On December 11, 2022, I decided to travel backwards through time. In the six months until my 40th birthday, I want to reduce my biological age to that of a 20-year-old.
This is my fifth time writing about this project. Starting with the introduction last December, my focus was very much on the physical aspects of rejuvenation: lots of exercise, sleep, water and wholesome nutrition.
This is now an integral part of my identity. Despite skipping weight training for five weeks due to an injury, I have continued to walk at least 10,000 steps every day.
But while health is one of the pillars of freedom and youth, there is a second and equally important aspect.
Appropriately, a reader of the Freedom Letter wrote to me about this after the last monthly report.
In her eyes, there wasn’t enough emphasis on attitude and she wondered whether the topic of mindset is such a given for me that it goes without mention.
It is self-evident for me and that’s exactly why it does deserve mention!
I remember well the day I first had that vague, paralyzing fear of a major geopolitical event. In second grade – we had just moved to the USA – a teacher talked about the burning oil fields in Kuwait and how their clouds of smoke would drift around the world, potentially darkening the sky and leading to falling temperatures and crop failures.
I was so upset that I started to cry and the teacher took me out into the hallway to comfort me.
Thirty years later, I consciously recognize the seemingly endless stream of media-present topics that are supposed to scare me: terror threats, pandemics, refugee crises, inflation, wars, climate change – the list is endless.
It doesn’t matter whether you trust mainstream media or get your “information” from alternative sources and – worst case – get lost in the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. In the end, they all lead to the same feelings of fear and helplessness.
None of the doomsday prophecies that are spread every year have (so far) come true: Nostradamus, the Bible Code, Y2K, the end of the financial system, more than one hundred years of climate change scaremongering (in the 1970s it was a coming ice age, now the temperature is taking off in the opposite direction).
Please get me right: It is time that we treat Mother Earth with respect. But electric vehicles and wind power are not a solution, but a distraction!
It doesn’t matter from where you get “information” – if it frightens you, it makes you unfree.
What makes that day in second grade so interesting is that the fear went away. I was eight years old and I had better things to do than be afraid.
Riding my bike, exploring nature, fishing, swimming, sailing, skiing, horseback riding, camping: I had the best life a child could (and should!) have.
I’m well aware that my parents put a protective shield over our family. And yet, as an adult, I’ve learned that you can go either way: take on the stress, get caught up in fear and anger and hatred; or take the world as it is, make the best of it and live in love, trust and confidence.
Where the focus goes, the energy flows. And that is a question of attitude.
Don’t look at the garbage on the side of the road, but admire the flower growing out of the crack in the asphalt (and then take the garbage and put it in the trash). Watch the sunset with your neighbor instead of talking about World War 3; find common ground instead of arguing about issues on which you have different views.
Meet strangers with childlike curiosity and openness. Make a conscious decision for a naive world view, for with your thoughts you create your reality.
People will tell you that you need to “be informed” and that you can’t be so naive. Don’t play their games.
Let your worries go and be a child again!
The world will end – if you believe it.
Everything will be fine – if you believe it!
#befree
Yours, Ulrich
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