Time just seems so finnicky and fleeting! How is it a New Year? While I relish the start of another year of human time on this speck of matter floating out in endless space, I am waxing a bit nostalgic thinking of my own seeming insignificance and yet the beauty and simplicity of life. I hope you will indulge me as I recount 27 things (just because that is how many there ended up being) my experiences have taught me, in no particular order.
- Serotonin disappointment is very real. The tribalism framework from which our primitive brain has evolved does NOT like feeling that it doesn’t fit in or isn’t accepted by the mainstream. This primal urge for serotonin makes us humans go to extreme lengths (think Germans Hitler Jews) just to survive even if it goes against our own truth.
- 6 eggs every morning is still my favorite way to start the day that helps me optimize my energy and physique.
- I am still triggered by the world of fake influencers trying to sell their gimmicks and set themselves up as “experts.”
- Intuitive eating (even though I love the idea) doesn’t work for most people because of unconscious brain mechanisms wired to help us survive and hypothalamic insensitivity from consuming so much processed food. We simply are NOT good at ad lib caloric intake.
- The protein leverage phenomenon is the key for nutritional optimization. Increasing protein up to 50% alone leads to linear decrease in ad lib caloric intake automatically and it is so much more satiating.
- More than 90% of human behavior is completely involuntary and unconscious. Seeing this more and more in myself continues to both shock me and humble me. It is all mechanistic programs running my nervous system more often than not.
- The greatest evidence of ascension and spiritual maturation in the evolving human is that they cease to take themselves so seriously and take things less and less personally (this is the hard one:)
- The art of happiness is learning to put your heart and soul into everything you do all the while having complete nonattachment or regard to the outcome or result(s). There is just too much ego attachment to outcome and result left in me!
- Do what feels good (i.e Abraham Hicks famous motto) after you have made the midbrain’s survival tactics (which is human’s default state) conscious is good advice. Otherwise, these unconscious brain mechanisms designed to avoid pain continue to run the show–even if we think they don’t:)
- When a human can experience the breadth and scale of the assault of cortisol to his cells and deliberately/intentionally override the run/numb/escape survival mechanisms inflicted by this discomfort, sit with the pain, and open his/her heart, he has achieved true mastery.
- There is no “could” be or “should” be to life for the ascended sage–only what IS. The way life “could” or “should” be per the ego and the way life IS are ONE.
- Sleep is absolutely more important than diet when it comes to metabolism, energy levels and performance.
- Being a parent of teenagers is WAY harder than toddlers or tweens.
- I still have no idea what I am doing as a parent. Push them? Let them be? Both seem to backfire.
- Gratitude is the absolute foundation of happiness. Everything else flows from this marrow deep, eye-level, visceral appreciation and acceptance for what IS.
- The way of the ego is fear, scarcity, and conformity. The way of the soul is love, abundance and radical non-conformity.
- Everyone seems to be in a constant state of seeking and wanting–ultimately to relieve the discomfort of the existential lack and fear that lie as the fundamental human wound.
- Reverse Carb protocol is still the BEST way I have found for active individuals to eat for performance and aesthetics.
- Consciously avoiding eating 2-3 hours before bed does really boost growth hormone and is a harbinger to deeper REM sleep. This one tweak alone has dramatically improved my sleep.
- I am still at a complete loss to understand why and how humans glorify and pedestalize the experiences/beliefs/ views of another over their own?
- One of the most offensive truths to the ego is that transcendence and perfection is simply the NATURE and essence of the soul not a reward given for any works or righteousness. The ego would rather sacrifice, suffer, pay a tithe, and look to some external power (Course of Miracles calls a “special relationship”) than OWN their own power.
- Controlling the autonomic nervous system is the future of the evolved human that will carry them into higher dimensions. It is both an art and a science.
- Zen and Alpha. Discipline and Surrender. Right and Left Brain. Masculine and Feminine. Dopamine and Serotonin. Acetylcholine and Endocannibinoid. Drive/Determination and Blissed out Contentment. Ida and Pingala. Becoming a bridge between both worlds is my deepest desire. Mastering both hemispheres, owning and embodying both worlds is my quest.
- Can I come from “enoughness” and total self-acceptance and still go out of your way to seek the discomfort and pain that discipline often demands?
- Can I become aware of and make conscious the parts of me I still judge, condemn, and label as “bad,” “wrong,” or “evil” that years’ of conditioning has suppressed and berated?
- I love gym equipment.
- I spend more time on a screen than is probably healthy.
What burning questions do you have? What reflections have come to your awareness as you review this past year? Thank you for stopping by. And Happiest of New Years to you brave soul!
