From the Corner of a Bustling Colombian Intersection

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Uncut Colombia

8:00AM.

I’m fresh off:

• a dose of sunlight

• a frigid deluge

• and a savage outdoor workout…

The older man older man to my right works through a crossword puzzle. Not a damn piece of technology on him.

An older woman is to my left, drinking coffee, simply taking in the lively flow of morning commute traffic.

I’m the same—no tech, fully present.

I presume I’m the lone gringo to ever have sat at this cafe. [First ✅]

Observing the flow of the city, its people, and rush hour, I’m gifted a unique window into normal Colombian life.

It’s not El Poblado’s endless prostitutes, Cartagena’s vendor-filled beaches, or Chapinero Bogota’s eclectic coffee shops…

It’s the unfiltered, real shit.

The Natural State vs. The Modern State

Seated, I feel a pleasant buzz humming, circulating through my body. I’m beginning to see “life in color” once again.

Flashback to years ago—I could only obtain this through destructive means. Means that come with comedowns, side effects, and that left me fucked in the head.

However…

I’ve learned that this state can be achieved through the body’s factory settings. Dopamine, serotonin, the cannabinoid system, and oxytocin—natural highs.

Sauna = weed high. Cold plunge = cocaine high. Nighttime routine of stretching, journaling, and talking to God = Xanax calm.

I never actually stopped being a junkie…

And I wonder, seated at the corner side cafe: is this the natural state?

Is this how my ancestors felt each morning? How they felt 95% of the time they weren’t busy hunting, grieving losses, or navigating unchartered rivers in search of new lands?

Better yet…

Is this life after the brain rewires, following a decade+ of uninterrupted assault, bombardment of stimulation, and sharp oscillations from low to high and back?

Perhaps that—the lowered, depressed, anxious—is the modern state. The state 90% of us find ourselves in without ever agreeing the enter.

I now see it clearly…

This newfound, natural-high state isn’t a level above the norm; it’s not a super-human state, despite feeling like it.

It is simply a return to baseline—the place we are all naturally at, but are shoved down by modernity.

Tech and vices serve to push the buoy—us—under the surface and keep us inhaling water. The removal of the downward force sends us flying back up to the surface—to baseline.

Fuck The Bullshit

When I finally decided to actually quit my destructive habits for good, I had some curious findings.

1. The addiction and subsequent withdrawals from behaviors are no different than that of substances. Dopa and reward pathways react in the same ways.
   

2. The withdrawals gradually tapered off as my brain learned to upregulate dopamine, without the aid of super-normal experiences like porn, Tik Tok-style scrolling, drugs, alcohol, etc.

The last day I chose self-inflicted destruction, I wrote:

“Never again will I surrender my energy, vitality, mood, focus, wealth, relationships, clarity, sleep, and drive—for a fucking screen.”

[I ended up publishing a series on quitting porn based on my numerous attempts, failures, and ultimately success—but my quitting of “things” also entailed alcohol, various drugs, mindless social media and YouTube, cigarettes, and more…]

Mejor dicho (better stated)… fuck the bullshit 📱🎮💊💻🍸

• The vices and addictions

• the emotional pacifiers packaged as pretty girls who must create conflict to feel seen (in turn enabling me to feel important)

• the adult actresses who gain everything while giving me nothing in return (except robbing me of my energy)

• the scrolling

• the big booties on IG

• the running to the bar for a sense of connection and escape from the miserable reality of the week

• the numbing

• the negative, cynical, small-thinkers

• the escapism

• the distraction,

• the self-imposed ceilings on my fucking potential, success, life…

Instead, I choose to charge... ⚡

To your growth and travels 🤝