The Art is Long: Big Health and the New Warrior Activist

Above all, identify with your analog nature, the flesh and blood of your body and habitat. Learn your body and your habitat first, before going down the digital rabbit hole. Hone your native senses. You might well be surprised how far you can go with flesh alone.

We say, “This story is flawed at its core.”

“How effectively does this story persuade?” Can we actually inspire people to better ideas and behavior by telling them that their future is nothing but a dystopia of environmental and social chaos?

Hoarding one’s health is the ultimate foolishness. In a long body world, your only real shot at immortality is through the continued survival of the biosphere and the people living in it. By giving her health to the long body, the warrior fulfills her role. What is health for, if not to spend it on the people and causes that need it?

Fine-tune your experience. Look for the right kind of stress, in the right intensity, for the right duration, at the right moment, in the right context. This is where a coach, teacher, or trainer plays a vital role; their job is to craft stress experiences that are episodic, relevant, and of the right intensity. The more precise the stressor, the b

As he famously put it, “He who dies with the least toys wins. Because the more you know, the less you need.”

Acts of imagination have very real physiological consequences. Every thought, every mental image, every muse has a downstream physical effect. The things we think, imagine, and believe can be just as powerful as actual physical events.

But when you get right down to it, the thing that’s really destroying our home and our future is a story.

Tell a better story Edit your narratives about the human experience and your life. Tell a story of integration, meaning, and activism. Practice narrative medicine with new perspectives on injury and illness. The cure for bad stories is better stories.