Hello,
What's On My Mind is a weekly newsletter where I share some of my thoughts, stories, and ideas to raise awareness; enable personal growth; nourish an open mind; encourage self-discovery; and empowering myself and others with individual responsibility.
"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity" - Martin Luther King, Jr.
Self-awareness = self-learning = self-knowledge = self-healing = self-realization
I hope you find them of any use.
S.O.S. - Sanctuary Of Sanity
Sanctuary: a place where someone or something is protected or given shelter.
Sanity: the quality or state of being sane; rationality; reason; the power of comprehending, inferring, or thinking especially in orderly rational ways; the sum of the intellectual power; the thing that makes some fact intelligible; the proper exercise of the mind; rightly; justifiable.
Last week I talked about the dangers of the dominating one-dimensional way of thinking; suppressing free speech, rational thinking, open minds, and falsifying information, among others. The last couple of weeks I have been observing, and talking about these dangers and the way it effects me personaly. I can sum it up in one word; loneliness. And not in the typical way of being lonely. I prefer to be alone, and I think I am the best version of myself when I am alone. I mean lonely in a sense of being in a situation where you are surrounded by people that make you feel uncomfortable being yourself. Meaning; the way you conduct yourself doesn't fit their one-dimensional narrative of good/bad, left/right, etc., so in one way or another they try to force a label on you, by calling you names or ridicul you in another way. All without any substance of course.
We, humans, are all part of the same species, but individually we are unique in our own beautifull ways. This uniqueness shapes the way we construct our reality, YOUR reality. Through civil discourse we then agree upon a shared reality, so we can all co-exist, flourish and enrich the human experience. This is one of the beautiful things of being human; using our intellect to live together (agreed upon reality) while maintaining the individual uniqueness.
I believe an agreed upon reality can be achieved through observing the universe, ourselves and nature. Patterns, cycles, rythms, will emerge and lay the foundation for a agreed upon reality. We then figure out a language for these agreed upon realities. In order to achieve this you need to have the ability to engage in civil discourse; an engagement in conversation intended to enhance understanding; it is discourse that supports, rather than undermines the societal good. To have a civil discourse you need to have a place where you can freely express yourself for the benefit of the discourse; the better, or more freely, you can express yourself, the better understanding of your reality can be part of the civil discourse. Change is always upon us, therefore our perception of reality is always changing, which is why civil discourse should be an ongoing process based on these changes.
Cycles, patterns, rythms, of order/chaos, decay/flourish, peace/war, will always exist in our reality. This is the way it is. I believe we are reaching the end phase of a cycle. You can feel it, you can see it; old systems are fading and new systems are trying to dominate the narrative with their idealogies. They are doing what ever they can to convince the masses that their narrative is THE truth, taking on religious proportions; the climate change debate, woke culture, cancel culture, gender discussions, critical race theorie, the vaccine narrative etc.. This is nothing new, or evil, this is the way it is.
It is in these times we need Sanctuaries Of Sanity the most! When you find yourself on the open sea where a storm of insanity, lies, hypocrisy, ego glorification and emotional blackmail is raging with the intensity and perseverance of a 3yr old's tantrum, from time to time you need to navigate yourself towards one of these sanctuaries in order to remain sane; see the bigger picture. When caught in a storm it can be hard to navigate towards sanity, especially when current technology is used to intensify the storm. The storm will pass, like it always does. However, it takes courage, individual responsibility, self-reliance, and good health to navigate through the fog in order to stay sane.
I encourage everyone, that is capable, to start building a sanctuary, or be part of one. Talk with people, start a website, podcast or what ever, as long as you keep the civil discourse going and have a place where you can openly agree and disagree for the benefit of everyone and not just for ego's. If you are more of a lone wolf, like me, you can also work on your personal mental sanctuary. An imaginary place, for me it's a small garden, where you can relax and gather your thoughts. This really helps me when I find myself surrounded by insanity. Instead of instantly reacting, or avoiding the situation, I take the situation to my mental garden and observe it. From which I can deconstruct the situation and come up with a sane reply. Nourish and guard your (mental) sanctuaries. Let's keep the civil discourse going while maintaining and respecting individual uniqueness - because that my friends, your uniqueness, gives colour to life.
Teachings
The art of peace - page 48
Your mind should be in harmony with the functioning of the universe; your body should be in tune with the movement of the universe; body and mind should be bound as one, unified with the activity of the universe.
Video I want to share
Quote to contemplate
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists. - Hannah Arendt
Fundamental - Movement: Range of motion
Range of motion is important to develop as part of a capable and adaptable body. Our joints are designed with certain ranges of motion as possibilities--the bones, ligaments, muscles, tendons and other connective tissue are all designed to support certain types of movements. When we train our joints to support these movements, we simultaneously train mobility, stability and strength. This is helpful both as a tool to rehab our bodies from current aches and pains, and as prevention to keep our bodies feeling great for as long as possible.
Joints, which connect your bones, typically allow for movement in predetermined directions. Each joint in your body has a different range of motion, which is the distance and direction a joint can move to its full potential. Stretching helps to improve range-of-motion in your joints. In order to maintain healthy joints, they must go through their full range of motion on a daily basis. Otherwise, synovial fluid, a nutrient rich fluid, cannot properly fulfill its duties of circulating and coating the joint surface. Without this fluid, your joints will begin to feel stiff and deteriorate, causing issues to form.
To quote Dr. Bahram Jam, a physical therapist and founder of the Advanced Physical Therapy Education Institute: “Every joint in our body has synovial fluid in it. This is the oil in our body that provides nutrition to the cartilage. Two things are required to produce that fluid: movement and compression. So if a joint doesn’t go through its full range - if the hips and knees never go past 90 degrees - the body says ‘I’m not being used,’ and starts to degenerate and stops the production of synovial fluid.”
Stretching is a huge factor in improving range of motion. Foam rolling can also help to improve range of motion. Similar to static stretching, it should be completed post-workout (or it can be a workout on it's own on a recovery day), helping to release stress and tension, and could even improve your recovery times.
Podcast that caught my attention
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6fjCyJcOQFeXeOWLyoNpgT?si=ohmtA8rmQ0-gG7GbBlnJoA&utmsource=copy-link&dlbranch=1
Did you know...
that 1.6%, of the global Co2 emission from humans, is caused by obesity, according to researchers. In general being obese is associated with about 20% more greenhouse gas emissions than being a normal weight. The three main reasons are; 1) to become obese you need to consume more, which means more production of food, among others = more Co2 emission, 2) heavier objects takes more energy (thus more Co2 emission) to move arround, and 3) when obese people decide to lose the weight (from which 65% regains the weight within three years and thus contributing even more Co2) they are emiting even more Co2; 84% of the fat you loose is turned into carbon dioxide and leaves the body through the lungs, whereas the remaining 16 percent becomes water. Maintain a healthy weight = positive effects for you and the planet!
Thank you for your interest, time and attention.
I put a lot of time, effort and love in the creation of this newsletter.
Your support is much appreciated.
Joey van Tilburg