Jocelyn and I have some great talks on our morning walk. There are some insights that come up that might not otherwise. We were discussing the work I’m doing around the house and property and she mentioned her parents would’ve loved it if I was doing this while they were still around. My immediate response to her was, “Yeah, I’ve had my head up my ass for a long time.”
It was moment that passed and just now came back to me. While my level of cranial-rectal inversion may have ebbed and flowed over the years, one thing remained constant. I was in a hypnotic trap of sorts for a long time. Probably since college. Much of my adult life up until 2020 had been focused on climbing the corporate ladder, dieting to get skinny (purely by counting calories), keeping up with the latest entertainment trends so I could discuss them with clients and prospects, etc. I was a slicked hair, suit wearing, “hustling” wannabe executive. Why? I guess because they make lots of money and typically have nice cars and go on extravagant vacations.
None of that was me. It was me chasing a dream that didn’t match with what I really wanted or needed. It seemed like the right thing to do to provide for my family and show some achievement in my life. All the while, I was denying who I really wanted to be and also missing out on family experiences that would’ve been more possible had I just listened to myself. That’s the main reason I’m doing this 30 Day Whole Life Cleanse. To quiet everything outside and allow me to hear myself better. I need to reconnect with who I am, love and accept that person, and blaze a path that is solely mine.
The zombie state isn’t a rare occurrence. Regularly I hear about folks that ‘woke up’ and started a new journey in their life. They broke free from the life they were programmed to pursue. Often that programming is innocent but almost as frequently it is intentionally designed to control and manipulate our behavior and trajectory. The common threads are assumptions and expectations that don’t align with a person’s individual needs. Those things are adopted or even thrust upon them at a young age. And that makes it very difficult to break free because they are ingrained in us during our most formative years.
Wim Hof has a story of loss and heartache that led him to cold plunges that eventually won him the title ‘Ice Man’. He lost his wife tragically and went into a deep depression. He adopted very unhealthy habits that would most likely kill him eventually. His answer was to do something radical but also beneficial. Thus he began cold plunging every day. The new path it set him on has been transformative in a way that no self help book or Tony Robbins course could have achieved.
Jocelyn and I already adopted cold plunges as part of our morning routine a while back. But metaphorically, this is my cold plunge. This is my radical and yet healthy change to help me reset and ‘wake up’ from the zombified state I have been living in for most of my life. And I can safely say that it is helping me beyond anything I can put into words. The world literally looks different to me now. And I trust I will be forever positively changed for it.
Day 18 down. Day 19 is on the horizon (and I get a massage tomorrow)!
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