I recently came across an online article that is now many months old. Old, but not obsolete. Head’s up – this is not a technical post – the reference data comes from an online Reddit poll. Nonetheless… I find it both depressing AND useful.
The article is here – People Are Sharing What’s Slowly Killing Us That Society Pretends Isn’t A Problem – all it was really doing was summarizing the Reddit thread (which is here).
From what I can tell, the order of the list is possibly related to up-voting, but also the original date of inclusion – so don’t read too much into the following number sequence of all the things that are silently making our life unhealthy:
- Stress
- The hoops people have to jump through to get / keep a job
- Mental health struggles and society’s push back
- Poor understanding of nutrition
- Disinformation
- Microplastics
- Cell phone / social media addiction
- Isolation from local community
- Loneliness
- Lack of empathy
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Instant-gratification
- Anti-intellectualism
- Cars
- Global warming
- All of the above, plus poor air / water quality, lack of sleep, sugar, inflammation, heavy metals, pesticides, mold, chronic viral infections, dyes in our food, and, and, and…
It’s pretty doom and gloom – BUT – I also realized it can act a bit like a To Do List. Some of the elements (such as employment hoops and global warming) are not totally within my sphere of influence. But a lot of the other items ARE.
For example: I can get off my backside more each day, put the phone down and go visit someone in my friendship group. I could catch public transport to get there, and make sure we eat fresh fruit at our picnic (utilizing paper plates and a timber cutting board). We can try to better express our feelings and be as empathetic as possible with how we reply to each other. And then we can try to move onto some intellectual conversations that prioritize well-sourced information not click-bait and gossip. When we’re finished eating and chatting, we can walk together for some exercise and say hi to as many people as we can as we go, whilst staying open to casual conversations with strangers. We can also be grateful for the sun on our shoulders and aware of the fact that a little pinch in our shoes (or neck, or hip) is not the end of the world, and we can catch ourselves from complaining or making excuses for why we should call it a day.
If all that sounds too overwhelming, fair enough. But I’m open to the idea of picking a point in each day where I try a little harder to incorporate some changes that might delay my inevitable demise by a few (preferably many) years.
AND strangely, this list has made me all the more invested in blogging for a while yet… with an emphasis on connection, conversation, community and compassionate care (I had to swap out empathy because I was on a C-word alliteration roll!)
If you’re still not sure where to start with your life-health-overhaul, here’s some other posts I’ve written that specifically cover many of the killer-topics mentioned above:
- Compassionate communication
- Instagram-fatigue
- Microplastics
- Mold
- Reconnecting with nature
- Stop sitting down
Lastly, I’m not a member of the Reddit community (the original prompt for this post), but there is a public Migraine presence where you can read what people post about their migraine questions or answers: Reddit/Migraine
Here’s the 3 posts that were top of the page on the day I visited – they’re slightly disturbing, and wildly validating, because all 3 are so relatable. Under each image is a link to the source site, which includes the conversations that ensued.
- “Unsuccessful”: sadly for the poster, putting hair clips on her eyebrows didn’t work (but for me it sometimes does – although I use either loose laundry pegs or even better; the tiny claw-clips that gardeners use to hold up orchid blooms – I suspect it has something to do with squeezing the pressure points related to your vagus nerve) – obviously you need to be VERY careful how you apply them:
[Image source: Unsuccessful 😞 : r/migraine]
2. “Coke is not coke”: this post includes a person’s ranking of cola varieties (containers and brands) – for me and my migraine, I’d bump glass above canned because the can gets too cold and I get brain-freeze:
[Image source: Coke remedy : r/migraine]
3. “McGill pain index”: which shows chronic migraine getting a pain-scale of 29 out of 50, which is very close to Fibromyalgia and only slightly higher than a bruise (WTF!?@#$) but much less than having a finger amputated (WTFagain!?@#$). The comments under this post were in line with my initial thoughts (i.e. LMAO) but with a heavy emphasis on graphic stories relating to the horror of kidney stones:
[Image source: McGill Pain Index Migraine Rating : r/migraine]
Anyway – with that I’m off… hopefully I have turned a grim subject around and left you smiling rather than reeling… here’s to human connection and all of us having a McGill (0) week-end if possible!
Take care taking care out there, Linda xx
PS – if you’re still feeling a little down, here’s an affirmational-song that’s playing on repeat on my phone and in my head at the moment; Desirée Dawson’s “I am Blessed” (there’s lots of versions online but here’s the 4-minute version with a lovely backdrop):
The Mindful Migraine 
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