Be The Purple Stripe
Welcome to the one day at a time podcast with your host and the future leader of The Republic Of Wales, Sveldfjer. Now this might be the only podcast in the world where you actually have to reduce the speed instead of increasing it. However, what I wanna get over to you is that the past is gone. The future doesn't exist. So if you wanna make the most of your life, you've gotta make the most of these moments every single day.
Speaker 1:And this podcast is gonna help you live a healthier, more fulfilled life, hopefully, giving you some wisdom to take away every single day. So I'm gonna shut up now so you can get on with listening to the next episode. Hello, hello. Good morning, everybody. So it's basically stoic week, which is by modern stoicism I mentioned yesterday.
Speaker 1:So you can still probably join actually. It's a free week thing, and you kind of get all into stoic lifestyle. And in the end, you kind of do an assessment if you are dealing better and coping better. But so to stay on topic, let's stay on topic, there's a lot of depth to it, especially this guy called Epictetus, which I mentioned before. He is the one that influenced modern psychotherapy techniques like REBT and CBT.
Speaker 1:And he came up with this stuff two thousand years ago, He was the most practical one, rational one as well. So we probably talked about him most of this week because all his stuff is very practical. Like, he just did he did his teachings by a dialogue, like, basically back and forth with someone. And then one student basically wrote everything down what he said, so thank god for that, and he survived. So he talks about there's a story, right, about these two people talking about emperor Nero's festival coming up.
Speaker 1:Nero was an absolute maniac psychopath that everybody hated. He was a tyrant, so people didn't wanna go, but they were scared because if they didn't, they might kill him. So one guy was called Agrippinas, and the other one was called Flores. So Agrippinas tells Flores to go to the festival. Right?
Speaker 1:Just go ahead. Go, mate. Flores says back to him, why why why wasn't he going? Why aren't you going? Which Agrippinas says, I don't even consider the possibility.
Speaker 1:And then our Floris guy says, mate, but if I don't go to this festive, it might kill me. Which the other guy says, well, just go then. I'm I still refuse. And Floris goes, why you though? Why are you refusing?
Speaker 1:And he replies saying, because you think of yourself as no more than a single thread in the robe. Just duty is to conform to the mass of people. Just a single white thread seemingly has no wish to clash with the remainder of the garment. But I aspire to be the purple stripe. That is the garment's brilliant hem.
Speaker 1:However small a part it may be, it can still manage to make the garment as as a whole attractive. Don't tell me then be like the rest because in case in that case, I can't be the purple stripe. So he goes on to say, basically, to warn his students at that time about conforming to the masses and doing what everyone else does because there's no character in people who do that, and he just wanna be that white stripe in a white robe just blending in. You want be that purple stripe stands out. And this is happening today more than ever, especially with fitness trends.
Speaker 1:So there's many dangerous trends that people are just jumping on a bandwagon of because everyone else is, like Skinny Tees, Extreme Low Cal Diet, you know, that medical medium guy that does the celery juice diet, this diet, the pagan diet, or, like, the pagan the the p vegan diet, all this nonsense. Like, not not talking about vegan is another one called p keto vegan, whatever it is, fat loss tablets. There's always these new things, and people are jumping on them because everyone else is. Sunday Times bestseller or, like, sold millions of copies or loads of followers on Instagram. Therefore, we must follow this person.
Speaker 1:And you're just following it because it's easy as it there's conforming. But even on the other side of the spectrum of losing weight, there's another taboo, essentially. There's a taboo now for even considering to lose weight. According to the other side of the spectrum, you know, they say the health isn't one size fit all, which is correct because you can be overweight and healthy with your health markers, of course. However, they fail to admit actually that weight loss does improve pretty much every health marker across the board when overweight people or obese people lose weight and it's shown in studies after study after study okay.
Speaker 1:So they refuse to admit that whilst you can be healthy and overweight the risk is higher and the risk is higher and therefore why don't we reduce the risk? And to reduce the risk we must lose weight. To lose weight we must be in a deficit which means yes we must restrict our calorie intake to achieve that. But then this group says restricting is bad statement. You can't restrict.
Speaker 1:You should be how you are, and you should never listen to you should never do diet. You should never do any of this. You shouldn't do that. Just accept who you are. Eat what you want.
Speaker 1:Be be happy. Okay? And this what this is doing is stripping away the ability for these people to actually ask for help because some people do want to lose weight because they don't feel comfortable in the size they are. They wanna drop food, dress sizes, feel more confident. They just this is what people this is what human beings wanna do.
Speaker 1:They've led they've gone into a lifestyle where they're not happy with it. And they go to this crowd and they conform to this crowd and everybody starts thinking the same is they start thinking making you feel bad for even contemplating weight loss. Okay? Right? That's what's happening with these people.
Speaker 1:So instead of arming you with the tools and the knowledge and the support to improve your health and one way to improve health, if you're overweight is to lose fat, just flat out the truth. Don't want you to think of that. They don't wanna give it. And that's the thought process. Right?
Speaker 1:The thought process is this. Don't change. Don't even think about changing. You are perfect how you are. And I think this is a delusion.
Speaker 1:It's essentially delusion. This is the white thread in the white robe. Most people want to conform to this belief instead of questioning it. And if you're questioning it, you get people saying you're stupid, whatever. And you might get some people saying nasty stuff to you online, or things start thinking you are fat shaming.
Speaker 1:Like, all the stuff that gets thrown in you is the the the typical straw man argument or gaslighting. And the answer to rising rates of obesity across the Western world isn't to do nothing. It's to help people build sustainable lifestyle lifestyles that result in healthy, happier people. The thing is, right, like, we're always changing. We're getting older, we're getting slower, putting on weight.
Speaker 1:We're getting lighter. We're getting stronger. We're getting weaker. We're getting more knowledgeable. We're not getting more knowledgeable.
Speaker 1:Rarely do we remain the same. We just don't. It's just human nature. We we either and the compound effect is either working for you or against you. That's just the truth of it.
Speaker 1:And the power is in their daily routine that indicates the direction we're going. Right? So we're never we're never in the same place. It's not possible. We're we're declining if we think we're in the same place.
Speaker 1:If we think we're doing nothing in this and we think we're gonna stay in the same place, you're actually gonna go backwards. Right? So we should fight this nonsense in the industry, both sides, like the fucking skinny diets detox stuff nonsense. And the other side, like, don't even contemplate even losing weight if you want to. Both of these sides extremes are bad.
Speaker 1:They're very they're black and white thinking. They want you to conform to their ideas, and if you don't, they will essentially bully you. Right? So we got we gotta go in the middle way, and the middle way is to be the purple stripe, essentially. Going down the middle path is to be the purple stripe because you will get people saying, oh, well, didn't you try this detox tea?
Speaker 1:Why you doing that for? Why are doing macros? Like, why are you just doing the caloric acid when you should be you know, that food's not good for you. You're having more. You're having a piece of chocolate on your macros.
Speaker 1:That's not healthy for you. You should have this skinny tea that's got antioxidant, la la la. And the other side's gonna go, you're restricting yourself. It's gonna lead to terrible, terrible mental health problems for you. And look, some people, it does.
Speaker 1:But you can't blank a statement. Can't make me have a self fulfilling prophecy about it. Right? So you you can't listen to either side. Find out the truth for yourself, so go down the middle of the purple stripe.
Speaker 1:We can always improve our health, all of us. The healthiest people in the world, there's always ways to improve our health. Some people are at the extreme where they're doing so much exercise and eating so perfectly. The the way they can improve their health is actually to exercise less. It might be different to that group of people that are around exercise all the time.
Speaker 1:Why are asking less, mate? Can't do more like David Gorgon's crowd. Try more hard, more, you know, keep going every day till you're in pain, pain every day. And is that good for overall health? I don't know.
Speaker 1:Might not be. But it means standing out standing up against these kind of crowds. And we shouldn't want it, overstressed with too much weight of a body, or we shouldn't want us overstressed with too little weight. We shouldn't want it untrained. We need stimulus to make it stronger.
Speaker 1:We want strong muscles, mind body connection. We wanna give the stimulus to do this. We should always want to change. Not change in terms of who you are personality wise, but change it to be better. So, like, the Greeks used to think about a healthy relationship based on two people helping each other change.
Speaker 1:Their definition of love was like a school, you know, in a classroom, two of you learning from each other and improving themselves as humans, small changes together. And that's completely opposite to what today is. You know, they're not saying forcing someone to change because they don't like them. They're saying, I really like you. Let's change for the better.
Speaker 1:We should wanna take small steps to improve ourselves, whether that's healthy body, mind, family, friends, blah blah blah. To change is to grow and to improve and become more of yourself. That's that's exactly what happens. And it's not to say, you know, some people think, oh, someone wants you to change because they're not happy with who you are. And some people, that is true.
Speaker 1:They wanna change someone to be someone who they aren't, but you just wanna change someone on what they want to improve on, both of you. And people are scared of this. They think it's bad. They don't want you to change, basically, because you keep them in the stay in the same group as them. Same as those friends that don't want you to like, say, you tell tell your new friend you're gonna go on a new plan to lose weight or get strong or join a new gym or join a gym and you you tell the friends that don't go to the gym or eat healthily, they'll make you feel bad for doing it.
Speaker 1:They'll try they'll say all this nonsense they found in magazines years ago. They'll try and make you not do it because it makes them feel bad. People don't wanna be that purple stripe. And then then some people have said stories where they've told their friends they're gonna start them and their friends belittle them, and they end up not even doing it because they just rather conform. It's easier life for them.
Speaker 1:And that's sad. That's really, really sad. And this applies to everything, obviously. So don't be afraid to change. Don't be pulled into the extremes.
Speaker 1:That's my kind of that's what epic teachers would be telling you. Say, don't fall into the extreme groups. Think for yourself. Try things yourself. Right?
Speaker 1:See what works for you. I'm not saying I don't believe you should try the detox teas and stuff like that or whatever, but go down the path and see what the truth is. Right? The guilt tripping I've seen is is staggering, making people feel bad wanting them to make progress in any realm. And you shouldn't feel forced to do anything, like you know?
Speaker 1:But if you're listening to this voice, you probably do wanna improve yourself. You don't have to help with your health and fitness. That's what we're trying to do, always help you. So that's the one lessons from Nyk Perthitis is to be the purple stripe in the white robe. Not just because just to stand up for the sake of it, but because most of the time, conforming to the masses, wherever that may be, is usually not the best option for us.
Speaker 1:It's just we're just too scared to make a decision that goes against them because we will get attacked, but we should learn how to deal with those and ignore them because we will benefit in the long term by not being pulled into those groups. That's it for today. Back tomorrow. And that is it for today's episode. So hopefully you took something away from it.
Speaker 1:If you didn't, here's what you need to take away. Stop wasting time on social media. Stop wasting time gossiping. You've only got a day to live. Today's the only day you ever have.
Speaker 1:So if there's anything to take away from this podcast, even if you can't understand the word I say, even if you didn't resonate with the wisdom I try to deliver, this is a reminder of you daily to live one day at a time. Give your moments meaning today and don't be fooled by thinking you've got unlimited amount of days but if you can make the most of today I'm telling you you'll have a fulfilled life so enjoy your
Speaker 2:day and hopefully I'll see
Speaker 1:you back tomorrow. Do daily to live one day at a time. Give your moments meaning today and don't be fooled by thinking you've got unlimited amount of days. But if you can make the most of today, I'm telling you, you'll have a fulfilled life. So enjoy your
Speaker 2:day and hopefully I'll see you back
Speaker 1:tomorrow.
