“We don’t know how close we are to feeling good.” Dr. Hyman
By: Gabriela Yareliz
Have you ever worked so much you started to feel numb? This is a familiar place for me. Familiar but unpleasant. Work sometimes feels like The Machine from The Princess Bride. (I was in The Machine today. More on that later).
I have done certain things to reduce this default mode. Some of those things, you may ask? My coach was often an encourager of these. Feeding myself (seems basic, but I have been masochistic); Journaling a brain dump to just clear the nonsense; exercise where there is no podcast or music playing (just feeling the ground beneath and hearing my breath); writing (hi!); taking a walk (with no goal or agenda); cleaning (it’s relaxing for me— I don’t know what kind of syndrome this is); watching something funny (I must laugh out loud— it changes something in me); massage— this is my heaven, even when it’s painful— and when you hold as much tension in your body as I do, it’s always painful; lymphatic drainage (loving my little sculptor with some oil— might try a new system. Dry brushing always makes me feel weirdly electric); sleep (sleep is often the cure to much).
None of this is groundbreaking. It’s the small shifts.
Today, I was going to the chiropractor, and I was listening to Dr. Mark Hyman, and he said the quote above that resonated so much with me. It’s never huge stuff. It’s the small stuff that starts to make the difference. It makes us feel better, human, healing, alive.
I am sharing this with you in case there is an aspect where you don’t feel 100%. Sometimes, in our exhaustion of feeling like crap, we give into despair. Make a small shift. Dr. Hyman was talking about a book he wrote a while back that is a short ten day detox. People who did it saw dramatically reduced symptoms. Some felt like a different person by the end of it. Autoimmune conditions went into remission. It was only ten days. The gold is in the details. Sometimes, it’s not what you take away, but what you add.
I walked across Manhattan (in weirdly post-heat-wave chilly weather) to get to the doctor’s office. My doctor was very concerned with my locked back (hello stress). He literally rubbed an essential oils stick over my mid- and lower back and strapped me into a stretcher machine that resembles The Machine that sucks your life out of you in The Princess Bride. (Ironically, I was strapped in because work is the actual Machine). My head was literally strapped in.
After hearing a full report on the HBO Tina Turner documentary from my doctor, I walked like a zombie to reception to schedule my next appointment.
“What day?” the receptionist asked me. We had bonded in the morning where we both had to fight together to try and unlock the gate to the office. There we were, two petite women pushing against the jammed gate while rich unemployed people walking their dogs glanced at us with interest. It was resolved when she called the doctor who was already inside and told him to come up and “unjam the damn gate.”
I gave the receptionist my preferred date, but she proceeded to tell me, “Not that day. He is planning a family emergency, and it will end up canceled.” I squinted with confusion, and we proceeded to land a date where neither of us had an emergency planned.
I took a long walk to Canal Street listening to some fabulous podcasts I’ll link below, in case you are interested.
I went to my favorite massage lady (Jenny) to see if she could unbuckle my back. Jenny is a real one. I am half convinced she is a sorcerer because she can read my mind and pain points. The woman is magical. ✨
I walked in, and she had seen me not long ago. My back has been insane lately. She picked out an icy balm and had me lie down on a table, and I kid you not, she walked on my back. I was a toothpaste (the minty oils and balm) scented corpse most of the day. Jenny made my back mobile again (I can breathe). I wandered home with a phone at 4%. If you know me, you know I never let my phone go below like 60% on a good day. Weirdly, despite the fact that it was nearly dead most of the day, it was the most light and unbothered I felt.
Maybe it was the tingly mint thing on my back, the cooler weather (it’s literally cold now. We cannot win), the magical people who helped me today or the good conversations I was listening to. I don’t know. Maybe it was a combination of all of them and my morning routine. But among the small things, there was a major shift. (And this was despite major train delays and having to take four trains home instead of two).
Today, I invite you into the small things. Commit to something small, and it could shift everything. I clearly have a lot to work on, but it’s in progress.
I will drop the best podcasts of this week below, in case you want to listen to some good stuff over the weekend.
Deep breaths!
First, the conversation with Dr. Hyman that I loved:
This one made me smile:
This one on the mind and societal delusion was excellent:
This one for those who want a good and lasting relationship! SO GOOD!
The last one on my TSC Podcast kick was Suebelle— all about Palm Beach and being fabulous.
Happy weekend!
GABRIELA YARELIZ 