Walt Whitman, supreme poet of the body, prophet of American nonchalance, has not been heard here anymore than nature itself has managed to make itself heard:
Let nothing divert you from your duty to your body. Up in the morning early! Habituate yourself to the brisk walk in the fresh air.
Brooding and all sorts of acrid thoughts, "the blues," and the varied train of depressed feelings, are among the most serious enemies of a fine physique — while the latter, in turn, possesses a marvellous power of scattering all those unpleasant visitors, and dissipating them to the winds.
The observance of the laws of manly training, duly followed, can utterly rout and do away with the curse of a depressed mind, melancholy, "ennui," which now, in more than half the men of America, blights a large portion of the days of their existence.
from "Manly Health and Training"
Whenever I talk about my devotion to hiking or how long I went without internet, I find that the collective defenses here are immense, impenetrable, almost invincible. Folks don't want to hear "I walk every day and chop wood", instead of "I go the gym and live on goji berries".
For example, since I moved offgrid into the high desert, I haven't had a well. I collect rain and snowmelt to bathe in. I expected this to be a temporary arrangement, but I've found my makeshift ritual to be so invigorating that I don't plan to stop: I stand outside on a wooden pallet, and pour water on myself from an old soupcan. Often the snow beneath my bare feet is melted away as I pour. Often my breath is caught for a moment in the shock of a stiff breeze. The contrast of the nearly boiling water pulled from the top of my woodstove, is what a German would call "herrlich". I feel strong, I feel healthy, those "acrid thoughts" are blown away, nothing can stop me.
Whitman's little homage to health is generally considered a joke, but I can't find anything I disagree with:
- The health of the body determines the health of the mind.
- Walking is the most important exercise.
- Get fresh air early and often.
- Bathe vigorously.
- Wear comfortable, durable, practical clothing.
- Give special care to your feet and joints.
- Dance.
- Rise early in the morning.
- Don't drink much.
- Eat meat.
- Protect your digestion as something precious.
- Sedentary occupations are the most dangerous to health.
This is all so obvious, it's almost embarrassing. "On such little things much depends."
A few supplementary guidelines:
Learn to see everything as a question of diet and training.
Train in something difficult each day.
Social media is poison. Do not lie to yourself.
Treat the internet like a library infested with drug dealers and vampires: have a plan of attack, execute, and flee.
Learn to see the smartphone as a bottomless pit of alienation. Handle with extreme care.
Every digital interface should be switched off by default, every day. Force yourself to make the choice of turning it on for a good reason.
Protect the sanctity of your morning ritual.
Protect and cultivate the quality of your sleep. 3 hours of deep sleep is worth 10 hours of fitful tossing. When I moved out to the desert, I realized that I had not slept deeply for years prior. You should wake as though from another world, from oblivion, reborn.
Protect your microbiome. Avoid sucrose at all times, ingest natural probiotics daily.
Drink herbal tea. Explore each herb slowly, over years. Keep it simple. I prefer nettle, mint, and fennel.
Coffee is more than permissible, if not required in modern life. Ingest the same amount every day, brewed in the same way. Get high quality beans, and enjoy the ritual.
If you use psychoactives, practice the microdose and strongly prefer ingestion over smoking.
Marijuana is permissible, but longterm dependence is dangerous for your spiritual development. Prefer abstention.
Alcohol is extremely dangerous to the longterm cultivation of mind and body. Administer only in the spirit of health and tradition. Abstain often if not completely.
Practice fasting in everything possible, when possible. Fast from everything occasionally except water. Fast to test yourself, to grow stronger, to gain new perspective.
Gratitude is one of the most powerful medicines available.
Sex should be treated as a powerful ancient ritual, not to be abused, nor repressed, nor distorted, nor worshipped. Everything is fuel, everything is obstacle.
Know the difference between clean dirt and dirty dirt: dirt from a pristine natural environment is clean dirt, and should not be avoided. It's good to have a little in your food, in your hair, in your clothes, in your bed. It makes you healthier and more sane. Clean often, but welcome clean dirt. Dirty dirt comes from unhealthy bodies and the poisons they ingest: artificial fragrance is dirty dirt, the dead skin of unhealthy people is dirty dirt, black mold is dirty dirt, stale air is dirty dirt, sadness and addiction is dirty dirt. Wash dirty dirt from your body and spirit as soon as possible. I would rather be covered in used motor oil than get one whiff of Febreeze. Did you know that ultraviolet light is the most effective weapon against the endocrine disruptors infecting the modern soul? If something won't stop stinking, leave it outside, and our star will blast it clean. Sun, wind, and rain will eventually render everything clean: try to internalize this fact.
When you need rest, rest. Learn to fall asleep quickly. Learn the art of the delicious doze.
Work when you work. Procrastination is a vice.
Laugh as much as possible. Learn to find yourself ridiculous, but respect yourself all the more for admitting it.
Drink the highest quality water available. Do not ingest a drop of chlorine except as a last resort.
Antibiotics are the nuclear option to be used in extreme emergencies.
Learn to vomit properly. When in the developing world, listen carefully to your stomach, learn to detect an intestinal parasite, and empty your system thoroughly.
Learn to fever properly. Do not suppress fever, but encourage it early in the cycle.
Learn to defecate properly. Morning regularity is essential. Adjust diet and routine until you achieve it.
Protect your knees, your ankles, your wrists, your neck. Contusions, abrasions, cuts, and sore muscles are trivial. Joints and tendons are irreplaceable.
Chronic inflammation is your enemy in the firstworld. Fight it with exercise, cold weather, woodfire, swimming, barefeet, simple food, singing, laughter, meditation, and deep sleep.
Learn to trust the biology of healing. When you bleed, don't be hasty in stopping it. When something hurts, don't medicate it away. Be skeptical of every treatment which intervenes or suppresses.
Learn to see every illness as an opportunity. The key to winning the battle for psychosomatic health is to think symbolically: "what does this disease mean? What is communicated here?"
Consider the biomedical establishment your greatest enemy to longterm health. Doctors are the pushers and pimps of some of the most evil forces on the planet: corporate pharmacological interests want you sick, depressed, and dependent. Biopolitical agents want you ready to sacrifice your bodily autonomy for a reprieve from the nameless suffering of firstworld misery. Learn to research everything yourself. Learn the heuristics: the older and simpler and more obvious the remedy, the more likely it is to be legit. The right answer is usually to do nothing but rest. Bones heal themselves, organs balance themselves, brain chemistry corrects itself. Most of what goes on in a hospital will make you sicker. The only healing that happens there could have happened safer and faster in a quiet and reasonably clean home. Deep sleep, good food, and most importantly, the will to heal are the real healers of this 4 billion year old body.
Stress, anxiety, frustration: these are the ingredients for psychosomatic disease. Bad digestion, back pain, and poor sleep are its common manifestations. Most of the exotic diseases becoming more prevalent in modernity are simply the advanced stages of chronic stress.
No sacrifice is too great for the freedom from chronic petty stress and meaningless anxiety. No amount of money or career security is worth a miserable bodymind. Be courageous, be young, be reckless in the pursuit of health.