Health and wellness

I turned forty one a few weeks ago. I marked the occasion by going to a conference in Milwaukee and pretty much telling no one it was my birthday. I celebrated with family, of course, but that was it.

Today I was discussing work and life with a colleague. I had been complaining that my headache made me completely unproductive today and I was frustrated about it. The past few weeks, and if I’m honest –few months, have been a challenge. I have had severe headaches and my right shoulder has become chronically sore.

I’m not used to chronic anything. I get sick (if I do) and then get well. My state of health has been remarkably elastic and accomodating. Until now. She had pointed out during this conversation that physically, I was still adapting to a new environment. Generally true, and obvious, but not from the perspective of inhabiting it. The concept still struck me as a revelation.

And yet on some level I must have known this. For my birthday, I received some cash and and Amazon card. I promptly spent it on books. All of them had to do with psychology. I recognize that I need to still adapt and I need help to do so. I guess I just hadn’t acknowledged that this is just as much a physical process as mental.

Recommended reading:

• Get some headspace by Puddicombe
• Thinking fast and slow by Kahneman
• Multipliers by Wiseman
• The Organized mind: Thinking straight in the age of information overload by Levitin