Research – VedaMinn

It’s happened. Suddenly we’re thrust into a world where reality will prevail. A world where our human arrogance doesn’t just “not help” but actually makes things more challenging. The pandemic predicted for a long time by smart and thoughtful epidemiologists is upon us.

Yesterday my writings on this amounted an epic rant —proof that despite all my efforts at mindfulness, living in the present, finding grace, and generally trying to be a good person, I still get angry—or in some situations–really pissed-off. You can read it (or not) for a laugh or for reassurance that, yes, nothing about this situation is easy and the anger you’re feeling right now is felt by many, many people, and we all just get pissed-off sometimes.

After said epic rant, while walking at the gym, one of my favorite songs ran on my play list—it described my state well. I had to just laugh: “Make Me Wanna Holler—throw up both my hands” (Inner City Blues). [https://youtu.be/p_PxgSQ9Vf4]

What more can we say?

Then I read an excellent analysis of the pandemic and found all my opinions validated but handled in a much more rational and comprehensive manner. I slowly I started to feel less angry. Maybe my desire to be “right” trumped (I mean this as a verb, not the person!!) my need to be angry. Or maybe getting real, truthful information, delivered without a political agenda soothed my soul. Whatever the case, I have gratitude for my change of temperament. I awoke this morning not feeling angry.

If the pandemic interests you I strongly suggest you read the article that contributed to my change in attitude.

Then again, maybe my work with Vedic and Buddhist principles of well-being helped me calm down. These principles tell me that anger is a totally natural reaction to situations of the human condition. We’re human, after all, and anger is real. However, these teachings also encourage me to not get attached to my anger. By attaching to my anger, I get paralyzed and sink deeper and deeper into despair and fear.

Opposites don’t attract (in this case)

The tough question is: How do I manage to break my attachment to anger? The Vedic/Buddhist principles tell me that applying the opposite force reduces the affects of that force. This explains how reading thoughtful and informed views of our situation calmed me down. Woa! The circle is complete (and a little profound)! “Stupid” and “unformed” makes me angry (always has) so maybe applying “smart” and “informed” opposed the anger and I started to feel better.

This makes me think I generally need to dig deeper to figure out what forces are really making me angry. I think that if I catch the these forces before the anger becomes manifest and is running wild in my system, I’ll prevent myself from spreading toxic energy to others, not unlike the behavior of Covid 19. And that is one way I can serve the universal body and promote well-being. Whew! What a difference a little focus, attention, and awareness makes.

So, what now?

My suggestion is for all of us is to stay informed about the spread of the virus and follow the recommendations from the experts. I know the truth is often difficult to hear but it is the only antidote for lies. This set of videos from (of all people) Joe Rogan, featuring Mike Osterholm, a world renowned expert on infectious diseases from the University of Minnesota, is a great place to start becoming informed. (Go to the link and youtube will show you the other portions of the interview to watch). Let’s try to stay away from uninformed, stupid, nasty, xenophobic, and hateful energy around this virus. It only feeds hate and hate feeds anger and anger feeds fear and fear feeds pandemics like nobody’s business.

These interviews with Mike Osterholm are very informative, honest, smart, and even a little funny. In his thoughtful infectious way, Osterholm is pretty witty and very thorough and knowledgeable about his subject. There are more sections of the interview available on YouTube.

Shift in perspective

As I wrestled with my own “next steps” in the current climate, I have decided to shift my health coaching delivery from an emphasis on “in person” to an emphasis on “online” sessions. This runs counter to many of my fundamental beliefs about health coaching. I think there is no substitute for in-person interactions. However, I need to keep the HEALTH in health coaching. I, as do we all, have a fundamental responsibility to encourage our population to “socially isolate.” I wish we had a better term for this—it sounds so horrible. Any suggestions? I’m serious…if you have suggestions for a better term please comment below!

I believe, we can turn this concept of social isolation into something good and positive in our lives. We can commit to having meaningful interaction via electronic options, send positive energy into the world, and use the time to delve deeper into our real “selves” and explore areas in our lives we have been ignoring. And, on a personal note, now I will be forced to become more comfortable with online coaching delivery. I’m mortified to think it took a pandemic to move me in this direction, but I’m just doing my best.

An experiment

To that end, I’m moving our next Kindred Spirits gathering from in-person to online. The gathering is scheduled for March 26, just as this virus will spreading exponentially in the Midwest. It would be silly (and irresponsible) to hold an in-person gathering at that time. Hosting an online event will be a new experience for me and I feel a little bit of excitement around this experiment. (I’ve produced a lot of webcasts for others but have never actually been in front of the mic. I guess it’s time—yikes!).

And, as an added bonus, this experiment will allow people from outside the immediate area and those who aren’t prepared to drive to participate. Who knows what may come about? Ultimately I hope we will be contributing to building a healthier world. Please consider attending.

In keeping with the times, the topic will be Living with Uncertainty. As I move forward with this I’ll post details. If you receive emails from me, then you are on my email list and I’ll use this to keep you informed. If you don’t receive my emails, please sign onto my mailing list (below at the very bottom of the screen) or email me at info@healing-ground.com to receive updates.

I look forward to facing these new challenges together. I have no idea what to expect—some things are just outside of my control and Covid19 is one of those things. I encourage all of us to stay connected, informed, aware, and most importantly to resist the forces of hate. Let’s do this together as the universal body that we are!

“You may ask yourself…” Feels appropriate for the times and forces me to get up and dance.

Here we go again: No quick fixes

Sowing distrust of health care

I find the cavalier attitude towards pharmaceutical research and public pronouncements to be maddening. Time and time again, from Thalidomide in the 1950s and 60s to Oxycodone in the 2010s, public health is compromised to the short-term interests of an establishment that has little interest in the actual health and well-being of the public. This attitude sows distrust of all health and well-being modalities, including conventional medicine, and feeds the cynical “oh well, we’re all going to die so who cares” attitude so prevalent today. It also casts dangerous shadows of doubt on the safety of well-proven and tested, public health initiatives.

And it affects people’s lives

My first experience with this phenomenon began in the early 1990s and concluded in the early 2000s. I was told I absolutely needed to take estrogen to counteract my risk for heart disease (after the debacle I described last week). I didn’t think I had a choice so I took it faithfully for about ten years, despite the miserable and debilitating side effects I experienced. One day, on the car radio, I heard a news report that said new studies showed estrogen replacement therapy not only didn’t improve a woman’s risk for heart disease, but it INCREASED her risk. I remember saying out loud: “Oh #$%^!” I went home and disposed of the hormones and, surprise, over a short period, after ten years, I started feeling happy and healthy again.

This happens how?

This cycle has deep roots and can be traced to our economic system, which dictates the parameters of our health care and pharmaceutical systems, which directs the behavior of individual practitioners, which influences the behavior of individual patients and clients, which then effects the broader public. The system under which we live is optimized for short-term results and short-term gain. Unfortunately, well-being, healing, and public health don’t work that way. Healing takes time and health and well-being develop over a lifetime. The problem also lies in the research establishment. The same economic system incentivizes publication of research that shows narrow short-term results but ignores the bigger picture.

Since changing the economic system that underlies the problem is difficult for any one individual, I suggest we each wage a guerrilla war against the narrow perspective that enables these practices.

Educate

Second, we can educate ourselves, be more thoughtful, and stop worshiping the holy grail of clinical research: the randomized control trial. Randomized control trials, while sometimes helpful, are not the only approach to research. They are especially touted by, and are useful for, the pharmaceutical companies and large research institutions that have the financial resources to perform this style of research. And, often these trials are a snapshot of a very short period of time of a very small sample of participants. They become expensive and cumbersome when carried out over a significant length of time. And, today, we are beginning to understand that information that doesn’t conform to the research funder’s required results is often suppressed.

To this end, I suggest we start paying more attention to case reports. This approach has a long, insightful, history in the annals of medicine. No single case report explains everything or even anything. But collections of well indexed case reports can illuminate patterns and trends over time and enlighten our research.

Pay attention

And, of course, it’s essential to pay attention to our own experience and learn to trust our insights and when necessary to speak them out loud. This knowledge can be invaluable when communicating with our selves and our practitioners, providing information that will never be reveled in clinical control studies.

Trust your experience and share it with your well-being practitioners.

Finally, we can remember that research reports are human constructs, created and written by human beings, and subject to human error. No one study is last word on anything. It is simply a tiny piece of a giant puzzle–not unlike life. It is the collection of all sorts of investigations and experiences that best forms the basis of our well-being choices.

Any given research study is simply a piece of a very large puzzle.

Epilogue

As I was working on this post, I saw a NEW STUDY!!!! announcement on Facebook. It indicated that supplementation of several vitamins/minerals are helpful in the management of anxiety. They very well be helpful in the management of anxiety, I don’t know. But I’m not running out to purchase them any time soon.