help prevent you from getting cancer.

Think about it. If you have cancer, you’re chronically ill, you are very likely going to be spending more time in a very artificial environment. Especially if you’re stuck in a hospital. Just imagine yourself in the hospital. What feelings and emotions arise? They’re probably not very pleasant.

Now imagine yourself outside in nature. In a forest. Or a desert. Or at the beach. What feelings and emotions arise?

Now compare and contrast the two options:

Hospital vs Nature.

Which is going to be more supportive for your health and wellbeing?

You tell me. Go head. Leave a comment below…