One of the greatest theological virtues is that of Hope. The month of October was full of chaos in a way that almost caused people to be paralyzed in fear, further driving division and destruction into the world. However, I can find a small thread being woven through everyone right now and that is the desire of Hope. It has been said that Hope is the anticipation of that which is yet to happen. For most of us, we are Hoping for a time in our life where peace is realized on all fronts. Today's episode takes a different direction helping direct our spirit in the direction of focusing on Hope as it relates to our soul.

In 1934, BJ Palmer stated: "the only thing permanent is change...progress is evolution....growth is a flight of stairs." When I think about the pursuit of health, the immediate image that comes to mind is bland food pyramids from the FDA, cheesy commercials on TV, and the latest drug to help us curb our gluttony as westerners. Quick fixes and lies is the best description I can give. However, since 1934, and probably even earlier, the observation by Palmer is the most accurate reflection of what it takes to achieve health. Today, I unfold what it means to fight to climb the stairs to health.

When you pursue anything worthwhile, especially regarding health, there are two statements that can almost be considered a principle of the task. First: it is going to take a long time. Second: expect setbacks to happen. However, there are a vast majority of people who have been conditioned to believe otherwise by mainstream media. The people who we are "supposed to trust because they are an expert" preach that health is achievable with little to no effort: just take this pill, this shot, or get this minimally invasive procedure and everything will be fine. However, if you truly look at the data, we are more unhealthy now than we have ever been in the history of recorded civilization. I believe this is a result of these simple lies wrapped up in a majority of truth. So, in order to break this down, it is better to be honest from the get go and not create a false sense of hope. Anything worthwhile is going to take a ton of time. It takes time to get fat sick and nearly dead just. It will take just as long, if not longer to get in shape, healthy and thriving in live. And guess what...along that journey, set backs are going to happen more often than not. It isn't a cake walk. In fact it will be the most challenging thing you ever do. However - if you prepare yourself now, knowing that setbacks will happen, you won't be shocked when they do and you will be more like to commit to the actual process of creating the level of health you desire to create.

Over the last few weeks, I have developed a slight curiosity with J.R.R. Tolkien - the author. Many of you will recognize the name from his writing of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings." A podcast I listen to on a rather frequent basis featured a professor who spoke for 3 hours about his character as a man and how that provided for him the opportunity to craft the world of The Lord of The Rings. You see, Tolkien was a man of virtue, and one virtue shone through specifically in his life: that of Fortitude.

Now, if you have never heard of fortitude or a virtue that is okay. I have found that when working with words and definitions, it is best to go directly to the source of their origination.

According to the Cambridge dictionary: virtue is a good moral quality in a person

According to the Catechism: Fortitude is the moral virtue that ensures firmness in difficulties and constancy in the pursuit of the good. It strengthens the resolve to resist temptations and to overcome obstacles in the moral life. The virtue of fortitude enables one to conquer fear, even fear of death, and to face trials and persecutions. It disposes one even to renounce and sacrifice his life in defense of a just cause. “The Lord is my strength and my song.” “In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

In short, fortitude is the ability to choose what is right even when everything inside of us and outside of us is telling us to run away in fear. It is the ability to stand firm in pursuing good in the face of danger and potential suffering. In our pursuit of personal self excellences, fortitude is a non-negotiable.

While western society seemingly collapses in the moral and social pursuit of what is good, it is up to us to be the change.

Over time, the idea of personal self excellence has cultivated in me the understanding of what it means to pursue the basics. The basics are the virtues of life. Fortitude, Prudence, Justice and Temperance. These are the basics that have been eradicated from our modern pursuit of cultural relativism and agnosticism.

Instead, I have learned that when we choose to continually develop these virtues in our everyday life, we begin to see people who are of good cheer who have overcome the world. We see people of Hope who are committed to the process of developing self excellence in every area of their life.

Or as brave Samwise Gamgee states:

For the majority of history, humanity has communicated using stories. Stories that have been passed down between generations. Stories of our own lives and personal history. Stories of challenges we faced and stories of challenges we lost. What is most important about the story format, in my opinion, is a two fold answer. First, they give us the opportunity to imagine ourselves (something we rarely do today because the dumb phone does it all for us) in the position of the character and how we would respond to the given circumstances. Second, they allow us for introspection about our own journey and where we have been and more importantly where we are going. What is most interesting to me, in the year 2023, is the story we are told regarding health. I believe that this story is convoluted mostly because truth is suppressed or avoided, theory is idolized, fear is capitalized upon, and the victim is you. Health care companies are making record profits off prescription drugs and state of emergency therapeutics that are all tied to political agendas. Health has become: a diagnosis, a symptom, a label, an identity, a political tool...the list goes on and on. However, if you really look at health, health is actually an expression of an interior state manifested in an external body. It is a complete state of well being in mind, body and spirit. It cannot be reduced down to the story of a symptom that we are presented with by mainstream media and legacy medicine. Hence, the story of farming...you cannot gather a harvest if you refuse to do all the work before hand. Unfortunately we have put the cart before the horse in western medicine causing a majority of people to surrender their trust for a solution that rarely works. Instead, I propose to you the allegory of farming as a great way to plant the seed you seek to harvest - especially as it relates to the level of health you desire.

Last week a poll was dropped by an MD that I follow that asked the following question: When will America pass the 50% obesity rate? Excuse me? You mean to tell me that approximately almost 150 million people, yes...million, are obese in America. I was blown away - I had to go "fact check" this and sure enough, we are approaching the 50% obesity rate rather quickly. Why? In my opinion, an all out war on indoctrination and social conditioning has taken place over the last 40 years to create an environment in which we are all fat sick and nearly dead and reliant upon the medical industrial complex to solve all of our issues. If you have a disease or a diagnosis we have a pill, potion or a surgery to solve all the problems! Remember ozempec? The miracle obesity drug? That suddenly is pulled from the market from the remarkable amount of people getting paralyzed stomachs from it...yeah. The truth is, as a people we have become too comfortable, almost to the point of being a zombie. In today's episode I break down the basics of how we win back our health with the cold hard truth about what it takes to win the war against the conditioning of the medical industrial complex.

Humanity is a story of suffering compounded with a story of courage. The first story is the massive odds we have faced and suffered throughout the centuries of our existence. The second is how courageous we were to embrace the suffering and plow forward regardless of the odds against us. However, I have recently become shocked by the narrative that is conditioning and indoctrinating the greater percentage of westerners to believe that we are not meant to suffer or face any challenges, especially with our health. I don’t know if it is the Hollywood dramatization or the effective social engineering campaign by the pharmaceutical companies and big medicine but over the course of my time in health care, I have encountered more people with a false sense of hope that a cure still exists that will eliminate suffering in the form of a pill or a surgery or an injection. Nothing could be further from the truth. In order to heal and to break free from the social indoctrination that we have gone through, it takes courage and suffering. It will require both of these to pursue the level of health you desire. In order to suffer for a cause, you must have courage. In my world, suffering = growth. Growth in physical performance. Growth in mental capacity. Growth in patience and commitment. Growth in honest feedback. Growth in the areas we had exploring because they cause us to feel exposed. IN fact, if you are not feeling the suffering in these areas, are you really pursuing anything worthwhile? My challenge to you today is to embrace the suffering and the courage required to pursue self excellence. Suffering is the default. Courage is the standard operating mindset. And most importantly, hope is not lost because you know that to achieve your dreams, you have to embrace these two principles. Embrace suffering. Have Courage. Pursue self excellence and win the life you desire.

It is quite natural for the human experience to be filled with doubt. From the moment we are born, we are continually exploring our environment and learning from it. This experience is a testing of boundaries that can be filled with multiple opportunities to encounter doubt. As we grow and become adults, we seem to believe that all of a sudden everyone has our best interest in mind, they are truthful, and boundaries are no longer tested because they are professionals. Nothing can be further from the truth. It is said two of the most anxiety driven professions surround health and money. For those of you who have been sold (conditioned) to the dream of western medicine, I guarantee that you have had plenty of opportunities for doubt to be instilled in your journey. Since the machine of business surrounding the health field in western medicine has been invented, we have been conditioned to believe that health is simply the absence of disease are infirmaries. If this is your definition of health you might as well build your house on sand in a flood zone and pray for rain. As you know, health is a complete state of well being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmaries. And when we are conditioned to believe the latter, doubt begins to be planted into our lives and leads us down one of two paths. Tune in today to figure out why I believe to doubt is probably the greatest experience ever, especially when it comes to your health.

In the late 1990's a self help book called "Don't sweat the small stuff" was all the rage. In 2023, my challenge to you is to actually sweat the small stuff. Last week in my private practice I had multiple conversations with patients surrounding the concepts of health and how to achieve it. For many of them, they have been indoctrinated into the health and fitness concept that sustained long term high heart rate activity is the only way to effectively burn calories. However, if you were to survey the current health and fitness industry surrounding this, nothing could be further from the truth. A group consensus will actually agree that sustained small habits over time will actually be more beneficial than the sudden introduction of "cardio" for your health. Today, I challenge you to actually sweat the small stuff, invest in the daily habits and execute on them consistently. You will find that over time, this concept is sustainable for the long term as opposed to the next trendy yo-yo choice that leaves you exactly back where you started. Sweat the small stuff.