Blog: The Mystical, The Magical, The Mundane

Early this week I stumbled upon a post on the internet that sparked the inspiration for this here blog. I wish I could recall the creator’s name, or find his original post because I would link it here for you all to see. Basically the premise of the video was a shot of a river where the water slowly rippled & was catching the sunlight under a low hanging branch. The creator then came in with a voice over & asked the observer what they would do if they were asked to describe water to someone who had never seen it before. He then asked you to imagine a world in which you had never seen water before & had happened upon the scene playing as the focal point of the video. The video then zooms into the water, omitting the branch entirely from the frame, & you watch the rays shift & cascade off the murky water in almost a globing, morph-like way. He then describes what is being presented as being akin to almost the most revered of abstract art & it does look a great deal like a kinetic piece that you’d find in a gallery somewhere. He then ends with a quote that I can’t seem to remember for the life of me. The gist of it was that we become so accustomed to magic in our every day lives that it becomes mundane.

Now, again, sorry to have to paraphrase this man’s excellently made social post that clearly stirred something within me. I have no idea why I didn’t even ‘like’ it on whichever social platform I happened upon it through. Sorry to this man. I also apologize to you as the audience for having to experience such a wondrous reminder through the second-hand lens of my memory & the cliff notes it has chosen to retain. I hope, at the very least, that you understand the sentiment & feel along with me on this path forward through this blog.

The reason this struck a chord with me actually relates to my last blog about being burnt out by all the chaos & noise & the bad in the world. When it is the constant it is hard for it not to become your only reality when in actual factual reality nothing is black or white. Nothing is all bad just as nothing is all good. In fact I think most would argue that the spectrum of good & evil morally lives on a bell curve flush with shades of grey. It is, however, hard to see over the hill of the curve back to the good side when you have become saturated in the darkness for too long.

We have to save space for wonder to surprise us in our every day lives. We have to find those moments where we look to the sun reflecting on the water & really marvel at it. Stand in awe of the mathematics, the physics, the chance, the splendor, the small moment that has no measurable impact on the world as far as we know, but still is & exists as a side effect or a happenstance but does so with remarkable beauty.

It doesn’t have to be dappled water either, it can be a beautiful fruit or the complex spiraling of a flower. It can be the sound of rain on a window & the lull it induces existing with no regard for you or it’s affect on you, but happening regardless. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be nature, it can just be noticing something funny & cute & human…which of course is also nature. It can be the center ring on a record that exists so that the disk can continue to spin in perpetuity without playing anything specific to help preserve the disk & the needle. The fact that a single groove in the vinyl leads through someone’s creation to a point of infinite repetition. Something intentional that someone at some point had to decide was important enough to include on every single vinyl press. I want you to look for the mystical, the magical, the mundane.

But Charlie why? Why, you might be asking. Because even on the days where the sky is blackened over & the rain screams sideways through the trees there is awe to be felt. There is life to be experienced. The chaos that bears down destruction & ricochets uncertainty all around also brings with it renewal, change, perspective & these too are beautiful, wonderful, necessary parts of what it is to be alive.

Listen, I know the world is shit right now. The planet is warming & no one seems to want to do anything to stop it, restrictions on poisons in food, water, air, earth are all being lifted, it’s literally raining oil in parts of the world. But if that’s the only reality, if that’s the only view that you can see then where do we go from here? Which way is up when all you see is the endless abyss below extending farther & farther the more you plummet? There has to be some speck of light to reach for, some flicker in the dark of hope that makes enough of us scream out “NO!” & claw out way back towards a future we all know is possible & that would benefit all of us, not just those who cling to greed & monetary wealth that none of us could possibly spend in a thousand life times. We have to be the many who demand a brighter tomorrow & stop letting the few who do their best to bring about our end make the calls. We do that by keeping the hope alive. We do that by finding magic, gratitude, hope, love, wonder, mystery, marvel in the every day!

As Always, Much Love To You All,

-C

Object Writing: Sunburn

“How?! How? How did this happen? I put on so much sunscreen” I exclaim, the warm scent of coconut & shea butter still wafting from my now reddened skin. I look down begrudgingly at my arm, the blotchy red fading into pale tan as the skin progresses around the underside of my forearm. I reach out to touch with the other, my fingertips sticking the now hot iron that hold the place of my baked epidermis, leaving a lasting streak of white with its impression. Even just lightly hovering above my burnt skin I can feel the embedded heat rising, radiating my regret into my opposite hand.

Blog: *Insert Number* Hard Challenge

I’m not sure if any of you have heard of the 75 hard challenge, it was a daily challenge proposed by Andy Fricella. It isn’t exactly a diet plan or a fitness plan, though that is a part of it, instead it is branded as a test of mental fortitude. The rules of the challenge are as follows.

• Follow one diet plan of your choosing (no alcohol & no cheat meals allowed)

• Two 45 daily workouts (one must be outdoors)

• Take one daily progress picture

• Read ten pages of a non-fiction self improvement book per day

• Take a daily 5 minute cold shower

• Intake one gallon of water per day

While I won’t go into the logistics of why I don’t think the 75 hard or for that matter Whole 30 lead to positive life changes or permanent ones, I will admit the challenge has its merits.

A few friends of mine have taken the challenge & completed it in its entirety & while I’m sure most would attest that they don’t regret the experience it’s not something they’re actively looking to undertake again. I aimed to create it in a better form, in a manner that personalizes the experience for me while creating lifestyle change that I could use moving forward.

As many of you can probably tell from a lot of my previous blogs I eat paleo quite often, following more of the primal side of the diet. One of the beauties of paleo/primal is that it has room for forgiveness asking you to partake in it 80-85% of the time instead of forever making you long for the foods you love but can no longer consume. Paleo also has the benefit of allowing some alcohols but those derived from paleo approved sources which for a wine lover like me is a major win. My modification of the 75 hard challenge follows the diet of my choice, paleo, with the inclusion of two cheat meals & the occasional bottle of wine or cocktail.

The next aspect of the challenge is the physical side of it. 45 minutes, twice a day. An hour & a half total. Every. Single. Day. Y’all that’s just downright unhealthy. Your body needs rest, it needs time to heal. I know training hard leads to amazing results but there has to be a conscious effort into maintaining the body involved as well. My modification; seven & a half to eight hours of exercise per week. It allows you to workout hard for longer amounts of time while still allowing yourself & your body to rest periodically, to take a day off. The 75 hard challenge would tell us that resting would require us to restart the challenge, I would rather you come out the other side a healthy, happy human.

I’m just going to outright tell you I don’t do the progress pics. I think looking for progress day to day to day minimizes the growth you’re actually achieving. It’s also an easy way to get discouraged. Not looking different enough from the day before or the week before is what leads so many into self deprecating habits or toxic mindsets. Your body fluctuates 5-10 pounds a week anyway in addition to the fact that working out is literally tearing down muscle to rebuild it. You’re going to look “more cut” & less so from day to day, documenting such doesn’t feel like a healthy way of viewing that.

I started this challenge with the thought of making the reading 10 pages of anything. I think I’m sticking to that. We as humans don’t read enough. I would say out of the people I know only about 5-10% of them actively read books. That’s sad. I think if a challenge incorporates reading in any form & gets people to actually read then it’s a win in my book (see what I did there?) Read what you’re passionate about, it doesn’t have to be the book that makes you realize you have too many attachments or that you have the ability to be superhuman or manifest money. Read what you love, it’ll improve your brain & open up your mind, screw the requirements.

Honestly, I didn’t know that the shower was part of the challenge. I may have to throw that in haha. I mean at the end of the day cold showers have a lot of very great health benefits! It raises your metabolism, it increases your circulations, it boosts immune function, it reduces muscle soreness, & the list goes on & on. I know it may not be for everyone but I think I’ll actually incorporate it slowly, dropping the temperature over the duration of the shower instead of taking the polar plunge every single day.

A daily gallon of water is a great goal to strive for! Sometimes though a gallon of water can be too much or even too little depending on how much you weigh. I think the typical rule of thumb is that you’re supposed to drink half your body weigh in ounces but you also have to be careful not to dilute yourself. Adding a little sodium to your first glass can help to prevent that or even drinking something else with a little bit of electrolytes will do the trick!

In addition to these changes I’ve taken it upon myself to add in two more daily challenges.

• Something Creative/Journeling

• Meditation

Your something creative can be anything. It can be painting, writing, designing, playing an instrument, creating a floral arrangement, trying/coming up with a new recipe, just something that engages that left hemisphere of your brain. I often find myself getting frustrated as a songwriter because I can’t tap into my creativity when I want to. This is a good way to flex that mental muscle & establish the neuroplasticity to make your creativity an easy asset to call upon. I also count journaling under this daily task. I think journaling can take a few very helpful forms & often helps clear away the fog hiding all of your great ideas from you. Just journaling about your day, about what’s weighing on your mind or heart, about emotional baggage you’re still holding onto can make all the difference. Likewise writing poetry or a short story helps to get the juices flowing & stretch your creative neural pathways.

The last addition is meditation. Much like reading I think too few people actively practice meditation. Meditation is not just some mystic Buddhist art it is a way of centering yourself. Of coming back to the now & helping to experience your life as it happens. Too often we’re anxious about the unknown future or depressed about the past that way or the way things have change, meditation’s goal is to recenter you in time & in yourself. It is the inner work that we all should be doing. It is the quieting of the mind that allows our problems & areas of weakness to rise up so that we may look at them in a new light, dissect & transform them so that we can let the past, the future, the whatever go & simply be. I have found in the last two weeks of daily meditation that my joy & energy are elevated, my anxiety & depression have almost faded completely, & I am an all around more fun person to be around. If meditation is a new experience to you I highly recommend Headspace on Netflix, they also have an app!

The final step of my “…whatever” hard challenge is forgiveness. This is the key. Forgiveness. There are going to be days where accomplishing all of these things is impossible. There are going to be weeks you don’t meet you exercise goal or don’t read enough & y’all, that’s okay. Really. The difference is that you forgive, let it go, & try to do better the next day or the next week because that’s how we grow. That’s how we become better, not by hard restriction & rule, but by freedom & grace. I don’t want this life style change to be something I do for a month & a half then abandon, I want lasting change. I know, much like the 75 hard challenge isn’t for me, that this might not be for you & you may need to make your own modifications to it, but if you want to change your life for the better there are healthy ways to do it. Do what works for you, what makes you feel fulfilled, what makes you happy, healthy & expands your brain. Hold yourself accountable; set reminders on your phone, set a calendar on your fridge, try it with a friend or loved one. Do something that keeps you on track & keeps you motivated. I can honestly say in the week or two I’ve been doing this my life is improved; I’m sleeping better, I have so much more energy, so much clearer skin, my chronic allergies are hardly noticeable to me. I feel great & I want you to as well. So take the challenge! Make up your own, make it practical, & make your life as you want it to be because you deserve it!

Much Love,

C