Getting Over A Cold and What I Learned From The Vikings
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. Good morning everyone I hope you are well and healthy and ill free. I haven't been ill free I'm still suffering in a sense a bit. I've gone through the the darkest of days, and I can't believe what a flu and a common cold can do too.
Speaker 1:What I can do to a human body, Jesus Christ, like, literally on the Ryan helped me one day, came over with supplies. Was like, ugh. I can't breathe. Only thing I think was my next breath. I think, oh, yeah.
Speaker 1:I I can do some work. I can do some work on the couch, my laptop. No, mate. That's the first time I've not even I just haven't done anything. I just looked and I'm you know, can't even look at my phone, and that's fine because I don't care.
Speaker 1:I wanna just, I wanna survive. I'm not being overdramatic, but it was it was terrible. I think a lot of people have got the common cold. I think they call it rhinovirus. Imagine they use that term, the mark in there.
Speaker 1:There'll be with the rhinovirus. Oh, it'd be bad, guys. It'd be bad. But I'm on the mend, taking it slow. So if any of you have been in the same boat, here's a few things because it this it's cold season now and flu season, whatever it's called.
Speaker 1:First thing, what I've noticed is you only get better after you sleep even if you nap. So every time I slept, I managed to get a sleep or a nap. I'd wake up feeling a bit better. So I looked it up as well. Like, helps fight off or otherwise it helps you recover.
Speaker 1:So in that regard, you need to find ways to get to sleep because it's hard to get to sleep when you got the flu, like intense because you're hot, you sweat, and nothing's comfortable. You can hardly breathe. You got a sore throat. Your head is throbbing. Nurofen, ibuprofen was the only thing.
Speaker 1:It double, you know, to four double dose, boom, then, you know, anti inflammatory hair that comes down and you're asleep, then go to sleep. Didn't really do go outside much, so maybe if I went for walks, it would've better. But I did go for a walk yesterday, and I felt drunk. Like, I literally was walking around going, this is mental. I feel like I'm not part of my body.
Speaker 1:So I'm definitely slowly recovering. Can you speak as well? Slowly recovering. But thanks everyone for the kind messages as well. Lucy Kim for the, support box of, brownies cakes and stoic quartz, which I loved.
Speaker 1:I was like, oh, this is amazing. Have I ordered was like, have I ordered some at Etsy, stoic stuff from Etsy who have been been, the the pinnacle of this illness. I know. I don't know. It wasn't.
Speaker 1:But no. I think, yeah. It's just the simple stuff, you know, like drinking water, sleeping. I know people say it to you when you're really like, ah, yeah. But I really did notice huge differences.
Speaker 1:Like, what I noticed was I didn't have much of a good sleep in the nights, and then I wake up, like, 5AM, and I go, right. I'll take ibuprofen now. And then by six, I sleep like a log, wake up, much better state. So the sleep thing is definitely true. So anyone, that's your thing.
Speaker 1:Just sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.
Speaker 1:Sleep. But what I was doing is I was watching Vikings. I never seen it. So all I've watched Vikings since I've been on. It's been on all day, every day.
Speaker 1:I haven't been paying no attention to it flat out, but all my dreams are now about Vikings. As it just shows you the input into your mind equals the dreams you get. I've been dreaming of raids, guys. I've been raiding I've been raiding towns and stuff. You know, I've been a good raider, though.
Speaker 1:Been helping people out. I don't know what to raid next, to be honest. I need to think because I'm still watching this, so my next raid, god knows. I'll have to have a look. I'll have to tell you after my dreams.
Speaker 1:It's literally meant like, I can't I I I don't think I could dream by anything else at the moment. So all you put into your I think, like, whatever you put into your brain, you're gonna kind of manifest in dreams. Right? It's what you you know what I mean? So, like, that just kind of tells me all I need to know, that my dreams are just influenced by what I'm doing that day, basically.
Speaker 1:I know it's kind of maybe obvious, but people think dreams are random, but really what you're putting in your head. But a few things actually to talk about. It's not really related to health fitness, but a few things that propped up watching a series because it's based on true events. Based in 900 ish, eight hundred to nine hundred AD, following a Viking legendary warrior Ragnar Lothbrok, and, really becomes down to a battle of religion. You got the pagans, you got the Thor and Odin versus, you know, the one god, Christ.
Speaker 1:What you find is really there's the extremes on both religion religion peep the the both sides that really don't have any kind of leeway. They don't really think, oh, really? But humans are more complicated. Yes. They are.
Speaker 1:The people in the middle are the most interesting. There's a there's a Christian priest that kind of converts over to pagan beliefs and then goes back, and you kinda see the the Viking king go to Christianity a bit and back. So there's a lot of learning between them, and that was the interesting part. But really what stuck out to me was, like, they were in this kind of Roman villa in English king's court or whatever. King what's his name?
Speaker 1:No. King Eckbert. King you know, these are real people. Like, they existed. King Eckbert, and he had a cellar, and he had a Roman bath.
Speaker 1:And on the bath was all these, like, paintings of the Romans made. Not any not many people knew about the Romans. The Vikings definitely didn't know about the Romans. They didn't know anything. But the Romans, when they the the empire collapsed, a lot of knowledge was lost.
Speaker 1:And that's what the king was saying. He's like, so much knowledge here because he was translating loads of the manuscripts of the Romans into, English or into Anglo Saxon or Saxon, and he had a guy doing it because they're all in Latin. And he was saying, like, the books are what all the answers are. And I was like, that's the guy who knows what he's on about. And the other king was laughing at him, ah, the books and the pot and there's nothing in books.
Speaker 1:But, anyway, he found a battle strategy by one of the Roman generals. There's a transcript. There was a, manuscript of a Roman general's tactics after the battle, and he took that tactic and used it in the battle against the Vikings and won. And then that made me realizing Napoleon's tactics were all based off this essay written by this general in 1770 about the core system, and Napoleon read that and adopted it as his thing, and that is why he destroyed everyone. And that was then used across all European armies until 1945.
Speaker 1:So from 1797 until 1945, all the battles in Europe really became from this one essay that was a manuscript Napoleon managed to get his hands on. Then I was like interested in like you know Marcus Racing Meditations. Some of these survived. There was one surviving manuscript in the Vatican Library that they managed to then translate, which is amazing. Then Epictetus Discourses, there was one found in Oxford Library, but had a stain ink stain on this, some parts are unreadable, and they found one more manuscript.
Speaker 1:And I was like, fuck. That that's nuts. Think of that guy. He's 2,000 years ago. There's, like, one manuscript surviving, there's two of Epictetus and other people, and a lot of knowledge been lost.
Speaker 1:And I actually believe the Romans, the golden age in terms of in mind and what the ideas and thoughts and philosophy, a lot of their stuff's been lost, and we will never recover that because as a race now, we're in the technological world where we're things people. We're just we're on social media where where we can talk to millions in a day, but we have gone beyond we can't go back to what they has they understood things two thousand years ago that we read now and go, wow. Yeah. That's bang on. But they knew more that we have lost.
Speaker 1:That's so annoying, isn't it? That we lost our knowledge that they came across or found or discovered essentially, that we may never discover again. Anyway, so that's kind of what that was the main takeaway from, the show is the importance of essentially reading old books. I think we should all all read some old books. But this week is Stoic Week by Modern Stoicism, which I think you can sign up for free.
Speaker 1:I think it starts today, so I think you should sign up if you want to. They do, a questionnaire at the start and then one at the end to see if you've dealt with your week better according to some stoic lessons, which I think is useful. But there's a few things from Epictetus two thousand years ago that still really resonate today, and he was most of the practical one. He was, the most practical philosopher, and he ruled on being rational about things. That's the easiest thing.
Speaker 1:He's being very rational about things. He used to be a slave. He got his leg cut off. Like, loads of stuff happened to him. He managed to start his own school.
Speaker 1:And another thing from Vikas actually that really thing to me is that the the the Stoics used to believe in, like, faith permitting, god willing, whatever they would say, like, I'm gonna go and do this. Faith permitting. Right? So fate has it lined up for me anyway. And then in the show, they show that the Christians believe in free will, so they don't think these things are fated.
Speaker 1:They have you got free will. And I think in terms of a mindset, and the Romans are this is, like, the reason they were able to just go and do bath and stuff, they would go, it's already been fated, guys. Fate permitting. We're gonna win. It's already been decided let's go, let's do it and they would relinquish control and just do their best.
Speaker 1:Okay so I think that's a really really really good way of looking at things you know we're not going to battle fighting with swords and stuff but what we can say is we don't know if this is fated, that I'm gonna be a failed I'm gonna do a failed speech, but what we can say is I'm gonna do my best, and it's gonna be success, faith permitting. And it kinda just says, you know what? I'm gonna do my best to see what happens. And relinquishing that control is essential. I think Hugh Gilmore actually did a really, really good Instagram post about the four stages on this that I wanna cover with you now.
Speaker 1:So let me just have a let me just get her up. So he explains it beautifully. So I'm gonna use so he says here, okay. So questions that come in and some that I still have to release, this will help you think clearly about how to tackle your problem. I'm going to use strong example here and I don't apologize for it simply because if psychology is going to work it's going to be a strong circumstance you'll see what it is now.
Speaker 1:So four possible changes I'm afraid that I will get killed if I go to Sesame Street. Okay. So number one, change the situation, avoid, prevent it, don't leave the house, don't go anywhere or go anywhere, any place ever again. You haven't developed any coping skills from this, you have reduced your stress though. Okay?
Speaker 1:Second step is behavioral change. Learn self defense. Carry a big stick. So you know you could die in the street, but if you got a stick, you might protect yourself. You've got a skill, but you don't know if it's always gonna help you.
Speaker 1:Okay? There's no guarantee of success either. The next is cognitive change. We get to challenge the interference you make. So what evidence do I have that I will be killed if I go to Sesame Street?
Speaker 1:This is really useful as it helps connect you to reality. And then the fourth stage of the most advanced one is philosophical change and this was designed by the stoics two thousand years ago I can't get over it. Anyway if this is true what is the best possible way for me to live very simply if you are going to be killed next time you go to Sesame Street what do you need to have done beforehand and how do you want to go out? Obviously you will want to fight back and do as much harm to the attacker as to prevent them being able to commit similar crimes in the future. Ask yourself what is good for me and good for the world?
Speaker 1:I'm not afraid of soften this example a bit because let's face it the cookie monster who lives on Sesame Street ain't dangerous unless you're a cookie. Some of you might be a cookie but this is the exact framework I use people change their circumstances the approach comes from REBT and is a philosophical change element comes from stoicism. So the fourth one is if you're gonna be killed next time, you know, just do your best. Right? Be prepared.
Speaker 1:Do your best. And maybe there's nothing you can do. Don't do your best. And you are giving away some of that control. You can't control everything.
Speaker 1:I could walk out now. A hit bus hits me. I could, and I could die. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna make sure I look both ways in the street before I cross every road. And we get taught this when I was younger.
Speaker 1:I'm not gonna be looking at my phone crossing the road. Right? We're gonna give focus. Like, we we can do better in situations, but that's the bad we do. If I just if I did that but then a bus came around the corner just to look the other way at a 50 miles per hour and I never seen it, well, then what can I do?
Speaker 1:Not be there at that time? I don't know. Could have been someone else. So this kind of, like, faith permitting, is a good way. So you wanna lose 10 pounds in the next eight weeks, faith permitting.
Speaker 1:Well, you could do it. You could try your best. Right? You try your best. Hit your macros, do your training.
Speaker 1:But week four, you might break your leg. You might be walking on the street, twist your ankle, break your ankle, can't move. Right? What would you do then? What'd you do with that?
Speaker 1:Thing is, back in half, was Bjork injured. I got ill. I've been out of action for way more time than I would have liked. And maybe this is my body punishing me because I never give, never planned it, never planned an actual break. Don't count a beat as a break, then straight to snow done.
Speaker 1:So you like to have a break from your own doing in terms of your own actions, your own decision, or your body will do it for you. Hence, me maybe. I don't know. Maybe that's what I'm gonna sell myself. But there's some things we can't control, but we can do our best.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm saying. That's all I'm saying. And you can't be sorry for yourself when you get injured or get ill. It's easy to be fall for sorry sorry for yourself, but we can't do it. These things happen.
Speaker 1:It's very unreasonable to think that it doesn't happen. That's one of Epictetus' main things. He says, right, he says let me find it. Okay. He says this.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And I think this is important. Do a few more. I know. Man, the rational animal, could put up with anything except what he seems seems to him him or her irrational.
Speaker 1:Whatever is rational rational is tolerable. Can't say that word. Physical hardships are not intolerable by nature. The Spartans, for instance, gladly submitted to being whipped because they taught what it is done for good reason. But what about being hanged?
Speaker 1:Isn't that intolerable? Well, people frequently go and hang themselves when they judge that it is a reasonable course of action. In short, reflection will show that people are put off nothing, put off by nothing so much as what they think is unreasonable and attracted to nothing more than what they seem reasonable. The more things you think that are unreasonable, the worse your days are gonna be. If you think it's unreasonable for someone to shout to you and say you're a knob, well, you're gonna be angry about it.
Speaker 1:How can they call me that? Well, might have mistaken you for someone else. Might have had a bad day. Maybe you have been a knob. Who knows?
Speaker 1:But just don't react to it. Right? That's the best thing to do. If you react to it, you know, I'll put a put a few stories in my note cards up and doctor p shared one who is my master, whoever controls what I desire or dislike. And it's it's true.
Speaker 1:Someone can go up to you in the street and go, hey. You're a naughty man. Make you dislike him and react. They're your master. They've just made you do something.
Speaker 1:They just forced you essentially to do an action, and you've just gone wrong with it. I think there's an example modern example is, like, you wouldn't let someone come and take, you know, cash out your bank. You protect that, but you let them come and take an hour out of your day without any defense any defense at all. So we need to think the more things aren't reasonable because humans are complex, And the more we can do that, think it's better. And I think Mark Manson has a modern version of this, which he does a lot of his rights based on stoicism is, you know, the subtle art of not giving a fuck.
Speaker 1:We should give less fucks about things like that because we think they're unreasonable, we can fuck about it. If we give a fuck about something insane now, we think that it's unreasonable, and then we waste our energy. We should not do that. We should only give it about things that really, really matter to us, and I think that's essentially the modern version of it. Do we understand, guys?
Speaker 1:Are you with me? I know it's again on. I'm gonna try and wrap up now, but, I'm trying to focus here because this illness hasn't gone away. My brain's working at a slower rate. There's another there's another one of my activities I like, is he says, but it's as if I were to say to an athlete, show me your shoulders, and he responded with, have a look at my weights.
Speaker 1:Good boy. And then Epictetus is back, get out of here with your gigantic weights. I'd say what I wanna see isn't the weights, but how you've profited from them. And boom. Who cares about how much you will left?
Speaker 1:Who cares if you train seven days a week? Who cares how busy you are? Right? Who cares about whatever you're doing? Are you benefiting from it?
Speaker 1:Or is it for the ego? Is it for the vanity metrics? Like, what are we doing? You know what mean? Are we doing it for the gram?
Speaker 1:Are we doing it for the are we doing it to impress someone else? Are we really profiting from it? Are we really profiting from being super busy all the time? Nah. We're gonna burn out.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be horrible. Doesn't matter how much you lift. Doesn't. It's how you profit from things. Doesn't matter books you read.
Speaker 1:I don't think you read books. Read a lot of books. Please do. But But if you're reading them too fast and not really taking notes, really digest digesting them, what's the point? That's what book club's for.
Speaker 1:What's the point? Are you profiting from that, or are just just reading stuff and forgetting? That's reality is. So today, think about, are you doing something today? What are you doing today, and are you profitable from doing it?
Speaker 1:Is it benefiting you? And maybe have a have a have a listen into into yourself, and are you doing it because it's really benefiting you. You're doing it for what you think it's doing for your reputation or vanity or the ego. And Ryan Holiday would say ego is the enemy. So that's it.
Speaker 1:Are you getting that picture for you? Right? Wanna make someone jealous? I don't know. Guys, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Not accusing anyone here, but I'm just saying human nature. I've been watching too many Vikings. I've been reading watching too many of their approach to life. But, you know, to finish, they were all for fame, doing some of fame all the time, fighting revenge, everything for fame. It's everything.
Speaker 1:All of it. And some people are like, do know what? This is a way to live. Need to do a new settlement. No more revenge killing.
Speaker 1:No more doing stuff to be king. What is that? That's bullshit. So, like, no more kings. No one.
Speaker 1:We're all gonna be we're our own people here. I think, the main story from it is, like, people doing stuff for fame is just the worst. It just brings out the worst in people. It dehumanizes them in a sense. So I don't know if anyone here is doing stuff for fame.
Speaker 1:Probably not. But maybe the modern thing is just self, just approval from every person you know in the workplace, maybe everyone. I think maybe last one, don't be people pleaser. Don't be people pleaser. Trying to control everybody's opinions of you.
Speaker 1:If people don't you should have people disliking you. Otherwise, you're not being yourself. There's no way every person you meet is gonna like who you are. Just doesn't happen. There's no chance of that happening.
Speaker 1:And if it is happening, you are people pleasing, maybe changing who you are to people all the time to please them and already being you. And that's not who you should be. You should be yourself as much as you can. Self actualization is called, and Bruce Lee was all about this. So be yourself today, and have a look into this quote by Epictetus.
Speaker 1:You know? I wanna see your shoulders, see the benefits of the shoulders, how big they've gone, how strong they've gone. But and you're like, look at my weights made. Look at the notes I've done. Look at these.
Speaker 1:Look at this pile of books. Have you made any gains from them? That's the question. So enjoy today. It is stoic week by modern stoicism.
Speaker 1:You're sign up. Don't know if this voice note was any of use to you and your health for the journey, guys. I know there's lot of questions in the group I've gonna cover about the app and the macros and the deficits and all that, which I'm % gonna be covering this week. Getting back to the basics, helping you out with that. So please do stay tuned for those, but I'm back this week.
Speaker 1:Thank you all for the message again. And if you're any going through an illness, guys, this too shall pass. This too shall pass. It does pass, but you have to accept the reality of it. To fight it, you're just making your day worse.
Speaker 1:If I fight the illness and thought I had to do work on that day that I was really suffering, It would make my suffering worse. I accepted. There's no way I'm doing there's no way I'm doing anything. I accept this. Bring her on.
Speaker 1:It's fine. I accept it. Put Vikings on. Cheers, boys. That's it.
Speaker 1:And, it was good. I didn't struggle against myself. I just looked at recovering. And sleep was the most important thing. You have to sleep to recover from an illness.
Speaker 1:%. If you can sleep, you will recover faster. Nurofen work for me. Guys, you're in for a treat for this illness. It's a common cold, but, it'll be coming to to you near you soon enough.
Speaker 1:Cinema's near you soon enough. Have a good day, and I'll be back tomorrow hopefully with, a bit more Viggoaties voice mails, but bye bye for now. And that is it for today's episode. So hopefully you took something away from it. If you didn't, here's what you need to take away.
Speaker 1: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. 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.
Speaker 1: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 day and hopefully I'll see you back tomorrow. Your 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 day and hopefully, I'll see you back tomorrow.
