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You love yourself first. Not necessarily most or best, but first. You don’t cancel plans that you were excited about because somebody else wanted your time. You don’t rearrange your schedule to accommodate a person who may bail at the last moment anyway. You are strict with yourself – even when you want to give in to the impulses of others –because you know that what you want and what you need is not always the same thing.
You need someone you can rely on and that person has to be you. At the end of the day, if everyone else bails and flakes and fails to show, you will still be there. So don’t look at yourself as a sad consolation prize. Put in the work. Become someone you’re proud of. If you’re who you’re left with at the end of the day, be happy with who you’ve ended up with. Make sure it’s someone you’d pick over a flakey, unreliable love interest or friend.
To love without expectation, you choose honesty in your own endeavors. If you don’t want games, you stop playing them. You text back. You show up. You say what you mean and you don’t make time for maybes. In a world full of dishonest people, you choose not to become one of them, even if that makes you lose a foolish game or two. Like attracts like and if you’re looking for straightforward, no-nonsense people, you will have to become one. So you wean out a few losers on the way there. So what. You’re becoming who you want to be.
To love without expectation, you show compassion. You remember the times when you’ve lied and cheated and fell short of the expectations other people set for you, and you forgive yourself for them. You understand that you had a liability but you did not live up to it and while you may not be okay with your choices, there was a reason why the cards fell the way that they did. You remember that reason. You remember that other people may have similar reasons when they let you down – reasons that have nothing to do with you at all.
You learn to detach from your personal investment in why people do what they do, because chances are it doesn’t exist. You understand that you have infinitely less to do with other people’s actions than you’ve always believed. And you learn to be fine with that. Learn to be free within it, even.
To love without expectation, you learn what’s not in your control. You understand that everyone has their own demons and nobody owes it to you to fight them. At the end of the day, you have two choices in love – one is to accept someone just as they are and the other is to walk away. There is no in between. There is no bartering, bargaining, expecting and falling short in love. There is just choosing to be there or to not. Anything in between is a tired, self-interested excuse for love.
To love without expectation, you learn to appreciate what’s there. Other people are not ours to own or rearrange or expect things from and the more anticipation we pit onto others, the more we let ourselves down in the end. All we can do is appreciate who we have when we have them, and let them go when we do not. To lend our hearts like vacant hotel rooms: celebrating others when they come in and letting them go when they leave. Understanding that at the end of the day, all we can do is refuse occupancy. But we cannot force anyone to stay.
To love without expectation, you have to be okay with yourself. Okay with opening your doors, spreading your arms, baring your heart and understanding that not everyone is going to be gentle with it. You have to know that you can recover from those aches, that you can heal your own wounds, that you can trust yourself to walk away from the situations that do not grow or aid you.
Because here’s the thing about placing expectations on others: at the root of expectation is need. Need for others to accept you, to validate you, to tell you that you’re good and worthwhile and strong. And if you can do that for yourself – if you can live up to your own expectations and desires, then the need for other people to do so disappears. The need to bend over backwards, to accommodate others, to seek validation from those who do not deserve your heart, disappears.
Who to love and who to leave becomes simple. And expectation slides out the window.
Boredom is a filter. Common ideas come before it. Uncommon ideas come after it. Sit with a project long enough to get bored with it, then sit a little more. The most useful insights bubble up after you get bored.
When most people think about food, they think about energy—getting enough or too many calories. As it relates to the brain, they may think about cravings or feeling hangry. But the reality is that food is so much more than brain fuel. It’s information--data that programs our brain state with every meal. Each bite of food we consume contains billions and billions of molecular signals that alter the makeup and function of our 160 billion brain cells, as well as the connections between our brain cells and even the creation of new brain cells. In this article, we're focusing on the link between our food and metabolism and energy, and some top foods and nutrients that may act through this pathway to support brain health.
How does brain energy relate to diet?
Despite weighing only about 2% of your body mass, the brain consumes around 20% of your energy. That energy demand is primarily supplied by mitochondria, —the cellular “power plants” that generate ATP allowing our brains to function. If there are issues with mitochondrial energy production in the brain, this may lead to fatigue, brain fog, mental health issues or even higher risk for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. A growing set of research has focused on the changes in energy production that occur with aging of the brain, showing that our neurons may have more trouble with energy use as we get older, and that this relates to risk for brain atrophy and dementia.
How does diet impact brain energy? At a basic level, we need to consume enough calories to power our mitochondria. But for many people today, an excess consumption of ultra-processed food, added sugar and especially refined carbohydrates may overload the body’s metabolic state and lead to system-wide problems like insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome. The impact of these states can spill over and negatively influence the brain. This is good reason to cut back on or avoid consumption of these types of foods to protect healthy brain energy.
Beyond the overabundance of unhealthy calories that comes with eating a standard ultra-processed diet, our modern day food can be low in key nutrients that support healthy brain energetics. Let’s discuss some of these in detail.
Creatine
Creatine is found in primarily animal-based foods, but is often taken in supplemental form. Creatine is believed to help neurons regenerate ATP and supplementation is linked to improvements in cognitive function, especially in people under stress. Recent research indicates a potential benefit to supplementation with between 5-10 grams of creatine monohydrate for brain health, with some publications studying even higher doses. It's shown that taking supplemental creatine does increase brain creatine levels, and has been shown to help counteract mental fatigue.
B Vitamins
Several B vitamins, including B6, B12, folate, riboflavin and niacin are coenzymes in mitochondrial pathways. Deficiencies in B vitamins correlates with worse brain health, and one key reason concerns metabolism and mitochondrial health. For example, vitamin B1 and B12 each participates in energy generation in a mitochondrial process called the TCA cycle. B vitamins are found across a host of plant and especially animal-based foods, but they’re often lacking in ultra-processed foods unless they’re added back in through fortification. People at high risk for B vitamin deficiency include those taking acid blocking medicines, those with previous GI issues or surgeries, older adults and vegans. The best way to know if you need vitamin B supplementation is to get your labs tested.
Polyphenols
Polyphenols are non-caloric plant molecules that may play a role in energy production within our brain cells. While not considered typical nutrients, as they’re not vitamins or minerals, polyphenols make up a large family of over 8000 molecules in plant foods that are being studied for their role in immunity, metabolism and longevity. They’re found across all plant-based foods but are concentrated in colorful foods and especially bitter foods like coffee and Tartary buckwheat. Due to their chemical structure, polyphenols can help fight oxidative stress, which is a key pathway linked to mitochondrial damage and dysfunction. A diet high in polyphenols has been found to correlate with lower risk for dementia.
Magnesium
Magnesium is a mineral that plays a multitude of roles throughout the body and brain. It’s involved as a cofactor in over 300 reactions that regulate a host of systems, including those involved in energy metabolism. The typical recommended level of magnesium intake per day is around 300-420 milligrams, with higher levels for men and pregnant women. However, data from a large US survey of adults found that over 50% of us don’t get adequate magnesium from our typical diets. Magnesium can be found in many plant and animal foods, but is especially high in pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, almonds and spinach. For example, one ounce of roasted pumpkin seeds provides over 1/3 of your daily value of magnesium.
Conclusion:
While it’s easy to think of food simply as fuel, the reality is that what we eat profoundly shapes how our brains produce and use energy. Supporting healthy brain metabolism requires more than just enough calories—it depends on the quality and diversity of the nutrients we consume. Compounds like creatine, B vitamins, polyphenols, and magnesium all play critical roles in powering our brain cells, protecting our mitochondria, and sustaining cognitive function over time. By prioritizing nutrient-dense, minimally processed foods, we can give our brains the tools they need to stay energized, resilient, and healthy well into the future.
Finalist, Conservation (Impact). Inside the world’s largest albatross colony, a technician from the Papahānaumokuākea Marine Debris Project carries a ghost net. “During their mission, the team removed more than 70,000 pounds of marine debris. This is action-based conservation at its finest.”
Santa Fe Cooking School - Alligator Juniper Cutting Board -
Historian and philosopher Will Durant on play:
"Let us ask the gods not for possessions, but for things to do; happiness is in making things rather than in consuming them. In Utopia, said Thoreau, each would build his own home; and then song would come back to the heart of man, as it comes to the bird when it builds its nest. If we cannot build our homes, we can at least walk and throw and run; and we should never be so old as merely to watch games instead of playing them. Let us play is as good as Let us pray, and the results are more assured."
Source: Fallen Leaves
Have a Good Weekend.
