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Happy New Year Everyone!
Well, here we are again, new year and TTTGA (that thing that's going around) is still going around. Crap. For some of us, that means our health and happiness will continue to spiral downward. Others will thrive during this adversity, and lastly, others will land somewhere in the middle.
It’s easy to blame others and/or our circumstances for being unhappy, which also usually means being unhealthy to boot. During my darkest hours, over ten years ago now, I swore I would emerge a stronger man and I did. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, but I wouldn’t change a thing…not a single thing. I crushed you, darkest hours, I am in charge of my life, not you.
As we begin 2022 I wanted to share the 3 biggest steps that have brought me the most happiness and health during these crazy times. They are “guaranteed” to bring you more happiness, peace, and health if you do them. It’s that simple (ya know, choices). There is no magic pill for our TTTGA woes, that’s for sure. It is up to us, like always, to own it:
1. Turn off the news, turn off the news, turn off the news, did I mention turn off the news?
A year ago this may have been harder to do, but by now it should be pretty obvious the fearmongering is out of control. If the media would just focus on the positives millions of people would be empowered. Things like an extremely high survival rate, and how being healthy is excellent protection (so vit D, exercise, sleep, stress management, same ole since the beginning of time:)
Our brains are not meant to process negative information all day long every day. This keeps us stuck in the “fight or flight” response (sympathetic nervous system) and is associated with all manner of bad health outcomes. Too much stress kills and makes us sick, plain and simple. Take control, you do not have to constantly live in a state of unnecessary fear.
2. Commit to exercising 3-5 days per week.
The science is very clear that exercise vastly improves brain function, including happiness levels. Depressed? Go for a run, a hike, jump on your indoor trainer, hit the gym, swim, go for a walk IT ALL WORKS! Just find a way to move and get that heart rate up. Can you say, “disease prevention”, yep it does that extremely well too.
On that note, people who are metabolically healthy (no current major health issues) tend to beat TTTGA, just like other diseases. See CNN’s recent article on obesity and TTTGA outcomes. Yep, that’s right, I wrote CNN. Maybe, just maybe mainstream media will finally start to report on things like this that empower instead of promote fear. Enough already, please.
3. Be social again. In-person, virtually, masked, unmasked, wielding the shield of Thor, it doesn’t matter just find a way.
We are social creatures, we just are. Being alone, being isolated, this encourages poor health and less peace of mind. Find what you are comfortable with when it comes to socializing and simply engage. Anyone who is truly your friend will respect how you do this. Heck, I even offered to mask up the other day in my own home with some friends to watch season 4 of Kobra Kai!
One of the best places to do this is outside, obviously, at least sometimes. For example, hiking in the mountains with a friend you are more likely to get eaten by a grizzly bear than die from TTTGA. I will take my chances with the bear all day long every day as I have for over 40 years now. Besides, nature heals much more often than it eats you.
Life can be good if you want it to be, even during TTTGA. There is SO much you can do to find happiness, peace, and health during 2022, but only you can accomplish this.
If you want some help get a hold of me. I first had to help myself before I could help others, and my coaches made all the difference because they held me accountable and started small.
Break-Free, Bart Thurman, FDN-P, INHC Functional Health Coaching Cafe of Life Chiropractic 1325 Dry Creek Drive #307 Longmont, CO 80503 Office: 720-849-0124
P.S. If you are taking any supplements, or are interested in supplementation hit me up. As a Functional Health Coach, I can get you nice discounts on all the products you enjoy. My clients, as well as others, save hundreds of dollars each year, nice.
