Here Fishy Fishy

My ten-year-old daughter Grace has become infected with the fishing bug. This past weekend she wanted nothing more than to go fishing in the morning and the evening. Thinking back all of my kids were interested in fishing at about this same age. Now that they are older, they enjoy fishing occasionally, but with other goals and interests, it has taken a backseat. It’s funny how life gets so busy that when we finally have a break, we like to go back to a basic activity to relax. For instance, I find splitting wood with an axe and gardening relaxing. Both of them can be seen as work, because they are physical activities and require a certain energy expenditure. Like fishing, these activities are all done outdoors and without a lot of distractions. They are also skills associated with some of our instinctual desires associated with survival, much like our paleolithic ancestors found satisfaction with securing resources for survival.

Today securing resources all hinges upon having the money to purchase from a vendor the resources that you require to live. We have become dependent upon third and fourth parties to produce and deliver our goods and services that we need to survive. This has been a blessing in so many ways, yet it has come with its share of issues as well. For example, we all experienced and are still feeling the effects of a disrupted supply chain. That is an obvious one that is slowly turning around.

What I see to be the biggest problem that we are facing that is not getting nearly the amount of attention that it deserves is our feeling of self-worth. We have been hearing about people working on their mental health a lot lately. This encompasses a wide array of issues, but ultimately it comes down to something called the brain reward cascade. This is the name given to the neurochemical pathways that are expressed when we get that feeling where we are satisfied and happy with ourselves, thus giving us a sense of overall well-being. The brain reward cascade is also related to our addictions. We become addicted to certain behaviors because these behaviors cause the production of the neurotransmitter dopamine through the brain reward cascade. The behaviors become addictive because we all crave this feeling. The problem is that we are left feeling empty because nothing is achieved other than a temporary neurotransmitter rush.

If you have ever been fishing and all of a sudden you hook a huge fish and land it, your brain has run this pathway and produced these feel-good neurotransmitters. You then have a fish in your possession which produces a sense of accomplishment as a result of your efforts. If you chose to eat the fish, you are now satisfying your biologic need for fuel and emotionally you feel great because your efforts fed you. The challenge with fishing is that you may catch nothing and not get that excitement response. As the saying goes, “a bad day of fishing is still better than a good day at work.” This comes from the positives associated with being in nature, the sights, sounds, smells and tactile stimulation of our natural world, couple that with no phones, deadlines or other pressing demands makes for great brain chemistry.

Being a perpetual consumer of products, services and information have limited and fleeting emotional rewards. Consumption of material that causes anxiety, stress, frustration and a feeling of helplessness only perpetuates these hollow feelings. The remedy is to change your environment. I don’t mean you have to move, although many people are going that route. I do mean getting back to being a producer and not a consumer. The example of catching a fish turned into a game of production to see who could catch the most fish. The more fish we caught the more exciting it was for everyone. As the saying goes “a rising tide lifts all boats.” Many people are realizing this and are changing their career choices and up-leveling their way of living. Realize that you have the ability to change your brain chemistry by the activities that you chose to engage in. Oh, and by the way, chiropractic adjustments upregulate the brain reward cascade.

Lombardi Chiropractic Family Health Center
1116 Upper Lenox Ave.
www.lombardichiropractic.com
315-363-4114

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