Favorite Things: 2022
New (to me) Books
Breath (James Nestor)
My summary:
Most of us breathe poorly.
Breathing poorly creates a myriad of health issues.
Anyone can improve their breathing and feel better, reverse ailments, and live longer.
I enjoyed Breath on two levels. First, as an occasional dabbler into health and self-improvement literature, the book left me wondering why it hadn’t occurred to me to improve the most fundamental activity involved in staying alive.
And secondly, as a wannabe writer, I was floored by Nestor's ability to create a scientific book on breathing (yes, BREATHING) that is utterly riveting.
With eccentric characters playing out the story across time and space (yes, he really illegally journeyed miles into the catacombs under Paris to observe ancient skulls), Breath feels more like The Da Vinci Code than breathing manual.
Here's a teaser passage from his conversation with a group of semi-insane "free divers" (people who dive to ~300 feet below the surface of the ocean- with no gear).
Another diver told me that some methods of breathing will nourish our brains, while others will kill neurons; some will make us healthy, while others will hasten our death.
They told crazy stories, about how they'd breathed in ways that expanded the size of their lungs by 30 percent or more. They told me about an Indian doctor who lost several pounds by simply changing the way he inhaled, and about another man who was injected with the bacterial endotoxin E. coli, then breathed in a rhythmic pattern to stimulate his immune system and destroy the toxins within minutes. They told me about women who put their cancers into remission and monks who could melt circles in the snow around their bare bodies over a period of several hours. It all sounded nuts.
They discovered that our capacity to breathe has changed through the long processes of human evolution, and that the way we breathe has gotten markedly worse since the dawn of the Industrial Age. They discovered that 90 percent of us-very likely me, you, and almost everyone you know is breathing incorrectly and that this failure is either causing or aggravating a laundry list of chronic diseases.
On a more inspiring note, some of these researchers were also showing that many modern maladies-asthma, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, psoriasis, and more-could either be reduced or reversed simply by changing the way we inhale and exhale.
The Count of Monte Cristo
Many classics are good to read in the same way that spinach is good to eat - helpful, but not particularly enjoyable. This is not true of Dumas' classic.
Beginning in Southern France with a hook to end all hooks, the story eventually moves from the legendary Chateu D'If to Rome and Paris at a pace that will satisfy the most attention-deficient modern readers. Dumas' classic tale of revenge and redemption is still a winner for plot-lovers in 2022. Once read, the film will look like a silly, B-list child's play by comparison.
Re-reads
Ruthless Elimination of Hurry (John Mark Comer) and Get Your Life Back (John Eldredge)
Good books give us the truth we need at the right time. Fifteen years since Steve Jobs' placed supercomputing compulsion machines into our pocket, these books are the kind we need right now if our inner life is to survive the exhausting, lonely age of constant connection.
While Comer masterfully puts words to the challenges of the soul in the age of the internet, Eldredge's writing is the balm and direction we need to survive the digital age with spiritual life intact.
4-Hour Workweek
This all-time favorite found me again at just the right time. As my peers graduate to large suburban houses and new cars (along with the associated mortgages, car payments, and oftentimes high stress jobs to support them), Tim's 2007 classic was a timely reminder why we're taking the road less traveled. So far, our family has tried to prioritize freedom over convenience and experiences over stuff. So far, that has made all the difference.
Apps
Obsidian (w/ Readwise)
For all the content you read, the videos you watch, the podcasts you listen to - what percentage do you actually retain? What if the key points of every piece of consumed media along with every noteworthy thought you had were stored in an easily searchable database for instant recall for the rest of your life?
This is the promise of the "Second Brain" - a personal journal / content library on steroids made possible by modern technology. I've chosen Obsidian as the "hub" of my second brain and have been very pleased.
For more on the topic of the second brain, Tiago Forte is your man.
Duolingo
For all the flack it got in the reviews I read, Duolingo was an incredible resource for me. With just 15 minutes / day, I had enough francaise to outfrench 95% of tourists and even hang a bit conversationally. With a big travel year ahead, I will be leaning on the premium version to keep my French sharp and get up to speed quickly in Spanish, Portugese, Japanese, and Italian!
Podcast
Huberman Labs
Picture a muscly, decorated, middle-aged Stanford professor with an encyclopedic knowledge of current health science and incredible ability to communicate it to non-scientists. What if, instead of pushing out esoteric academic papers, this jacked academic put his energies toward distilling the most relevant, cutting-edge health science and making it practical for normies like you and me?
In that case, you’d have Andrew Huberman. Every video he publishes essentially becomes the most helpful resource ever made on that subject.
Whether it's losing weight, unlocking motivation, mastering sleep or using cold exposure to your advantage, the end result of watching him is an "everyman's PhD" in your own mind and body.
Purchase
DIY 4-zone mini split system
If you have an old house like our 1920s gem (complete with microscopic ductwork), I would highly recommend a mini-split system. With our old AC condenser dead on return from France, we eschewed replacing it with a standard condenser and instead, put in a 4-headed mini split. Now, we have hyper-efficient climate control in rooms that previously got nary a trickle of conditioned air from the vent. Newer systems can also heat down to -10 degrees outdoor temperature or colder. We use ours year round!
If you are handy, I highly recommend a Mr. Cool DIY system as it costs ~1/4 the price of what a traditional installation would cost.
Habits
Sauna and Ice Bath
Whether your motivation has to do with heat-shock proteins and longevity (like reducing all-cause mortality by 40%), or just embracing winter while your stress melts away, I highly recommend finding a way to access a sauna. This year, I scored a free freezer and added a cold plunge to my "northern spa" backyard setup.
Guided Lectio Divina
Slow, guided scripture meditations in the age of fast information. The ancient practice, fresh to your Spotify account every day.
Wim Hof Breathing
If you haven't yet discovered him, Wim Hof is, at his core, a crazy Dutch man obsessed with cold water and intense breathing. For years, he was viewed as a bit of a kook- until he started achieving crazy results that continue to baffle scientists to this day (he is the man who directed his immune system to kill the injected E. Coli in the "Breath" passage above). I've done the cold for years, but recently started his breathing regimen, to good effect.
Applying for Credit Cards
With mini splits and new roof bills flying at us, we've been hitting the credit card applications hard. For just a few hundred bucks, we've booked round-trip tickets for the whole family to Montreal, a ten-year anniversary getaway to Italy, and even banked up enough Air France points for a family trip back across the pond in 2024.
Going without alcohol for long stretches
Between all the emerging literature on "Alcohol and the Brain" and a few "bad reaction" type experiences with alcohol this year, I've really put the substance (and its place in my life) under the microscope. Still figuring out what I'm going to do moving forward, but the days of "drinking without thinking" are over.
Moment
La France
Have you ever recognized one of the great seasons of your life while you were in it?
For me, that was our two months in France. Pastries and swims in the old city aside, the experience of visiting my wife’s home for two years, having our moms come with for the ride, and even being "adopted" by an extremely kind French family in Arles was nothing short of magique.
If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, at least we had France. This trip was all the things we wanted it to be and more.
Thought
"What has been will not always be"
I'm convinced that navigating your thirties is a worldview-altering experience. Maybe it was two babies completely rearranging my life in an instant. Or perhaps watching those babies grow to school age and all of a sudden running off and playing with their friends. Or maybe it's just watching the slow march of time slowly chip away at everything from dishwashers to my upper back.
The steady invincibility I felt in my twenties has been replaced by a sense of frailty and temporality in my thirties. These last few years have instilled the realization that things don't last, at least not on this side of the grave. If you're my age, you might even be in the tail end in some areas of your life.
As I walked through the MIA yesterday, this painting grabbed me by the lapels:
“Springtime of Life” - Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, 1871
I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I can only describe as fleetingness. As I meditated on this young girl, soon to become an old woman... and now long-buried somewhere in Europe, here was the thought I journaled:
"Oh to be young again" is a sentiment I'm starting to understand, even starting to feel. For the faithless, it must be a sad thought. But for those who hope for more than this “earthly tent", this feeling is another pointer to what should… and will be.
Hope this list finds you well. Cheers to 2023.