Eyes open 430am, my brain thinks I better get more sleep. Mind says get up, make some tea, go push some weights and get my yoga on. 500am I am ready to start the day and no sun out, no activity on the road, Facebook says a few people liked my Detox blog but no activity. As I make my way to the local Planet Fitness, traffic lights are all in my favor....this is like a dream. I get there thinking it would be just me and the desk attendant and there are a whole bunch of people, even this guy on a treadmill that is just jacked up. Probably running 7 minute miles, great form, blank stare recalling floating past the 13 mile aid station at the Chi-town marathon.
So how do I get this energetic attitude, so ready to take on the challenges of the day? How to others seem so alive at this hour? How can I insure my adrenal gland gets stimulated like this every morning, and how to turn on the part of the brain responsible for elation? If I could just bottle the hormone proportions floating in my blood stream at this present time; take it out and inject it when I need it!!!! How to then inject it into others I work with, patients I see with major illness, strangers that are suffering? If only we could pull some blood out when happy, transfuse it back in when we are challenged with daily commuting, office deadlines, hunger from not eating properly, angry insomnia from lamenting on the "asshole encounters" from the day.
Western medicine and the pharmaceutical industry thought they could about 20 yrs ago when they found receptors in the brain for serotonin where empty in people with depression. The answer: make a medicine that allows more serotonin to be present in the blood stream and the deficiency with be cured!!! It worked but people were a little blunt faced, emotionless, zombie like, sleepy....and heavier. (I guess they just assumed giving medicine would cure the disease without behavioral therapy to fix the abnormal introspection...just like cholesterol medicine without changing the diet doesn't stop the heart attack, just slows it down)
So I tried to go through an inventory of my schedule/diet/activity for the last few days and found one thing. Repetition; I was waking up for a few days straight, really pushing the plant strong foods, trying to keep up with meditation in the morning (as my Chopra Center Guru Davidji says-Rise-Pee-Meditate every am and it will make you bullet proof for the challenges of the day!) In my Detox blog from DrRic Frequently Asked Questions, I mention that if you are trying to break bad habits and begin a new lifestyle, it is easier to set the body on a ritual/rhythm with Thinking Eating and Activity. As your hormones are thrown into the blender of an emotional tornado, forcing the digestive system/musculoskeletal system/endocrine system into a regimented 12 hour sleep wake cycle will guide the haphazard glands into a uniform secretion.
Providing a good parachute of proper nutrients, moving muscle, engaging conversation, restful sleep and a little supplementation is important. Everyone is a little different as to what deficiencies need repleting but most Americans need the aforementioned activities. The one drawback of ritual is some people may not see that the ritual they adopt for short term change, will also act as an anchor and hold back the journey. A goal is always important to set but at every detox (even if it's as short as a day or two) when your mind is clear-contemplate a new pilgrimage
In the end, it isn't the need for an injection during times of challenge, it is the need to inject "healthy choices" into everyday of your life before the challenges happen. The miracle of your body/mind/soul can let loose a tsunami of serotonin but it wont just let you pull out "calm" from your adrenal gland when you don't practice a daily lifestyle of longevity. For most Americans (myself included) challenges begin to avalanche at about 30-40 years of age. If you wait until that time to practice a healthy lifestyle, you will always be playing catch up and eventually western medicine and surgery will step in to place a halt on damage until you decide to start reversing disease......if you still can.
