You And I Are Water

It's The Elixir of Life.

It's The Universal Solvent.

It's the most important nutrient, next to oxygen (nerd pun, sorry) that you can't live without.

H-2-O-YOU. Well, it's at least two-thirds of you, but you get what I'm swimming in right?

We are mostly water. And this fact can serve as a mental rudder when life’s sea gets choppy. Water is amazing. Come on, say it with me, "WATER. IS. A-MAZING." Every big fish reading this can give water it's due high-five, but, can every tuna I'm writing to boldly admit,

“I am water. Ergo, my baseline - fundamentally speaking- is AWESOME?”

No. Most of you can't. I know, because I'm a recovering perfectionist. Far too often my inner editor hits "delete" or "command- Z" when encouraging self-talk drifts into the crowded terminal of striving adults in my brain. One look from that group of furrowed brow over-achievers and my inner aqua man swims for cover.

Only the human mind is crazy enough to attempt an override of your constitutional right to your inner hydro-power. But, by reading this description of water’s fantastic properties I hope that you will look to this inner ocean for a little extra, shall we say, blue will, in times of stress. Feel the gravitational pull of this message my fellow space cadets. When in doubt, get wet.

Hold a globe in your hand and consider this striking blue marble. How does it continue to thrive, bouncing back from incredible daily insults? The answer, primarily, is water. And you are, in striking parallel, of the same hydro-composition. Both you and planet earth are resilient because you are both about 2/3 water. You can choose to own this or throw it in the bin with the crumpled up lunar calendar and faded diagrams of photosynthesis, but I hope you choose to hydrate your hippocampus today.

Water is not easy to contain, and it shies away from nothing. Incredibly, on it's smooth sojourn to wherever God has set it's course, water even wears down rock! We marvel at the sun's diamonds dancing upon it or the reflection of the trees in the eyes of a lake, yet water's mysterious powers include rock erosion? That's amazing. That’s you.

Baseline: awesome.

When we forget our inner aqua man, the rocks of our day look like insurmountable boulders that can only be addressed properly with TNT. YET, our composition is designed to do a mineral-leaching massage of our mental monoliths. You can bend just enough to get around the rocks in your river of reality today. And you can do so while still reflecting light for others to enjoy and while extracting good “minerals” from your challenges.

Oceans, lakes, and rivers are hard to destroy. It's incredible what you can dump into them and not disrupt the inexplicable biofunctions that have to take place. If your mental filtration plant feels close to shutdown today, you're not alone. You are probably experiencing high levels of toxicity from people who’ve disappointed you and have dumped emotional toxins into your stream of sensibility. Or maybe you are deflated by the growing number of actual toxins (4,000 new chemicals approved by our FDA every year!) in our environment. Be reminded that you are the Universal Solvent, capable of dissolving and dispersing more "junk particles" than any other known liquid without changing your inherent character. It should take massive amounts of mind and body pollution before your inner pond is declared "unsafe to swim-in." Hydrate your hippocampus with this fact and roll with it - like water off a duck’s back.

Baseline: awesome.

Water doesn't boil very easily. It has one of the highest specific heat capacities of any liquid!

In other words, it takes a ton of heat energy to convert water from it's liquid phase to a vapor phase (relative to other liquids.) That's your design! If you feel like blowing your top you’ve lost your identity. Be reminded of your fundamental nature. You aren't on the verge of a meltdown. The fact is your inner burners can crank high and long before you start to hear a high-pitched whistle. At times of peak stress, hydrate your mind with this thought:

"65% of my being has a very high heat capacity - fact.” Then dial back the burners big fish.

A caveat for my fellow high-flying overachievers:

Is it easier or harder to boil water at high altitude? Look that up, and think about how easy or hard it is for you - despite your position in society - to get hot-headed.

When I was in medical school our infectious disease professor asked, "80% of flu is due to what?! - Anybody ?" Answers bubbled up from the gallery:

“viruses”

"sick relatives and friends”

"stress"

"NO!" our professor yelled. "Viruses are always around us. And we've got sick friends and relatives around us all the time also. Stress?! What the hell does that even mean? Life, by definition is stressful on the body. Have you not heard of hormesis? We need stress people.”

The auditorium became a pack of deer in headlights.

"What I'm saying," our professor continued, "is that these things you are listing are part of our world - natural exposures that our body should be able to deal with. 80% of flu in the world, I am convinced, starts with dehydration as the first step in weakening our immune defense."

I’m quite certain my professor was right. I have since watched patients bounce up from a bad flu bout after receiving IV fluids. But, there I go again - letting the sophisticated adult club rule my inner conversation, attempting to defend a position with circumstantial evidence. Let’s keep it simple and factual on the inside today, okay? No matter what happens around you and I, we are 65% Universal Solvent - High Heat Capacity -Monolith Massaging hydro-power.

“Baseline: awesome.”