Message from the Mountain 003
This short month has been a busy one for the STAIT team, getting new products ready before the enforced Christmas break, dealing with delays in the postal system, last minute orders, and and and.
Add to that, yet another flood in our area, the clean up and regrouping, you can imagine our stress levels have been higher than usual.
So what to do to mitigate this?
Acute stress is ok so long as it remains acute and short term. When that turns into long term chronic stress, its deadly. The body literally breaks itself down, and many many life threatening diseases can arise. Even if that doesn’t happen instantly, chronic stress massively affects our sex hormones, brings the body to survival mode, fat storage mode and generally inefficient functioning. The “stress belly” is a real issue, creating a very steep vicious circle of destruction.
Well, Samantha and I are fortunate to know a gentleman called Will Burnett, and he is a huge inspiration to us in so many ways.
You see, Will was told he wouldn’t walk after the age of 35. For a very fit and active member of the Australian Defence Force, this could easily have been an end of life story for him. Losing his job, his health and his identity, all could have led Will to feel sorry for himself, and wallow in his own pity.
Instead, of pity for himself, he decided to take action, take the matter into his own hands, and set about researching the body mind connection, some very advanced health and healing techniques, and creating a plan to change the situation he faced.
Then, as you do, Will set about planning to run across Australia, in a world record time to demonstrate to himself, the power of his newly lived wisdom!
Best of all, he documented the whole process, to be able to inspire others, and show them, how to be able to incorporate these life changes into their daily life, reducing any stresses, and leading the body towards a positive homeostasis.
Sam & I watched the film, Unbreakable Will, many times. Each time, learning something new, bringing in the inspiration to lean into whatever we face, and see it as an opportunity to grow, to test ourselves, and to become better versions of us. Not that we are planning to run across Australia ourselves, or row across the Atlantic like our inspiring Marduk Challenge team from Head Up Charity are currently doing, but It is helping us gain perspective of our own story, as well as highlighting techniques to integrate in daily life to reduce the existence of chronic stress.
One key point we took away from this all was when Will is in the midst of the run, body somewhat broken, extremely tired and sore, hallucinating, only to come with:
“I am not my mind, I am not my body!”
That mantra helped Will step outside of the pain and discomfort, outside of his thoughts of being unable to continue, into the belief that everything is possible, with the right approach to health, mentally, physically, and spiritually.
Sam & I are fortunate enough to be able to spend time with Will, and it’s with huge gratitude to him, that we start 2024.
It would be easy to look at all that is wrong in life, and all the reasons why things aren’t possible to do. That’s not to take away from the daily struggles that we all face.
However, as Will has clearly demonstrated, if you have the right mindset, and you lean into those challenges, it’s the callouses that create the growth.
Many today shy away from the tough choices. Many avoid conflict, and it's human nature to try and find the easy way to do things.
But, unless you face the hardships, and show yourself just how capable you actually are, that muscle of resilience won’t ever grow. And when you really do need that strength, it will be more difficult to access.
So as we enter 2024, Sam & I are practicing our daily resilience as best we can. And with the support of legends such as Will (and everyone on the STAIT team), we practice our gratitude for life, and work our resilience muscle as best we can.
We highly recommend you watch the movie, and please do let us know what you think, what you took from it, and what you do in your daily life, to work your resilience muscle.
Cheers,
Shaun, Co-Founder