Your Body Knows: A Summer Dispatch from Armie

Quiet summer for Armie — eh?

Maybe you're feeling like it’s already over. That it came and went too fast. Maybe you didn’t enjoy as much of it as you wanted to. Or maybe you finally nailed summer this year, and now you can’t wait for fall.

Either way, folks — we’re still a ways out from the autumn equinox. There’s still time to get outside. So please: remind yourself, and go.

Writing about what holds still can be hard in the macro-environment we’re living in. That’s why breaks are necessary. I took a break from the news desk these past couple of months. Because even with a satirical lens, the news still drags. It drains. It was designed to do so.

And yet — much of what I’ve talked about in this space is informed by a resistance to the narrative peddled by media — on all sides, for all audiences — and that narrative is fear.

This week, my doctor said something simple that stopped me:

“Your body cannot heal in the parasympathetic state.”

Translation: you cannot heal when you're in fight-or-flight. (Also: fawn, freeze, or dissociate — underrepresented but real states.)

And when we say heal, we don’t mean luxury. We don’t mean Bali. We mean basic survival — your body’s ability to close wounds to prevent infection. To live. Healing is not optional. And your body knows how to do it.

We kept talking. Psoriasis came up. I asked her about those biologic injectables that everyone raves about — if your insurance approves them.

Her response?

“They fuck up your immune system.”

Then she asked: “Have you tried exposing the skin where you have psoriasis to direct sunlight for prolonged — safe — periods?”

I thought about it.
“Yes, perhaps inadvertently.”
“Do you notice a difference?”
“Yes.”
“Do more of that.”

Now — I’m not a doctor. I’m not giving medical advice. But I am here to pause, reflect, and ask: what remains?

Here’s what remains for me:

Your body can do no wrong for you. It is twenty steps ahead of you at all times.

Summer offers us the chance to bank vitamin D. To play. To deprogram from systems that want you indoors, sick, and docile.

As the days (barely) begin to shorten, remind yourself:
There’s still time to ask your body what it needs in this season of abundance.

What you store now will define how you feel six months from now — when the light is low and the air is cold. Give your body something to remember.

Don’t drown in fluorescent gyms this February thinking about “next summer’s body.” That’s the trap.

Instead:
Think.
Eat well.
Consume less.
Immerse yourself in community.
And always — always — be healing.

Happy August, folks.
Rabbit, rabbit as the Brits say.