*Catching some rays leaning out from my window sill this morning in Bogotá
Managing Our Emotions
(Peter Attia MD): ‘Just on a personal level, I could use your help and a lot of other people can as well. Our minds are running amok at the moment and there are few people who I think can articulate the nature of the mind and how we are not our thoughts and yet right now so many of my thoughts are unpleasant. They permeated my dreams. I’ve never had more disturbing dreams than I’ve had in the last 2 weeks…I know part of that is my anxiety playing out as I sleep. How have you dealt with that?‘
Listen to how Sam Harris PH.D practices mindfulness (from 38:10 in the video below) as we navigate these challenging times.
Aeterna by Liquid Cinema
Anyone who has been following Sam Harris podcast’s recently may have noticed that Sam had been trying out new introduction music, but due to a wave of negative feedback he has gone back to his tried and tested original intro music. Like most other listeners it seems, I am chuffed to hear the old music again. I had always wondered where he got it from, until someone posted the original music link in their comment last night.
I love it, even more so since I have now heard it in its entirety. Here it is:
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
No todos lidian con la cuarentena de la misma manera. Al comienzo leí que en China na señora se lanzó del balcón por no soportar el encierro. Y en España, en algunos pueblos, se saltaron la cuarentena y estaban en el parque como si nada. O en Inglaterra que el papá del primer ministro salió con un cartel que él no podía dejar de tomar su cerveza en el bar. Creo que ja que mentalizarse y buscar la manera de matar el tiempo.
Aquí en Chile, por saltarse la cuarentena, de 710, hoy tenemos 1140 contagiados y 3 fallecidos.
En fin, veremos como sucediendo las cosas.
Saludos
Manuel
Hola Manuel,
Como sigue tu día? Solo 3 fallecidos de un total 1140 contagiados? Es extraordinario. También hay muchismas personas acá que no hacen caso. Ya hay muchos tumultos en el transmilenio aunque el Presidente confirmó que las empresas van a seguir pagando los empleados.
Si necesitamos mantener la calma y seamos adaptables.
Que pase muy buena tarde!
Ya será un nuevo día para ti. Así que, por lo menos en el aislamiento, se puede disfrutar . Abrazos.
At least in one direction you can see distant mountains. Hope all is not too exasperating, Matthew.
It’s a very pleasant view and the suburb is fabulous. I’m very well Bruce. I miss the Sports, jogging, going to the park, traveling etc, but you can’t have it all. I also hope you are holding up well. Cheers.
Hope you are doing well Matt. I’ve been working at home…I did get out today and walked some…made me feel much better.
I haven’t been out of the house in 5-6 days.
Lucky you Max. We can’t go out for a walk here unless you have to do an ‘essential’ activity like buying food or medical appointment. If you have a pet to walk you can go out once a day. And the police here have been handing out fines like candy, so I’m told.
I normally have an essential activity to undertake daily, or I’ll find a reason to buy something just to get out.
5-6 days couped up without going out is tough! Do you have a yard to prance around in?
It seems a given that the virus isn’t spreading nearly as much in locations with higher temperatures and humidity. I hope it isn’t too cold where you guys are.
I did take out the pet. We live in the middle of the country. Never saw another human being while I was out. We live in the middle of 3 acres so we can stay out and never see any one.
Our days are getting warmer. It was around 60 today and spring is here….I hope it gets even warmer soon. First time I’ve stepped out side and I’m going to do it every day. As long as we don’t come in contact with people…we are good.
I’m surprised the media haven’t been forthcoming with the evidence (re climate), maybe to try and keep people vigilant, which is understandable.
I was just converting your temperature to Celsius and you are about where we are in Bogota. The places most affected are at between 8-10 Celsius. Just to give you some scientific backing of this, I’ll share this video:
The warmth and our summer here can’t come soon enough. I’m glad you have lots of space there buddy.
That is really good news. Anything that is positive I’m glad to hear…I’m very glad to hear that bit of news. I guess that is the reason the flu always starts disappearing during that time of year. I never really thought about it.
Again…nice to hear something positive.
I don’t understand why in the media the statistics regarding longitude, temperature and humidity haven’t been widely disseminated and where the clusters are situated according to that. That has to be the most important aspect people need to know.
Instead we all have to drop tools and do what the alarmists tell us and allow the economies to go to shit. Something about this smells off. I agree with Trump’s message of getting back to life as we know it. It’s almost like the media prefer their alarmist messaging ruin the economy than allow Trump another term. That’s fkn sick. And I loath Trump.
Something is happening. SARS was much more deadly than this. Not that this is a mild thing but yea something is off.
It’s a different world out there right now.
I agree. I think we need quarantining for 2 weeks or so. But that’s it, depending where you are and where the deaths are happening based on the virus clusters then life should continue as normal.
Chile for example has over 1000 cases but just 3 deaths. Are we going to stop the economy because 3 people die? How many people die of car accidents daily? I mean it’s crazy how it’s seen as a worldwide phenomenon when it clearly isn’t.
The media need to be open about this, which clearly they haven’t (climate change alarm-ism spring to mind?) and the attention and resources can be put to where it needs to go.
The media doesn’t want to be too open. They are being watched and listened to constantly.
Hopefully 2 weeks will be the end of it.
The mainstream media are undoing themselves, really! They aren’t giving us the straight up impartial scientific facts. It’s just noise.
I don’t think 2 weeks will be the end of it unless you are not in a cluster area where temperatures and humidity are conducive to the virus evolving. But for most parts it should do the trick.
A lot of people are suspicious about what’s going on and feel like something’s off. I kinda do too, but even so, probably just BECAUSE he said it, I wouldn’t take Trump’s advice of “getting back to normal” in a few weeks. He’s so stupid and he’s such a liar, I would automatically do the complete opposite of whatever he said. Because it’s not coming out of a place of caring for people. It has something to do with him and how HE’S affected. Which is the economy tanking, unemployment, etc., meaning he won’t get re-elected in the fall and will have to go to jail. If he gets re-elected, I think the statute runs out on a lot of his crimes by the time another 4 years goes by.
That being said, I totally understand people’s frustration and suspicions. I wasn’t sure I was getting what you were saying above about the weather: the news isn’t talking enough about warm places and how they’re faring much better–is that it? Like they’re conveniently just ignoring that? Very weird.
Trump is thinking Economy. That’s his baby. I don’t blame him for being optimistic regarding a timeline. I am personally more concerned about people dying from hunger and anarchy than I am the virus. There’s an old saying in Australia particularly used around election time, ‘It’s the economy, stupid!’. It doesn’t matter who is in power or how judicious and expedient the Government is, if the economy isn’t working (ticking along) nothing else matters.
Regarding the warmer weather and it’s affect on the virus, did you see the short video above I relayed in my conversation with Max – ‘Reduce Coronavirus with High Temperature and Humidity’?
Yah, I saw it. It’s very promising! But he didn’t even mention India, lol !! It’s pretty humid and hot there, and I don’t think they’re faring that well. But like you said, they quarantined a lot of people and then two of their biggest concerns (besides the virus) was homelessness and hunger.
Well India just have 1071 cases and 29 deaths. That is even much less than I imagined it to be. The spread doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as vigorous in warmer climates. I still think warmer subdeveloped countries like India and Colombia need to be vigilant for the forseeable future mainly because of their high density population areas and vulnerable health systems.This will sound strange, but since streets will be deserted apart from the homeless, this should be an opportune time for the Governments and foundations to tend more to the homeless and destitute – since they should be sticking out like a sore thumb…excusing the analogy.
PS: Perfect description above for the podcast music: epic and dramatic! It felt like riding a horse across a desert at top speed or skiing down a mountain ahead of an avalanche or trying to outrun a tsunami on a moped!
It’s very inspiring isn’t it? I loved the images it evoked in you lol
PPS: Was discussing this with hubby. Not sure about SARS being more deadly. Maybe they mean if you caught it it was 100% mortality–no survivors? But it only killed 800 people worldwide, evidently. Not to say “only” for 800 poor souls, but compared to the 4,000 alone in Italy….*shudder*.
And one more thing about the quarantines and social distancing: corona’s apparently like a thousand times more contagious than anything we’ve seen so far……
I imagine Max was referring to the mortality rate with SARS or Ebola. I don’t know.
Yes, Corona is highly contagious. What we don’t know are the ‘actual’ total number of cases /infections, That’s the problem. We don’t know the denominator fatality rate, hence the severity of the virus as opposed to other viruses etc. I suspect that a much larger percentage of the population has or has had the virus so the actual fatality rate may be much lower than current estimates.
To give you an example (from Brett Weinstein’s most recent podcast with his wife Heather who are both biologists), in the US people have been calling their doctors or the virus hotlines and relaying their Corona-like symptoms. The feedback is… we don’t need to test you, just stay at home in quarantine for the minimum period. Heather suspects that her and her son have already had it and friends of hers think they might have already had it too. So those people who probably have Corona aren’t tested and aren’t added to the Total Cases.
As of two days ago I learnt there were 38 cases in our immediate locality, so I’m bunkering down ie not going out at all. There are still a lot of unknowns about the virus including its damage to the lungs and heart. Better to be safe than sorry. Stay well Amiga!
Yeah, I think a lot of information really is missing. Even my husband said just now that he’d been feeling *weird* the past few days–a little dizzy, not hungry, his eye was bothering him, and now suddenly it’s all gone. Could be psychological. Could be allergies. But…what if….it was the virus? I’ve been absolutely EXHAUSTED, like I can’t stay awake, very low energy. Been sleeping A LOT since we were sent home to work. And now, after all the rest, I feel a lot better. Could be psychological. Could be stress. Or what if……………….?
Hmm.
You stay well too, amigo!
That’s good you have been sleeping alot isn’t it? May be your body is catching up on much needed rest time. About two weeks ago, I experienced just one day of fever and muscle pains and some irritation in the throat. I thought I may have also had the virus. But it mysteriously just went away. Supposedly with COVID-19 it can make a recurrence 8 or so days after the initial ‘cold’ symptoms show up, but it didn’t. I suspect I may have had it. You see, about 3 weeks ago I was on the bus here when people started to self-isolate heading to an appointment and a big African Colombian lady sat next to me and dry-coughed numerous times into her arm. The whole bus just went quiet and looked at her ominously. I stood up and walked to another part of the bus. Then a few days later I got that mysterious one day fever thing. So who knows what that was about.
Regarding stress, I’m trying to do lots of exercise at home. I find it relieves a lot of tension. A long time ago I built a six week exercise timetable alternating between cardio and yoga. The cardio exercises I use are ‘Fitness blender’ from You tube. They are really good and some of them are not too intense. They have hundreds of videos in case you are looking to do some extra physical activity – or maybe you already do some. Cheers Stacey, until next time.
Hmm, interesting! Omg, I can just see you all on the bus and the lady coughing into her arm over and over! And then you had an actual fever and scratchy throat…..that is very interesting. I wonder….
At any rate, I’m glad you weathered it, whatever the hell it was! And symptoms didn’t return.
Thank God! Your exercise regime sounds very well thought out and varied. Yeah, we have equipment at our place and really, Matt, considering what we have, we SHOULD look like Greek gods by now, lol. But we don’t, ha ha ha. I have to do the elliptical trainer, in fact, in just a few minutes. We also have a whole gym in a separate room. My husband used to be a body builder then got me into light weights. At the peak of my strength I think I was benching 135 or 140 pounds. Light for some people, but pretty good for me. That was years ago. Just doing light weights these days to keep the joints oiled and the muscles going!
Ciao for now……
I was surprised to read that your husband was a body builder and you also practiced benching. I’ve never really been a weights / gym guy, but 140 pounds sounds like a lot! I think I weigh about that. And you have an actual room dedicated as a gym in your house! In Bogotá we might respond with ‘Ututuy’ which is like saying in English ‘Look at you!’ Hehe. I’m glad you are continuing with your weights and exercise.
I went out yesterday for a medical appointment and I was the only patient in the whole building! I’m not joking. Everyone had cancelled it appears. Cheers amiga.
Re: bodybuilding–Yeah, not professional or anything. Just for his own health and personal goals.
Yeah, there’s a few yearly appointments I was just getting ready to make and never did when the quarantine happened. I can imagine what a weird ghost town it is out there……..
Wow.
Ciao!
Yeh, I had all that traveling I was looking forward to this year. I’m glad I hadn’t booked any tickets. Phew.
I just got back from buying fruit. The queues at the banks were at least a block long! Do you have queues like that where you are for groceries and banks?
Uggggh. I haven’t been inside the bank, but I don’t see any coming out of the banks. The lines outside grocery stores only get as big as 15 people or so and we only have to wait about 10 to 15 minutes until they let us in, so….not bad. Haven’t been back since last Thursday, though. Could have gotten worse since then.
Well….enjoy the “fruits” of your labor, at the very least, ha ha!
Good to see you are strictly abiding by the quarantine rules although you former Greek God/ess’ would just shrug it off – if it came a’ knocking. It’s more for the protection of others that we live like hermits. We need to keep our moral credits up… I’m being silly.
Well, it’s either laugh or cry, right? And you know what my choice is……!
Hang in, Matt!
Big hug