A Life of Purpose

[Michael569]

Designing my own website is a lot of pain in the bum. I feel like it was the only thing I was doing for the past week. Finally done and I can move on with my life. So many people have given me feedback on the old one (if any of you are reading this, thank you!!). There was too much that I didn't like on the old one, so happy to get a new facelift with more clarity and less noise. 

My blogging has also been put on hold due to this, so will plan to put some more effort into it. Time to put more effort into social media and regular posting, I still struggle with authenticity when I post at places like Instagram but it seems to be working for other people in my industry so I may as well bite that bullet and do 2-3 posts per week. 

Work has been mounting at my wage-slave job. Just more reinforcement to work harder to leave that place for good. 

[Michael569]

Researching on BDNF is nearly done, extracted a lot of super useful stuff although it is often a struggle to translate it into a human language, few people had told me that the last blog post was just too complex, need to put more work into making geeky stuff simple without adding a lot of ego in there. I see this a common pitfall in my life and many of my peers, we feel like we have to validate ourselves for our audience so we end up creating stuff nobody bothers to read because it is not relatable and not practical. Testosterone might be the next area I'll dig in after I'm done with bdnf. 

I would love to take a deep-dive into saturated fats and cholesterol but this topic scares me like hell.This is like climbing the Everest of nutritional sciences There si much cherry-picked dangerous stuff out there, advice that can literally kill people but without having done the dig myself, I can't really be sure, where the truth lies.  . 50% of all arguments are on this topic and I've been challenged on it even from some of my clients. My conscience is telling me that the plant-based side is right over the grass-fed beef side but can't be 100 % sure unless I review the data myself. Maybe this year is the year I'll finally get into it. 

[Michael569]

Nearly finished reading Seth Godin's - The Practice. As always, Seth has a way to put things straight, right in your face. The Practice is the only thing that is, the only thing under my control. I have learned from my current corporate career to get extremely attached to the outcome and then navigate what I do accordingly but I feel in this new things I am slowly transitioning into, that does not apply anymore. I often feel like exploring uncharted territory, there is no blueprint here and there are no rights or wrongs. People can give you tips here and there but nobody can tell you that "do this, this will work". There is no success formula. Which makes it exciting in a way because it feels like macheting through a jungle but at the same time scary as fuck because it may not work. Seth says that we just have to follow our passion and intuition, do the Practice and it will either work or it won't..either way, it is fine. 

Was surprised how many ppl downloaded the last e-book, I wasn't expecting much interest but actually go quite a few positive reinforcements. In a way that's all that matters and knowing that I've produced someone that people found helpful. Planning to start making a new one soon, just considering a few topics and what would be the most interesting. I always have a conflict between what I consider useful and what is actually useful for the guys reading it. As Seth says "It's not about you" , I have to keep reminding that to myself. Doing these forces me to go out there and research many things which is awesome as I often struggle with forcing myself to read the latest evidence since there is so much freaking stuff out there even in the area I'm interested in. 

Oh and I allowed myself to geek out on Shadow of War. After re-watching the Hobbit trilogy recently, I felt like getting back to the Middle Earth fantasy world so I bought the Shadow of War and got 12 hours on it so far. I feel like sometimes I have to go through these transitions of working really hard on something and then letting go and binging for a week on a video game. I feel it sorta recharges my creative juice, but maybe I am kidding myself with my uncured addiction to video games  who knows...

 

 

[Michael569]

Medicinal mushrooms have always been a peculiar topic to me. It is a really fascinating topic and having seen their therapeutic effect on myself, I'm gonna explore what else is out there. Within lies a powerful therapeutic potential for many of my guys so decided that this will be my next area of research. Started with Lion's Mane and although what I'm seeing are mostly petri dish papers, the results are quite fascinating especially the neuro-regenerative side of it. Can't wait to get into cordyceps although there is so much stuff there that I'll unlikely be able to review all of it having a regular job. 

Decided to launch my first challenge, a cold-shower challenge on Facebook so far with only 8 people. I think most people got quite discouraged by the idea of taking a cold shower in winter. (Anyone reading this is more than welcome to participate). It was hilarious that most of the responses I got from my friends and people in the group were in the line of as if asked "would you like to climb Mt Everest in your shorts with me?" The rejection was very fierce which made it a bit hilarious  us humans are very comfort-loving creatures. 

[Loving Radiance]

11 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

cold shower in winter

Lol, since beginning of December some friends and I went to the lake on a daily basis. People think we are insane. Which we are, thank goodness. Feel good to be alive.

Can you hit me up for the challenge? I would like to join.

[Michael569]

19 minutes ago, Loving Radiance said:

eople think we are insane. Which we are, thank goodness

Indeed, my friend indeed  We are a group of freaks on this forum with a lot of unusual tastes for unusual things which is what makes being part of this online experience, unlike any other forum. 

[fridjonk]

48 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

I think most people got quite discouraged by the idea of taking a cold shower in winter.

To me, cold showers feel as if I'd been stuck in a desert for many days without water, then coming across the cleanest cold water ever. The shock of the cold water feels so euphoric and almost mini orgasmic. I've noticed how it also loosens up your mind from being too "structural", thinking becomes more fluid and present. 

[Michael569]

Finished an awesome 52km bike ride today. Felt good to get out there, after a week of shitty weather, I felt truly alive and free. I can't believe I haven't owned a bike for 29 years. I have missed so much fun and adventure, this was literally the most exciting day this year. 

Living in Wales is now closer than ever. Found a wonderful accommodation which is now 80% secured. The next step is to buy a used car. I was very much against this but seems with everything else going on, it is the most economic solution. I've never owned my own car, so this should be a fun experience. I was surprised that decent quality used cars can be found for 3000 pounds. With luck we'll sell it for a similar price in 12 months. 

 We've decided to leave most of our stuff in a storage unit back in London and will only be taking essentials that can fit into a trunk. of a car. Saves us the hassle of using a moving company and moving all the furniture through half the country  A month from now, if everything goes well we should be spending our first week in Pembrokeshire, 5 minutes from the coast. Can't wait!! I've never lived near the coast but always wanted to. We are so blessed to have jobs that allow us to relocate and work from elsewhere. 

Perhaps this ew chapter of life will also inspire me to start my youtube channel, been postponing that for a year now, appearing on a camera is still a pain but seems this is the way to go to get a little bit more exposure to the people I am trying to talk to. 

1 week till ice-cold challenge, super excited for this! Not many of us but more than I originally expected so all good!

[fridjonk]

You're one step away from becoming a shepherd now! Join the club  

I've been meaning to get a bike for the longest time as well. Really want to get into mountain biking or downhilling, seems so exhilarating. 

[Michael569]

3 hours ago, fridjonk said:

You're one step away from becoming a shepherd now! Join the club  

time to start practising 

 

 

[Michael569]

• Find & secure new flat in Wales
• Buy a used car -
• Find a storage unit or whatever stays in London - failed (25£ a week are you fckn kidding me) we keep on looking 
• Figure out how to move everything else (including a bike) in a trunk of a Golf  - 

Put my research into medicinal mushrooms on hold, too much going on and finding it hard to stay focused these days. Guess it is the approaching anxiety of having to move again. Every cell in my body hates moving and everything associated with it but it will be worthy.....well it better be but considering we have only seen the flat through video lot can go wrong. But hey where would the fun be if everything went smoothly all the time. 

Can't wait to start exploring the ancient Welsch landscape. So much ancient history in that place, medieval forts & castles, old roman roads and forts. I think if I didn't go into health I would have gone into history, perhaps archaeology. That or astronomy. Both have always fascinated me. When exploring ancient landscapes all over UK I get shivers up my spine. I recall when we visited this in Cornwall. Evidently, it is over 5000 years old burial mound. My girlfriend's always like: "yeah a cool stone", in my mind I'm like "are you kidding me someone put it here 5000 years ago, possibly a roman soldier pissed on it at some point after having drunk too much mead and I have the pleasure of admiring it now.  Maybe I made it up but I could feel a sort of connection at that place. Like a higher power or some sort of mysterious energy. I always feel this when visiting ancient sites. As if the power and the radiance of that once-a -holy place was still there. But maybe I was just being an overly excited kid again looking forward to finding that mysterious connection to these ancient sites again 

epic playlist 

 

[Michael569]

Final week in London and now counting down the last few days till the movement. The flat once again looks like a disorderly warehouse with boxes and semi-packed stuff everywhere. But for some reason, my initial anxiety about moving again has gone. I literally feel no stress at all. Maybe because of the excitement of this new chapter of our lives in Wales or maybe my letting go meditations have finally started to pay off. 

The Golf actually has a shit load of trunk space so I'm confident the moving won't really be an issue as I initially thought and the 5-hour ride should be a good test run for the car. London is awesome but I feel like I've oversaturated myself with the big city and as an introvert appreciative of nature and some peace, I crave more solitude and just going away from all that for some time. In many ways, much won't still change. Still need to keep my 9-5 job and put time in that but just having the possibility to take a bike afterwards and not having first to go 20 km through polluted streets avoiding buses and taxis makes me very excited. 

The clinic has started to pick up a little bit, I'm very excited about that. Working with clients make me feel truly alive and passionate like there is a meaning to what I do where every hour spent working on corporate jobs feels like a chunk of my soul has been drained. Been finally having more time for proper research and digging deep into a variety of topics I've always wanted to look into. 

[Pistachio2]

Hey, op I hope you see this but I was wondering if you could lead me in a direction in order to create my own website. 

 

[Michael569]

@Pistachio2 I use Wix. There is no science to it really you're just moving texts and boxes until you get something you like. My first website was absolutely hideous, this one, I'm quite happy with although it still needs work. Other options are square space, kajabi or Wordpress but for me personally Wix was the easiest although it wasn't the cheapest 

[Michael569]

So far so good, day 6 in Wales. 

The journey was fun. Surprisingly our car had more space than we assumed. Loaded all the way to the top, if I had to break rapidly in the motorway, I would probably catapult 10 boxes through my windshield. I was happy to see the car hold up and is stable. Only had to replace the front bulb light for now otherwise despite having 76,000 miles it is in great condition and a real bargain for 2.5K. 

The Welsh coast is absolutely astonishing, it goes on and on for 200 miles. Sunsets are magical and there is always that salty smell in the air. The cry of seagulls reminds us that this has indeed become a real thing. An idea has become a reality half a year later. I'm testing my endurance in hill runs every day and realising I'm maybe not as fit as I thought but jogging here is 1000 times more enjoyable than in London despite being incredibly challenging. Haven't had the opportunity to wimhoff in the ice-cold sea but it is just a matter of time. 

BUT...... fuck, owning a car in this place is hard. I've never really been that good in parking but now I'm finding it impossible to do uphill row parking on tiny streets with literally 30 cm in front of and behind the car every day (first world problems...). Streets are so narrow, reminds me of the tiny Italian coastal towns where one literally gets stuck on the L curve if unexperienced. Internet will be an issue, our broadband is not too good but hopefully, this will be fixed soon. And it gets cold as hell in the evenings. 

In London I've never been able to just wake up with the light and go back to sleep with darkness, here it is changing. We spend our evenings reading and walking rather than being on computers all the time. 9-6 day to day work is still a thing but it is becoming more tolerable. The Indian screaming baby from the neighbour flat in London has been replaced for complete silence in the evening. 

[Michael569]

The final ride to London and back is done and I can finally close that chapter of my life. Endless moving, packing unpacking, repainting is finally over. This is what the last 3 months lead down to, we had to jump through a lot of shitstorms to move countries and change home but so far it seems it was worth it. 

The area is breathtaking, the Welsh coast is unlike anything I've seen before. The cliffs are towering over 100 meters above the sea level and the waves crashing at them peak up to the size of a small apartment building, the endless brute force that has been shaping this landscape for hundreds of thousands of years endlessly. There are beaches, unlike anything I've ever seen. Not the usual shitty beaches full of hotels and tourist attractions but pure, pristine beaches with forests behind them and massive cliffs surrounding them. Some of them are the size of Heathrow airport. Many of them only appear during low-tide and couple of hours later they are gone, this is pretty fascinating I've never seen such a dynamic landscape, the country we cross at 10 am is completely different to the country at 6 pm when the water level has changed. There are hundreds of caves and thousands of kilometers of yet undiscovered cave systems hidden deep inside the landscape, from what I've been told those are the oldest parts of this country and some great archaeological discoveries have been made there of human remains dating back to paleolithic era. As with everything else, those caves disappear during high tide but I'm hoping we'll be lucky enough to see some of them up close.

We explored an ancient tomb evidently dating back to around 2000 BC, it was a fascinating place surrounded by an old forest and once can imagine what this area looked like when this thing was still in use. (photo attached) 

 

 

 

 

 

[flume]

Wowww! So happy for you guys  You bet I'm coming over to pet these sheep! They look fluffy af. Much love!

[Michael569]

3 hours ago, flume said:

They look fluffy af

One day when you hit 1000000 subs and go around the world doing talks like Matt Kahn, I'll add this to my favourite quotes journal by the most influential spiritual gurus

 

[Michael569]

Had friends from London visiting, we hiked over 50 km in 3 days, so much to explore, it never ceases to amaze me how beautiful the Welsh countryside is. I've discovered a rock with hundreds of tiny fossils, evidently, these things can be up to 400 million years old, that's insane. They say this country was once all covered by the ancient ocean, sometimes makes me wonder what it all looked like back then. Looking at these tiny spiral shapes in the 400mil year old rock made me realise how insignificant we are and just how it all comes to a nice spiral in the end....a strange loop perhaps is a nice way to say it. 

I have way more time to read and research than I had back in London, the life in that city, it seems, isn't just attuned to having a peace of mind. Me and my girlfriend did a bit of beach cleaning and within 20 minutes we had a bag filled to burst with plastic shit. Felt good but made me realise how much we've screwed up our seas and oceans. Maybe this is one of the reasons why people are sicker and sicker each year, it is all coming back to us from our plastic-filled food. 

The clinic has been picking up nicely, I've been looking a lot into many new conditions and am discovering some insane connections especially with the latest research on gut-brain-microbiome connection. The stuff I'm discovering is unlike anything I knew even 2 months ago. The human body is such a miraculous wonder machine and it amazes how much everything is connected and how ignorant modern medicine has become. Perhaps that's why they are massively failing in treating chronic conditions. So much stuff is falling in place and a lot of gaps I had in more systemic understanding are filling up. But I feel even if I keep this pace for the next 30 years, I'll never really get to understand the whole thing. 

Toxicity has never been a thing when I studied, we did not have a single lecture on environmental toxins, heavy metals, pesticides , PCBs or any of that crap but now reading Pizzorno's 2018 book I'm realizing how incredibly deep this rabbit hole goes. I will need to educate myself much more on spotting the signs & symptoms of systemic toxicity and conducting powerful detoxification programmes with my clients the worst thing is that what we currently know is probably only a top of the iceberg and wich each month new stuff is coming out. 

 

 

[Michael569]

My research into gut-brain-microbiome has gone really deep now. This is such as mind-blowing and fascinating area of the body to research. Looking into connections between gut permeability, microbiome, blood-brain barrier, dysbiosis, mental health and low fibre diet. Wonder how many people walking around with mental health problems actually have gut problems in reality. Have seen the gut-mental health connection in my practice few times as well and it always fascinated me how much the two are connected and how much a brain fog can clear if digestion is fixed...although sometimes that is easier said than done and it doesn't always work. The human body is such a wonderful mystery and I get fascinated like a child given a candy with each new connection and each new puzzle of the whole jigsaw I discover. 

An old friend of mine reached out me with gestational diabetes while being in the final trimester. She was told she'd be put on metformin if her blood sugar control wouldn't improve. Lucky enough we got her back to green numbers and she started gaining weight again, in fact 2 kilos in week 1 so I'm happy with her progress, she's been an amazing person to work with. Interesting how sometimes so little can do so much in terms of support. Didn't think I'd ever be supporting a pregnancy or fertility client but here I am researching pregnancy diet. I'm really excited to be a part of this stage of her life, having a hand in helping to create the foundations of a new life is a wonderful experience. 

8 hour webinar yesterday at work. Key takeaways: "I need to get the hell out of that place already", been a while since I felt so out of place, so out of touch and so disinterested in what was shared. I am forever grateful to my company for the employment 6 years ago when I just finished my internship and had little experience but I'd like this to be the last corporate job ever. I can see this now becoming a reality in next 1-2 years but would be cool if I could do that this year. Maybe some things are not meant to be pushed and I need to practice more gratitude and appreciation, that's for sure