Check-Up

I finally got myself checked by the doctor. Nothing wrong, just a general check-up. I haven’t seen the doctor for about 2 years now. Someone I deeply cared about kept nudging me to do it so I finally did.

It’s interesting how I talk about caring about health but don’t make the effort to see the doctor for a general check-up. Even the doctor was confused why I was there to see her, she was like, “Well…is there anything that’s bothering you?”

That must be a “generic” question she asks her patients. It makes perfect sense. It’s pretty obvious that most people see her only when there’s something terribly wrong with their health.

Most of us prefer to be more reactive than proactive. Meaning, we wait until it’s too late to prevent whatever it is that we were diagnosed for. My assumption? It’s so much easier to drink pills or medicine than to build a healthier lifestyle.

People complain a lot about health problems but they don’t realize that most of these problems were caused by their lifestyle – NOT their genetics or environment they live in.

And sometimes, it might just be an imaginary illness known as…

Hypochondriasis

I’m no medical professional but this book I read mentioned that:

“…75% of all people who visit physicians for professional service are suffering from hypochondria (imaginary illness)”. -Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

But it’s not a medical book and it’s a very old book so I don’t know if the stats are still valid.

Even I suffer from this (I think). I don’t understand what makes driving uncomfortable for me especially on a +30-deg C weather. Due to lack of “professional explanation”, I try to justify what I’m feeling even though I’m not a doctor. It could be caused by:

• Lack of sleep – if I remember the stats correctly, more people (or at least equal?) get into accidents due to sleep deprivation as opposed to DUI. 
• F*cked Up Belief – there was this local news I saw when I was a kid that stuck with me forever. People died in a parked car due to unknown causes. The cause of their death MIGHT have been due to poisonous gas that came from the car’s A/C. Unproven and filled with assumptions, that news (despite the silliness of the story) screws me over. I get all paranoid when I use my car’s AC or heater (in the winter) thinking “Is this the day I die from the poisonous gas?”. It’s amazing how our brain f*cks us over.
• Cold/Flu/Fever – I noticed a pattern that the “uncomfortable-ness” surfaces when I’m about to get a cold or flu.
• Lack of Movement – Sitting still makes me feel uneasy. I find highways to be boring (lack of turns) as well as being stuck in traffic (lack of movement).

As you may notice, there’s a list of reasons I can come up with. Paranoia at its peak.

I’m sure there’s a lot of you out there as well who suffer from this exact same thing (imaginary illness). BUT because it sounds f*cked up, weird and embarrassing, you fail to address it properly. The fear doesn’t go away, you just get better at dealing with it. That said, it may be gone today but it will re-surface in the future. The best way to deal with it is to position yourself to avoid situations that would trigger the fear.

“Subtle” mental illness. I think that’s what it is. I know that may sound a little too strong but let’s call a spade a “spade”.

Upgrading your physical health will help a lot in dealing with our not-so-great mentality. Which is why I focus on improving my lifestyle (improve quality of sleep) and improving my mindset (replace debilitating beliefs). This week I’ve been thinking about buying heavier…

Weights

I’ve been doing the Happy Body Workout (on and off) since Week-13.

The sets are easier to do now – it doesn’t take that much willpower to push myself to workout and the weights feel lighter.

This tells me it’s time for me to level things up by either lifting heavier weights, increasing the number of sets or going for harder routines.

A new “thing” that was added to my morning routine was: jogging for about 10-15 minutes before going to work. Nothing too crazy, just something to take advantage of summer.

Doing all these little things add up to help me get a good night sleep. I don’t stay up late on weekends like I used to – it screws up my circadian rhythm. 

This reminded me of that podcast with Matthew Walker from The Joe Rogan Experience:

“The shorter your sleep, the shorter your life”

There isn’t much going on for me this week but I have a list to accomplish:

• Create an FB page for this website – to allow me to post my blogs and artwork in public.
• Buy a picture frame for the sample poster I ordered and sell it on Kijiji.
• Finish a new piece of artwork for another personal project I’m working on.

My goal every week is to…

Improve by 1%

That means, doing little things that don’t matter (to most people) – things that don’t immediately have a big impact on my life.

I listened to a podcast about the guy who built Humans of New York. It inspired me to keep doing what I’m doing without expecting anything in return.

The strategy is to keep “planting seeds, one seed at a time” – putting in the smallest effort, one small task at a time. It may be useless today but it could be valuable in the future. That strategy is what keeps me…

• Writing about self-improvement even if no one really reads what I write.
• Drawing illustrations using Microsoft Paint even if no one really sees or like my work.
• Finding ways to keep improving (all areas of my life) despite the fact that I’m already happy and satisfied with my current life.

A few thoughts that came up this week I wanted to talk about:

• Why I didn’t buy an online course on Kopy writing.
• The reason I respond to e-mails.
• What it means to be selfish with my time.
• The dream that inspired me to write a new series of articles/blogs.

But I just don’t feel like writing about them right now.

It’s 12:11 PM and I have a sore throat. I can keep writing but I find that I make more sense early in the morning. Which is why this needs to end now.