326. new ideas
There are people who will never change their minds, not even when presented with new information. It’s okay to have a belief system because that’s how we make sense of the world, but there is a difference between being cautious about new ideas and being calcified.
Some people enjoy having discussions about what they believe in, welcoming new information as a means of progressively challenging who they were, in an attempt to consistently build and improve upon who they are. While others are closed off from any discussion to the point that they defend their belief system against any and all opposing thoughts, no matter how rational the argument. If at one point you both shared similar opinions, yet you decided to be open to new ideas and have since made changes to long held beliefs; you’ll likely be admonished for your transgressions with the person saying, “You’ve changed.” But isn’t that the point? You’re supposed to be open. To learn. To change. To grow.
What in nature stays the same its entire lifecycle? Nothing that I know of. Stagnation in an ever changing process is akin to death. Old habits — or in this case, belief systems — “die hard,” as they say.
I think it’s important that we maintain a sense of childhood wonderment as we progress through life. It’s very hard to have all the answers, and we should avoid those that do at all costs. We have to maintain a sense of openness about what we believe in. It’s okay to maintain rigidity in the process of developing a belief system, as long as we remain flexible in how it works itself out. If we are too tied to our ideas, then we run the risk of it eventually transforming into an identity that may not serve us in the long run.
Despite anyone’s beliefs, the one thing we can all agree on is that we all want to live a freer, healthier, more prosperous life, filled with love and adventure. But this can be very hard to find if you are so locked into an opinion that you completely shut off anything that could improve upon your current situation. It’s okay to have a belief system, but be able to differentiate between what is defining you versus what may be holding you back.
207. the dizziness of freedom
One of the scariest parts about embarking on a new journey is not knowing where it may take us. We hope for the best, while at the same time harbor anxiety about what is to come of our decisions; no matter whether it’s a new dietary regimen, a new career or a new relationship. And while each situation can be promising, they still come with a bit of unease, which Kierkegaard cleverly surmises this anxiety as “the dizziness of freedom.”
The dizziness doesn’t come from fear of failure, so much as it is about the unknown of what lies ahead. The freedom to look down that new path, with no end in sight, is akin to peering into a deep hole where the bottom can’t be seen. The anxiety you feel is not from fear of falling, because you are freely holding onto the safety rail, but from the mystery of the void.
The freedom we possess to make our own choices will always be met with a bit of anxiety because we are always worried about the unknown, even if that path we’re staring down is exactly where we want to be. But, that unknown is part of our journey, what creates our story, and pushes the evolution of us. As long as that path we set out on is inline with who we want to become, we don’t really need to see the end because we will be able to create it as we go.
Carbs make you fat, change my mind…
Whenever anyone makes a claim, ALWAYS ask if it makes sense from an evolutionary perspective.
Most living things time their days with an internal clock that is synchronized by external cues (e.g., light and dark cycles). The sun is one constant that has been around forever, therefore our circadian rhythms developed to coincide with these light and dark cycles. This means that our biology is a product of the cyclical nature of the sun. This is evidenced by the light-sensitive receptors built into the cells of our eyes, skin, blood, and bones.
Who cares?
WELL, because our biology is indelibly linked to the sun, it would also be fair to reason that it plays a role in our health as well. And that’s all I really care about here.
Before industrialized society, we had always been at the whim of nature and the environment that the seasonal orbit and rotation of the sun provided; AKA seasons. We had always “feasted” in the summertime to endure the “famine” that always followed. Your body instinctually know that the long days of summer are going to be followed by the cold days of winter, and that means no food. Summertime means carbs are plentiful, as they literally grow on trees. Your body craves them so you can store fat to keep you alive for the impending winter where food is scarce.
Here’s how it works:
Long hours of light signal summertime
Summertime means carbohydrates are plentiful and should be eaten to excess
Eaten to excess causes accumulation of fat (and lowers freezing temperature of cellular structures) so that you can survive the winter
Fun fact: Types 2 Diabetes is a survival mechanism, but in a world where winter never comes it becomes a disease. The never-ending artificial light, coupled with chronic stress jacks up our hormonal cascade and registers as the long days of summer.
In the context of modernity, the effects of constant stress and artificial light adds up pretty quickly. We live in a fear-based 24-hour news cycle that creates an environment where we live under constant threat of war, rape, pandemic, getting fat, etc. This stress is heralded by cortisol which drives us to consume carbohydrates so we can attempt to reach homeostasis by balancing our cortisol with the insulin response. All the while, our circadian rhythmicity becomes disrupted because we’re staring at blue-lit screens all day, telling our brain that it’s daytime, signaling the long days of summer. And because summer comes before winter, our body’s “know” we need to eat so that we can have enough energy storage to survive the winter. BUT WINTER NEVER COMES because everything in our environment is signaling that it is summertime and we need to eat.
While living in endless summer may seem like a great thing in theory, it completely throws off our biology. There is no day without night, there is no ying without yang. Life is about balance, without it comes dis- ease.