The Best Way to Rewire Your Brain
Plus + My Favorite Article of the Year, Best Songs of the Week, and More...
Old habits die hard. Old habits do not die easily. The older we get, the more stubborn we become in terms of the regimens and cadences we adhere to.
Recently, I had been in somewhat of a rut. It’s always hard for me to find inspiration during this time of the year, but this has been tougher than any other mid-August I can remember. There’s just such a checked-out feel in the air that it’s impossible not to get a few fumes in my lungs.
The hope I’m holding onto right now is that the vibe for the rest of 2025 is that the warm, dry weather forecasted by Old Farmer’s Almanac proves wrong. At least the strawberries and tomatoes have been superior this year. There’s that.
The mid-August blahs make it difficult for me to get work done, but it also usually impacts my ability to enjoy things I usually do. I assume it’s because my brain is a wet, hot, foggy mess, but I usually end up spending this part of the year embarking on a minimum six-night vacation or staycation of sorts.
For me, vacationing is not a "drop everything and become a human vegetable on the beach" type situation. I still have to cover the holistic basics: have access to a gym, have decent food to come back to (in addition to eating out), and most of all—have good companionship, even though I am also a staunch advocate for solo travel (and have never had a dull trip doing so).
I opted for a reasonable staycation this past Labor Day weekend and used the opportunity to use my imagination and view this time as a retreat. Even though August is my birthday, it's one of my least favorite months of the year. I tend to speak candidly and show my hand more often than I should, but I had been doing a number on my recovery and overall wellness before this week. Having a "stiffie" or a few glasses of wine as a nightcap almost every weekday, getting four to five hours of sleep a night, and simultaneously working and training more.
So this past week, I decided to rewire my brain and let go of the monkey mind. I still worked, still trained, had a few drinks sparingly, mainly for taste, but decided to read more, watch some shows, hike with my dog, and create *gasp* vision boards for the upcoming fall. Very Pinterest, soccer mom of me. I get harassed all the time that I ama twink or lesbian living in a cis-straight white man’s body due to my tastes. Mainly music (see: the killer new Beaches album).
No, this week was not a Burning Man-esque aquasahca and mescaline bender to explore the inner depths of my mind, maaan, not was I Eat Praying and Loving. Just living, not adhering to the daily rat race and speed of everyday life, and just going with the flow.
That got me thinking. While this may not work for everyone, I think taking a week-long trip to preferably another country, or getting out of your element, goes a long way in rewiring your brain and compartmentalizing the “why” in which one does things. It also opens up new neural pathways and dopamine centers, in the event you travel somewhere where the culture is 180 degrees from what it is in your hometown.
Traveling used to be about collecting stamps on your passport and building memories. It’s now more about collecting cool carousel photos, flexing on the ‘gram, and status signaling. Let’s get it back to the former rather than the latter. A trip every season is good for the soul and can help break bad habits. It doesn’t take 21 days to break an addiction. It took me six days to undo some rigid blocks in mine and less than 32 miles.
Best Thing I Drank (Alki Version):
1. T’Maro Amaro:
Get hip. Amaro is the alcoholic and old Italian man’s probiotic. It helps digest everything with 20+ herbs, and it tastes like what the Dr. Pepper labs in PLANO mix in with water, aspartame, and trash flavored trash to make their soda blends.
I had this for the first time last night, and wow was it a revelatory experience. Sweetened with dates, Dandelion chocolate, and herbs, I thought I was at an apothecary while imbibing with friends in the late-night hours.
Highly recommend.
2. The Cheat Code: Alkaline Coffee Co.
Wait 2 hours before you wake (for cortisol purposes), then have your first coffee. Then the mid-day blues strike.
Aim for this.
Alkalizes your stomach (more legit than vegan weirdos make it), serves up the ever-important potassium to your body, and a canister of this gives you a week’s worth of secondary coffee with added health benefits for the price of a quad-shot Americano.
3. My Favorite Article of the Year:
I’ll admit it—I can’t remember the last time I had to truly power through a hangover. I still crave those big nights out that inevitably lead to even bigger mornings after, but these days my habits don’t exactly lend themselves to the kind of Sunday scaries I once knew all too well.
Still, in today's muted nightlife culture, it's fascinating to hear people's accounts of hangovers. Even though I’ve managed to avoid them lately, something about the rituals and behaviors they inspire continues to captivate me. I'm not talking about your cute four espresso martini and White Claw misfortune, I'm more enthralled with seasoned drinkers more than the "sheltered teen, first night out" bunch. See: David Wells—throwing a perfect game, hungover.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
This week’s read touches on that culture in a way that felt oddly perfect, a tad hyperbolic, but also one of the best things I've read this year.
Here’s an excerpt:
A hangover will teach you valuable lessons, maybe earn you a little wisdom. The hangover, according to Kingsley Amis, is “a (fortunately) unique route to self-knowledge and self-realization.” Quite simply, you’ll learn how to sidestep one in the future. (Got it—four martinis is a bad idea.) More importantly, you’ll teach yourself self-preservation. If you made the unwise decision to throw back a few too many the night before a big meeting, you cannot call in sick. You must endure the pain, fortify yourself with medicine and caffeine, and perform at your very best. Then you can make this hard-earned knowledge work for you in circumstances well beyond a nasty hangover.
Last Sunday, after a long weekend in Edinburgh, Scotland with friends, I woke up with a throbbing head, a gurgling belly, and a crushing exhaustion. I had twelve hours of travel ahead of me. A busy airport is no place to nurse a hangover, but I had no choice. So I swallowed two Aleve, chocked down a coffee, and soldiered on. The security line felt like a forced march, the buzz of hurried people worsened my headache, the turbulence turned my stomach. But as a I nodded off in my seat, I remembered why I felt this way—a buoyant and life-affirming getaway with old friends. And when I got home that night, having survived the trip, I felt heroic.
Read in full here. DO IT.
4. Best Songs of the Week:
Disclaimer: I have been lacking on my new music:
IE:
Nonetheless:
5. Haiku of the Week:
Don’t let yourself get in your way.
Do things your own way.
Don’t care about skeptics.
Life is too short.
Goodnight and godspeed.
And don’t lose money today.
Traveling helps my brain restructure itself.❤️