This Summer … Hydrate the Mind Too

Source: Pexels.com

In much of the world, it’s summer time which means one of many things … heat. What have we always been taught to do when things heat up?

Hydrate.

Hydrate your body by drinking lots of water along with a healthy diet and plenty of exercise. Hydrate your skin by regularly applying moisturizer, ideally moisturizer with some sunscreen. Even hydrate your hair by using more conditioner. I’ve been trying to follow these “rules” this summer as I work to continually make myself more healthy. Eating well. Exercising. Resting. Making sure I hydrate all day every day.

But it’s more than the weather that has been hearting up right now (especially in the U.S.) and there’s another way to hydrate that is equally important for not only the body but for the mind, and for our collective well being.

Hydrate the mind. All day every day.

There is a lot of debate on the table right now and a lot of heavy emotions and even hate filling those debates. It’s our duty to get into those debates and make sure they result in some action. Some change, some progress. But before you get into those debates you have to hydrate your mind to understand what it is you really want out of life. What you want for your friends and family. What you want for your community and your country. Read, absorb, learn as you shape your desires and outline the ultimate goals.

Hydrate the mind.

Maria Shriver has a regular “column” called Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper. In my quest to hydrate my mind I recently read her Fourth of July edition sent to me by my sister. In it she talks about using the national U.S. holiday as a way to reflect on what we want the country to look like in ten years, and then work towards getting to that goal. That’s productive. I’m thinking that through right now as a result, so thank you Maria.

She also talks about how the United States is not united. She’s obviously correct in that statement. She talks about how we are starting to identify ourselves more from the state we live and the state we are in rather than being from America. I’ve been doing that a lot lately myself when I proudly say how proud I am to be “a New Yorker.” As I hydrate my mind and reflect on what I want, I realize that Maria Shriver is right … that “state” mindset doesn’t help. It doesn’t unite us as a country. It doesn’t put us on a path of change. We can’t live state by state and state from state.

Yes I am proud to be a New Yorker. I am proud to be a gay man, husband, and father. But I want to also be proud to be an American. Thank you Maria for hydrating my mind.

Check out her column by clicking here … it’ll hydrate your mind.

We have a lot of work to do. Each of us are working on ourselves (as we should be), but we must also unite to work on our country. We must all hydrate to keep ourselves informed and to shape how we want to progress.

I am giving it my best shot. Won’t you? What’s your experience? JIM