Happy Monday,

The Philadelphia area recently had a two-day span of summer-esque weath-hair. Everyone was freaking out and smiling and outwardly happy for the first time since, I’m guessing, September when we last had similar days of rays. Two days of full-on swamp ass, coming out of no where, followed by an equally-intense-out-of-the-same-vein swampy experience; a thunderstorm. I forgot about summer thunderstorms. I forgot how much I loved them. I forgot how necessary they are not only to my life, but to the life of the Earth. It is nature’s yin and yang in full-effect and I think that’s why I subconsciously gravitate towards [thunderstorms]. I need that balance of give and take, of heat and cool, of push and pull, of intensity and sedation just as much as nature does, and my ability to put that relationship into perspective has been so gratifying/awe-inspiring for me lately. But, despite all of my ‘isms, I still have my 21st-century moments where I lose that one-with-nature perspective and get lost in the constricted world that I choose to be a part of rather than the boundless world that is a part of me; i.e. fabricate technology, fabricated societal pressures, or fabricated internal fears vs. a living nature, the living stars, or the living universe.

Keeping all that in mind, picture an Anytown, USA warehouse with a dock and a tin roof as a prime vantage point for kicking back on some uprooted mini-van captain chairs to watch a thunderstorm roll through the night; vivid lightening strikes streaking through the sky, ginormous rolling thunder clouds, and the melodic sheets of rain pounding against an old tin roof. Sounds good, doesn’t it? It’s the first thunderstorm of the new year and there I am, head buried in my iPhone texting excitedly about the storm, frantically searching for my Camera App so I can then “watch” the storm through a 3-inch screen while recording it so I can send it to a friend some 1000’s of miles away, requiring me to re-bury my head back into a world that is something us humans made up. I was sharing the physical stormy experience with a good friend of mine, only he was actually experiencing it while I was just riding the bench. I missed a few sweet lightening episodes and I made it pretty obvious that I was annoyed with myself for paying more attention to my phone. So, I picked my head up a little more often, but each time I soon dropped my head back into my phone to miss yet another lightening strike, which was followed by more frustration. Hearing my sighs, a little birdie chimed in with, “See what happens when you forget about the world, JD?” Man. Yes! Perfect! I was immediately brought back into perspective, into what matters…. only to realize this would make a great blog post to go into my Notes App and add one more line to my “Blog Ideas” note, and, of course as irony would have it, I missed another great lightening strike. Can win ‘em all, right?

But, what happens when we don’t miss “the small stuff” like jaw-dropping lightening strikes and the beauty of the rain to cool off a humid night, and, instead, we miss a turn on the road… or ample time to study for an important test… or a chance to meet someone that could change your life… or to give someone your undivided attention and eyes in a conversation… or to even have the ability to hold a conversation in person? All because we get caught up in the world that isn’t real and in a world that we’re not biologically designed to be a part of.

See what happens when you forget about the world?

The world doesn’t give a shit about you, but you sure as hell should give a shit about the world. Full-on oblivion and a sack full of self-irresponsibility equate to missing a huge part of what life really is. No, it’s not the concrete and advanced world we have built, rather it is the stripped-down, the-soil-is-the-root-of-all-life world that we were born from. We are children of the Earth and the Earth is a child of the Stars. It’s not the Earth’s responsibility to take care of us, but you can bet your ass that it is our responsibility to take care of ourselves so we can then take care of the Earth. And it’s when we lose sight of that - when we lose sight of what is real, what is important, or what we are all a part of - is when we lose ourselves, when we lose our perspectives, when we lose our true meaningful existence, and the loss of the living, breathing, moving Earth and it’s infinite life forms are not too far behind.

I encourage you all, if you haven’t already, to discover the Earth and our place, our role, our contributions, our give and takes, our reciprocal responsibility atop this floating ball of life that is amongst an endless, living Universe. The world would be the same, if not probably better off, without us. But we would certainly not be the same without the world. Don’t ever forget it.

Thanks for the wake-up call, G.

jdperryhealth.com
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Happy Monday,

So, I live in the city of Philadelphia in the northeastern region of the States. We have all four seasons and are currently at the tail-end of a frequent-snow-fall-of-a Winter, heading for a-hopefully-warm-and-refreshing Spring. Everyone and their brother seems to be ready for Spring. We all thought mother nature was, too, because she gave us a few warm days here and there, and about a month ago we were blessed with a warm weekend in the 60’s (about 15 Celsius). But, last week, out of no where, the weather took a turn and we were greeted with significant snowfall. Ok, so my day-job has me primarily outside in all types of weather and I am able to interact with a good amount of people who share the same fate. 100% of the people I talked to that day were not happy campers… Where’s the sun? What’s with this snow? I’ll be good when this weather is gone! What a crappy day. Yeah, a happy spring to you, too! Absolutely no one - not one soul - could take the day for what it was (a gorgeous snowy day) and, instead, everyone dwelled upon what the day was not (not sunny and 60). Hallelujah blog post!

The perspective shift can be better summed up as: See the big picture in everything. Take a step out of your skewed reality, your constricted awareness, your filtered conditioning, your negative nancy-isms, and look at life through the eyes of - as cliche as it is - through the eyes of God. And by God, I mean, through the eyes of nature, through the eyes of a greater consciousness, through the eyes of a wholeness and connectedness, through the eyes of a universal understanding, through the eyes of sincerity and compassion, through the eyes of the universe. And by all of that shenanigans, I mean, let go of what you think should be, of what you expect, of what you assume, of what you judge, of what you’re holding onto, of what you impose and project upon others (including nature) so you can see, feel, hear, and experience the beauty in everything.

You, and only you, have the power to turn the 5 random-ass inches of snowfall on the second day of Spring into such a beautiful occurrence that nature so generously provides. You, and only you, have the power to turn any negative experience - it could actually be the most negative and daunting situation in the world - and turn it into the best thing to have ever happened to you, to your perspective, to your humanity, to your path, to your personality, to your mentality, to your emotions, to your spirituality, and to your inner self.

I’ll leave you all with a perspective that I came across on this thing called the Internet…

jdperryhealth.com
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Happy Monday folks,

“That’s such a confusing thing to me, because you believe that God gave you the Earth, that God created the Earth for you. Why would you not have to look after it? Why would you not think that, when he came back, he’d go ‘What the fuck did you do? I gave this to you motherfucker, are you crazy? The polar bears are brown, what’d you do?! What’d you do to the polar bears, did you shit all over every polar bear? Who spilled this shit? Come over here, did you spill this? What is that?

(sniveling idiot voice) ‘It’s oil, it’s just some oil. I didn’t mean to spill it’

‘Well why did you take it out of the fucking ground?

‘Cause I wanted to go faster, it’s not fast enough, and it was cold’

‘What the fuck do you mean it’s cold? I gave you everything you needed you piece of shit.’

‘Well cause jobs, I wanted a job’

‘What is a job? Explain to me, what’s a fucking job?’

‘You work at a place and people call when their game doesn’t work and you help them figure it out’

‘What do you that for?’

‘For money’

‘What do you need MONEY for?’

‘For food’

‘Just eat the shit on the floor, I left shit all over the floor, fucking corn and wheat and shit, ground it up make some bread what are you doing?’

‘Yeah but it doesn’t have bacon on it, I like when it has like bacon on it’”

…a snippet from Louis C.K. “Live at the Beacon Theatre”

A good amount of people in this world are so completely out of touch with the reality that our home, “God’s green earth,” is a living, breathing organism just like any one of you and me, which yields the inevitable possibility that it can become sick and will some day die. It is by our hands, as the most intelligent species who has the power to sway life as we know it in one direction or another, to make sure that she is healthy, alive, and well. And I don’t think we do that great of a job at it, at least not as the most “powerful nation” in the world. The ironic thing is that the countries who don’t have all of the gadgets and gizmos as the US does, maintain a life… a perfect give and take… as nature intends. The people live off of the land and give back just as much as it provides. Then there are other lower life forms that we live amongst; these forms also live in complete harmony with mother nature, treating her exactly as she treats them with respect, love, care, and with a two-way road which allows life to flourish. It’s a tremendous cycle of give and take; of life and death.

Over the past 150 years, humans have created solutions whose aim is to promote daily life or to make daily life easier, but in-turn, a majority of these solutions have actually created life-degrading problems in the long term. For example…

We are told to curb our pets, to clean up after them, to follow around a friendly species whom we claim to be “ours” with a will-not-degrade-for-another-500 years plastic bag for the purpose of placing a completely natural and life-giving pile of poop to keep the earth “clean.” HOW THE HELL does that make sense? 

We, as humans, eliminate our waste into the source of all life, water. We take this rich grouping of the elements hydrogen and oxygen, and dump bacterial waste into it, thus making it unsuitable to drink while there are literally thousands, if not millions, of thirsty species out there dying on a daily basis because of a lack of clean water. Here we are shitting into it because it makes daily life easy… not shitting into the ground to replenish the soil with rich bacteria so new life can grow… no, we are just taking from this great earth.

We release deadly toxins into the air on a by-the-second basis. Take a trip on the New Jersey Turnpike near New York City and you’ll smell the scent of death as you pass by the power plants (no offense, Jerseyins… but you know that part of your state is horrid and leaves a foul stench in your nasal cavity). Our atmosphere is THE ONLY thing that protects all life on this earth from the “elements” of outer space. It protects us as a dense shield from extraterrestrial threats, and it also sustains life as an interactive canopy. We are treating it as if it’s nothing… perhaps because most of us know nothing about it, are not really aware of it, or do not care to care. Los Angeles has smog alerts for Christ sake because of all the air pollution. Like… what the fuck, people? And we think that watching The Walking Dead every week is such an important experience? Fuck!

We have completed degraded the soil and food supply on a commercial level for the purpose of profit; not for the betterment of nutrition, not for the betterment of breeding life as “God” intends, and not for anything remotely beneficial for life to survive in the long term. Companies have learned how to mass produce processed/mutated garbage that our bodies are so intelligent to convert into energy (*cough* food) at the expense of the soil, at the expense of the animals and insects, at the expense of the immediate proximity and world-scale ecosystems, at the expense of human lives… all to make a couple extra bucks.

We smoke cigarettes. That is a thing. We inhale deadly toxins ON PURPOSE and then release those toxins into the air……….

The food industry is a joke. The medical system is a joke. The government is a joke. No one gives a fuck about the planet because they only care about the profit. We have the power, the intelligence, and I’d put money on the fact that we are able to turn our way of life around 180 degrees with the snap of a finger to better serve, protect, and give back to our planet. But, since it will leave a lot of rich people broke in the interim and those rich people pretty much run our society behind veiled walls, but I have a hard time fathoming that perspective shift will be on a massive scale in the near future. There are even cures for cancer out there… it’s called, “Stop fucking up the planet, stop fucking up the food we eat, stop fucking up the animals and plants we live amongst, and your health will reap the benefits of living in cycle harmony of give and take, as ‘God’ has so graciously given to us.”

jdperryhealth.com
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jdperryhealth@gmail.com

Happy Monday,

Last week after a long, I-ran-my-ass-off soccer practice I became aware of something important in my life: How to transpose and intertwine awareness from one part of your life to the next. I gained such an awareness of this how to by sitting back and taking perspective - creating a value as it applies to my life - on how the things I do on a soccer field, like playing hard, playing independently, playing as a team mate, taking responsibility and making up for actions or reactions, strategizing individually and as a whole, planning my next pass or shot or run, seeing the big picture of the game’s purpose, anticipating three or four passes ahead of time, remaining composed when I’m tired or my team is down, yielding confidence when I have ball, having fun, playing with passion, being well-versed in the sport, being well-practiced in the sport, and being well-conditioned for the sport all can be transposed into my every day life. Specifically, I can take this awareness of myself as a soccer player and fit it snugly right into any area of my life that may need such a participation of my holistic self (mind, body, spirit, emotions), too.

I would like you all to put your passions, your hobbies, your jobs, your relationships, your right’s and wrong’s into perspective to see if you can create/line-up a foundational awareness where every single aspect of your life agrees with one another, and any effort that is put into each can be transposed without missing a beat from one to the next. For example, the effort one puts into their job should equal the effort they put into their family or relationship with their significant other. The effort one puts into working out at the gym should yield the same effort that one puts into loving, understanding, and experiencing one’s true self. 

I just thought that was really cool to have experienced such a cliche concept at such a point in my life and am now able to apply it for the greater good of me and my growth as a person.

jdperryhealth.com
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jdperryhealth@gmail.com

Happy Monday my peoples,

This week I’m doing something different, as you can probably tell by the screen-shot shirtless JD in the video box below. I felt compelled to do a spoken-word blog for today’s post because I wanted to provide “an image to the face” in regards to results and understanding how to achieve those results (a physical manifestation of your mental and emotional states). A video post been an in-the-making process as I am beginning to feel more comfortable as a self-aware health blogger and not just some health nerd that needs to vent about his candid battles publicly. So, without further rambling. Here’s today’s blog…

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Happy Monday to yinz,

Losing weight is healthy. It’s really interesting how scaled weight has become this iconic health standard because, apparently so, if we are overweight then we are labeled unhealthy. We have freakin’ weight charts in every doctor’s office that communicate if you are this height then you should be this weight, otherwise something is wrong with you. This tiny little example of societal standards and manipulated norms is what actually screws people up. We are completely fine in the first place until professionals began shoving it down our throats that this is right, this is the way we should live when they completely fail to realize that life should be lived on an individualized basis and not by biased status quo studies that turn health into a math equation all-the-while manipulating the hell out of what it takes to be healthy for you.

Ranting aside, do you know what causes the body to gain weight? Do you know what causes YOUR body to gain weight? We all act/react differently to every single experience and we all store fat in different ways and in different places. A person can store fat if they’re depressed, if they’re angry, if they are exhausted, if they are awake for too long, if they drink too many protein shakes, if they apply a specific deodorant, if a street reminds them of a frightening experience AND a person can store fat in an area of the body that is specifically affected by emotions, grudges, regrets, or shames. Pretty neat, huh? All of this is very important to consider in our individual plight towards better health and it is my goal for today’s post.

In order to understand weight loss and the industry bullshit that surrounds the poor bastard, we need to understand the mechanisms/why’s in which the body can gain or lose weight. We’re up to our eyeballs in misinformation, marketing stunts, biased research studies, and a sheer lack of knowledge of how our bodies work. You want to be in touch with reality? Start with yourself. Because you and only you knows what is best… that is, if you take the time to learn and understand who you are and what you’re all about under a universal reality (no external/personal bias, conditions, judgements, etc.).

Now, for my favorite, over-used word… perspectives!

1) Get healthy to lose weight, don’t lose weight to get healthy - I love this quote, which can be accredited to Josh Rubin of East West Healing & Performance. Why is weight loss the goal when it’s really just a symptom of good health? Why is weight loss the goal when true weight loss, the natural progression and prolonged maintenance due to well-tailored/well-implemented metabolic shifts, cannot be achieved through a quick-fix program or beating yourself into the ground with popular work out dvds? I understand the need for goals or milestones along the way, but weight should not be health-basis-numero-uno. The weight will come off when the body is at a point where it doesn’t need it anymore. I will say that again, the weight will come off when the body is at a point where it doesn’t need it anymore.

2) The body stores fat for protection - Fat is literally a life saver and it’s more or less a result of the body doing damage control. Meaning, if there is a homeostatic imbalance due to some sort disruption - a caloric deficiency, a caloric surplus, too many of the wrong calories, malnutrition, over-exertion (exercise, work, school, relationships, family), lack of sleep, excess mental and physical stressors, environmental toxins/chemicals, emotional trauma, etc. - the body will most likely store fat as a protective reaction (I say most likely so I can note that not everyone reacts accordingly). We are all familiar with the relationship between fat and cholesterol, and that the body produces its own cholesterol, right? Well, an increase in cholesterol production is also a form of protection since cholesterol is actually one of our body’s most powerful anti-oxidants. We all hear that high cholesterol is bad and, while it can be a sort of warning sign, few fail to make the holistic connection as to why it’s elevated without pointing fingers at diet. Got stored fat? Consider what your body is protecting you from (and why you need to store fat). Fat also protects us from the cold! Hooray!

3) Scales mean jack - Because fat weight vs muscle weight vs water weight vs poop weight… DUH. All weight is not created equal and scale cannot differentiate between the three pounds you lost after pooping or the three pounds you lost from sweating your butt off in a sauna (only to be naturally regained by eating and drinking mineral water, respectively). Don’t forget that muscle weighs more than fat and if you are involved in some sort of physical training program with a caloric-sufficient diet, chances are you won’t see that scale budge even though you could be gaining muscle weight while losing fat weight. Our weight fluctuates on a daily basis and it is absolutely not an indicator of [good] health NOR progress. I hear people all the time proclaim, I lost ____ pounds this week! That’s cool and all, but what type of weight did you lose? Maybe that weight loss isn’t permanent and maybe it could be due to an unhealthy result (i.e. stress, suppressed appetite, depression, stimulants, dehydration, etc.). At a recent family party I had a person tell me that they recently lost 30+ pounds. When I asked And how do you feel?… I got… Well, I feel god-awful. *facepalm*

4) Are you even eating enough? - Consider this: the body needs [enough] energy to function. If I limit my daily caloric intake and, thus, deprive my body of the energy it takes to perform tasks at a high efficiency rate and in a timely manner, why the HECK would it think… hey, now is a good time to lose weight… ? Actually, HOW the heck would it have the energy to do such a high-energy-demanding task, which usually requires a higher metabolic rate? THIS is huge when people approach me about weight loss because I often find that they aren’t eating enough calories (any calories) throughout the day for their body to even consider losing weight on top of all the energy it takes to breathe, think, eat, drink, digest, detoxify, poop, pee, move, exercise, sleep, recharge, remember, be creative, and deal with life’s daily stressors. The body ain’t stupid. Having said that, I have had many-a-conversation lately with various peers of mine all umbrella-ing under one classic, underlying theme… People are dumb. I’d also like to point out that sleeping enough is also über important… also. 

5) Diet is a factor, but your food education is, too - This is where misinformation comes into play. We’re taught that saturated fat, cholesterol, red meat, dairy, sugar, starch, salt, soda, and fruit juice (a.k.a. sugar water) are all bad for our health; they will make us SO fat and sick. Instead, we’re taught that unsaturated fats, vegetable/nut/seed oils, wheat, corn, soy, grains in general, copious amounts of vegetables, six to eight daily servings of fruit, beans, lentils, nuts, and seeds are all healthy and will keep us lean. My response to that is… Who says so? The government? The medical system? Please tell me when was the last time you had my best interest at heart and also when it didn’t involve an industrial profit. 

6) Intolerances, allergens, detox issues, poor digestion, malabsorption, deydration - First, I’m going to point some fingers at the over-saturated amount of chemicals and toxins that we are exposed to on a daily basis. We breathe, apply, and come in contact with this crap and it could be a big factor in our body protecting us with fat storage. The chemicals in your deodorant, in your makeup, in the air freshener, in car fumes, in your window cleaner, in your tissues, in your laundry detergent or fabric softener… you name it (actually, if you can’t read it) and it can probably affect your physiology in some way and it can greatly affect the detox system if it’s not already under distress. The same goes for food additives (the gums, the dyes, the non-pharmaceutical grade added vitamins). Then there are food intolerances that make your body think it’s in a war zone every day (this can also spur an auto-immune deficiency). Gluten, for instance, is one major food intolerance that can cause weight gain and people may just think that they need to run a few more miles each day and find out that they just gain more weight (probably due to a grand stress reaction). Which brings me to poor digestion and, thus, malabsorption. You can eat all of the healthy, leaning-out food you want, but if you cannot absorb said food it is possible that your body isn’t getting enough calories to meet its energy demands. Finally, dehydration… I’m hoping this is a no-brainer after reading through my alluding-theme perspectives. Spark that awareness!

7) Exercise smarter, not harder… or not at all - I started Crossfitting about a month ago. Within the first three weeks of going hard I noticed that I began to put weight on around my stomach. I added some muscle mass here and there but I was also adding fat. No, I wasn’t eating too much… I actually wasn’t eating enough to meet the demands I was putting on my body AND this started to affect my sleeping patterns… waking up in the middle of the night, restlessness, resulted dehydration, etc. I thought this was really cool in a weird science-nerd kind of way. I absolutely love the fact that I went through this because it gave me some more perspective into how MY body works, acts, and reacts at this point in my life. Sure, I could have probably done this type of workout and recovered with ease when I was 18 with the endless testosterone running through my body, but I’m not 18. I’m 27 and I’m not as active as I was almost a decade ago. And I say “or not at all” because I hate the stipulation that in order to lose weight exercise is necessary. Any intelligent personal trainer or health enthusiast will tell you that an exercise program will never outwork a poor diet. The diet will always be the foundation and exercise is a complementary component towards your specific goals. No, you don’t have to exercise to lose weight. It helps, but it’s not as important as the media makes it out to be (i.e. the biggest schmuck… I mean, loser). My solution will always be to go smarter by taking the time to sit back, rest, reflect, and look at the big picture of the why and how in respect to my body.

8) Emotions - What your choice of manifestation? Where are you storing yours?

Hopefully you can get the jist that there will never be a one-size-fits all solution nor will there ever be just one solution to a problem that really isn’t a problem at all. Fat storage is a symptom, a mechanism, a safety device, a warning sign, a smaller result of a much bigger picture. It’s not a reason to define yourself, to get down on yourself, to beat yourself up, or to think you’re not pretty enough, not handsome enough, or not fit enough. The body is trying to send you a message and only you can decipher its underlying cause. Don’t believe in the bullshit; believe in yourself.

Happy trails,

jdperryhealth.com
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jdperryhealth@gmail.com

A happy monday fellow healthians,

This weekend I attended To Write Love On Her Arms’ MOVE Conference. It was a two-day informative lecture/conversation amongst two speakers, two coordinators, and about 40 attendees which touched on heavy/personal topics such as Addiction, Depression, Anxiety, Self-Injury, Eating Disorders, and Suicide. I participated in the conference in support of a friend. She had come to me about a month ago that she eagerly wanted to attend and, since we have shared many conversations in the past regarding our perspectives of personal healing and growth, she pretty much said you’re coming and I won’t take “no” for an answer. She didn’t have to twist my arm at all really because I had an idea of what I was getting myself into with my familiarity with TWLOHA’s mission; having “worked” with the organization in the past as a musician and through the friendships I was able to build from sharing an awareness of health. But my awareness only went so far when it came to these topics because I had yet to be thrown into a room with real people who have dealt with and are still dealing with real problems. I found myself being smacked in the face with a reality I have only read about and have reflected generalized philosophies upon. I knew I was in for a treat the moment we began going around the room stating our name, story, and purpose.

I went into the conference thinking that the participants would be those who are dealing with the issues, those who are seeking answers for themselves, those who are in search of aha-moments to get themselves on a better track towards healing. I didn’t read up on the conference beforehand so I had some assumptions going into it and, while that general mindset held some truth, I didn’t expect that I would be in a room with people just like me… young professionals who have gone through their own tough times reality and have now come out on the other end with the approach of I’m going to use what I have learned in my worst-of-the-worst to help others in their paths towards happiness. And the most inspiring part? Everyone was real. Everyone had real stories, real obstacles, real battles, real experiences, real emotions, and everyone was dealing with their own reality all-the-while learning more about the realities of others for one common goal: to help. It was rather humbling to be in a room with therapists, with counselors, with speakers, with help-line workers, with undergrads, with graduate students, with mothers, with adults… with all different walks of life in one room who have been through it and who just get it. That is actually one of the main purposes of the conference - to find someone that just gets it - amongst the slightly more obvious reasons like raising awareness of such hush-hush topics, educating the educators, inspiring the inspired, comforting the disturbed, and disturbing the comforted. To find someone who you can relate to is such a milestone in the world of healing because we have all gone through our own shit and you damn-well know that it certainly helps to speak to someone who understands and relates through their own trials to what you are going through. We all have different experiences, but we def-def-definitely share the same feelings of hurt, pain, shame, or unhappiness (as well as happiness, ease, comfort, or success). 

It is my understanding that these symptoms umbrella under and manifest as a result of a greater cause. To extremely over simplify that greater cause, I chalk it up to unhappiness. This mental state can be caused by many factors and we all manifest its symptoms in various ways, but I do believe that the foundation exists as a lack of happiness with self and the experiences of self, i.e. what you understand to be your reality through your own [influenced] filter system (thoughts, beliefs, conditionings, perceptions, habits, knowledge, ignorance, diet, digestion, stressors, sleep patterns, priorities, et cetera).

Yet, the conference didn’t really hint on any sort of generalization. There were times in the conversation where we saw commonalities for treatments or fine lines between diagnostics, but it still resorted back to this is this and that is that. It focused on each symptom as its own entity and that one must “treat” each realm accordingly. An addiction counselor should not treat a self-injury patient because, from what I gathered, they are not the same. I ask why? If we’re approaching this holistically, the body’s physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health fall under one cyclic/complimentary umbrella so why can’t our symptoms? It just doesn’t make sense to me. For example, self-injury is mainly the act of inflicting pain or cutting one’s skin, but how is cigarette smoking not a form of self-injury, as well? Both involve an awareness of the action and its consequences, both inflict pain in exchange for euphoria and a quick-fix result only to come back again because the thrill wasn’t enough and the underlying cause/relief structure still exists. Also, each are forms of addiction and, perhaps, can be a result of depression, too. Of course, I was in a room with trained professionals whose experiences on paper far exceed mine so perhaps I do not have much room to speak, but I do not think that limits my platform to question the approach or to raise an awareness of more foundational-based ways to do things. 

I really found this intriguing because this is the habit of our society. We like to label things… every-things. And, in the medical/health field, people can lose their identities or any mindset of who they are because their names can be replaced or associated with a specific disease, disorder, or mental state. This replacement can come from the doctor’s vocabulary/perspective or can even be adapted by the patient. The nice guy named Bob becomes a Drug Addict. Why the heck is Bob a drug addict in the first place? Some sort of shit in Bob’s life culminated, made him freak, and he turned to drugs. Can labeling Bob as an addict make him more unhappy? Why can’t we just say that Bob is unhappy and retrace the steps to where/why Bob became unhappy? He’s still the nice guy he’s always been, but people may not identify him as the nice guy anymore because we label. And when we label, we segregate by default. And when we segregate by default, we impose stigma by default. And stigma is an imposed reality which we seldom take the time to step back from to look at the bigger picture - what truly matters in a universal reality. It’d be nice to look at things objectively rather than subjectively. Then again everyone tends to have their opinion and we all know the saying about opinions… It’d also be nice to get away from labels but I don’t think it’ll ever happen. Really, we just want to belong. Even if it means we belong to a negative connotation, at least we belong to something. 

One final thing I’d like to note is a shared story from one of the speakers. The speaker’s father did not allow the use of Neosporin within their household. If you are not familiar with Neosporin, it is a healing agent that can be applied to small cuts or scrapes to speed up the healing process and to prevent the formation of “ugly” scars. The father wasn’t a doctor, but he knew a thing or two about the healing process. Neospiron is promoted as a quick-healer and offers a good-as-new look. That’s cool and all, but while the skin on the outside may be “healed,” the wound underneath remains open and prone to infection because the body is not meant to heal as such a rapid pace. Hey, at least it looks good and my date tonight won’t think I’m a zombie freak, right? When we give the body time to heal on its own time at its own pace in its own natural environment, the wounds mend accordingly. The same can be said about our emotional and mental states. We can take all of the medication we want, we can try all of the quick-fix protocols we come across, but they will never truly heal until the underlying cause is addressed and fixed naturally through being honest with self, yielding compassion for self, having patience with self, and, thus, gaining a greater awareness of self.

I learned a lot from the conference and I’m very glad I was given the opportunity to go. If you are not familiar with To Write Love On Her Arms, please check out their website, blog, and calendar to verse yourself in the awareness and the hope that they spread.

Thanks for stopping by, folks. 

jdperryhealth.com
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jdperryhealth@gmail.com

Matt Stone at his best… so good…

http://180degreehealth.com/2012/10/10-inconveniences-of-a-high-metabolism

When in a misunderstanding, when in-doubt, when in-question, when troubled, when confused, when lost, when broken, when nothing seems to work, when all else fails, when you need to retrace your steps, when you need to build a better path…

Don’t ask why?

Ask how?

• How is more direct - Why did this happen vs How did this happen?
• How provides a path of clues
• How encourages an openness to understanding, to awareness

Don’t think that everything happens for a reason.

Think that there is a reason for everything.

Only you can figure out those reasons (those answers) to your everything (your questions). Your genetics, your habits, and your conditioning will never have those answers. You must first look within before you can look beyond. Know yourself to know how.

jdperryhealth.com
jdperryhealth.tumblr.com
jdperryhealth@gmail.com