In Pursuit of Health & Purpose
A few tools for summer sickness and an exploration of our unique purpose, individuality, personal responsibility, and more from an interview with Dr. James Hollis.
Summer travel sometimes means you or someone in your circle brings sickness back as a souvenir. I was under the weather recently and below are the natural remedies that helped keep things at bay.
Beekeeper’s Naturals, Propolis Throat Spray: Soothing and not too sweet. 10/10. I bought locally at Whole Foods.
Beekeeper’s Naturals, Mint Eucalyptus Soothing Lozenges: Sourcing a clean, sugar-free lozenge in a jiffy is nearly impossible. The best I found was Beekeeper’s Naturals, Mint Eucalyptus at Whole Foods. This particular flavor has the fewest ingredients and only one sweetener. While it does include tapioca syrup (derived from cassava root), it’s 1 gram of sugar per lozenge. Compare that to mainstream brands that include over double that in cane sugar, plus soy, food dyes, and other unnecessary ingredients.
Professional Botanicals, BCT Oil: This brand was recommended as part of a larger protocol. The BCT Oil, particularly, is a workhorse because of its multitasking abilities. I think it’s a great addition for anyone, but I’d imagine it especially handy in a mom's purse. You can apply it topically (e.g. mosquito bites) and ingest internally using empty pill capsules. See the full list of applications below.
“This is a very powerful combination of essential oils that acts as an anti: venom, fungal, mold ameba, giardia, dermatitis, worm, parasite, tick, viral, bacterial, infection etc. This is one of those products I keep in my medicine cabinet at all times and never travel without. It can be used to neutralize bee stings, mosquito bites, ticks, fungal infections, warts, athlete’s foot, jock itch, food poisoning, stomach pain, diarrhea, upset stomach, giardia, montezuma’s revenge, lymes disease, sinus and bronchial infections, sore throat, spider bites, snake bites, dermatitis, rashes, acne, parasites, worms laryngitis, pyorrhea, leaky gut, to neutralize poison plants like poison oak or poison ivy, gum disease, abscesses, mouth infections, and much much more. More powerful than Tea Tree Oil and more effective.” - Professional Botanicals
HigherDose, Supercharge Copper Body Brush: A great brush to activate lymphatic drainage. The horsehair and copper bristles feel effective, yet gentle and the real leather hand strap elevates it above others I’ve seen and used.
Cymbiotika, Vitamin C and Glutathione: I regularly have these in stock for travel (the individual packets are easy to grab and go) and I love the liposomal delivery.
Food-Grade Hydrogen Peroxide Rinse: Gargling diluted, food-grade hydrogen peroxide seemed to really help my sore throat. For much more on oxygen therapy and an exploration of how “almost all toxins, bacteria, pathogens and disease microorganisms are oxidized and killed in high oxygen environments” read The One-Minute Cure.
Colloidal Silver: First time trying this, again, thanks to a trusty recommendation. I think this, plus the other items contributed to a quicker recovery. I found a brand at Sprouts. Note: To be consumed at critical times, not regularly.
Plunge, The Sauna: Full disclosure: I do not have this sauna nor the space to house it, but I sure wish I did. Instead, I go to a local spot with infrared saunas, among other modalities, for cleansing sweat sessions.
Worth a Listen
Andrew Huberman: Focus, Controversy, Politics, and Relationships
Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman, of the Huberman Lab podcast, was recently on the Lex Fridman Podcast. Theirs was a personal, relaxed conversation, rather than a deep exploration of science that occurs on Huberman’s show. However, I learned of Dr. James Hollis in this episode and then listened to the much longer interview referenced with additional notes below.
Takeaways:
An introduction to Dr. James Hollis, Ph.D., a Jungian psychoanalyst, educator, and author.
Developmental upbringing: Either align with or go off 180% of your parent’s tendencies and values in certain areas.
“When we take ourselves out of stimulus and response and force ourselves to sit in the quiet of our thoughts, allows us to access our unconscious mind in ways that reveal who we really are and what we really want.”
Dr. James Hollis: How to Find Your True Purpose & Create Your Best Life
Takeaways:
Daily reflection: Dr. Hollis spends 15 minutes each morning meditating, possibly working on a dream, and again in the evening.
Reflection takes courage: “I have to be able to bear looking at myself and see what’s there which won’t always be pretty.” Humbling because being called to accountability.
Adulthood: Accountable for what’s spilling into the world through us.
Parents modeling for children: To live a life with “as much courage as I can mobilize and as much integrity as I can manage.”
Life: “The summons is to live your journey as honestly as you can and when you do, it ultimately serves other people.”
Engaging in activities that take your attention, e.g. drawing, painting, jogging: “Exiting the stimulus-response cycle… something in your psyche rises to express itself to you.”
Tolerating being alone with yourself - finding a practice to link to the internal (whatever that is for the individual), as the cure to loneliness.
Jung perspective: “We all need to find what supports us when nothing supports us.”
“There’s something inside me that knows me better than me, is working hard to bring about a healthy response to whatever life brings and it has a purposefulness to it, an intentionality. When I’m in touch with that I feel a sense of wholeness and purposefulness.”
Shadow: Personal responsibility- the best thing to do for society and relationships is to lift unfinished business off others, and take it back onto oneself.
“The appointment with your life: do you keep it or not?”
Numinosity: defined by one’s soul, not the collective.
Starter marriages: the premise that brought a couple together may not support them developmentally and honestly years later; must renegotiate or if outlived, the necessity of difficult decisions.
“What has happened to the soul of the person in the relationship? Has it grown and developed? Did they mutually support each other’s development?”
Relationships: “How to balance my journey, with the legitimate commitment of relationships.”
Sacrifice not Surrender: Sacrifice - to make sacred.
If constantly sacrificing to the other, versus a mutually launched project, can become resentful.
“If sacrificing on behalf of a value that is right for you and your project together, then you’re both served by that.”
Balance: “On the other hand, don’t sacrifice the journey of the individual spirit too.”
“One has to have a larger story than what happened to you, than the story that one’s culture gives you, or your family of origin gives you. What is that story?”
Hollis’ morning motto, which he emphasizes is a reminder to himself:
“Shut up, Suit up, Show up.”
Shut up: stop complaining, be aware and grateful.
Suit up: be prepared, do your homework, work hard at something.
Show up: step into life and do it the best you can.
“This is your life, you’re accountable, what are you going to do about that?”
In health and happiness, BB.
