Welcome to the Monday Muse, a short and free round up of stuff I found interesting in the last week. I started this just recently and it seems like people like it, so I’ll keep it going. This year I’ll keep this up along with the longer, in-depth article I send weekly. If you have comments or ideas for the newsletter, feel free to drop me a message anytime.
And…Happy New Year! I hope you had a great break and are feeling FRESH.
The last three New Years celebrations have been pretty low key. What happened to the ecstasy-fueled all nighters? This year my wife and I ate a piece of strawberry short cake and stayed up watching the Glass Onion (the sequel to Knives Out), which was so-so but entertaining enough to pass the time. Afterwards I meditated and read a book about chakras, and then we said our half-awake Happy New Year’s! before promptly falling asleep.
The next day we went to a shrine to pay our respects in the Japanese tradition of Hatsumode, where we asked the spirits for good fortune. We purchased a 100 yen Omikuji, a paper slip that tells your fortune. Not sure if it’s bad luck to share this with others, but here goes nothing.
Will I be fortunate this year? The gods say I’ll be “Medium Lucky.” Ergh…Okay, I’ll take that.
Some of the specifics:
1) I need to work hard (guess that means I’m not winning the crypto lottery)
2) Travel is fine, but I better take care of my body (I’ll do some pushups in the airport)
3) My health will be great if I pray hard enough (I hope meditation counts)
4) Everything will be fine if I keep my vows (very timely, as I am having a wedding this year)
5) If I drink alcohol, I will lose big time (good, because I stopped drinking this year)
So now you know my odds at crushing it in 2023 — just as good as the next guy.
Okay, anyways, on to the 5 things I found interesting from the last week:
1/ Instruments I’ve been Jamming On
During the holidays we took a trip to Karuizawa, a prime hot springs spot here in Japan. This was of course an opportunity to energize my brain and boost my metabolism through some much-needed cold exposure in the snow. I was also the very lucky recipient of an amazing Christmas present: a Native American flute. If you’ve ever played the recorder (that cheap white plastic flute thing they made everyone play in the 3rd grade), then you’ll pick up this 6-holed flute in a jiffy. If you’re not particularly musically talented (like me) and want to play an easy instrument, the Native American flute is pretty badass, and way cooler than a recorder. Check them out here at High Spirits.
2/ Games I’ve Been Playing
Alain de Botton is a philosopher and writer who I know mainly from his books like How Proust Can Change Your Life and Status Anxiety. He also has a great YouTube channel called School of Life with short clips that summarize his core concepts about improving your relationships and living a more fulfilled life. They came out with a card game based on the YouTube channel called The Therapy Game which you can get here.
It’s exactly as it sounds. There are over 100 cards split up into categories like relationships, sex, and work. Each card has a question prompt and there’s a time limit to answer, which you can basically ignore since the depth of these questions require a lot longer than the short 2 minute timer.
They’re provocative on purpose and make you think deeply about your life. It’s a good game to play with…well, maybe anyone, but perhaps starting with your partner or close friends, or basically anyone you want to get to know more intimately. I wouldn’t say this game is “fun” in the same way Twister or Monopoly is. It can be pretty emotionally tiring, actually. But I think there’s a huge benefit in having these sorts of conversations, and at least for me it felt like it strengthened my relationship, where as Monopoly usually just pisses me off if I lose or makes me too braggy if I win.
3/ What I’ve Been Smelling
White sage.
Salvia apiana, the white sage, bee sage, or sacred sage is an evergreen perennial shrub that is native to the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, found mainly in the coastal sage scrub habitat of Southern California and Baja California, on the western edges of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts
Ever since my friend burned white sage at a retreat we held last summer, I’ve been really into it. I burn it at my meditation meetups and sometimes at home. Traditionally it’s been used to bless spaces and get rid of unwanted spirits. For me, I find it has a very calming effect.
The sage also creates a very distinct vibe, like “this is a time for inner calm” or even “something is going to happen…” I’ve been interested in the different ways we create and hold spaces. Usually lighting and physical space are the main variables but we often overlook something as simple yet powerful as smell. Every yoga teacher and massage therapist alive knows this, but I’m surprised we haven’t incorporated this more in other settings like the workplace.
4/ Books I Read
I picked up a copy of Brain Energy by Harvard scientist Christopher Palmer after hearing an interview on the Art of Manliness podcast. In short, the crux of his theory is that all mental disorders like anxiety, depression and schizophrenia have a common pathway: metabolism and the function of your mitochondria. The theory he outlines isn’t new and has been debated for decades, but it seems like we’re in a place now where we have enough evidence and studies to give it real credit.
The book here.
The podcast interview here.
Why this is a big deal: We know that most medicines for depression and anxiety, for example, don’t actually cure the issue for the majority of people and just manage symptoms. They do work, to some extent, often with shitty side effects over the long term (poor sleep, erectile dysfunction etc).
This theory of “Brain Energy” doesn’t try and simplify these issues. Rather, Dr. Palmer acknowledges it’s all very complicated and depends on the individual, which is why treatments should be hyper-personalized rather than just giving everyone the same pill. If we know that there is a metabolic issue going on rather than just saying “you have a chemical imbalance so here's some pills”, then we can start to create a treatment plan for that person that actually fixes the root cause instead of just managing symptoms.
The Brain Energy theory is an overarching explanation for why a ketogenic diet works for epileptic patients, why cold exposure works for anxiety, why psychedelics and light-therapy work for depression, and how psychological illness from loneliness can cause physical symptoms. Super interesting stuff and I recommend you check it out if you or anyone you know is suffering from a mental disorder.
Here are a few highlights from the book that stood out.
On the common pathway for various disorders:
“The study evaluated more than three million siblings, hoping to identify which genes conferred risk for depression, anxiety, ADHD, alcoholism, drug abuse, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder. Given that these are all different disorders, one would expect them to have different associated genes. However, the researchers found that most of the genetic variations conferred risk for a broad range of disorders. There were no genes that were specific to only one disorder. Even childhood abuse confers risk for most mental disorders, including PTSD, depression, anxiety, substance use disorders, eating disorders, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia….Subsequent research using different sets of people and different methods confirmed the existence of this p-factor. However, this research was not designed to tell us what the p-factor is. It only suggests that it exists—that there is an unidentified variable that plays a role in all mental disorders.”
The theory in a nutshell:
“Mental disorders are metabolic disorders of the brain. Although most people think of metabolism as burning calories, it’s much more than that. Metabolism affects the structure and function of all cells in the human body. Regulators of metabolism include many things, such as epigenetics, hormones, neurotransmitters, and inflammation. Mitochondria are the master regulators of metabolism, and they play a role in controlling the factors just listed. When mitochondria aren’t working properly, at least some of the cells in your body or brain won’t function properly”
How mitochondrial dysfunction impacts your brain:
“Symptoms of mental illness can be understood as overactive, underactive, or absent brain functions. Mitochondrial dysfunction or dysregulation can cause all of these through five distinct mechanisms: (1) cell activity can be overactive; (2) cell activity can be underactive; (3) some cells can develop abnormally (leading to absent brain functions); (4) cells can shrink and die (also leading to absent brain functions); and (5) cells can have problems maintaining themselves (which can contribute to overactivity, underactivity, or absent brain functions).”
Quotes I’m Pondering
“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.” — Alexander den Heijer
Thanks for reading and wishing you a great start to the year!