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Those of us who have survived difficult times - physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual - have a gift for the rest of society: the knowledge that we can handle what seems unmanageable, and grow from what seems diabolical.Let's share those gifts now, to counter all the fear and panic and despair out there.

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A special Covid-19 Lockdown Edition of the Plant Yourself Podcast. Halfway through I realized I was using the wrong mic. If that's the worst thing that happens today, cool!Now is not the time to indulge in crappy food choices, even though we may be stressed and cooped up and grieving.We have an army inside us - our immune system - that does its best to keep us safe. Now's the time to feed it well.We have an opportunity to find new sources of dopamine, of joy, of connection.What are you doing to get your daily dopamine fix?

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A special Covid-19 Lockdown Edition of the Plant Yourself Podcast. Halfway through I realized I was using the wrong mic. If that's the worst thing that happens today, cool!

Now is not the time to indulge in crappy food choices, even though we may be stressed and cooped up and grieving.

We have an army inside us – our immune system – that does its best to keep us safe. Now's the time to feed it well.

We have an opportunity to find new sources of dopamine, of joy, of connection.

What are you doing to get your daily dopamine fix? Let me know in comments, below.

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know.

Michael B. Rothberg, M.D., M.P.H. is the Vice Chair for Research in the Medicine Institute of the Cleveland Clinic and Director of the Center for Value-Based Care Research.He joined me on Skype to talk about the current state of knowledge about Covid-19, and what we can and should do as individuals and a society to save as many lives as possible.

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Shane Williams, MD, has been practicing plant-based (or as I would say, evidence-based) cardiology in Canada for nine years now.With hundreds of patients and lots of experience with what works and what doesn't in terms of advocacy, education, and support, Dr Williams is a valuable resource for plant-based physicians everywhere.

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Don Larsen died this month, at the age of 90.

He played baseball professionally from 1953 to 1967, and had a less than stellar career. As a pitcher, his lifetime record was 81 wins and 91 losses. He played five of those years with the powerhouse New York Yankees during their dynastic heyday in the 1950s; his record for lesser teams was a dismal 36 wins and 67 losses.

And yet he's one of my favorite players of all time.

Because on October 8, 1956, Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history.

Somehow, everything broke his way for 27 batters in a row. Jackie Robinson got a legitimate hit in the second inning, but the ball somehow caromed off the 3rd baseman's glove right into the hand of the shortstop, who threw Robinson out by a step. Billy Martin and Mickey Mantle also made astounding catches for outs.

And when the last pitch, a called strike 3, whiffed pinch hitter Dale Mitchell, catcher Yogi Berra ran to the mound and leaped into Larsen's arms in one of the most iconic photos in sports history.

But my affection for Larsen is based on a personal connection to that game: my father was there.

Since it's one of the most famous games in baseball history, lots of fans claimed to have seen it – certainly many more than Yankee Stadium could have held.

And although I knew that my dad would never have lied about it, it was still cool when he opened an old cigar box and bequeathed me one of his most prized possessions: the ticket stub for that 5th game of the Series.

Lessons from Larsen

I love the unlikeliness of it; how this frankly mediocre pitcher pulled off a feat that has only been matched 22 other times in all of Major League Baseball history, and never again in a World Series. I mean, Larsen wasn't even playing well at the time. He had totally tanked in Game 2 against the Dodgers, squandering a 6-run lead and getting chased off the mound in the second inning after giving up four walks.

And yet here he was, turning in one of the most virtuosic performances ever.

I keep that ticket stub in my office, to remind me that past failure doesn't have to predict future failure.

That no matter how much we may be struggling, there may be grace and redemption in this next moment.

And that this most perfect game of all time was not planned, premeditated, ordained, or sought after. No one could have predicted it and no one should have expected it, Larsen least of all. Reflecting back in 1998, he marveled at the control he displayed in that game; a control he said he never had in his life, before or after October 8, 1956.

He threw 97 pitches in that game, a remarkable low number. And I like to believe that he threw every one of those pitches, not in pursuit of a perfect game, but for their own sake. To pitch for the sake of throwing a ball that came in fast, accurate, and tricky.

Larsen had complete control over where and how he threw each pitch, and zero control over what the batter would do with it.

Control

Likewise, we have the possibility of complete control over our own actions and choices, and zero control over what the world throws at us.

Start a jogging habit, and all of a sudden the freeze of the century descends on your town and it's unsafe to go outside.

Decide to eat a plant-based diet and the next day there's a two-for-one sale at the delicious pizza joint across the street from your office.

Create a monthly budget to save for retirement, and your HVAC unit dies and puts you right back into credit card debt.

In other words, we can do everything right, and there are no guaranteed outcomes.

As long as we focus on the outcomes we want, we're kind of taking our eye off the ball of the present moment.

Doing For Its Own Sake

When we turn our goals into idols, we lose our connection to the present moment.

The future we want – physique,

Thoughts on the episode? Let us know.

Don Larsen died this month, at the age of 90.He played baseball professionally from 1953 to 1967, and had a less than stellar career. As a pitcher, his lifetime record was 81 wins and 91 losses. He played five of those years with the powerhouse New York Yankees during their dynastic heyday in the 1950s; his record for lesser teams was a dismal 36 wins and 67 losses.And yet he's one of my favorite players of all time.

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The Dangers of Toxic Spirituality with Justin Luria: PYP 376

Justin Luria now lives what he calls a “muggle” life, managing on online bookshop. Before that, he trained as an energy healing and shamanic practitioner, and immersed himself in many of the spiritual practices of the “New Age,” and learned from many contemporary spiritual teachers: Byron Katie, Eckhart Tolle, and others.

He also actively pursued the goals of the self-help movement as modeled and taught by folks like Tony Robbins and others.

And somewhere along the way, he realized that the bulk of self-help and spirituality was little more than our grasping consumer society wrapped in finer threads. Rather than being a cure or counterweight to modern life, mainstream spiritual and self-help culture intensifies our feelings of inadequacy and need, and often takes advantage of the vulnerable state in which that inadequacy leaves us.

And many popular spiritual traditions “bypass” the material world in ways that are profoundly dysfunctional.

Plus there are power dynamics at play when we submit to one of these modern gurus; dynamics that can lead to serious abuse, and can trigger past trauma.

Justin guides me through the minefield of contemporary spiritual and self-help culture, and he names names.

If you're a passionate follower of one of the “gurus” or teachers that he deconstructs, you might feel some alarm or even anger. There's no doubt that folks like Byron Katie and Eckhart Tolle and Tony Robbins teach things that “work” and may have been extremely helpful to you on your journey. Justin is simply pointing out the potential for harm in their work.

I found myself nodding at a lot of his interpretations and experiences. There have been things that just didn't “sit right” with me, but I felt ashamed of my own “lack of spiritual depth” and so never articulated them.

I can see now the ways I've been duped and taken advantage of, gaslit and made to doubt my own senses and experiences, and praised for unquestioning obedience disguised as steadfastness and loyalty.

I hope this conversation is useful to you as well.

Enjoy, add your voice to the conversation via the comment box below, and please share – that's how we spread our message and spread our roots.

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Thoughts on the episode? Let us know.

Justin Luria now lives what he calls a "muggle" life, managing on online bookshop. Before that, he trained as an energy healing and shamanic practitioner, and immersed himself in many of the spiritual practices of the "New Age," and learned from many contemporary spiritual teachers: Byron Katie, Eckhart Tolle, and others.He also actively pursued the goals of the self-help movement as modeled and taught by folks like Tony Robbins and others.And somewhere along the way, he realized that the bulk of self-help and spirituality was little more than our grasping consumer society wrapped in finer threads. Rather than being a cure or counterweight to modern life, mainstream spiritual and self-help culture intensifies our feelings of inadequacy and need, and often takes advantage of the vulnerable state in which that inadequacy leaves us.

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If you've adopted a new good habit today, you're probably very excited and motivated.

What about tomorrow? Will you be motivated then as well? Fingers crossed…

And the day after tomorrow?

And the day after that?

With any luck, you'll be motivated to eat salad / walk around the block / avoid potato chips / sit and meditate for 10 minutes / do 5 pushups after you brush your teeth / [insert your resolution here] from now until the end of time.

But what if – and I hesitate to even raise the possibility – you wake up one morning with a bad case of DGAS?

You know, DGAS, as in, “Don't Give A Shit.”

If you've ever experienced DGAS, you'll recognize the symptoms:

* the goal that was so exciting now seems either lackluster or unattainable

* you resent the imposition on your life that doing the habit will bring

* you know that this is the end of your dream to change

* you hear the voice of your inner bully, taunting you: “I guess this is gonna end like all the other times, with you giving up, you loser.”

* curiously, you're not even upset that you don't care anymore: “Whatever.”

DGAS Kicked My Ass

I used to get defeated by DGAS days a lot. Here's a short list of the habits I bailed on once I hit a DGAS speed bump:

* journaling

* meditating

* running

* conscious breathing

* pushups

* situps

* squats

* bear crawls

* avoiding sugar

* Wim Hof breathing exercises

* downward dog

* downward dog against the wall

* visualizing

* writing a thank you letter each day

* spending 5 minutes planning my day

* starting each day with 10 minutes of Getting Things Done

* blogging daily

* thinking of three things to be grateful for

* posting a daily video

Please excuse me while I pause here for a moment, to allow the waves of shame and regret to wash over my soul and casually kick me in the solar plexus on their way out.

Sometimes DGAS snuck in under the radar. Like, I'd wake up one morning and suddenly realize that I hadn't taken a conscious breath in two years. Or that once upon a time I'd given up sugar, but somewhere along the line it had found its way into my diet on a far-too-regular basis.

Whether I noticed in the moment or not, DGAS always seemed like the final word. Like, “Checkmate, Bitch. Tuck your tail and go back to your mediocre life.”

How to Bounce Back from DGAS

What I didn't realize when I abandoned all those good habits due to a DGAS day was that I could have gotten right back on track the following day.

As Billy Joel sang, “Everyone goes south, every now and then.” (That seemed so damn profound to my 12-year-old mind when I first heard The Stranger in 1977.)

It's the whole “falling off the wagon” fallacy:

Once I missed a single day, a single workout, a single opportunity, then the “wagon” was trundling off over the hill and below the horizon, and I was sitting on my ass in the dust, nursing a bloody knee, totally unable to catch up.

The most profound realization that helped me sustain new habits was that THERE'S NO EFFING WAGON.

Nothing has gone anywhere.

I may be sitting on my ass, dirty and bruised (at least in my egoic mind), but there's absolutely no reason I can't dust myself off, get up, and continue on the path.

As Josh LaJaunie explained to me, “YOU are the wagon.”

Once I understood that a single loss did not constitute a losing season, I became far more resilient.

I stopped interpreting glitches – breaks in the chain – as showstoppers.

To be sure, there was a loud and excited voice inside me that was eager to interpret individual mess-ups as global and permanent failure.