By Steve Gwisdalla Founder, Tribe of Up
Veriditas
“Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, had described the body’s ability to heal itself, which he called veriditas (green life force). He believed that the physician’s job was to identify which forces were keeping the patient from healing himself and then remove them.”
-Stephen R. Gundry, The Plant Paradox: The Hidden Dangers in “Healthy” Foods That Cause Disease and Weight Gain
On a recent drive up to Traverse City with my wife to watch our (almost) freshman son play in his first games with the Dexter soccer team, we began listening to the book mentioned above. Long about Grayling, I heard this quote. I immediately asked my wife to bookmark that section of the audiobook, as my mind began swirling around the word, veriditas. Gundry went on to talk about how he took Hippocrates idea a step further. It is this step I want to talk about with you all, my tribe.
Gundry went on to talk about how, in his quest to help people find better and sustainable health, the step he took past veriditas was, to discover which forces were causing the problems in the first place. Not just removing the bad and expelling it but finding the bad that goes in and eliminating the entry. Now, I am not promoting Gundry’s health ideas here. This concept, however, has a myriad of uses.
Tribe of Up friends, all too often we lament the symptoms without pondering the causes. If we gave an equal amount of time to really study what and how we do things, I believe the outcomes of our lives would be far more positive. For nearly two years now, I have been writing about kindness, advocating for more joy, emotional deposits and a host of other ideas meant to help heal us from the inside out and the outside in. To practice emotional veridtas, we must not only expel the bad or negative inside us but look at what we are consuming. Those things, news shows, overly opinionated blogs or vlogs, negative and divisive click baits, and in-town gossip goes in and percolates and then becomes the things we can never seem to overcome. Am I saying I don’t know what is going on in the world? If I was completely honest, kind of. I couldn’t tell you the economic policies the US has with African nations, but I can tell you the latest about the goings on in Dexter and our surrounding communities. I can tell you slightly less about what is going on in Michigan. Do I really need to immerse myself that much in opinionated news talking heads to consider myself ‘educated’ on current events? I chose to turn the radio off and talk with my family while driving home from Traverse City after two soccer games. I prefer to have a family game night rather than watch Fox, MSNBC, or reality TV. In five minutes a day, I scan headlines to get the gist of what is going on in the world. Any more than that and I find just how easy it is to let the opinions, polarization, and divisiveness in. I simply choose not to play. I am practicing mental and emotional veriditas daily. When I keep the garbage of gossip and opinions out of my head, my mental fields are far more fertile to plant positive and productive thoughts.
I challenge each of you to practice veriditas on a daily basis. Shut a little more of the negative out each day and allow the positive space to grow and flourish within you. If you need some help or a shoulder to lean on, reach out to me at steve@betterplacemgmt.com. I’m no Hippocrates to be sure, but I can listen.
Steve is a Dexter resident and the self-appointed leader, Vice President of Veriditas, and all-around happy dude at the Tribe of Up. He also owns a personal coaching business.
