Category: Opinion

All Kneel Before The Mighty Caffeine…

Considering I haven’t properly gotten a decent dose of caffeine into my system yet, I may seem a little testy while writing this post. Sometimes I wonder how different life would be, had I not tried caffeine for the first time, way back when. I guess it wouldn’t have made much of a difference since I likely would have gotten around to it eventually. Caffeine is one of those staples of normal, adult life. But as with all things in life, there is some good and bad to caffeine. And we’re going to discuss some of it, here.

How does caffeine work and why do we use it to wake up in the mornings? In simple terms, caffeine works by stimulating certain parts of the brain that tell you you’re tired, as well as stimulating the central nervous system and blood pressure. people who consume heavy amounts of caffeine may need greater and greater amounts of caffeine to experience the same effects, It doesn’t ACTUALLY wake you up or make you less tired; it simply blocks the neuro-receptors telling you that you are.

Considering some of the effects of caffeine, namely the effects on the heart and blood pressure, it’s important to remember that these things can have an effect on blood sugars and Diabetes control, as well. And considering that caffeine can dehydrate you and acts as a diuretic, all of these factors need to be considered if you’re trying to maintain good Diabetic control.

So, how much caffeine is too much caffeine? This is an important question, despite the fact that many people tend to ignore it. If you visit Health Canada’s website (sorry, I don’t have the link for it), they recommend that a healthy person should limit their caffeine intake to no more than 400 mg of caffeine per day. The key aspect here is “healthy adult.” It could be less than that number for people who already have heart issues, blood pressure issues or may be pregnant.

All of this is also extremely suggestive, since different people will have different sensitivities to caffeine and how quickly they might metabolize it. And let’s consider that 400 milligrams of caffeine is what’s found in about three 8-ounce cups of regular coffee. I know some people who get through an entire pot of coffee every morning. When you get into the realm of energy drinks, such as I do, one usual, 473 mL can of energy drink will have about 160 mg of caffeine. This means that having two cans in one day has you touching the ceiling of your daily limit.

However, when one factors in the Taurine, Ginseng and Guarana included in the drink, which all act as stimulants, it makes an energy drink significantly stronger than your average cup of coffee. And since it’s summer time, one must also remember that an energy drink won’t slake your thirst if out in the sun. In fact, it may very well dehydrate you further.

At the end of the day, caffeine consumption is not a bad thing as long as one is able to enjoy it in moderation and bear some of these concerns in mind. Energy drinks aren’t any worse than drinking coffee. Just keep an eye on your caffeine levels and overall consumption. And for the love of the light, if you don’t drink energy drinks but you see someone who is, there’s no need to comment on it! Keep that shit to yourself! I think I need that coffee, now. Excuse me…☯️

Better Days Are Not So Far Away…

Despite our efforts to avoid them, we all have bad days. Typically and for the most part, we suffer through them, deal with them and let them pass after a good night’s sleep. Remember I said that; it will apply later on in the post. But most people will actively do whatever they can to avoid bad days, despite the fact that they’re essentially unavoidable and a part of life.

Last week, I experience one of the worst “bad days” that I can recall in quite some time. What exactly happened to make it a bad day is not important (and I don’t need to come off like a snowflake for my woes) so much as how I dealt with it. Given everything I’ve been through in my life, I’ve prided myself on being able to maintain healthy tools to manage my emotions, more specifically anger. Please note that I said “manage” my anger and not control or suppress it.

Suppressing or bottling up one’s anger is a little like shaking a bottle of carbonated soda (something Nathan loves to do). Although the bottle will hold the soda, pressure will continue to build and gather until eventually the cap will pop and that pressure will explode outward, saturating everyone and everything near it. Anger is very much the same; if you don’t have a healthy outlet for it, it will eventually build up enough pressure to eventually burst and affect one’s entire environment.

Unless someone is close enough to me to have been told this fact, people believe I maintain my calm because I study the Buddha Dharma when in reality, I study to Buddha Dharma to help calm me. The difference is important because like any other living person, I feel and experience the entire spectrum of emotions and they affect me very much in the same way as anyone else. But it’s how I choose to deal with these negative emotions that’s important.

Just to be clear, anger, sadness and any other emotion labeled as “negative” still has a purpose, even if we dislike them and don’t assume so. Much like feeling fear let’s us known that we are potentially in danger, anger and disappointment tell us something about ourselves and the situation we’re facing that we may not have been aware of, otherwise. It doesn’t mean it isn’t normal to dislike being on those situations or that something shouldn’t be done about them. Cue the advice…

Meditation can be a fantastic way to help alleviate the effects of negative emotions. By entering oneself and allowing oneself to calm, breathe and focus on the lighter things, anger will often seem to lose its strength. This may not always be the case and may not work for everybody. But it’s definitely a good starting point. Finding the time and space to do this can be challenging, but never impossible.

Physical fitness is also an important aspect. Pushing yourself through a rigorous workout that can include martial arts or just hitting a good ol’ fashion punching bag can go a long way towards cooling the intense heat that your anger may have created within your soul. Even something that isn’t intense, like taking a walk, getting some fresh air and being alone with your own thoughts can be quite effective.

Sometimes there just isn’t anything that can be done and you have to just ride it out. This can be tough, especially if you’re already angry and you have to be in the same environment as loved ones and that anger become clear and obvious to them. An important step is not to bottle it up and isolate yourself. Letting those loved ones know WHY you’re angry is not only important towards making sure they know it isn’t directed at them but also pursues potential means of help as they could say or do something to provide relief from that anger.

Ultimately, sometimes all one can do is call it a day, hit the sack and get a solid night’s sleep in order to recharge one’s batteries and let one’s soul reset. This is what I did. Once I recognize I simply had no life left in me to deal with the day, I kissed my wife goodnight and let my head hit the pillow. In keeping with the mood I was in, a strong thunderstorm raged through most of the night. The next day was a new day with new challenges so I was grateful for having gotten the extra rest. Anger is a normal part of life. The idea isn’t to avoid it and the important thing is how you DEAL with it; and deal with it, you must. ☯️

What Binds Us…

Opening yourself up to others can be one of the most difficult things one can do. Especially in modern times, when people tend to try and get to know each other through virtual means before even meeting in person. When I was growing up, making a connection with someone meant actually meeting them face-to-face, introducing yourself and talking to them. Friends, associates and intimate relationships were forged this way.

These days, people meet dates online, join chat rooms and see each other for the first time through the digital frontier. Where spotting someone from across the room in a coffee shop and smiling at them would have been a first steps twenty years ago is basically considered creepy today, despite the fact that you genuinely never know who you’re meeting online until you see them in person, often with disappointment. In fact, there are entire shows about that very thing that you can watch.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, because as living creatures, there’s an energy that binds us all. That energy is called “connection,” and it’s something one can only truly accomplish by being physically present in the moment with another person. As one could no doubt agree, the problem with the online world is that you can be “connected” with thousands of people but still feel completely isolated and alone.

“Connection is the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”

– Brene Brown

Being connection with someone else is more than physically being somewhere with them. There also has to be a trust, a comfort level, an ability to know that no matter what you say or do, that person won’t walk away from you or judge you. This isn’t an easy thing, especially in light of the modern world’s propensity to be overly sensitive and offended by everything. But a good baseline to know if you’ve made a solid connection with someone is to ask yourself if you would be comfortable doing something in front of them that you would usually only do alone. If the answer is yes, you can have confidence that some trust has been developed; at least to a certain degree.

Connections are important. Humans were never meant to be solitary, isolationist creatures. Even those who often claim they prefer to be alone still need others to one extent or another. And while that need is very real, making connections and building trust are integral parts of ensuring one’s wellbeing and health. Food for thought…☯️

“Roger” That…

Hey, I totally get it… It’s 2022 and everyone is tethered to their electronic conveniences on some way, shape or form… I’m no exception; I have my smart phone on me almost at all times and certainly never leave home without it. And there’s no denying that the advancement of technology has made Diabetes control far superior to what it was in 1982 when I was first diagnosed. But, do we take it too far? Are we too dependent? It all depends on who you ask…

As a father, I think the use of electronics has run rampant in society and it’s infiltrated my household. Getting my 7-year old through a full day without touching his device or his Nintendo Switch is a miracle akin to parting the Red Sea. Some of that is my bad, having introduced him to the colourful, moving pictures of an iPad when he was just an infant. And why not? It’s the way of the world, right? Unlike how it was when I was a kid, playing outside and occupying my mind solely on the strength of one’s imagination… Maybe I would have had more friends if I had been limited to social media as a kid. But I digress…

Having one’s nose buried in electronics has SO become the way of the world, it’s almost no longer considered a social taboo to have your smart device in front of your face when at a table with others. I’m reminded of a conference I recently attended, where the people at the table (there were about 8 of us) introduced ourselves and chatted for all of about a full minute. As I was looking around the room, I didn’t realize it right away but everyone at my table had retreated to their respective screens. It almost made me feel bad for leaving my phone in my pocket. Almost.

Canada recently suffered a telecommunications services disruption that rocked everyone’s respective world. If it weren’t for the inconvenience of no debit card use, I would have been mildly entertained by the state of people’s panic. I also would have been oblivious. It last a day, two at most, with all debit systems in the country inoperable for the time in question. Some areas were affected differently. For example, my mother claims that New Brunswick had no actual internet coverage during this time, which I think is hilarious since she doesn’t use the internet or even own a computer.

The effects were illuminating, from a societal standpoint. It was amazing to see how people were panicking and unable to function without the almighty invisible signal that governs their lives. I totally see the irony in the fact that I’m making light of this while drafting this post on a wireless device and if I were more committed to my imposed childhood school of faith, I might make comment about how people are hellbent on craving the comfort of an invisible force they can’t see, touch or feel but can’t live without. I think there was a book written about that once… Oh, the irony!

Don’t get me wrong; if I suddenly had absolutely no internet available to me, indefinitely, I’d likely piss and moan on a cosmic scale. What I get a kick out of is how society has become so utterly dependent on the need for our technology that we’re slowly forgetting what remains of our humanity. can’t watch your streaming service? Read a book, take a walk, sit outside in the sun. Play with your kids (considering they’re suffering the loss as well). I love me my games and daily challenges but there’s more to life than the digital frontier. Maybe it’s time some of us started remembering that. Food for thought… ☯️

Strike Your Own Fuse…

Motivation is a funny thing and I often categorize some of my posts (this one included) as a “motivation” post, but that’s usually because I hope that it’ll motivate you. But the thing is, motivation means different things to different people, depending on their perspective, how they train and what values they attach to such things as motivation.

Some people believe that you need to be motivated to start doing something good for yourself. Okay, let’s examine that concept… Normally, motivation is defined as a general desire or willingness to do something. But how can you desire doing something if you’ve never experienced it before? In order to take that first step towards better health, better fitness and overall goals, I would argue that you need WILL. So long as you have the will to take those first steps and push yourself towards a goal, progress and success will motivate you to continue on.

That feeling of motivation comes almost as a reward for pushing through the difficult, initial steps of any goal you set for yourself. Some may argue that you need to be motivated to start. I respectfully decline. You need to have the WILL to start. Motivation comes later. And once that motivation comes, it’s important to recognize that it should be geared towards a positive outcome. If your motivations are for the defeat of others, you’ll never succeed. If your motivations are geared towards status, image or ego, you’ve failed before you started.

Have the strength of will to make a start. It may suck, it’ll likely hurt and may be difficult to accomplish. But if you can rise up and push yourself enough to take those first steps, progress will motivate you and push you further. Chicken or the egg; you can’t have one without the other. Food for thought… ☯️

You Can’t Please Everyone…

The world is a pretty big place, but it’s getting smaller by the decade. With a constantly growing population and a mingling of said population, there’s never been a more prominent mixing of cultural backgrounds, beliefs and ethnicities. And that’s a beautiful thing. One of my favourite things has always been getting to know and learning about different cultures from the people I’ve met and interacted with.

Interaction and understanding is not always an easy thing. After all, with a current world population of 7.9 billion people (roughly), there’s bound to be some difficulty when it comes to everyone getting along. And that makes a lot of sense, honestly. After all, there are so many barriers to effective communication and oftentimes very little appetite to acknowledge them, interaction and understanding can seem difficult.

It’s important to recognize that some people simply CHOOSE not to understand. After all, everyone has the same rights and responsibilities when it comes to good communication. One has the right to communicate. One also has the right to be acknowledged and heard. Being understood is an entirely different story. But one has the responsibility to make an effort. one can’t simply say, “Fuck ‘em, I don’t get it.” There has to be some effort on both sides to ensure proper communication and understanding.

An important thing to bear in mind is that you can only control what you say and mean; you can’t control what the other individual may understand or how they react to it. That’s where the saying comes from. You know the one, “I can only control my words, not how your react to them?” You can say something extrememly reasonable and in no way offensive but the person you’re speaking with may still take offence.

There’s not much you can do about that besides explaining that wasn’t your intention. Unless it’s a hill you wanna die on, you could even swallow your pride and apologize, whether you meant to offend or not. It takes more maturity to acknowledge that it isn’t the comment but whether the other person feels offended that makes the difference. Although it isn’t your job to fix their problems for them, recognizing that people who get hurt and take offence at everything are having a rough go of it.

The other aspect is that you’ll never be able to please or mesh well with everyone. Some consider themselves to be “people pleasers” but realistically, with almost 8 billion people on the planet, you’ll never please everyone and it isn’t your job to do so. Learning to be okay with the fact that some may not like what you say or do is an important step towards reducing suffering within your own life and moving forward with a smile on your face as opposed to a crease in your forehead.

All of these things being said, as long as you’re a good person and do good things, everything else will sort itself out. be honest but never hurtful. Be truthful but never intentionally insulting. So long as you do those things, how the other person perceives you or your communications becomes an aspect that THEY need to work on and it isn’t your job to fix any of it. Food for thought… ☯️

Some Sleepy Facts For A Monday Morning…

It’s the start of the work week for most, and I’m sure we can agree that all of us would prefer to roll over, pull our blankets in closer and just keep sleeping until Monday goes away. Much like Garfield, most people aren’t fans of Mondays. ever wonder why Garfield hates Mondays so much? It’s not like he has a job to go to or any responsibilities. But I digress…

The topic of today’s post is about naps. I love naps. I often think back to my youth, when I would have had much more free time to grab a nap here and there but neglected to do so. It reminds me of my son, who outright refuses to nap and I keep telling him he’ll regret that choice when he gets older and no longer has the option. Our two-year old still gets put down for a nap and even when he fights it, ends up getting some sleep. Ah, the innocence!

I’ve written about naps in several previous posts and the reality is that naps are actually beneficial, as long as you don’t overdo them. Like everything else in life, there needs to be a balance. But if you nap in reasonable increments for short periods of time, they’ve been shown to lower the risk of heart disease, improve one’s memory, increase productivity and improve one’s mood. In Japan, nap periods during the workday are encouraged as they’ve already acknowledged that it increases the company’s overall productivity.

I once worked in a call centre (please don’t hold that against me) and they had a break lounge with dim lighting and soft, plush chairs for a staff to use their 15-minute breaks to grab a quick snooze. I was taken aback at the prospect that someone could actually nap for that short a period of time. But once I tried it a few times, I was surprised at how much good it did. Some experts I’ve read about have explained that sleep happens in four stages of a cycle, starting with the “falling asleep” stage, followed by the slowing and relaxing of the body, followed by slipping into deep sleep and finishing off the cycle with rapid-eye movement sleep, or what’s known as REM sleep.

So how long should one nap? This is a deeply debated aspect, since most professionals tend to agree that naps shouldn’t be TOO long or you risk falling into a deep sleep that will negatively affect the remainder of you or day and potentially prevent proper sleep at night. For the most part, I’ve always read that a 15 to 20-minute nap was enough to get you to the relaxing and slowing of the body stage, without allowing you to slip into deep sleep, which can be much more difficult to come out of.

The World Sleep Society claims that naps should be less than 45 minutes. This makes sense, since slipping into “deep sleep” can make waking up difficult and leave you feeling groggy and make it harder to push through the rest of your day. There’s nothing worse than feeling as though your nap made things worse or made you more tired. The whole point is to gain a bit of rejuvenation, right?

I read an article where Dr. Sara Mednick, a cognitive neuroscientist with the University of California, explained how taking an hour-long nap can be ideal since you start to slip into REM sleep. This is where all the beneficial aspects of sleep start to kick in; body regeneration, immune system repair and improved cognitive function. And coming out of REM sleep is actually way easier than coming out of a deep sleep. Apparently. I hate waking up in general. I’d live in the matrix, if it meant I could stay asleep. But once again I digress…

Napping through all four stages of a sleep cycle can do wonders and if t you have the time for it in your day, can increase your productivity and mood significantly. But even if you have time, anything more than an hour, hour and a half and you’re looking at possibly interfering with the sleep you try to get at night. So it’s important to find some balance. If you grab yourself a nap and still feel tired and/or exhausted, it could be a sign of something else so you shouldn’t be afraid to discuss it with your doctor or medical practitioner.

Now if you’ll excuse me, as much as I’d love to keep napping I have to get on with my Monday. perhaps the day will bring an opportunity for a snooze. We’ll see… ☯️

On The Road To Recovery…

It’s been something of a rough week. This head cold has totally kicked my ass and made me feel like I was dying. Okay, okay, maybe I’m exaggerating just a bit, but I was on a downer there for a while. It started last Sunday night when I realized that my throat was feeling scratchy and my nose wouldn’t stop running. As I’ve often mentioned in the past, just about every little bug that floats by latches on to me, thanks to good ol’ Type-1 Diabetes.

I worked from home for a few days in order to recover. This is a definite advantage from previous jobs I’ve held, where my presence was actually required and things couldn’t be done virtually the way I do them now. I think it stands to reason that one can’t work from home as a police officer but even prior to that; working from home as a restaurant or pharmacy manager wasn’t a possibility, either. This usually meant going into work, even when I was feeling sick. This is a terrible thing, and not something anyone should have to endure.

I’m making it sound a bit more dramatic than it needs to be. After all, I had a small head cold, I wasn’t dying. But the sad reality is that not everyone has the benefit of continuing to work from home when ill, or the benefit of paid sick days. I think we can agree that everyone has bills, debts and responsibilities and not everyone can be absent from the job for several days to recover. And some employers are unfortunately cruel enough to worry only about their bottom line and may take action against an employee who does. I’ve been there.

Luckily, such is not the case for me now. I’m blessed to have an understanding employer who not only provides me with paid sick days but also has policies allowing remote work, so I was able to keep hammering through while sitting in my jammies and downing cold meds like they were tic tacs. Granted, it’s important to remember that pushing yourself is not always a good thing, either. It’s important to allow the body some genuine rest and even when you’re sitting at a desk, it isn’t comparable to lying down and staying warm and hydrated.

Allowing yourself some recovery time, even for common colds (which there’s no such thing, FYI) is an important step towards maintaining one’s health and wellbeing. It’s also extremely important as it relates to good Diabetes control and blood sugar management. I had a couple of readings this past week that will likely make my endocrinologist’s eyebrows raise but I worked it out. No matter what your work or life situation, just remember that you can’t work and pay the bills if you get worse and end up hospitalized.

Take the time to care for yourself first. Then you can hammer at the challenges of life afterwards. As I’ve often said and written, you need to take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone/anything else. That’s a hard lesson for any of us to embrace, especially when we’re committed to what we do and the responsibilities we have. But self-care ALWAYS has to come first. Food for thought…☯️

Loyalty Is Paper Thin…

Life rarely cares about one’s plans. I’ve said this often. Quiet waters also make for the dullest sails and your ship won’t go far without a little wind. But once in a while, you have to ask yourself, when do the choppy waters calm? It seems to me that I’ve been dealing with almost two decades of people leaving for various reasons. Depending on the arena they happen to be playing in, that departure can leave voids that make things all the more difficult.

It’s a phenomenon I’ve unfortunately seen in many arenas. In karate, I’ve had students that I’ve contributed months and years of training to, only to have them walk away to join a different style or dojo. One good example is a young guy I trained for several years. He started training with me when he was in his early teens and eventually stopped coming to class. He showed promise, but it wasn’t until years later that I found out he had joined Tae Kwon Do. If that wasn’t enough of a piss-off, he considered himself better off. He wasn’t a big fan of how long it took to promote or gain stripes on his belt and that seemed to be all that mattered to him. He certainly got that quickly enough, in Tae Kwon Do. Good for him.

I’ve experienced the same in some of the professional circles I’ve walked in. I’ve managed and trained staff for twenty five years. In those years, I’ve seen many people come and go. And with good reason; some of the industries I’ve worked in weren’t conducive to retaining staff. I’ve had to learn to make my peace with people taking my time and resources to learn and develop, only to leave me a short time later. One comes to expect it, especially when it involves the fact that some folks are simply expected to move on eventually. It hits a bit closer to home when it’s someone that you thought would stick with you for longer.

I had to experience this, recently. I took someone in, trained them, developed them and made them what they are. Although that loyalty should have bought me a longer and more substantial period of time with them in my inner circle, I found out recently that they would be moving on. Someone close to me commented that it seems as though everyone seems to leave me eventually. That definitely seems to be the case. Maybe this phenomenon will come to an end, eventually. Who knows? ☯️

Are You In The Goo…?

Not everyone is as avid a cartoon fan as I am, so maybe I should provide some background on that title. I watch a show called American Dad and there’s an episode where the main protagonist usually sticks his family into vats filled with goo and VR attachments, rather than spend holidays with them. It’s horrible from an actual family perspective but hilarious from a cartoon one. But the actual goo I’m referring to in today’s post, refers to change. Not change in environment or job or even goals but change within oneself, which tends to be the most difficult change of all.

I found the image above somewhere online, last week. I can’t quite remember where but it doesn’t matter. It resonated deeply enough for me to save it at the time, so I thought I would share it. The statement, in and of itself, makes a lot of sense. People always tend to assume that once a caterpillar seals itself up in the cocoon, it comes out having “grown” into a butterfly. The process is actually incredibly complicated and does, in fact, require the majority of the caterpillar’s body breaking down into its constituent proteins.

Despite popular belief, it isn’t completely “goo,” there are a number of organs that stay intact. And it would have to, right? Many people go through this kind of a transformation. It’s never easy and the outside world will usually do very little to accommodate one’s transformation. But if you manage to fight your way and suffer through being reduce to your constituent parts, you’re almost guaranteed to come out more beautiful than when you started. And if you feel that you may not be, it doesn’t mean you aren’t; it may simply mean that your transformation isn’t done yet.

As the image says, if you’re a mess wrapped up in blankets, don’t just keep going. Take a moment to let yourself heal. Take a breath. Take two. Allow yourself to see the path you want to pursue before shedding your cocoon and coming out changed. And be sure to change only in the way that you choose to. Food for thought… ☯️