Fasting Space

Say, have you had a
time ever in your life where you realized

or I diss health?

It's not just a person.

Someone is unhealthy.

It's like society itself is just unwell.

Unwell?

For me, I had a time like that,
specifically as a young doctor

in my residency clinic
at the VA hospital here in Madison.

At that time, we're talking 2009.

Something like that.

And, the first patient of mine as
a doctor who died was a veteran suicide.

And that was an unfortunate recurrence

over my time and start
looking at everything that is going on.

And, You know, we're in we're in Iraq.

Then why? You know why.

Because someone wanted to, you know,
and then you start to see it.

Somebody wanted to.

We made up some stuff, but weapons

of mass destruction to try to justify it.

And the end result is I was sitting there,
you know, you know,

remember that thing that happened
with the planes and the buildings?

I remember, you know, I was in college
sitting there and a lot of propaganda.

And for a young guy, I almost
I almost enlisted then, but then I didn't.

And so then to be sitting there at the VA
hospital dealing with people just like me

from my state right here in Wisconsin

who have been tried to do the right thing,
try to help people,

and who knows what, But,
that's when it really became clear to me,

man, there's some serious dysfunction
here in our society.

I remember coming out of that
because no one had an answer to it.

Very hard to help someone in that scenario
do your best.

I remember I was reading on that
and I printed out this quote I found

was no measure of health to be well
adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Can we see?

It just really resonated with me
at that time.

I was like, man,
everything that is happening

here, we're sitting here trying to promote
health and try to help people be well,

and then look at these gears
that are turning in the world

and society
and just destroying people, you know?

And, I was like, we need to not
be adjusted to that for sure.

So that man,
that must have been, what, 14,

15 years ago
pinned that up on my bulletin board.

And I've, I've had that.

I forgot about it almost.

It sits up in the corner,
I almost forget about it.

And, Been a quiet
framing of a medical practice.

How do we help both myself,
as many people as possible.

Disconnect a little bit from the,

patterns that are going on.

I was reading the other day.

I got this book. Move.

Your DNA suggested to me, restore
your health through natural movement.

Love the idea of that.

Reading about the gentleman
who had the forward to this book,

Jason Lewis first human being to,

power himself
all the way around the world, paddling

and paddling and walking
and had some sort of pedal boat

that he pedaled
all the way across the ocean.

Crazy, he says, for me,
leaving the comforts of modern day society

and adjusting to a much more rudimentary
life generally centered around surviving,

was actually easier than the more
recent years spent writing my book.

Now, I am often parked at my computer
screen for many hours at a time.

I'm no longer living
as our ancestors did under the sun

and moon, experiencing the life
and primal connection with nature,

but existing under manmade lighting

and under the unrelenting stress
we've all sadly become accustomed to,

caused by a constant barrage of technology
meetings, meals on the go, pollution,

traffic with the accompanying cacophony

of mental and literal noise
that goes with it.

And then he says, as Krishnamurti said,
it is no measure of health

to be well
adjusted to a profoundly sex society.

So that resonated with me.

I thought it was so interesting.

I was going to be talking about
this concept, this quote,

because I looked up
and I saw it on my wall

and, and I thought,
you know, I'm going to talk about that.

And I found another passage
that I was going to read about it.

And then it's just ironic, after years
and years, the day that I'm

going to talk about it, I read a book that

that has the quote in it
and totally separately.

So it felt, felt very interesting to me
here.

They got a picture on this book now
and read this book is good,

but they got a picture in there.

Can you see it on the light?

Maybe it's hard to see, but they got an
orca on there with its its dorsal fin.

And if the orca, the orca that's kept

in captivity, its dorsal fin will go limp.

You know, because it
it isn't resisting the tidal forces

and the waves and and so it,
it becomes weaker, I think.

I think just after reading
the introduction, that's what

the, the concept of this book is

that we are basically being held
in captivity like a prison orca whale,

and then our bodies being damaged by it
and that we can

we can literally push back, literally,
and that by moving our body.

As I was looking through the
the chapters,

I think they get into,
you know, there's epigenetic forces.

Are you familiar with epigenetics,
the way that the outside of the DNA,

the methylation patterns that actually
determines how the DNA is expressed?

Okay, it's not changing
the actual code of the DNA,

but we can change the function of it
by changing the environment.

So things like the whales experiencing,
just like we can experience

if we are sitting inside and always
protected, right, we can become weaker,

we can see that, and we have to choose
to push back against it.

And the patterns of this society do not,
Oh, man.

They aren't helping us.

They're not beaming in energy to us.

To nourish, our health, that is for sure.

So I say don't conform to the patterns.

We want an experience that is different.

Right?

Man made lighting failing us.

In many ways.

Getting outside
here is the other side of it.

I get outside this summer,
and then I get Lyme disease.

Oh, man, what a drag.

Nature.

This is this is kind of the paradox
that we are in, right?

Nature is both a.

Beautiful and brutal.

Isn't it? The case?

And I think this is how,
how we really have ended up

really in the broad
scope of human history.

How have we ended up in this space,
lacking ourselves in little boxes,

and we've basically erased,
any human culture

that is synergistically
living with the planet anymore.

And it's because we,
we chose the safer and comfortable route.

And who can blame anybody?

I'm not blaming anybody.

I'm sitting here in a basement
with, LED lighting.

But we should think deeply about it,
right?

We should really think deeply about it
in this moment.

Because I feel like.
Like we are sitting here.

Think of this grand scope of history
and the experience with health

and so much of what people have tried
to do

separate ourselves
from things that are hurting us.

Okay, I can understand it.
Try to be comfortable.

All the problems that created right
this the city as much as anything,

created the disease.

And then we got to create the solutions
to that.

And we can see the pros
and cons of it all.

But now we are sitting here in this place
where we say more affluent than ever.

This is society,
more chronic disease, human human beings.

We used to suffer from acute disease
so much.

Now we suffer from chronic disease.

And where is the balance point?
If anything else?

I don't think it's possible to go back.

I'm sure no one would
hardly choose to do it.

But now we're here. Like,
how do we move forward?

How do we not?

How do we stay strong and healthy
and not conform into this pattern

that just says,
you know what, it's just inevitable.

You're going to have all these diseases,
you're going to take all these drugs,

and we're just going to profit off of it.

I find that really, unacceptable.

I intend to push back against it
as much as I can.

Who knows? Hard to do, though.

It's. Isn't it hard to do?

You try to do every best thing you can,
and then you still,

have to deal
with everything that comes along.

But the thing I was originally gonna say
that that was making me

think of this quote
was this passage from Rick Rubin on rules.

And I think we can have
a lot of rules in society

that are taking us, in directions
they're really not serving us.

Look, listen to what Rick Rubin says

about, rules
in the context of our creativity,

which is like, if we want to

experience
something different than what most people

are experiencing, we're going to have
to have different patterns.

We're going to have to act differently.

This is why I lean
into the fasting practice, because it's

the opposite of what society says.

Society says consume your way to health.

And, I just say it's not.

Doesn't seem to be working that well.

You know, it's like maybe
try a little something different.

My observation is that it can help.

It can help. Oh, yeah.

He says a rule is any guiding principle
or creative criterion.

It might exist within the artist.

The or the culture.

And that especially
I want to think about today.

Rules that exist within the culture,
things that we don't even think about.

He says.

Rules, by their nature, are limitations.

The laws of math

and science are different from the rules
that we are looking at here.

Those laws describe precise relationships
in the physical world,

which we know to be true
by testing them against the world itself.

The rules artists learn are different.

And so here I would say, I think we're
in a interesting space with this

because we're trying to bend,
you know, these thoughts into our space,

try to open up our mind to how we can have
different patterns of thinking,

which will lead to different patterns
of doing and being.

And, there's a certain amount
of science in that.

You know, he's in a
maybe a pure creative zone.

We are in a quasi sign space.

I say, whereas, like,
you know, calories are real.

You know, they are.

But it's, it's much more than that.

Because the way of being, though,
is the type that we want to focus in

for real on.

And we have a lot of rules that govern
how we be in the world

that don't lead us necessarily
in a good way.

He says these rules, these types of rules
are assumptions, not absolutes.

They describe a goal or a method for short

or long term results,
and they are there to be tested.

And this this
I super resonate with in our practice.

We have this idea in medicine and society
that there is one way to be,

and this is why we have our days.

You're supposed to hit certain

calorie targets, you're supposed to hit
certain step targets.

And it's like it has always felt
to me, like

it's like treating people like
everybody is a clone or a robot.

Like, we've got it all figured out.

You just do
these simple things is done okay,

and very little thinking is required.

And just follow the blueprint
and everything going to work out

beautifully for you.

But, this whole mindset, it limits this.

Not very many people
testing a lot of stuff is they are

just gonna do like the, the thing or are
we test a hundred different diets, right.

That are variations on the same theme.

It's like because we haven't
had the outside of the box ability.

Rules like this are only of value.

As long as they are helpful.

They are not laws of nature.

Yeah, really love that. No.

No rules.

We said in that other session only things
that serve you and things that don't.

What are the things that serve you?

Hard to know if you don't test and try it.

All kinds of assumptions
masquerade as laws.

A suggestion from a self-help book,
something heard in an interview.

Your favorite artist.

Best tip an expression in the culture
or something a teacher once told you.

The expression in the culture
is the thing that I am

super keen on today
in the context of this quote, right?

Much sickness in society
just do as society does.

Does not. You know this.
This is the way I've thought about it.

Sometimes society is creating things,
right?

We are like a creation
really, of the society, right?

It's like we are in this complex
interaction with it.

We have some agency.

If we are able to open our mind to it.

I don't quite like this, but
also we're like one cell in a giant body,

you know, it's like this body is kind of
walking in an unhealthy direction

and we be swept away with it,
carried on with it.

It's the expression of the culture
right now.

The expression is consume things
and don't ask questions.

I loved this line.

Did I even write it into the description?

I don't know.

Rules
direct us to average behaviors, right?

The rules, the conformity, the thinking
that says this is what a person does.

No need to test.

No need to step out.

No need to do something different.

It's just what everyone does.

That's maybe what a culture is.

Do you think culture is

just the rules that tell everybody
this is how you live, right?

Directs us to average behaviors.

You do what everybody else does because
then you don't have to think about it.

You don't have to change.

You don't have to have people questioning.

You say, why are you doing that?

You know, why don't you be like me?

Why don't you eat what I eat?

Why don't you do these things? Okay?

He says if we're aiming
for the exceptional,

most rules don't apply.

I love that.

I can't remember,
I wrote a couple versions

of my little description in the video.

I was right,
and then I got angry and deleted it.

And then I rewrote it.

That was one of the things
I was struggling with

is like, well,
we want something exceptional.

I mean, don't is an exceptional
I don't know, I was feeling even like,

some sort of thing like,

oh, exceptional is too much to hope for,
you know?

Maybe it is. I think there's two things.

I mean, we need things
that are inspirational.

Don't
you want to feel inspired and empowered?

I do so like having
a big aspirational vision.

Beautiful. I think we should have it.

But also, I know for myself, can get
overwhelmed with something like that too.

And so I can't remember
which version I even wrote now.

But I was saying like,
how about just a little bit better?

You know, maybe everything
doesn't have to be exceptional.

Incredible.

Maybe we can aim for just a little bit
better, you know, take a first step.

Don't feel overwhelmed.

So whichever, moodier.

In for something
big and grand or something

just a little smaller, that's fine.

Either way, he goes on.

Most rules don't apply.

Average is nothing to inspire.

Aspire to.

Average is nothing to aspire to
unless it is right.

No rules.

So if that floats your boat, then fine.

To me I say, how about we lift ourselves
up to something better?

The goal is not to fit in.

If anything, it is to amplify
the differences of what doesn't fit

the special characteristics unique
to how you see the world.

That last little paragraph is what made me
think of my beautiful little quote.

My goal is not to fit in,
especially if you want to be healthy

in an unhealthy society, right?

But this is what makes it hard because
like usually our goal is to fit in.

Don't
you just want to? Don't you? Doesn't.

Isn't that what it's like?

You just go to any social gathering.

Don't you want to fit in a dinner party,
a concert and anything?

You don't want to stand out.

But we want to be healthy.

And we need.

To make choices that are different.

If we want to do it,
need it on a t shirt.

There you go. Yes, yes.

I think there's a there's something called
the spotlight effect, right?

Of the spotlight effect is like
we think that as we are going through

life like, oh, the because we experience
like, oh, this life is about me.

And so like it's a story
where I go around and do things.

And so we think that
the spotlight is on us.

But really it isn't.

And really pretty much
nobody cares, right?

Nobody cares.

What you do or don't do, really,
or at least very few

and not as much as we think.

And this is how we bring so much judgment
to ourselves

in so many ways, because we think, oh,
I really screwed that up.

And like, like

this is so important or something,
or these people think these things.

And so this is my inspiration
or a call for us

today is to say, hey,
in the midst of this health

that is happening, it's
okay to be different.

The goal is not to conform.

And. I say excellence is possible

in whatever scenario
it is with the hands that we are dealt.

Obviously we all have.

This is the irony about treating everybody
in some conformist way, is

that was so radically different,
and we have so many different,

experiences and challenges and situations

and so being the most, thoughtful

for it to say, hey, from this point,
wherever I am at one

tiny life in the grand scope of history
as we see it laid out.

And now we sit here and we say, here
I am in this place in this time.

And, maybe we can see it

or feel it,
you know, in our being and say,

oh, I just feel maybe I'm being swept
along a little bit here.

And can we push back

gently
and thoughtfully in the, in some way?

And what does that look like in our days?

To me, this is just a way of framing
everything that I always try

to talk about with people not eating
in the way that society is eating,

you know, a very, very powerful thing.

Try to purchase, obtain in any fashion

the healthiest food,

the most connected to the natural cycles,
the least crazy

chemicals and genetic engineering,
and all the crazy stuff

that people are doing
because they think it is so good.

Balancing that out with some times
of not eating that.

See, we need both of these things.

We need healthy food to nourish the body.

We need open space,
especially if we're trying to help energy

flow out of the body.

And like this book, we'll see
what other insights I get from it.

Move the body in the healthiest ways.

Probably not.

Sitting in chairs

all day like this is one of the big things
as I'm looking through the chapter,

like just sitting in a chair,
not actually super healthy for the body.

I bring more thoughts on natural movement
coming up

and then, beautiful mindfulness
practices.

That's
what seals it all together to me, that

all these things flow together in a way
says, you know what?

Health is a way of being.

Health is here within me,
and we're just going to lean into it

like a fire, like I love the fire.

It's like giving the space.

It's like the wind
that's coming in and helping

those embers to grow and build that fire.

Fire especially,
I like to think of with our metabolism

if we're on a weight loss path,
if that's part of it,

say we are trying to get those flames
burning brightly,

all these things coming together
to help do that.

Then we say, okay, it doesn't matter
so much if society is unhealthy.

Say we are decoupling from that,
or at least we're pulling it

in the other direction.

And, you know, sometimes

it's easy to feel overwhelmed by society.

It's easy to feel like, oh, we are small
and we can't change anything

and is very frustrating.

Okay.

But change begins,

here, right inside,
we can pretty much only change ourselves.

We cannot change other people.

Gigantic industrial systems.

But actually changing ourselves matters.

Being healthy matters.

We did a session like that, and,

I really think that that is
one of the big keys to keep us from

being overwhelmed is to realize it's
actually enough and important

that we focus on our health,
that we are worth it.

It is worth the investment
to pursue excellence in our own life.

Recently seen two of my favorite
organic foods have added seed oil

that were not in the ingredients
the last time I bought it.

Oh man, I was watching something
a the other day about, pastured

meats at so many places
because now we have big,

gigantic.

Organic brands, which is kind of like
the opposite of the idea.

But, you know,
you think about the scale of Kirkland,

you know,
and or Costco, different products.

And it's like somehow we have created
a gigantic industrial system

for delivering a package
with the word organic on it.

But sometimes, you know, the quality

is not exactly like going to your friendly
local farmer

and, and, where you can actually see
what's going on.

The one person was suggesting I was like,
oh, as long as the animals have access

to the pasture,

you know,

they might they might

run the chickens out through the grass
and then back into the barn.

You know, it's a lot of a lot of corner

cutting,
you know, that is not exactly healthy.

Not exactly healthy.

I'm telling myself as much as anyone,
don't be overwhelmed by it.

Take a deep breath.

That's what I'm doing.

Try to minimize the news.

If you're feeling stressed

or overwhelmed by anything, it's
okay to have a bit of a bubble.

Protect the mental space a bit.

It's also okay to dive in.

You want to be aware.

Being aware is fine,
but you don't have to feel compulsory

thing to care about every sort of thing
that's happening.

Part of that,
I think, is how the system gets.

Everybody sucked in
because it's like a guilt trips everybody.

Don't you have to care about this?

And don't you have to care about that?

And the end result is the attention
economy gets us.

And all of a sudden now

we're stressed out again,
and now we are looking at this and that.

It's like we really it's very difficult.

I would say it's a very difficult
to cultivate a strong

and powerful internal state of health,
where we find

something as deep and profound

as contentment,
which is everything that society

is trying to sell us all the time,
but can almost only be found

through a deep personal reflection
and by saying no to almost everything.

Realize that we are enough
and we have enough right here.

And that is a very healthy state of mind.

Really nice to share this space with you.

I hope you have a great day!

Make strong, powerful choices of health
and I will look forward to connecting

with you again soon. Be well.