DISPATCH #003

2-Minute Tuesday

Hello dear friend,

Lately, I’ve noticed a pattern.

Guilt creeps in when I fall short of some imaginary ideal. Then guilt (I did a bad thing) turns into shame (I am a bad person). And shame sticks around.

But, with the help of a dear brother, I realized:
I will always fall short of an ideal.
Because that’s what an ideal is: idealized. It’s not real. It’s an IDEAL.

And that realization gave me a chance to reapply something I’ve learned before (and keep relearning):

They’re signals.
They’re little parts of me trying to help.
Even shame.

That twist in the gut, the sinking in the chest, that’s just an old alarm going off. It’s saying:
​“Try harder. Be better. Please don’t mess up again.”

Not to punish me.
To protect me.

So now, when I feel it rise, I will try to pause.
To notice the physical sensations.
To separate from the spiral.
To thank that little voice for trying to help.
And then — let it change my actions, or let it pass.

That’s not numbing. That’s not avoiding.
It’s seeing it.
Sometimes, shame is like a persistent five-year-old tugging at my sleeve — just needing to be seen, heard, hugged.

This is one of those moments where I’m reminded how grateful I am to reapply what I’ve learned.
To meet the same emotion with a little more skill, a little more kindness, and move through it a little faster.

Still working on it. But grateful for the reps. I'm sure I'll learn this lesson again soon.

Recipe

Not a Recipe. Just a Plea for Sponsorship.

This Oikos High Protein Zesty Lemon & Lime yogurt?
It's so good, oh good god.
It tastes like 85-90% of the way to a key lime pie. Solid 8.7 (and I'm seriously strict about my rating scale).

Drop it on top of some warm cinnamon oats (or protein oats) or crumbly granola and boom:
You’ve got a macro-friendly, absurdly delicious little dessert that takes 90 seconds and zero brain cells.

Not sponsored.

Buy some before you order Uber Eats again.

Thing I Learned

Fascinated by evidence-based physiotherapy and rehab sciences this week.

1. ​One physiotherapy session has the same effect size as twelve, for pain, function and quality of life indicators.
2. For low back pain, mean pain scores drop from ~52/100 at onset to ~23/100 by six weeks without any hands-on care.
3. ​A 2025 Cochrane overview (31 reviews, 644 trials, n=97,183) concluded that manual therapies (including myofascial release and soft‑tissue mobilization) yield only small effects and rarely outperform sham or minimal controls.

I have more data; however, my conclusions on this topic (at present) are: much of the immediate relief people feel from hands-on therapy seems driven by belief effects, compassionate touch effects and natural resolution (regression to the mean) of an acute flare. This doesn't mean they're not useful: the mind is one of the most powerful tools to leverage.

I see the job of a hands-on practitioner ideally as: leveraging belief effects to reduce kinesiophobia (promote movement optimism) and get people to buy into the idea that they’re not broken. Once they buy into not being broken, they can tap into the real health panacea that is physical activity. By educating patients, practitioners empower them to pursue personal growth and take their health into their own hands.

Quote That Stuck With Me

Max Love,​
​EB

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