How can we be healthy when modern life makes it impossible to be healthy?
a few announcements about the newsletter(s), plus a Harvey update
Thanks to everyone who emailed with concern about Harvey and his little crisis last weekend. He bounced back almost immediately to his usual goofy, enthusiastic self. We spent a couple days trying to keep him “quiet” like the vet said, after which we gave up on that impossible task. Everything’s back to normal—for the time being at least.
Which brings me back to our scheduled newsletter and the announcements that I promised (some of which is new even for paid subscribers!).
Weighty Matters
I’ve been consistently writing the weekly newsletter for about eight months, and for the last three or four months have been writing a second newsletter exclusively for paid subscribers. I started off the year with the intention of writing more broadly than I have before, over numerous topics that interest me. And then found that I rapidly brought my focus back into the same areas that I’d previously written about because this is where my thinking tends to circle.
In particular, I’ve been enjoying the Weight, Wellness, and What It All Means series that I’ve been exploring for the last couple months. Weight science is an area that fascinates me, because it’s so multi-dimensional: we have to take into consideration not just nutrition, but also culture, psychology, spirituality, metabolism, as well as an understanding of how science itself works and how it can get derailed.
Substack, which is the platform that hosts this newsletter, has a feature which allows “sections”—basically a sub-newsletter which can be subscribed/unsubscribed to without unsubscribing from the main newsletter. Since weight science isn’t for everyone, as I’ve pointed out in the forward to each of those emails, I’ll be making the Weight series into its own Section, called ‘Weighty Matters.’
The difference for you readers is only that you can choose whether you receive those emails or not—if you choose not, then on days when I’m sending out a Weighty Matters email you won’t get anything. But when I send out a newsletter about other topics, you’ll still get it. It’s a way for you to personalize how you receive my newsletters, while still allowing me to dive deeply into a topic that fascinates me.
Solving the Problem of Pain
At the same time, I’ve been plugging away at massage school. We’re gearing up for our midterm exam later this month, and at the same time, the intensity is increasing. Since it’s medical massage specifically, we’re studying methods of addressing musculoskeletal pain. Some of these are techniques for massage, but many are also self-help approaches that anyone can do.
As a thank-you for paid subscribers, I’ve been offering a Wednesday newsletter section that’s loosely connected to massage school, and bodywork in general. I’ve decided to define the focus of that section of the newsletter a little bit more clearly. In it, I’m going to be exploring how to address musculoskeletal pain, especially things that people can do themselves.
That section will be called ‘Solving the Problem of Pain.’ Instead of coming out every Wednesday, I’ll send it on Sundays, alternating with the main newsletter. I’m really excited about this part of my plan, because I’m really enjoying understanding this aspect of massage. I hope that you will enjoy it as well!
The Well Writer
My last announcement is actually for something that’s fairly invisible to people who’ve already subscribed to the newsletter, but should have a big impact to potential subscribers.
One of the things Substack does fairly well is help writers publicize their newsletters to other writers. As someone whose every instinct goes against marketing advice (you know, those edgy techniques like talking to people…) and who consequently has to put effort into my attempts to reach more people, I’m really excited about some of these tools.
As part of my anti-marketing instinct, I like to call things by obscure or poetic names. I think they’re clever, but nobody else knows what I mean. And I’ve been told (repeatedly!) that I’ll be able to help more people if I’m more clear about what I’m doing.
Therefore, I’m changing to the title of the overall newsletter to ‘The Well Writer,’ with the description—‘holistic health, eating well, and moving often for writers, readers, & others who sit for a living.’
The hippie-dippy poet side of me finds it appallingly direct.
But the side of me that sits in a chair for hours working on the computer or reading a book, and only gets up to look for snacks every few hours? She would sign up for that newsletter in a heartbeat.
Because really, that’s the fundamental question, isn’t it? How can we be healthy when modern life makes it impossible to be healthy?
It’s possible, but it requires deliberation.
And figuring that out is one of my passions in life, and the reason why I have a newsletter in the first place.
As always, thanks so much for reading! Next Sunday will be the first Solving the Problem of Pain newsletter. See you then!
