Scars

View from my home window.

This is the last post of 2024. I cannot believe how fast this year has gone by. Today, I have had various conversations with Uber drivers and waitresses at Ihop, phone calls with loved ones, and other thoughts just by passing by people at a store or supermarket.

Arborists can explain that although trees don’t feel pain like we do, carvings can cause much damage. They create wounds that let in pathogens and weaken the tree’s defenses. Carvings aren’t like proper pruning, which is done at just the right spot and angle to control a tree's growth and health.

Nonprofessional cuts, especially on the trunk (where carvings are popular), heal much slower than proper pruning. While the tree heals, pests and diseases can more easily enter. "Girdling” is the process of profoundly gouging around a tree and it has various purposes, but doing it incorrectly can kill it, which is still done in some regions.

Sometimes, a tree can even starve to death if a deep or big enough cut is made in just the right area. You can’t tell immediately if this has happened, and some trees die very slowly.

Just like humans, it’s crucial that trees are wound-free and get all their nutrients. Carving isn’t the only means of bark damage, though. Dinging a tree with a car or lawnmower or accidentally nicking one when pruning the grass or plants nearby can all cause devastating effects.

Many humans today have forgotten how connected we are to nature. We live in a world where everyone lives in the moment of someone else. We take minimum to no time to listen to what others are saying, but we are quick to re-connect our concentration and attention to marketing and unrealistic times of others' lives. We have become so wounded and forgetful of ourselves that it's much easier to hide in the lives of others to have no time to think of ways that we can better the wounds that have been caused to us, that, like these trees, have not yet healed and today we are dying little by little.

This 2024, I have learned so much about myself and have taken so much responsibility for understanding that we are made up of over 7 trillion nerves. Did you know 43 nerves are connected to your spinal cord and 12 to the brain? Now imagine how damaging negative self-talk or even talking negatively to others is. Negativity can also lead to immune system suppression. Since your brain and body are constantly on high alert, all systems get overused, and an excessive amount of energy is utilized that otherwise would go toward maintaining your typically strong immune system. It has been long established that individuals under chronic stress have weaker immune systems, and this is one of the reasons why.

Negative thinking can also cause extreme physical symptoms of anxiety. When you have a thought conveying a message of impending danger to your brain, your brain signals your body to prepare to escape or fight, and this causes your heart to race, your breathing to quicken, and other panic symptoms.

Recurrent negative thinking can also cause the rewiring of associations or cause-specific associations to fast-track to negative emotions. For example, if you consistently come to expect something negative in a given situation or from a particular person, then that cue (situation or person) will cause an immediate negative response.

Anger and hostility, in particular, can lead to a higher risk of stroke, according to a 2014 study by Everson et al. published in the journal Stroke. The authors explain that negative emotions activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, your body’s built-in stress response system. Changes in neurological and endocrine systems lead to risk factors for stroke. 

Now imagine how much damage our day-to-day choices cause us. We talk negatively about ourselves, about life, and about traffic; there is more negativity than positivity in our vocabulary, thoughts, and conversations with others. That is not even thinking about all the past traumas and hurt that we have endured and are still working on, so this is my recommendation for today and right now.

Let's start healing. Whichever way works for you. I have loved every stage in my life; I have been to therapy, group counseling, writing, journaling, practicing music therapy, and many other things. This is outside of me being a professional. This is me as a human being understanding that, just like the scars of a tree, we all have scars that we need to learn, appreciate, and work through, so our dying journey is one of healing, health, and love, a love towards ourselves first and once that is conquered; we will be able to be a better person to all those around us.

Have a happy 2025, my beloved readers. May your 2025 be a year of lessons learned and appreciation for every second we are alive and here in this world called Earth.

MCoreano 12/29/2024