Reclaiming Real in the Digital Age

Biometrics, bio hacks, transhumanism, quick fixes, magic pills, concrete cities, AI, smart phones, smart homes, ordering ‘food’ from a computer, Botox, fillers, fake lashes, machine prepped food, lab created food, so on and so forth. What do these all have in common? They are artificial. They may get you what you think you want and fast at that, but will it lead you to lasting health, and vitality? Is it even real? What is real anymore? These are the questions I’ve been pondering lately. The more I learn about our digital world, the more I want to retreat to the proverbial cabin in the woods and forget about digital world. I want to just work on living my life peaceful and making the changes for my family, myself, and my little circle of influence. I want to travel back to where our ancestors lived, dwell there, abide there. But here I am, writing on a digital platform from a computer. So clearly, I am a hypocrite, and clearly, I have some stake in this digital world because I’m here writing on Substack. I’m a part of the digital world anytime I log onto my computer or check my smartphone. But when it comes to healing, we can NOT forgo the physical world and heal ourselves digitally. We HAVE to spend time in nature, we HAVE to eat real food, we HAVE to connect in person, we HAVE to step away from the screen. We need to reclaim our physical world ESPECIALLY when it comes to healing.

We may want to ‘trust the science’ and follow the advice of what the experts recommend. But what happens when this advice is contradictory to what we know deep down? We all know deep down that there is not a magical pill that is going to cause rapid weight loss without some negative consequences. We KNOW this on an intuitive level, but many of us fall into the spell of quick fixes. Because we are a culture of wanting it and wanting it now without having to work too hard for it. ‘They’ say it’s safe! But usually, we later find out, perhaps through our own experience, or researching four ourselves that there are potential harmful side effects, that maybe it’s not as safe as it is claimed to be. And yes, we can lose the weight fast, but what did we give up losing that weight? A family friend I knew recently went to the ER for heart attack related symptoms. The doctors couldn’t find anything wrong, and after multiple tests and a 2-night stay in the hospital, they summed it up to ‘broken heart syndrome’ related to stress, and a recent minor surgical procedure. I asked her some questions and found out she started a ‘safe’ type 2 diabetic medication for weight loss 4 months prior to this event. Coincidence? Perhaps. But it’s worth exploring right? Wrong. When I brought it up, I was quickly dismissed. “No, the doctor said it’s safe and couldn’t be the cause.” We believe what we want to believe. In her case, she has lost a lot of weight due to this medication. I don’t claim to know if the medication is related to her heart issue, but it at least should be looked into seriously. I will admit I am overly cautious when it comes to using pharmaceutical medicine in my own journey. When I was working as an ICU nurse many moons ago, I was under a significant amount of stress and my health was suffering tremendously. I knew if I went to a western medicine provider, I would most likely be prescribed an antidepressant to help manage the stress related symptoms I was experiencing, and it would have helped. A medication would mask the symptoms but not fix the root cause. I knew the root cause was stress, so I opted for acupuncture instead. And it worked. Addressing the root cause allowed me to steer clear of the potential harmful side effects. Don’t get me wrong, there are some lifesaving medications, and at times pharmaceuticals cannot be avoided but we need to be informed about what we are taking. We need to educate ourselves and be our own advocate for our health.

I can’t believe what I even see on computers to be real anymore with AI generated art and CGI. I was looking at a cool picture the other day of a wolf and an owl that were friends. I thought to myself how amazing it is that an owl and a wolf are friends! The picture looked so real, but then I remembered how real pictures can look but actually aren’t real all thanks to our amazing technology. And I came to the conclusion that I can’t trust what I see online anymore. I don’t know what is real or unreal unless I see in person for myself. AI has its place in medicine, certainly robotics are useful in surgery, and other areas in medicine. But we also need to reclaim the ancient healing practices such as Ayurveda, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, that not only work but also provide lasting results that addressing healing the physical, mental, and spiritual body.

When it comes to healing, we need to dig deeper and ask hard questions. To our health care providers who recommend pharmaceutical medication, we need to ask questions such as, what are the potential side effects? What are the risks versus benefits? How long has this medication been approved? And then we must take it further, we need to read the inserts and literature for ourselves. If you are on prescription medications, I recommend buying a Nursing Drug Handbook and reading the information about your medications you are currently taking.

When we read the latest health trends, or recommendations from the ‘experts’ I recommend going to the bottom of the screen where they have the references and going to those sites. Read the studies. Who funds the studies that support the claims listed? And finally, ask the question I like the best of all, does this make sense? Does this follow the commonsense rule? What is the commonsense rule? It’s what we know. It’s the truth that lives in us intuitively.

I do believe modern medicine has its place in our lives. But for my personal healing journey, I go back to the ancient art of medicine, the proven healing modalities our ancestors practiced. Interestingly, there is science and studies that explain why and how these ancient practices work physiologically. The ‘experts’ I trust these days are the ‘experts’ of 5000 years ago, they were right all along. And what we need for healing our mind/body/soul is to put the screen down, close the computer, and reclaim our identity in the physical world before it’s too late. Balance. We can’t get away from the digital world, but we can reclaim our connection to the physical world.