RELEARNING LOST SKILLS BOOSTS CAPACITY, CONFIDENCE, AND CONTROL

“Up to a point a man’s life is shaped by environment, heredity, and movements and changes in the world about him; then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be.” —Louis L’Amour

Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

SELF-GENERATED SOLUTIONS FOSTER GREATER CAPACITY

Many of us have forgotten that we can repair things ourselves. Living in an environment that constantly promotes new product consumption dissuades us from repairing or learning to repair broken appliances and household goods. According to Repair Café, “We throw away vast amounts of stuff. Even things with almost nothing wrong, and which could get a new lease on life after a simple repair.”

Repair Cafés are “all about repairing things together.” They’re held in free meeting places where repair specialists teach children and adults invaluable and practical methods for restoring clothes, tools, toys, furniture, and other common goods. They help us master the knowledge and skills needed to increase our capacity to repair many of the everyday items we use when they are broken. The more we can generate our own solutions for repairing what we have, the more capacity we have to save money, prevent waste, and manage our possessions sustainably.

Cultivating skills for sustaining product performance—as Repair Cafés do—has relevance to enhancing health as well. For example, a friend recently complained about frequently having to seek medical treatment for the colds she kept getting. When I asked about her prevention strategies, she said that she didn’t know any skills for increasing resistance to colds and flu. Fortunately, such strategies exist and can be learned. Similar to Repair Cafés, the High Health Network helps us learn and master skills that increase our health and boost our performance. Like Repair Cafés, in the High Health Network we learn and practice these skills together. Our confidence grows as we successfully apply these skills in everyday life.

EXPERIENCE BUILDS CONFIDENCE

I’m thinking now of my friend Tom, who visited recently. As he stared at the bubbling kombucha tea fermenting in a two-gallon glass jar on my kitchen counter, he said, “To get more health benefits we recently began drinking kombucha. We like it and are benefiting, but it’s expensive, and the heavy bottles are hard to carry. If we wanted to make it at home, how can we do that?”

While Tom made notes and took photos, I happily gave him a short demonstration, an eight-ounce cup of brewed kombucha tea, and a half cup portion of the SCOBY, or starter culture, to use in jump starting his own vat of kombucha tea. A fast learner, within a few weeks Tom was sufficiently skilled to brew enough kombucha for himself and his wife, plus more to share with their neighbors. Although I’ve been brewing kombucha for years, Tom taught me a new flavoring method that I hadn’t previously known. With his confidence stoked, he was ready to try making pickles and sauerkraut next.

Initially used as a technique for food preservation, fermenting foods enhances their flavors and expands their health benefits, including improving digestion, providing a rich collection of vitamins, enzymes, and minerals, and removing toxic compounds from our digestive tracts. Fermenting foods at home —especially vegetables like pickles and sauerkraut—is easy, inexpensive, and fun. The process also enhances our health, overall capacity, and confidence.

CAPACITY AND CONFIDENCE ENABLE CONTROL

Just as modern living makes it easy for us to discard usable items to purchase new ones, it also makes it easy for us to rely on medical treatment instead of more durable, personally generated, health-building skills to attain high health. In both instances, we outsource control to industry while self-generated solutions—which are likely to produce better results—languish.

We tend to devalue things we don’t buy; however, having and using key skills that we implement ourselves enables us to reconnect with the value of personal experience and participate more fully in navigating our lives. Beyond the obvious benefits of reducing waste and experiencing high levels of health, Repair Cafés and the High Health Network also help us regain control and independence and to paraphrase Louis L’Amour—“...shape the clay of our lives into more of what we wish it to be.” Let the High Health Network help you regain control and independence today.

Joyce M. Young, MD, MPH
Managing Director, Advanced Wellness Systems

Photo by Guduru Ajay bhargav from Pexels

“As one goes through life one learns that if you don’t paddle your own canoe, you don’t move.” —Katharine Hepburn

Sincerely,
Your colleagues at Advanced Wellness Systems