.SOMETIMES RAW.

Have you ever had an afternoon free, or even an hour you could be resting or doing something you enjoy, only to wither it away thinking about past disappointments, worry about the future, or replaying embarrassing moments or awkward conversations over and over? Many of us spend a lot of time thinking about something other than what we are doing. While it would be unrealistic to eliminate our negative thoughts altogether—the human brain is primed for distraction and negative thoughts can provide helpful information—but perhaps we can shift dwelling or ruminating on those that don’t aren’t offering such insights.

One example for me is ruminating on what other people think. Often, when we are worrying about what people think of us or what we’re doing, we are really just worrying about what we think they think. 

This is not only a guessing game but one that actually has no bearing on who we really are. Yet we can easily obsess and spiral in this projection, and become stuck.

Perhaps here, we can take a lesson from the cosmos. Recently, I saw a documentary with astronomer Greg Quicke who mentioned that it is helpful to think of Pluto, not the dog from Mickey Mouse but the planet. There’s a lot of debate about whether Pluto should or shouldn’t be included in the solar system. But as Greg points out, for Pluto, what we think doesn’t matter so much.

We can be just like Pluto – again, not the dog. What people think of us really doesn’t change us—it’s about finding our own internal direction and feeling a sense of being okay in our place. 

So, when I find myself overthinking instead of resting, or obsessing about what I think people think, I’ll say “Be like Pluto.”

It’s a simple practice, perhaps even a trivial one, but maybe a tangible step towards change. When I’ve experienced a period of unhappiness in my life I’ve often sought external change—my job, hairstyle or even home—only for such feelings to eventually find me again. After all, wherever you go, there you are. 

So instead of getting stuck or making a drastic life change, we can perhaps become more aware of our thoughts and allow for the moment we are in.

This works for me sometimes, but I needed more mind-opening and booked a meeting with a friend and Shaman a couple of weeks ago. Besides having had an awesome new experience that opened my mind, she suggested a simple thought exercise that involved tracking your most common thoughts and devising a new set.

For the first week, I noted and catalogued my thoughts in a journal and take deep breaths while going inwards. She told me to just “freeze”, breathe, and observe. My themes were clear pretty quickly – worrying about the future; beating myself up for perceived flaws; negatively internalising other people’s actions or words; and ruminating on the past. 

What was most startling when reflecting on this list was that each worrying thought was outside of my control. What people think of me, the future, and what other people do is not something I can change by mulling over it. For the most part, I can’t control what happens in my life, but I can control how I think about it.

Then I developed an alternative thought to each on my list. In the following weeks, each time I noticed myself falling into the mental loop of worrying about anything, I would tell myself, “I’m doing what I can now with what I have.”

If I found myself lost in thoughts of the past or replaying interactions, I repeated what she told me, “Be open to the surprises in the present.” 

A simple reminder when I was slipping into another negative thought spiral was simply to ask myself, “Can I control or change this?” 

She further told me that when we test and probe our most common thoughts, we begin to see how our thoughts are constructed—and how much control we really do have.

What became clear to me is that we can’t believe everything we think. We have choices. We can apply thought awareness, get creative and develop a new set of thoughts, or simply let our thoughts pass without overthinking or attaching meaning. 

Negativity, stress and even worry serves a purpose—it enables us to think critically about our environment and actions. But that’s not to say our thoughts couldn’t do with a good spring-cleaning once in a while.

So, to reframe your thoughts or unwind from this spiral of thoughts, take note of them. Spring clean your mind. Focus on what you can control. And worry less about what you think people think, and more about what you think.

Spring-clean your mind with my friend(s) who are Shamanic Practitioner(s). It is an enlightening, awesome experience!

Be happy. Be healthy. Be open to something new.

Microbiome whaaaaat? What is she talking about now? Well, let me enlighten you. Science is now showing how powerful our microbiome is, and how it influences many different areas of our body. In today’s post, I am covering what the microbiome is, why it’s so important, and 5 ways to support it. If you’re like most people, you probably don’t think too much about what’s inside your body. Especially when it comes to the bacteria that call our body home.

We’re what’s known as a “host” for critters like bacteria, yeasts, and the like. Isn’t that weird? And while many of us think of those things as something bad, they’re actually very, very important.

What is our Microbiome?

The trillions of microbes — over 100 trillion to be exact — including bacteria, yeasts, viruses, and fungi living in and on our body are collectively known as our “microbiome”. Over half of our body is made up of bacterial cells involving 1,000 species and over 7,000 strains. Crazy! Even crazier is that these bacterial cells outnumber human cells by 10 to 1.

These microbes live in and on us. Areas like our skin, our armpits, the vagina, and a large percentage in our colon. The colonization of these microbes begins to establish itself at birth and is one of the reasons why vaginal deliveries are beneficial for babies.

These microbes play essential roles in keeping us healthy. They do so by:

• Supporting and educating our immune system by communicating with immune cells
• Producing important nutrients, amino acids, and short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate, the primary energy source for colon cells that helps reduce inflammation
• Controlling the permeability of epithelial cells by mediating tight junction formation (this means reducing leaky gut)
• Preventing bad bacteria from adhering to intestinal tissue. Yep, literally preventing them from “sticking” to your intestinal walls.
• Influencing gut motility — the movements of the digestive system and the transit of the contents within it.
• Secreting many kinds of feel-good neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine

Why a healthy microbiome matters

I know it can seem hard to wrap your head around why your gut bacteria really matter. Who cares, right? But the reality is that without a healthy microbiome, you’re much more likely to suffer from issues like depression, IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and other gastrointestinal disorders like inflammatory bowel disease, and even obesity.

A robust, diverse gut flora means a happy and healthy whole body. The two are intricately connected, and emerging research continues to demonstrate the direct and indirect relationship between gut health and human physiology.

How to support your Microbiome

There are many things we can do to support our microbiome and all those incredible little creatures inside of us. What we eat each and every day is one of the best ways to influence the health of our microbiota, because they feed off of specific types of fibres found in an array of whole foods.

1. Eat a diverse range of fibre-rich plant foods: whole, fresh vegetables and fruits contain phytonutrients and fibres that support the health of our microbiome and keep our bowels moving regularly
2. Consume prebiotic foods: these are foods that our microbiota use as fuel due to the specific fermentable sugars and fibres they contain, such as cabbage, lentils, onion, garlic, and artichokes. These tend to cause a higher likelihood of gas production, so increase your consumption gradually if needed.
3. Consume fermented foods: foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt and kombucha contain probiotics — beneficial bacteria that support our digestive system. Probiotic supplementation can also be beneficial for those who need extra support.
4. Avoid overuse of antibiotics when possible: I’m by NO means suggesting that you disregard the advice of your doctor if you have an infection, but it’s wise to avoid them in unnecessary cases. This is due to the disruption they cause to the delicate balance of our gut flora by killing off both the “bad” and “good” bacteria.
5. Limit highly processed foods: this includes refined sugars, starches, and oils that in excess may disrupt the balance of our gut flora. An abundance of whole, fresh foods is the best choice for supporting our microbiome!

Be healthy. Be happy.

Dear Parents,

there are some great news about a new testing system called “Flow Flex Test” (this is actually a new thing at schools to test kids!) at schools and we hope you had a wonderful evening and are delighted to welcome you back to school as we celebrate a return to normalcy. We want to assure you that schools are open, safe, and operating completely as usual. However, we did want to make you aware of some policy changes to ensure a great learning environment for all!

Your child’s classroom will have no teacher. Understandably, many of our educators have been reluctant to return to school, with COVID cases and hospitalizations reaching an all-time high according to the experts and emergency rooms are on the brink of collapse. We want to reassure you that our approach is pedagogically sound and has been studied in-depth by our wonderful Department of Education over the past few weeks. We are eager to offer your child a timely learning opportunity. We promise.

Depending on the age and local funding, your child’s classroom will be staffed by:

• A small robot with lifelike emotions on loan from NASA
• YouTube and TikTok (please refer to our “Healthy Social Media Policy” on page 391 of the school handbook for an FAQ)
• Reruns of Teletubbies for 1st graders and Frozen 1+2 all day
• A local middle-school student who needs a job

This strategy will allow us to keep schools operational and enriching. Feel free to contact us with any specific questions.

Your child should report to school no matter what. Remember that kids really should be in school because, at this point, everyone will get COVID anyway. Moreover, due to the unavailability of test results on time and the fact that the nearest official PRC “free-yourself-from-quarantine” drive-thru is in Korneuburg (email us for more info), this is the most expedient route. Please follow these easy steps every morning:

1. Fill out a daily health questionnaire by 5 a.m. We understand that you will lie.

2. Please screen your child for COVID using an antigen test by 7 a.m. We recognize that at-home tests no longer exist except at pharmacies that are closed at this time. With this in mind, our school nurse has approved the use of a cotton swab or Q-tip with six droplets of vodka splashed onto an egg carton instead. 

3. Once at school, regardless of testing status, if your child must cough, they are no longer allowed to do so into their elbow. Instead, they must just kind of swallow it into their throat until it goes away.

Be flexible. We recognize the burden that COVID has placed on our families. We wanted to take a moment to outline in detail our school cancellation policies clearly.

Your child will be sent home only if:

1. They have tested positive for COVID in the past thirty days, but only on a PCR test, which is impossible to find or afford, so please don’t worry about this possibility. You have enough on your mind as it is. If they wear this Pokemon hat below. It is the law, you have to understand.

2. Their class has more than one but fewer than four positive cases, in which case they can return the day after tomorrow, after 1 p.m., but only with proof of two antigen tests or one PCR test, as well as a fever of under 38 degrees Celcius, proof of which you can submit via App to an unknown Dropbox link that we will have up and running as soon as our assistant IT manager returns from the Intensive Care Unit.

3. There are no robots available to teach your child.

And remember: Per the Department of Education, you can send your child back to school even with symptoms and without the presence of a negative test, provided they spent three days playing Minecraft in isolation. Nintendo Switch is also an option.

Wear a mask! If you cannot locate a mask, please note that we will also accept knitted face coverings. (Check out upcoming virtual Community Education class “How to Design Your Own FFP2 Mask” for more on this technique, taught by a local retired art teacher.)

A few other odds and ends: Children will no longer eat lunch at school. Please feed them a hearty breakfast. We plan to conduct all classes outdoors unless temperatures drop below minus 20 degrees. Our staff psychologist has skimmed early studies concluding that frigid temperatures stimulate the firing of neurons and have been shown to accelerate brain growth in children. Please contact us to learn more about his new innovation, which we hope to continue even after the pandemic ends. Which will never happen anyway.

We do recognize that the pavement is cold, so please send your child with their own heated quilt, available only on Amazon for Euro 150.00. Mr B., the founder and owner of Amazon is a partner of the Department of Education and Health and he wants us to mention that his net income is approximately 200 Billion US Dollars but hey, who is counting. I am proud to say that our schools have partnered up with Mr B. who offers these quilts with our school logo. He will donate some of the money toward at-home antigen tests in April 2024 because currently, these are not valid.

Thank you for your understanding and patience during these reassuring times since everything has returned back not normal. We are happy to see your child(ren) in class soon!

Sincerely,

Your School District