Regeneration
Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch, is the sound of my trail shoes as they kiss the stone rocks with every step forward. Most would call this “flow.” A smile cracks from my soul as this flow has not disappeared, the attention is no different than running the mountains or when sitting on the floor playing with the children or tussling and picking on my wife. This crunching formed background music as the mind went down a rabbit hole of regeneration. A word that packs a lot of action but comes with no real context when used.
Regeneration is a simple process of regrowth after there has been some type of change to the organism and homeostasis. Examples are everywhere around us. Trees lose their leaves and grow them back, roads crack than fixed by man, a hurricane takes out a city and creates a rebuild, squatting three hundred pounds for five reps breaks down the muscles to grow stronger, a fire that takes out homes and forests to be regenerated back to a state of value.
Stay with me here, our life is a regenerative process with no end, it repeats over and over again. You eat food, drink water, go for runs, lift weights, have sex, draw, write, and build things. A simple task that is all part of the regeneration cycle both mentally and physically. The vegetation and flowers around me sprout with energy from the recent rains, hydrating their cells to promote photosynthesis, from the sun that shines bright, building a pigment of greens, reds, and pinks, showcasing their beautiful aesthetics and stature. A will to survive any conditioning due to faith in their regenerative system.
This human experience is similar requiring hydration, nutrients, and sun. Think about it, when you don’t have enough water or a deficit in electrolytes what happens? What about protein, carbs, fats, and micro-nutrients such as vitamins A, C, D, and Bs? The sun's ability to provide energy in ways that can heal our wounds, infections, and sadness. The wind blows onto my sweaty shirt that cools my skin helping regulate my body temperature from overheating. Even this cooling system the body uses is regenerative and energetic by nature. The mind can even regenerate from neurological dysfunction, a regenerating process called neuroplasticity. A process that aids the brain in forming and reorganizing the connections of synapses after learning or injury. All have great benefits at the micro level of our cellular regrowth processes.
This run is now my fifth of the week and creeping up on nine hours and nine-thousand feet of vertical gain and forty miles. With the amount of work completed, my spirit took me down a path of fine-tuning activities and behaviors highlighting the speed up in recovery and improvement of performance in any endeavor personal or professional. Learning how the regeneration system works can become a performance-enhancing drug. High-quality sleep, healthy nutritional habits, strong heart function, and the ability to manage acute stress stop it from turning to chronic issues. Illness, stress, pain, and injury come from some kind of improper regeneration system and practice and turn chronic when it is not fixed or working correctly.
With a full week of social media now, the regenerative process has changed not only the unconscious and conscious behaviors that had me checking my phone every second free, but the negative spiral of emotions is also gone, and in general, my energy both physically and mentally is upgraded. Regeneration is a magic trick that each of us carries and it holds the power to form new energy packed with high-quality resources that promotes regrowth. We are truly magician’s, so why not build a practice that amplifies our regeneration system changing the way life feels?
