Titan

• We lost a local surgical legend this year, J David Richardson. Please take a minute to check out this article written before he passed away. An impressive story about the man and his many skills (surgery, education, horse training, breeding, and racing).
“David Richardson’s personal internal measure of success is not the number of cases he has performed or financial remuneration he re- ceived nor even how many papers or presentations he has given but is measured in “how did the patient do” and what impact did his treatment have on their lives.”

Mozart

• According to wikipedia, shamanism is a “religious practice that involves a practitioner who is believed to interact with a spirit world through altered states of consciousness … usually to direct these spirits or spiritual energies into the physical world, for healing or another purpose.”
• This article proposes the question, was Mozart a shaman? Pretty cool description of the arts, giftedness, ancient history, the mythical poet Orpheus, ancient Greek religion, and other interesting narratives. In case you are wondering, yes Mozart was a shaman: 
“The answer to this lies in resurrecting the now dormant enthusiasm and power of Western creativity and imagination. The traditional shaman, enmeshed in his duties in a small foraging tribe, seems a strange figure to cast such a spell over so powerful a culture as Western modernity. But it is precisely in the re-awakening of the senses, of madness, of sleeping and forgotten knowledge of the human spirit, that the humble sorcerer was able to re-enchant a world of sterile finance and utilitarian thought. Mozart was, in the broadest and most expansive sense of the word, a shaman. His birth was blessed and he was more than a mere man, but became a lightening rod for the subterranean and solar energies which began to pulse through Europe in his century. All who heard him recognised that they were in the presence of something more than just skill, more than just talent. They were witnessing one of nature’s miracles. It is precisely in these stories of rapture and enchantment that I find the energy to confront our stagnant and exhausted world. May a thousand new Mozart’s come forth and humble us again, may we be still able to recognise that magic when we see it!”

Protein Bar

• New low carb protein bar, Keto Krisp. Tastes excellent, available at Whole Foods.

Sun

• Many prior newsletters have covered the importance of daytime sunlight for humans. A friend just asked me how to sleep better at night, and the first thing I told her is to get sunlight during the day. 
• Skim through this new article on 500,000 subjects the United Kingdom Biobank cohort. Participants averaged 2.5 hours of sunlight a day. From the article:
Each additional hour spent outdoors during the day was associated with lower odds of lifetime major depressive disorder, antidepressant usage, less frequent anhedonia and low mood, greater happiness, and lower neuroticism, independent of demographic, lifestyle, and employment covariates. In addition, each hour of daytime light was associated with greater ease of getting up, less frequent tiredness, fewer insomnia symptoms, and earlier chronotype. 
• Some effect sizes were small, but all trended in the positive direction. Unfortunately the authors could not report a “magic” amount of sunlight to help bring about these positive effects. Get in the sun in the fall, winter and spring, not just the summer. As winter approaches, it gets harder and harder to get sunlight depending on where you live. 

Grounded

• Brad Stulberg is a writer and performance coach who opened up in an Outside magazine article about his OCD, which came on after great success. His new book The Practice of Groundedness blends research, experience with clients, and ancient wisdom for a concise, practical read. He presents the idea of Heroic Individualism, the sense of angst, busyness, hurry, loneliness, emptiness, and the feeling that what we do is never enough. Tal Ben-Shahar coined the term Arrival Fallacy, when we think that once we arrive (at “success” or some other destination), we will finally be happy. But that is almost never the case. 
• Rather than chasing after high branches, Stulberg recommends we develop deep internal roots. As Meister Eckhart wrote: “the deeper and lower the ground, the higher and more immeasurable is the elevation and the height.”
• He has six different areas of focus that will enhance your roundedness: 

1. Accept where you are in life (but then you can Choose how to move forward, and Take action as needed [also called ACT in positive psychology]). Practice being a ‘wise observer,’ have self-compassion and try to get some distance from your situation.
2. Presence: Apparently distraction is an ancient problem, as Seneca wrote about ‘busy idleness.’ The craving for distractions (news, social media, etc.) is like an addiction, bringing hits of dopamine. Stulberg recommends we seek the flow state, striving for ‘productive activity’ (concentration + supreme concern) instead of productivity. Buddhism speaks of ‘selective watering.’ My favorite advice in this chapter: Make a not-to-do list – Eliminate the junk. 
3. Patience: Along the lines of distraction, we lose patience with our goals, such as when we repeatedly switch diets. He reminds us that consistent habits compound like interest. Focus on the process over outcomes. A cool how-to guide: 1. Set a goal 2. Write down steps to get there, 3. Forget the goal and do the steps. 
4. Vulnerability: Strive to be ok with imperfection. We may have even evolved to need help from each other (vulnerable apes hypothesis). People around you will be relieved when you let your guard down. Practice emotional flexibility – the ability to experience a wide range of emotions and transition between them comfortably. 
5. Community: Loneliness increases mortality. One of the three factors in self determination theory is relatedness (also autonomy and competence). Stulberg reminds us that we need an inner feeling of belonging and outward contact with people to achieve deep community. He cites researchers who recommend using social media as a “way station, not a destination.” The Shalane Flanagan effect is named after a famous runner who switched from individual training to group training and saw her own and her group’s performance improve drastically. Get involved with a meaningful group: volunteering, faith-based, support group, braintrust, etc.
6. Move: Humans are integrated mind-body systems. Our physical health cannot be unlinked from mental health. Stulberg cites Kelly McGonical’s Joy of Movement. He gives advice on how to make movement part of your job (run up the hospital stairs once a shift). “Move often, sometimes hard, every bit counts.” 
• The book ends with the need to close the “knowing-doing gap.” We know what is healthy, what makes us grounded, but it is so hard to do the actions that facilitate fulfillment. Other than using his six pillars in a methodical way, he doesn’t drop any major wisdom on how to close this knowing-doing gap. But he has been able to do this with many high-level clients, so he knows what he is talking about. 

Quote

“This isn’t right. It’s not even wrong.”
Pauli’s proverb, when you are so wrong that you are operating in a different paradigm.

(Being wronger than wrong, Asimov’s axiom, well stated in his book The Relativity of Wrong (Doubleday, 1988): “When people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.”)