Back in 2007, a 28 year old woman died from drinking water. Literally, her cause of death was "water intoxication". She'd participated that day in a radio contest marketed as "Hold Your Wee for a Wii". She drank almost two gallons of water and later was found dead in her home. The intense amounts of water had diluted the electrolytes in her body which caused her electrical system to short and ultimately stop. She never realized the extreme danger that she was in.
Wait a minute, though. Something as good for you as water can also kill you? As we like to say "too much of a good thing isn't a good thing."
Yet, extremes are in. They sell. People are all about the latest trend or fad. Whether its the skin care industry. The supplement industry. Sports. Politics. Even religion. We want something that wows us.
This week, over on Instagram and YouTube, I am talking about the resource of extreme temperatures. Because hot and cold are great nervous system regulators, and they have so many benefits. But sit in a hot tub for an hour, and you are likely to dehydrate yourself. Chill your temperature below hypothermia range and you might lose a limb.
Extremes can be dangerous.
It's ironic that this will post on election day because there is no better example of extremes. As a matter of fact, this election cycle's marketing has been almost laughable. Each of the candidates accusing the other of the fringiest fringes of extreme. Trump has been compared to Hitler (BTW, every time they log that name association in your brain, they score more votes). Kamala has been accused of inviting undocumented immigrants into the country so they can murder people, go to prison, and surgically turn themselves into the opposite sex on tax payers dollars (Are a bunch of hardcore criminal Hispanic men in prison lining up for free sex changes? Someone please tell me if this is a trend that I've missed.).
I didn't come here to argue about politics...and I won't. I simply wanted to point out how much extreme we are completely comfortable with, especially when it comes to our government. That, in itself, is crippling this nation. It's dangerous when we are okay with lies as long as they get our person elected while we're accusing the other side of lying.
Speaking of hot water, I've gotten myself into this much, I might as well talk religion too. We love extremes in the Church. We have people living their whole lives on two Bible verses and demanding that everyone else do the same. We like to get extreme on grace or extreme on truth. We extremely condemn anyone who interprets the words of Scripture differently than us (even though the Bible was originally written in Greek and Hebrew when those languages had far fewer words to describe things than we do today, so each word had many different meanings).
There's an amazing amount of fear wrapped up in our addiction to extremes. Probably our worst fear is of being wrong. We erroneously believe that majority is right in our circles. We refuse to do the brave work of thinking for ourselves. We don't even know why we think this way or believe this way, but we will die on that hill. And it is so scary to actually consider that what we've believed or have been taught all this time is wrong. If we start unraveling that sweater that our lives have knit for us, where will it end? Will we be left with nothing but a tangle ball of yarn?
So we keep wearing the same ole foolish sweater.
This is so dangerous when it comes to religion. Because religion holds its power in God's Name. I grew up TERRIFIED to disagree with anything I was taught because it was implied that I'd be testing God. That it proved me still a heathen. That He'd send me to hell for all eternity. Do you see the danger in this? And why God holds teachers, preachers, and pastors to a higher standard? They are literally in a position to speak for God or to claim to speak for Him. The abuse that has happened in God's Name causing people to believe that He is the abuser is horrendous and damaging to our world on so many levels.
And politics has its own nasty hold on extremes. Every election we hear how devastating it will be for our country if the other candidate wins or how great it will be if our candidate wins, but yet we claim to be a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. Maybe if the people refused to play the game anymore, it would end. Maybe if we, the people, stopped blindly following political party extremes, they would no longer be able to buy elections. Because that's what they are doing now, y'all. Billions and BILLIONS spent on who get the power to spend our tax dollars. Judging by the ridiculous commercials every five seconds and the billions of flyers in my mailbox since September, I'd trust neither candidate to run my family budget.
But I digress. This is just me, the idealist, talking.
What if we could unravel the sweater, untangle the yarn, and knit a new better sweater?
You know who changes the world of extremes? People who refuse to be blinded by the extremes. People who take the time and intention to figure out what they believe and why they believe it. People who exchange marketing for true connection...with the problem, with the solution, with the people who are affected by both. People who have done the work of unraveling and reknitting. Maybe they even keep some of the same design elements, but they know exactly why those elements exist in the first place.
Brave people who choose to become everything that God created them to become despite the peer pressure, despite the hype, despite the mocking and rejection they will inevitably suffer. Brave people who aren't rejecting the crowd out of some kind of extreme "I'm my own person" attitude, but who won't join a crowd just to be a part of a crowd. Brave people who don't have to speak loudly because their lives speak for themselves.
Beware of the danger of extremes, y'all. Too much of even a good thing can be a destructive thing.
PS. If you are caught in extremes, I'd love to help. I've added some exclusive coaching services to my offerings, and I would love to have a talk about how you have the power to become more intentional and less extreme.
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