The Captain of Your Vessel
Blog 1/12
Welcome to week one of twelve - the FREE Blog Series.
The Homeospian. This is what we all are. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to be human in an ever evolving world dividing us from ourselves and from each other? We live in an over-informed world now that we have access to knowledge at our fingertips. This is creating states of overwhelm. It causes decision fatigue, and the list of crap spirals us deep into an abyss where people “feel” trapped. But, dear reader, you are not as trapped as you might believe.
I am here to tell you that not all is lost. There is always hope when you believe in yourself. Sometimes this is difficult. This whole mind over matter thing… it’s not reasonable. It is something we cannot rationalize. A massive percentage of people today are running from themselves into the waiting arms of the “white coats”. Ready to begin your personal home pharmacy of dependency with the need for the “band-aided” solutions. Masking symptoms, rather than facing the cause. Once the medications start, it becomes more difficult to come off the drugs thus leading to dependencies.
Self care and wellness is not as difficult as one may think. It is the mountains of information overload on social media, everyone with something different to say. For various reasons, people pass along information that is not accurate or is incomplete. It’s confusing to say the least. But there is some excellent information too.
The point I am making is that you have control. Do not give your control away. Stop. Look and listen to yourself fully. Understand how and why your body operates the way it does - so yes, it is important to understand biology and physiology. Taking control of your health is to understand basic knowledge. Humans are beautiful ecosystems. We live upon a larger ecosystem. Basic functions require tending to in order to live a quality, full life.
Over the next 3 months, the information and knowledge I have gathered, studied, researched and practice, I am going to share, and I hope, enlighten you. It will give you hope and the power to trust yourself. To go back to the Homesapian (mammalian) self. Carved in our DNA are the basic needs of us each. (Stop whining - once you understand the basic necessities of what it is to be human, it is for you to understand the problems we face today). It is quite simple, and I am going to narrow it down for you. But you will need to understand some basic knowledge of the human body. Way too many people fear themselves. Many fear the understanding or misunderstanding of what it is to be human.
Whichever the case, there will be those of you not wanting to understand how we humans function. Apathy is a strong negative learned behaviour ( laziness). And if you wish not to continue with the simple understanding of our beautiful beings, then I thank you for attempting to be here.
Why are people so disconnected from themselves? Why do people seek quick fixes by way of “white coat” prescribed drugs?
I’d like to tell you a little story about me.
If I stopped believing in my healing power, if I gave away all my control, I would be dead.
My life has had many ups and downs, big ones. I never healed from early traumas. By the time I reached my 20’s and 30’s I was in full self destruction mode. Binging on alcohol, food and unresolved anger. The more I consumed the worse I felt. The aches, pains, discomforts lead to severe spinal issues and nerve damage where I was close to wheelchair bound as a severely obese woman. By 2014, I had major metabolic dysfunction. The “white coats” wanted to drug me so much that it caused me to turn inward. I flashed back to my love for the cold as a child. I would be outdoors without clothes or limited in all seasons, and it felt amazing. Nature is real medicine. I was a provincial Basketball champion back in high school. I come from an incredible athletic family. I lost my way. I became disconnected. I binged on all the fast food comforts, all the poisons and toxin loading at the speed of light, thinking I was outrunning the scary monster inside. But no. The monster caught up to me.
My wake up call in 2014 helped me drastically change the trajectory of my life. I stopped running from myself. I took up writing again. This time, it stayed. As of today, 2026, I still write every day, never miss it. Prioritizing myself. I was a very busy woman then and now, but I reformatted my life to place my needs first. Back to lifting weights, eating well, meditation, nature time, writing, cold showers. The list of items to self betterment still climbs today. It was literally a matter of life or death.
I dropped 130lbs. My systems were green lit. I felt amazing … but, I still had much to learn about handling anger. My then wife, who is now deceased, we had a co-dependent relationship. I still had a great deal of self love to find. But she too was not well from her own past and addictions.
By 2021, her health placed her in the hospital for the last time. She finally received a metabolic rare diagnosis that she would succumb and on Christmas Day 2021, she died at home in her bed at 53 years old. Though the dozens of medications she was on were to support her healing, she never felt better at all. In the years we were together, the time before medications she felt more like herself. She wanted to trust the system. Over the years she tried everything possible to seek help within the system, even 12 step (AA) … to no avail. The system just wanted to give her more drugs or surgeries, never looking at really understanding causes and remedies. Losing her meant losing everything in my life, again. I lost my dad, my home at 20 years old, only to start completely over. And again at 51 years.
The difference this time was my ability to handle distress a little better. In both life instances, I lost loved ones, but I lost my family home twice. And with my wife, I lost our business because she was our business. She was Candy Palmater, of The Candy Show. I was her life partner and Manager. I used ice baths and contrast therapy to help me navigate the toughest parts of loss. This was when I opened Element Outdoor Sauna.
Life changes. It will throw us curve balls. Distresses will always be a part of our lives. Stress management is vital to human lives. It is one of many toxin loads we face. We need to regulate our nervous system health, our vascular health, our Thermal health, our cellular health, which will provide resiliency and more balanced metabolic health. The number one killer of humans today is Metabolic dysfunction. This is everything from Type 2 diabetes, to type 3 diabetes and cancer (we all know someone with these ailments). But this is unacceptable. There is a way to live in a world today that can better armour ourselves against these problems, and this does not include drugs as the immediate go to.
Today, I am 55 years old. I am in menopause (2nd puberty), without pain, without brain fog, with incredible body strength, energy and better eating habits. Using Contrast Therapy is foundational. Incorporating Eustress (good stress) to combat the Distress (bad stresses) is key to fighting back. Prevention of health issues by providing my body and my brain with what I need.. I am not on the “white coat” medications. I prioritize my health and wellness, by using hormetic stresses (Good stresses) wisely. This will look differently than your regiment. We should never compare ourselves to anyone else, as we are on different journeys. However, one key aspect to all humans (mammals) is the use of HORMESIS. This is Eustress.
Next week blog: I will dive into the meaning of Dis-stress and Eu-stress - To help you navigate an understanding of the state of stress and what it does to the human body.
There are five key types of Hormetic Stresses. Good stress, and what it is, and why we need this good stress in order to lower the impact of distress (bad stress). This involves the use of our thermoregulatory system. The Captain of your vessel.
Next week, we dive into the States of Hormetic Stresses and their value.
See you next Thursday…
Denise
