So, You Think You're Weird ...
That's good, 'cause Healthy Deviance is having a moment — and you can be part of it.
As Hunter S. Thompson famously put it: “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”
Well, my Healthy Deviant friends, I feel like our turn-pro moment is upon us.
So much of the crap we’ve encouraged to buy, chase, be, accept, and do is demonstrably destructive and misery-generating.
So many of the people we’ve been told to respect and look up to are proving to be pole cats and liars.
So many of the programs and interventions we’ve been encouraged to embrace in the service of our health (e.g., the poorly named “Diabetes Prevention Protocol”) just plain do not work, and too often, they make matters worse.
So, is it really any wonder — or really that “weird” — that a lot of us are now looking for ways to opt out of the conventional cycles, models, and patterns we’ve see degrading the health of our body-minds?
Is it really so strange that growing numbers of us are exploring ways we can innovate, iterate, or straight-up deviate from the norms that are undermining the vitality of our communities, our institutions, and our planet?
Is it hard to comprehend why — after decades of lousy or counterproductive “lifestyle-change” advice — a lot of folks have given up entirely?
No, I say. This all makes perfect sense.
The Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti once wisely observed that “It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a sick society.”
Healthy Deviance is perhaps not so much about being maladjusted, but rather, about consciously and creatively readjusting our priorities, perspectives, and daily patterns in ways that serve us better.
If doing that makes me weird, I don’t want to be normal. And I don’t want you to be normal, either.
I also don’t want any of us to suffer alone, feeling like there is something wrong with us because so-called normal life feels “off” to us so often.
Here’s the way I see it …
If you often feel bummed, disappointed, and/or grossed out by the ugly nonsense going on around you, yet you remain determined to show up and share something good with the world …
If you sometimes feel exhausted or overwhelmed by the demands and expectations of everyday life but choose not to submit to helplessness, hopelessness, or mindless compliance …
If you are willing to challenge notions that you should go ever faster, be ever richer/younger/fitter/more gorgeous, and accumulate or accomplish ever more (even as you tightly control your intake and make only the wisest and best-informed of choices) …
If you are longing to find a more gratifying, higher vitality way of living, but also not convinced you can simply buy your way into that way of living …
I think all of that is a sign that you are a sane, reasonably healthy person — and that you probably fall somewhere on the spectrum between “Healthy Deviant in the Making” and “Hardcore Healthy Deviant” (take the quiz here to find out).
So yeah, maybe this makes you a bit “odd” — particularly in the eyes of the normies around you.
But I think it’s time we faced it: The way we are living at present is inherently experimental and unsustainable. And our social fabric is being rewoven so quickly that whatever passed for normal five minutes ago is probably on the chopping block of history anyway.
The scope of disruptions and pressures we are dealing with now is unprecedented, and the pace of change is accelerating so quickly that one generation can no longer relate to the challenges and priorities of the next (consider this recent post on the topic, for example) — much less confidently point out the way forward.
In this context, I think the framework of Healthy Deviance provides a useful, pro-exploratory map, and a helpful set of way-finding tools.
Perhaps for this reason, Healthy Deviance appears to be having a moment.
Last week, I was delighted to see my friend Brian Johnson sharing out my book to his large and fast-growing Heroic community …
Woo hoo! That made me so happy!
Just the week before, an Ivy League medical institution invited me to come speak about Healthy Deviance to their huge patient care team.
Is it possible that Healthy Deviance could become some new and vastly improved version of “normal,” at least for some? I dunno, but ooh, wouldn’t that be cool?
Next week, I’ll be opening the tenth cohort of my Healthy Deviant U experience, which will include a number of folks who have chosen to remain members for more than five years now.
One the one hand, that mind-boggling to me. On the other, it makes perfect sense. Because if something is working well for you, and feeling good, why stop?
Healthy Deviance is not just a perspective or a philosophy or a program, it’s a way of being in the world, a purpose-driven movement.
And it’s one I’d love for you to be part of. Which, if you subscribe to this Healthy Deviant Digest, you already are. So thank you!
Speaking of which, I just realized that it has been almost a year since I launched this Substack. To celebrate, I’m once again sharing the first in a trio of 15-minute videos I created to explain what Healthy Deviance is all about, and why it is so essential to our individual and collective well-being/survival/thriving.
It’s just a tiny taste of the much larger body of wisdom we learn and practice in Healthy Deviant U, but it’s a decided departure from “normal” …
Interested in embracing this different way of being in the world?
By way of encouragement, here’s a downloadable version of my “Healthy Deviants Wanted” invocation — presented as a help-wanted poster.
Because our Healthy Deviant movement is always looking for new recruits. And because the more of us weirdos “going pro” in this regard, the better. 👇
Okay, that’s it for me this week. If you are interested in learning more about Healthy Deviant U — my ongoing learning and healthy-change support community (kicking off again on Saturday, March 29th) — you can check it out here.
And if you’d like to talk about bringing your whole organization, class, practice group, or community along for the ride, I’m all ears.
Meanwhile, thanks for being part of my weird little world. It feels less so much less weird (and so much more fun) when we are all in it together.
P.S. If you know anybody else determined to escape from our society’s unhealthy downward spiral, please share this Substack with them. The more of us who deviate from the crazy that passes for normal, the more accessible and “normal” true health and happiness will become.
Great share!