My Relation To Time And Health

[somuch4food]

I have noticed that when I feel better my mind is calmer and time seems to fly by!

However, when I suffer, my mind is endlessly ruminating, be it past, present or future issues. Interestingly, that's when days seem to go ever so slowly.

Many human ideas revolve around controlling the mind with the mind and beating your inner demons. From my experience, it might be easier to change environment, lifestyle and diet to support a calm state of being.

Have you experimented something similar?

 

[Vinero]

Yes. Times seems to slow down when we are under stress or are bored. You are spot on, you can change your inner world by changing your outer world (food, lifestyle). I think neurochemically glutamate (which is released under stress) causes you to perceive time as moving slower. This is easily demonstrated when drinking alcohol (which blocks glutamate). Time seems to go by way faster after a few drinks.

 

[Jennifer]

Many human ideas revolve around controlling the mind with the mind and beating your inner demons. From my experience, it might be easier to change environment, lifestyle and diet to support a calm state of being.

Have you experimented something similar?

For me, it's both. Diet greatly impacts my mental state, which is one of the main reasons why I eat the way I do, but it only does so much. I still have triggers that I have to work through but honestly, I'm okay with that because I don't like putting all my power in food or things external to me. There's not enough fruit in the world to calm my inner gremlin. She requires the kind of love that only I can give her. :)

 

[Cirion]

In my opinion and personal experience, you can not fix mental issues through sheer willpower. Yes you can mask them to some degree but they're always lurking around the corner, no matter how much mindfulness or whatever you do. Good diet, sleep, environment is an absolute 100% necessity to heal mental issues. In my experience, if the diet/sleep/environment is good enough, the mental issues go away basically on their own with zero effort. Some might disagree with me but that's been my experience.

Nathan Hatch agrees with me in his book F*** portion control. He basically says all (not some, all) mental disorders are nothing more than the symptoms occurring as a result of PHYSICAL problems (endocrine system disruption), which can be solved only by PHYSICAL means (nutrition, sleep, environmental, possibly hormone/supplementation).

Don't get me wrong, I think there can be a place for mindfulness, prayer, meditation - but only after the other aspects are taken care of, otherwise it won't do much good... IMO.

As an aside, there are extreme situations that can occur that can cause mental problems even in normally very healthy people. EX: death of a loved one is a good example.

I would argue, even in the above example, however, as impersonal/harsh as this may come across, the only reason they're suffering is because that sudden stressor, caused a huge cortisol spike that the thyroid/endocrine system can not deal with and therefore the endocrine system got overloaded, and trashed. The extreme grief is nothing more than a completely trashed endocrine system. I'm sure I'll get flak for this comment, but I believe it to be true, because as a good example after a breakup from my ex I was absolutely devastated and recovered almost miraculously after starting a Peat style of eating. I am certainly in no way shape or form trying to downplay how awful it is to undergo such a massive stressor but I firmly believe the recovery process can be DRAMATICALLY accelerated by recognizing the symptoms of grief is simply a depressed endocrine system. One of the other reasons I believe this to be the case is because Dr. Brownstein has had more than one instance where he had a patient come to him for help because they had hypothyroid, spontaneously brought about by a big stressor, and he cured them merely by fixing their thyroid - in many cases (almost all) it turns out they were Iodine deficient. It makes me wonder if the body dumps Iodine in a panic (because Iodine is needed to make T3) by trying to make a lot of T3 to counteract the effects of cortisol, and once you're out of Iodine - boom, you got hypothyroid. Too much cortisol can literally kill you, and one of the other ways the body gets rid of cortisol when its too high is crying, which is a reason people cry when they are under extreme stress.

In this instance, it may be necessary to take extra measures such as supplement thyroid/Iodine/etc in order to recover at a quicker pace.

 

[Hugh Johnson]

In my opinion and personal experience, you can not fix mental issues through sheer willpower. Yes you can mask them to some degree but they're always lurking around the corner, no matter how much mindfulness or whatever you do. Good diet, sleep, environment is an absolute 100% necessity to heal mental issues. In my experience, if the diet/sleep/environment is good enough, the mental issues go away basically on their own with zero effort. Some might disagree with me but that's been my experience.

Nathan Hatch agrees with me in his book F*** portion control. He basically says all (not some, all) mental disorders are nothing more than the symptoms occurring as a result of PHYSICAL problems (endocrine system disruption), which can be solved only by PHYSICAL means (nutrition, sleep, environmental, possibly hormone/supplementation).

Don't get me wrong, I think there can be a place for mindfulness, prayer, meditation - but only after the other aspects are taken care of, otherwise it won't do much good... IMO.

As an aside, there are extreme situations that can occur that can cause mental problems even in normally very healthy people. EX: death of a loved one is a good example.

I would argue, even in the above example, however, as impersonal/harsh as this may come across, the only reason they're suffering is because that sudden stressor, caused a huge cortisol spike that the thyroid/endocrine system can not deal with and therefore the endocrine system got overloaded, and trashed. The extreme grief is nothing more than a completely trashed endocrine system. I'm sure I'll get flak for this comment, but I believe it to be true, because as a good example after a breakup from my ex I was absolutely devastated and recovered almost miraculously after starting a Peat style of eating. I am certainly in no way shape or form trying to downplay how awful it is to undergo such a massive stressor but I firmly believe the recovery process can be DRAMATICALLY accelerated by recognizing the symptoms of grief is simply a depressed endocrine system. One of the other reasons I believe this to be the case is because Dr. Brownstein has had more than one instance where he had a patient come to him for help because they had hypothyroid, spontaneously brought about by a big stressor, and he cured them merely by fixing their thyroid - in many cases (almost all) it turns out they were Iodine deficient. It makes me wonder if the body dumps Iodine in a panic (because Iodine is needed to make T3) by trying to make a lot of T3 to counteract the effects of cortisol, and once you're out of Iodine - boom, you got hypothyroid. Too much cortisol can literally kill you, and one of the other ways the body gets rid of cortisol when its too high is crying, which is a reason people cry when they are under extreme stress.

In this instance, it may be necessary to take extra measures such as supplement thyroid/Iodine/etc in order to recover at a quicker pace.

Prayer is not willpower. The two things are not related in any way. And the body can take a lot of physical abuse, and a thought is sufficient to kill it. Pretty much every issue, even a broken bone, has a psychosomatic component.

 

[somuch4food]

Prayer is not willpower. The two things are not related in any way. And the body can take a lot of physical abuse, and a thought kill it. Pretty much every issue, even a broken bone, has a psychosomatic component.

Physical injuries to the body do not seem to cause the same effect as does chronic inflammation. There is something sinister about chronic inflammation. You don't feel much pain, but the whole body is suffering and slowly decaying. The mind takes a hit as the body is not fully able to heal and is more focused on keeping itself alive instead of thriving.

Physical injuries don't make me depressed and I think it's because I know how I got the injury and also because I know it will heal with time.

 

[somuch4food]

There's not enough fruit in the world to calm my inner gremlin. She requires the kind of love that only I can give her. :)

I think my inner gremlin is naturally calm. I have always been a laid back person, but as I eat "healthier" I get more jittery. I've thrown all of my knowledge about nutrition out the window and have started experimenting with food and how I feel after eating it. My new definition of health is feeling good in my own body and mind, not some kind of result on paper.

In my opinion and personal experience, you can not fix mental issues through sheer willpower. Yes you can mask them to some degree but they're always lurking around the corner.

I have always thought I needed to use willpower to be able to achieve things, but that just got in an endless cycle where I use dopamine from video games/mangas to feel good then I feel more motivated so I start a new project. The motivation eventually phases out and I go back to entertainment to feel good again. The motivated periods were becoming less regular and I was really just wasting my day away with external stimulation.

The funny thing is that always thought that I was superior to all those people addicted to coffee or alcohol because I was not using crutches to get through the day. I now see that addictions can take many forms.

 

[Cirion]

Prayer is not willpower. The two things are not related in any way. And the body can take a lot of physical abuse, and a thought is sufficient to kill it. Pretty much every issue, even a broken bone, has a psychosomatic component.

Don't get me wrong I'm very pro-prayer, I come from a pretty strong Christian background. You wouldn't believe how many people that go to church that are severely overweight and think they can pray all their health problems away. I have a lot of respect for people who take their faith seriously so don't take this the wrong way, but from what I see, on average, as people are more serious about their faith the more unhealthy they are actually. This isn't always true, of course, and I do know a few devoted people who are healthy (one of which, actually, is the healthiest guys I know) but it's not that common. Indeed, from what I see, Christians are actually on average the unhealthiest of people (this could be false as a country-wide average, again its just my experience, so take it as you will). See my argument though is that the bad thoughts you allude to, only come up in the first place when you're physically unhealthy, and so it is a non-issue and not really relevant. And I still stand by my point that the bad thoughts are only happening because of stress destroying your endocrine system, it's not a nebulous concept. We are led to believe that mental disorders are separate from physical health issues. Nate Hatch mentions the phenomenon that its taboo to even consider that you can be cured of mental health disorders or that their root cause is in physical problems. Its almost like the world celebrates mental health problems in a weird masochist way. I have seen this first hand where one of my best friends thinks I am crazy to suggest her depression is nothing more than endocrine system disruption (which I've already proven to myself given her low waking temperatures btw, even without bloodwork). We got into a long discussion about depression and causes, and I told her, she has problems likely because excess cortisol / serotonin, low dopamine etc, all she could say is "maybe its just depression", so clearly, people don't understand the connection.

That said, every once in a while in an extreme scenario (so it's not really a fair argument, it shouldn't be the norm) you may find yourself in a situation where you have to "fake it until you make it". Like let's say you get into a gunfight, and got shot. If you were to give up in the moment, you could very well die, sure. Again though nothing more than a large acute stressor suppressing the endocrine system.

I have nothing at all against moral support when you need it, for sure, and it can be acutely therapeutic, but it won't cure the undermining endocrine disruption.

Nate Hatch talks to great lengths in his book that he tried EVERYTHING (therapy, talking to friends/family, prayer, all that good stuff) and nothing worked until he fixed his physical health for his depression, so its clear that none of that works long-term, they work acutely at best.

 

[Hugh Johnson]

Don't get me wrong I'm very pro-prayer, I come from a pretty strong Christian background. You wouldn't believe how many people that go to church that are severely overweight and think they can pray all their health problems away. I have a lot of respect for people who take their faith seriously so don't take this the wrong way, but from what I see, on average, as people are more serious about their faith the more unhealthy they are actually. This isn't always true, of course, and I do know a few devoted people who are healthy (one of which, actually, is the healthiest guys I know) but it's not that common. Indeed, from what I see, Christians are actually on average the unhealthiest of people (this could be false as a country-wide average, again its just my experience, so take it as you will). See my argument though is that the bad thoughts you allude to, only come up in the first place when you're physically unhealthy, and so it is a non-issue and not really relevant. And I still stand by my point that the bad thoughts are only happening because of stress destroying your endocrine system, it's not a nebulous concept. We are led to believe that mental disorders are separate from physical health issues. Nate Hatch mentions the phenomenon that its taboo to even consider that you can be cured of mental health disorders or that their root cause is in physical problems. Its almost like the world celebrates mental health problems in a weird masochist way. I have seen this first hand where one of my best friends thinks I am crazy to suggest her depression is nothing more than endocrine system disruption (which I've already proven to myself given her low waking temperatures btw, even without bloodwork). We got into a long discussion about depression and causes, and I told her, she has problems likely because excess cortisol / serotonin, low dopamine etc, all she could say is "maybe its just depression", so clearly, people don't understand the connection.

That said, every once in a while in an extreme scenario (so it's not really a fair argument, it shouldn't be the norm) you may find yourself in a situation where you have to "fake it until you make it". Like let's say you get into a gunfight, and got shot. If you were to give up in the moment, you could very well die, sure. Again though nothing more than a large acute stressor suppressing the endocrine system.

I have nothing at all against moral support when you need it, for sure, and it can be acutely therapeutic, but it won't cure the undermining endocrine disruption.

Nate Hatch talks to great lengths in his book that he tried EVERYTHING (therapy, talking to friends/family, prayer, all that good stuff) and nothing worked until he fixed his physical health for his depression, so its clear that none of that works long-term, they work acutely at best.

I agree with most of what you are saying. Mental and physical are clearly one, in fact I believe heretically that there is only one reality. Praying for Sky-daddy to cure you is unlikely to work, and willpower typically makes things worse in the long term. However, prayer (if you want to call it that) done correctly seems to have measurable physical effects and that has been demonstrated countless times.

 

[Cirion]

Praying for Sky-daddy to cure you is unlikely to work, and willpower typically makes things worse in the long term. However, prayer (if you want to call it that) done correctly seems to have measurable physical effects and that has been demonstrated countless times.

I guess I'm confused on this part of what you said. Can you clarify in more detail what you mean to differentiate these two sentences from each other?

I did have a trance-like state I achieved a couple days ago that seemed to bring my stress down to essentially zero (by accident, actually, wasn't purposefully trying to), it was unique, I'd never done that before in my life so it was a new experience. I used to think people who meditated were weird when they claimed they could "control their energy" and other such terms, but I may be more inclined to believe some of that after my experience.

 

[Hugh Johnson]

I guess I'm confused on this part of what you said. Can you clarify in more detail what you mean to differentiate these two sentences from each other?

I did have a trance-like state I achieved a couple days ago that seemed to bring my stress down to essentially zero (by accident, actually, wasn't purposefully trying to), it was unique, I'd never done that before in my life so it was a new experience. I used to think people who meditated were weird when they claimed they could "control their energy" and other such terms, but I may be more inclined to believe some of that after my experience.

Essentially, there seems to be only one reality, conciousness. Thus all things only exist in a realtion to each other as a duality in that conciousness. Prayer, or what ever you want to call it, appears to affect the apparently physical reality. I suggest looking into the science. For the philosophy I like Rupert Spira.

 

[Jennifer]

I think my inner gremlin is naturally calm. I have always been a laid back person, but as I eat "healthier" I get more jittery. I've thrown all of my knowledge about nutrition out the window and have started experimenting with food and how I feel after eating it. My new definition of health is feeling good in my own body and mind, not some kind of result on paper.

Awesome! Good for you for experimenting and seeing what works best for you. At this point, my definition of a healthy diet is one that makes an individual feel their best. I'm a pretty laid back person, but my gremlin isn't quite there yet. She has come a long way, though. :)

 

[Lolinaa]

I did have a trance-like state I achieved a couple days ago that seemed to bring my stress down to essentially zero (by accident, actually, wasn't purposefully trying to), it was unique, I'd never done that before in my life so it was a new experience. I used to think people who meditated were weird when they claimed they could "control their energy" and other such terms, but I may be more inclined to believe some of that after my experience.

How did you achieve this trance state? Through meditation? Did you eat something particular? Can you describe a bit more the after effects please ?