Patterns lead to sanity

 The worst thing you can do during these times is do nothing at all.

I knew after owning businesses since my late 20s that when I retired because of health reasons in 1998 when I was 50 after almost dying for 8 or 9 months that I needed some pattern to my life to keep on going.

The other thing I didn't know at the time was that I was hypothyroid which I didn't find out until 2006 when my wife's and my physical trainer who was trained as a Physician's assistant in Germany started asking me about some of my symptoms. She diagnosed me finally with the same problem she had which was hypothyroid and then sent me to get a T3 and a T4 blood test which is specifically how you find out if you are hypothyroid (which just means your body isn't producing enough thyroid to function properly. 

This I found is very common especially if you ever had giardia like I had had in 1985 and 1986 while traveling through Asia specifically India and Nepal and Thailand. But, I'm thinking I got it from the dust in Kathmandu because there were many dirt roads there then and a lot of feces in the dust in a country then that didn't have many toilets per capita then. Now things have changed a lot. But, in 1985 and 1986 literally everyone I knew from the U.S. who visited there those years got giardia which makes me think that Kathmandu dirt roads and dust wast he culprit for all of us.

So, my heart virus likely was caused by low thyroid too which I almost died from in 1998 and 1999. But, my low thyroid wasn't diagnosed until 2006 by my physical trainer.

I, in many ways have always lived a charmed life in that when most people would have died some miracle occurs in my life and I keep living on By God's Grace

It started with Whooping cough at age 2 when the angels rescued me and went on from there.

God really had to want me alive a long time to save my life so many many times along the way for the last 72 years so far.

The Title of this article simply means that during times like these you need some regular patterns to your lives in order to maintain basic sanity.

Here are some of the things I do every day to maintain my sanity through all of this. I set an alarm for 10 AM every morning. (I tend to be a night owl) and often can't sleep until 2 am. So, if I set a 10 AM alarm I can be forced to take thyroid medicine and then an hour later I can take my other medicines and eat. I can also walk outside to see what the day is like and play "doggie soccer" with our blue merle Corgi who is about 1 year old now and smart as a whip. All these patterns including blogging and reading news articles and praying and enjoying nature by walking out into my back yard and then later in the day I can walk my dog on the beach or in the forests nearby of pine, oak, ferns and Redwood trees. If I keep these patterns up and do all these things and then get into a hot tub with my wife or alone near sunset I find all these patterns help make me feel sane.

But, whether it's a job you go to online every day or a job you physically go to, everyone needs set patterns to keep their sanity during these times worldwide. It's the only way to get through something as crazy as a pandemic does to people worldwide.

I've said before that I'm very grateful not to be between the ages of 15 and 25 right now because I cannot imagine how bad that could be.

However, if you are disciplined enough to survive those years now you likely will be a very remarkable adult not having killed yourself or otherwise not self destructing during these times.

So, if you can just survive these times any way you can you have something to be proud of right there the rest of your lives!