Health and happiness

It's a strange time to be living through. At no other period of my life has the health of every human on the planet been pretty much the entire focus of the political, media, medical and scientific establishments. It is beyond compare. The COVID pandemic and all the measures taken to combat it have changed our world almost beyond recognition. Until relatively recently, we all enjoyed much more freedom. Now, we just have a pale version of it. I'm not going to get into the whole debate here about the virus and vaccines - these are huge subjects to tackle. I have my own views about them, sure, but I've noticed the increased polarisation of opinion and how this has effectively divided the country, families and friendships and for that reason I don't wish to write about it. 

Do I state my views here on my own blog though? And if I state my views, I guess that just starts a debate around it which is not what I wanted this post to be. Does that make me a fence sitter? Perhaps I should state where I stand. I do believe there is a virus about and a nasty one at that. I don't believe all the hype about it though. I had the virus and it came and went in a matter of days. One aspect of it was how it made things taste awful. A close family member also had the virus but for him it was a couple of weeks and it wasn't at all pleasant. He was very tired and breathless with zero appetite. Finally, he took some hydroxychloroquine, that much maligned medicine, and in hours he was feeling a lot better. It's strange that this method of treatment is not used or encouraged more widely.

Since I've had the virus, I see no reason to get the vaccine especially as it's still deemed experimental and hasn't gone through the rigorous testing process that vaccines normally undergo. I can understand why they were introduced because health authorities were desperate for some ways to combat the virus but they've effectively made us all into guinea pigs. Many people have had severe adverse reactions to these vaccines and some have died. What astounds me is that despite these incidents, the vaccine is still aggressively promoted. It is akin to a religion. A friend of mine who hasn't and won't take the vaccine told me recently that a mutual friend of ours who had been coming to visit him had asked him if he'd had the jab and when he said no, the mutual friend had said 'you've got to have it!'. It's this type of coercion and pressure that I resist strongly especially when I'm party to alternative information from qualified sources. To be honest, it's as if the world has gone mad. It was mad enough already but we've now ramped up the insanity stakes, pushed the lever to 11 on the volume scale and blown the speakers!

The news, which I have roundly ignored for quite a while now although obviously I still get dribs and drabs of it, leaking out as it does from every broadcastable orifice, is 24/7 wall-to-wall fear porn. It's relentless and the effect it has on already frightened people is to turn them into fanatics. It's interesting, or perhaps alarming depending on perspective, to note that fear turns normal, ordinary decent people into frightened, angry, cognitively dissonanced ones. Anyone who goes against the mainstream narrative is a selfish, deluded, conspiracy theorising lunatic. This is how we live now. It is far better, in my view anyway, to not engage in fruitless debate with people whose minds are set rigid and not open to discussion or even the possibility of entertaining facts that counter their beliefs. As I said, it's almost a religion and those who disagree are considered heretics. 

Anyway, the point is that this is a global health issue. It is like a reflection or a manifestation of the same sickness of our planet's biome. Our water, land and air are all full of chemicals and all are at risk - land becoming barren, usable water more scarce and air less healthy to breathe. We are facing environmental collapse on so many fronts because there are so many factors converging at the same time that will undermine our ability to get the proper nutrients we need to lead full and healthy lives. At some point, we won't be able to grow food in the quantities we currently need to feed the billions of people on this Earth because the land will become increasingly infertile due to the toxic levels of pesticides and herbicides that continue to be sprayed and ploughed into the soil, year after year. The soils of this Earth are finite and we depend on their health for our health. I'm talking about the soils for industrial agriculture here, mainstream agriculture if you like, where the majority of the world's food is grown. The US grain basket of the mid-west teeters at the point of collapse because it requires huge amounts of fertiliser to grow the vast amount of grains required. Grains in other countries are also at risk. Most fertilisers use a combination of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compounds and again these compounds are finite. I looked at potash production, that is soluble potassium, and the producers estimate that they have thousands of years of supply left. That's wonderful but perhaps we are forgetting about the energy required to mine that potash. The effort of getting the material - probably oil - to get the potash to grow the food also requires energy and oil has passed its peak and is on the decline. 

Then there are the diseases springing up that affect our crops. New grain diseases, such as the ominously named Ug99, are becoming more prevalent and are spreading globally. This can wipe out an entire harvest. Simply put, we are walking along a knife-edge of sustainability unless we change our behaviours. It's not a question of whether we will face famine in our lifetimes, it's a question of when. We are living in a fool's paradise unless we take responsibility for the health of the planet. At some point, the dominos will fall and harvests will fail and prices will skyrocket. If nothing else, we all need to be growing our own food in sustainable ways. The knowledge of how to do this is already 'out there' if we care to look. 

First of all, soil health and preservation. In industrial farming, soils are degraded and lost as I mentioned above by continuous chemical treatments and rains that wash away topsoil or winds that blow it away. We can improve soil health by looking at what some indigenous cultures have been doing for a very long time. Just to pick one thing at random, biochar, which is basically a bio-active charcoal (i.e. it promotes the growth of bacteria, fungi and other micro organisms while ordinary charcoal doesn't due to the production process), this has the ability to improve soil health through carbon sequestration and moisture retention and thereby increase nutrients available to plants. Bio-char can be made from timber that is considered unsaleable and also animal dung. Research into its properties have shown increased yields and healthier plants.

On another different but related tack there is the humble hemp plant. Hemp was demonised in the last century by corporate lobbying. By depicting its psychoactive cousin, Cannabis Sativa, also an incredible medicinal plant, as the scourge of American youth in such propaganda as the film 'Reefer Madness' and a persistent campaign against its cultivation, associating hemp with marijuana, hemp growing was effectively made too complicated to be economic. There's a huge history about this which I won't go into here but suffice to say that this plant improves soil and can help to remove toxins. It doesn't need pesticides and herbicides and can sequester large amounts of carbon back into the soil. It can also be used for building materials, clothes, rope, and has highly nutritious seeds and oil and other medicinal properties. This is gradually changing now but it should be much more widespread and easy to grow than it is, knowing its amazing remedial qualities.

Water health and purity are similar issues. I've already written about water but in relation to the health of our planet and ultimately human health, it can't be ignored. We need to ensure that we don't pollute our water or our air. This is what we and animals ingest into our bodies. It is needs to be the best water we can drink. This is easier said than done because of the complicated jigsaw of dependency we've created plus the need to kill bacteria and other pathogens when we keep water in the large standing bodies required for urban areas. 

We have an over-dependency on chemicals in industry and farming so to simply stop using them is not going to happen overnight. It will take a long time to generate the required momentum to turn to alternative means. The massive chemical conglomerates, and importantly all their investors, employees and downstream wholesalers and so on are not going to stop overnight. There's too much money invested and it seems that even the truth staring them in the face just doesn't cut it. If this is the case, we need new ways to clean up the toxicity and try to limit the damage. In water, we need better filtration methods and means of keeping water alive. On land, we can clean up chemicals through mycoremediation, this is the term used for detoxing the soil and environment by using fungi. There are mushrooms out there which can literally eat toxic materials, ingesting chemical spills. 

Without going too deeply into it, we have the means to clean up the planet of all our pollution. The only ingredients missing are political and corporate will, and imagination. From what I can see, and I don't 'do news', this is not going to happen any time soon. They talk the talk but never walk that talk. There are massive forces at play. There is a deep reluctance to change, not only by the establishments that govern us but us too, as if we are being collectively weaned off highly addictive drugs: capitalism and its progeny consumerism. The enormous wealth disparities that are constantly being paraded in front of our eyes and the ridiculous wealth of the tech billionaires and others show us how insane this is. I believe we already have some trillionaires too. Many of them are planning space exploration! Meanwhile back in the teeming, squalid megacities Sao Paulo, Delhi, Jakarta, Manila and so on, we have some of the poorest, most desperate people on Earth. Somehow, these people survive although the death rate is probably incredibly high. 

To sum up, humanity is sick. Our priorities are skewed, our leaders are unimaginative and corrupt, our focus is off, and we are desperately lost as a species. Of course, there are many people worldwide who work tirelessly to try and bring back balance in a number of different fields such as science, technology, agriculture, environment and more but their voices are often not heard and the message is diluted if not ridiculed. Look at what happened to Greta Thunberg, the teenage climate activist and how she has been accused of being in cahoots with the climate change agenda and how it's all a hoax. Likewise Extinction Rebellion. Apparently, they were just too much of a nuisance. Many of their leaders or figureheads were arrested and charged with public order offences. 

So, I have rambled a bit on this post because the subjects are so large and I can only devote so much space to each subject within the larger story. The title of this blog is 'Health and Happiness' and so far I haven't really written about personal health, apart from some nods to the pandemic, and certainly not 'happiness'.

I do have some views about personal health and I have a number of issues that I am not going to discuss in any great depth because of their personal nature. Basically, I don't use the National Health Service or go to a doctor when I feel ill, which isn't often. I would only use a doctor for things like sprained ankles, broken bones, deep cuts etc and I have been fortunate not to have had any major illnesses. In Portugal, I went to the doctor maybe one or twice in seven years. One time was to get a particularly nasty splinter out of my finger that I couldn't shift myself. I can't even remember what the other time was, maybe it was just once. Usually, I take care of my own health. I do this by eating natural, organic vegetarian food, avoiding anything processed, and drinking clean, pure water. I stopped eating sugary stuff over a year ago although I allow myself the odd croissant or piece of cake but it is rare. I rarely drink alcohol and if I do it's in total moderation. I use herbs and natural medicines whenever I can and never take pharmaceutical drugs. When it comes to fitness, well, I'm not as fit as I used to be but I go for long walks as often as I can and try not to sit around. I could be a lot fitter that's true. That's my physical health and I would say that I'm not in bad shape for a guy my age and I'm no spring chicken!

When it comes to mental and emotional health, I would say that these are things I constantly work on too. I often fall by the wayside and make mistakes. Can I make mistakes though? Isn't this just about constantly learning about myself, whoever I am, and becoming more aware, more conscious and being OK with what is? Not going into stories or losing myself in anger and sadness. The same goes for spiritual health, something that is rarely if ever discussed in the medical establishment. I do have a spiritual practice of sorts but it is not something that I wear on my sleeve. I pray to a higher source but also recognise that I am part of this higher source too. That indeed spirit is infused in all of nature, and all things, that this source is all one and the same thing. I feel rather than believe and I am open to beliefs being challenged because belief can be a dangerous thing - look at all the wars in the name of religion, still ongoing to this day. In my opinion - and opinions are vastly overated! - people can do, believe and pray to whatever they want as long as it harms no one, no being and no thing. That's it. 

My own spiritual practices are my own and I don't discuss them with anyone else, unless they ask me, since it's between me and spirit. The teachings of Buddha, the original teachings are still taught, or perhaps a better word is broadcast, through Vipassana meditation. I've been on two ten-day retreats of this incredible technique and benefitted from it hugely although after some minor effort on my part, I stopped practicing it. It is a hard discipline to follow for undisciplined souls like me - and that's just another belief! However, it can lead to a very pure mind that is in the here and now and accepts everything. Buddha saw that most of the disharmony and unhappiness in the world was caused by two things: craving and aversion. In other words, desiring what was not here, wanting things that you didn't have or situations that had not happened and so on. And not wanting things, situations that had happened etc. Both took you out of the present. It is only the present that you have direct experience of. So, imagine if you're on the phone, pacing up and down, as people so often do, in some incredibly gorgeous garden, beside a babbling brook of clear water on a sunny day. The birds are singing in the trees, the bees are buzzing lazily, the flowers giving off intoxicating aromas and the stream is bubbling away but you're getting all upset on the phone about money or cancellation of plans or some such thing. The reality is that you are in a beautiful place, heaven, but your mind is somewhere else, hell. You are not present. This is not to minimise the problems you may be having because most people would retort that you are having the problem at that time but this is all going on inside your head mainly. You could just lie or sit beside the river and let all that beauty seep into your being but most people wouldn't. They would worry about things. It reminds me of a film where a captured Soviet agent in the US keeps getting asked whether they are worried and he keeps on replying: "Would it help?". Of course it wouldn't. Worrying is our mind kicking into overdrive, driving us to distraction, and worry seems to be a monster that grows and grows the more you feed it. It is a big illusion though. When you have a problem, the best thing is to deal with it to the best of your ability to do so and beyond that there is nothing more you can do. You have to accept things otherwise you go crazy. 

This is important because ultimately this is tied up with the concept of happiness. I don't think you can pursue happiness. It is a mirage, constantly eluding you. You can pursue a more peaceful state of mind though and in that state of mind, happiness arises as if by magic. Other ways of being also arise such as joy, humour, harmony and creativity. It creates a healthier way of being, a healthy mind free of wanting or not wanting anything. That is not to say your needs are unmet. You still need food, water, and shelter but you are free of this disharmony. Living in a consumerist society where values are placed on what you have in terms of wealth, occupation and property, there is a lot of disharmony about and hence not a lot of happiness. You do come across happy people though everywhere. People you meet in the street who smile and say hello, which always warms the heart. They seem happy enough. Am I happy? At times, I am but it is fleeting and I need to become more conscious of my inner workings.

In closing, I would say that health and happiness are inextricably linked. Happy people worry less if at all and this affects their physical and emotional well-being. Doctors used to never ask about one's emotional state if one was prone to sickness but it is slowly becoming more accepted that mind, body and spirit are all inter-connected. It doesn't follow that if you're happy you don't get sick. Other factors are also at play - maybe due to one's genes, environment or diet - but you would probably be in a better place to face it and hopefully get over it. 

Looking at how our world is so sick, one can understand the prevalence of disease. Like everything though, we have to start with our own health first and then find ways to emanate that wellness out into the world. I would start with food and water and go from there. Good nutritional food grown on clean healthy soil and clean, pure living water and perhaps even meditation. It's not everyone's cup of tea, I grant you, but it is a way forward towards a healthier and happier world.  

Be happy!