Episode Details

Welcome to the MAKES SENSE podcast, where we apply the science, art and philosophy of sense making to the things that make you go Hmmm? Those most pressing thoughts and discussions going on in our minds today. The Makes Sense Podcast is an expense free service with the intention of helping you execute on the concept of changing the way you look at things, so that the things you look at begin to change. 

Today we’ll MAKE SENSE of ADVERSITY Handling Adversity with grace and how to become that version of yourself that is impeccable to your word and follows through with your commitments. No matter what.

CONNECT WITH Dr. JC Doornick - https://zez.am/makessense 

SHOW RESOURCES and REFERENCES:

• Joe Rogan Podcast with David Sinclair - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUwd-D94pzE 
• A Man's Search For Meaning Book Victor Frankl - https://amzn.to/3SzrE7s 

SHOW NOTES:

My intention of this episode is to arm and equip you with a shift in perspective about your relationship with adversity. When I say adversity I am referring to your adversity not necessarily mine. This is a healthy place to begin this discussion as it uncovers the first step towards handling adversity. To recognize that adversity is both defined and in existence due to your own observation of it. Think that one through. Would adversity exist in the absence of you taking note of it? I mean, an event is just an event until you label it as adversity, yes? Why is this important? Well what if your sense making machine is faulty or glitched? And there is a high chance it is, due to your programming right? Remember that virtual reality suit, and your sense making machine is what you’re using to label these events. Its responsibility is perceiving and processing everything? Is it safe to acknowledge that adversity only exists due to our perception and labeling of it?

See, handling adversity is not just learning how to cope with it and move through or past it..Those can be valuable skills to adopt yet until you understand where adversity comes from and what it represents FOR YOU rather than TO YOU, you will always be fighting an endless war. Lets learn what adversity is, where it comes from and how it both harms and helps you.

First, I want to share an interesting distinction that might help.I was listening to an episode of the Joe Rogan podcast with guest David Sinclair, a 53 year-old Harvard Biologist who claims to possess a biological age that is a decade younger as a result of practicing a plant based intermittent fasting regiment. Although I am fascinated with the concept of fasting, I heard him make mention of an observation that motivated me to create this episode on Making Sense of adversity. When Rogan asked him how he justifies eating a 2,000 calorie meal once a day for dinner then fasting for 24 hours after as being more beneficial than spreading that 2,000 calories out over small 50 calorie meals, Sinclair had this response

“Because going back 6 million years, our bodies were designed or evolved to respond to adversity. And we’ve removed that from our lives because it feels good. But we need adversity to be resilient and fight disease.”

Isn’t that fascinating? To embrace adversity as something we were not only designed to handle but something we actually require to thrive and be our best? Does that help? Yes, this means that without adversity, we are at a disadvantage.

I believe the challenge we face with adversity is in how we have been programmed to look at and define it. So if you are struggling with adversity, it's not your fault and there is hope.

The Webster Dictionary defines adversity as a state or instance of serious or continued difficulty o