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[doubledeckerdreaming-blog]

Inception

How do you completely change your life? This is the question I have asked myself for quite some time. For me, I've already made huge changes on the backs of very painful lessons. Mainly these changes have been slow, full of obstacles and inconsistent at first. Changing aspects of my life has allowed me to go from a miserable disabled grump, to a capable, enthusiastic lover of all things. Change is slow and painful, but when your misery outweighs the sacrifice of change great things can happen.

My life has been filled with injuries to my physical and emotional body. The part I have missed in these times is the ability to heal the wound completely or the better option of learning how to prevent the injury beforehand. From what I've gathered in my short life, the best option is always prevention, but preparation is needed to handle life's hurdles in such a way. This is why most people fail at prevention and wait as I did until the pain is real or unbearable.

My most sincere wish is to share my story with the world, that it might touch the lives of others and inspire them with the steps I have and am taking to radically change my life. To improve my health and to experience the unimaginable so that I might further my own growth and wisdom. To facilitate all of this change, I am jumping headfirst into the unknown and into nature.

I will be letting go of the past as I share myself with the universe. It is my hope that by letting go of the old baggage, I can gain a greater appreciation for all I have around and before me. The path ahead is not laid out, not marked. it is rugged, steep and full of growth. Towards the end of last year when everything seemed to be going wrong, I had the opportunity to lease my condo and jump. I grabbed this chance to change my life and am trying to make the most of it.

All my life I have held two things very close to my heart. My love of nature and my love of invention. These both slowly faded from my life in ways for many reasons as my health slipped away but I never lost them. My  loves are who I am and what bring me the most joy.

These loves really came back in full as my health gradually improved over the last few years. As I made changes in my diet, I was able to slowly step away from the pharmaceutical prison that ruled over my health and clouded my mind in such devastating ways.

This process was slow and not without missteps, majorly influenced from those very medications that were supposed to help. For me, the biggest noticeable changes came after two years of struggling to slowly improve my health. I learned that wheat is a major trigger for my nerve pain. This time delay in major results could have been due to several factors, but it was not that long in comparison to the amount of time I suffered following a detrimental path. That is not to say that I did not see results after a shorter period it was just harder to keep consistent.

Quality food is the key to good health. This food does not come in a box or a bag, unless you're placing it in the bag. This food is grown and prepared at home before you eat it, not ready-made and not a chemical experiment. As I have seen both in my family members and friends, when you change this one aspect of your life great health awaits you.

To me food and all the "rules" I follow in terms of eating well have been slow, and like everything else in my life, not without negative reinforcement when I slipped. This topic will surely be discussed more as I talk about my experiences and could be a lengthy conversation on its own. So for now I will just say, I eat organic, no wheat, no refined or artificial sugar and no dairy.

These simple rules for me are not without their caveats and I am always searching for more information and wisdom in these areas. Some are easier to follow because of the pain attached to them. For instance, the most critical change is wheat because of the amount of pain even small doses this grain causes me. It is for this reason I was able to step away from wheat after only three months of testing on my own and confirming with a blood test later. Dairy on the other hand does not cause as physical or as violent a reaction in my body. Its detrimental effects were only made clear through the food journal.

Through the years I have tested my body's reactions to foods by keeping strict food journals while doing elimination diets, cleanses and juicing. Repeating my test to confirm the results and sometimes improve my awareness as my knowledge grew. Sometimes, especially early on with wheat, these tests would come blindly to me and I would have to connect the dots through my food journal. This is why the food journal is key in connecting symptoms, however small, to what you have eaten. Not everything is caused by food of course and genetics have their role to play, but food is the starting point of good health.

With this approach I believe significant improvements could be made in anyone's health for a wide range of ailments. Some that will have not even surfaced enough to notice the symptom until you've made the change in diet and start feeling better. This is often the fact because our human conditioning allows us to cope with as much suffering as we think we deserve and does not allow us to make changes until the pain is real in our minds. It is for this reason I feel most people give up or fail to connect the dots in their own quest for better health and a happier life.

The pain was the key for me in unlocking the door that blocked my view of the world. The slow changes in diet are the steps that allowed me to go from less than 30° of movement in my lower back, not being able to sit for 30 minutes without my legs going painfully numb, being diagnosed with fibromyalgia, narcolepsy and cataplexy, to reclaiming my health without the need for medication. This year is almost 10 years to the month since I first injured my back and then subsequently made it worse during Hurricane Katrina recovery while in the US Coast Guard.

This year has been and will be my year of change. Already, it has been in the short few months since I left it all behind. I packed my dog Emma, into a beat up Jeep and headed for California. I spent the first three months with a generous friend. By encouraging me he showed me a goal of health I hope to achieve again. Boundless energy, positive thinking and a very active life can once again be mine. I knew he would rub off on me while I crashed on his futon, Emma keeping me warm on the cold mornings. I felt at peace for a short while as I achieved some physical goals I had not been able to achieve for 10 years, and a few I have never achieved in my life. That helped tremendously in building my confidence as I set forth to achieve all my dreams while on one crazy adventure.

In just a few short weeks since leaving the comforts of shelter, space, security and friendship, I have seen changes happening right before my eyes. The hardships of sacrifice will pay you back 100 times when you just act knowing it will be the journey you need to take. Without sacrifice there is no loss of comfort, no pain and that results in little or no change. For example a well planned vacation would not invoke the responses in my core that I have felt in these past few weeks. A well-planned trip would not leave me vulnerable enough to have pondered my death in such ways as getting stocked by a mountain lion or to have needed help as badly as I did one night when my Jeep broke down and would not start. These experiences showed me, and gave me, new appreciations for life and the people that surround me. A scheduled trip would not have left me longing for more, like this adventure has just in these few weeks, at least not in the same way.

I have nothing to return to as far as moving back into my condo and finding work in that space. That is not the rough path I see in the wide open distance of the future. This adventure is do or die, survive it or not, there is no fail as I know I am on the right path. The mission is change and I've already achieved some of its wisdom but I crave so much more.

Hopefully when my mission is won, I will have shared and cared for enough people along the way that my dreams can come true in their most ambitious form. Hopefully I will have touched the hearts of people all over the globe to inspire them and help them realize their full potential as I am no one special, just someone who hurt enough to make changes.

The dream I have is special, it is the combination of my life's dreams. I had the seeds of this dream as a young boy growing up in New Hampshire. As it was forged over the years by various experiences I have had during my life, it has taken shape like a fine samurai sword. My dream most simply is for a better world but it is the means in which we act and think that I hope to have some influence. This dream is more than an object but a philosophy in which I strive to live, ever since being taught as a child. Leave things better than you found them, to care for, love and cherish all that is around us.

My dream on its simplest scale is to build a 100% carbon neutral, leave only tire tracks, electric power renewable energy driven self-sufficient traveling home out of a double-decker bus complete with an aquaponics greenhouse on the top. To do this on my own will be a slow process of "MacGyver-ing" systems together. Much as I did two years ago in the creation of a 200 gallon aquaponics system. That was built in my garage out of mostly recycled, found items that I repurposed. This process, while fun, does not suit my heart's dream of inspiring others and really making a difference.

However throughout this year, my year, I plan to share this dream with those I meet along my journey and with all of you.  In my efforts to make my dream real to you, I'll share my thoughts and the pain that lead to changing the way I see the world. This way we all can make changes and maybe together we can build something greater than ourselves. Something to inspire people and keep on inspiring them for generations to come.

Please join me on this journey as I share my story and my dreams. So that maybe I will inspire you to do the things you have only dreamed of or to make those little changes that will go a long way to a better, healthier life. Together we can inspire real change in the way humanity views life and our role in nature. With your help my dream might grow wings and help me spend the rest of my life giving back to the world, as nothing would make me happier.