Post Mortem Lux
Lessons After The Dust Settles
From the Noah Davis exhibit at the Barbican in London.
No special relevance-just beautiful.
I took a bit of a hiatus from writing on here for a few reasons. Most practically, I was on the road in Europe for two weeks in March. That trip took me to Germany, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom. During that time, I was on the go literally every day, whether traveling to or from a speaking engagement or networking opportunity.
While the trip was highly successful, it was also expensive—not from a financial perspective per se, but more in terms of energy costs. I was running a bit low even before the trip, and the demands of travel drained me to fumes.
This culminated in a sinus infection immediately upon return that lasted a solid two weeks. Truth be told, it probably could have been resolved earlier, but I don't like to listen to my wife when she recommends I go see a doctor. I've heard that's not an uncommon affliction among men...
Just as I started to feel human again, the calendar spun up another engagement—and I hit the road once more. Here I sit, knowing I haven't posted any writing for a while. If I'm completely honest, I've written somewhere in the neighborhood of five partial articles, but they were better suited for the annals that line the bottom of my trash can.
My standards for myself are high, and I won’t publish something just to maintain my standing in your attention feed. That attitude is what makes me suck at using social media platforms of all kinds—but I could not give less of a damn.
I'm interested in adding value. If I'm asking you, the reader, to take time out of your life to read what I'm putting into the world, I want it to be worth your while. Furthermore, I want to write about something that I'm actually thinking about. Something I'm curious about. Or something I think will be of service to you.
Not just some garbage to grab your eyeballs for another week.
In that vein, I offer you some lessons I learned during this recent hiatus. Hopefully, you take something away from it that adds value—or maybe gives you a chuckle.
Post Mortem Lux
Sickness isn't failure.
Sometimes it seems like if you're a person who makes health a priority, getting sick or experiencing a temporary downturn in performance means you've failed. That’s shortsighted. While this feeling doesn't overwhelm me personally, I've definitely caught myself in that loop. Health culture often sees illness as the enemy, rather than a natural part of the living cycle.
Getting sick can be an audit of how we're managing ourselves—but it can also be a call to rest. My HRV was headed to Shitsville before the trip, and that sinus infection forced me to rest enough that it actually rebounded. Sleeping ten hours a night will do that.
Tuning on the move.
I talk a lot about the idea of "tuning." Tuning, in this context, is the art of listening to your body’s signals and making small, continuous adjustments to stay aligned. Think of it as performance maintenance in real time. It’s especially useful when life isn’t ideal.
During and after all the recent travel and sickness—as well as while prepping for more—I leaned heavily on this idea. But it wasn’t easy.
Our little human brains love the comfort of predictable environments. Tuning is easy when everything’s smooth. But when things get volatile, the question becomes: Can I stay tuned in while thinking long-term? Can my ego accept the small offering I can muster today to preserve the bigger goal tomorrow?
Tuning on the move—whether literal travel or varied life conditions—is not just a tactic. It’s a test of how robust your approach really is.
The map is not the territory—no matter how good the map is.
The first leg of my European trip was a drive from Stuttgart to Garmisch, Germany. The only car Hertz had left was a brand-new Mercedes-Benz. Poor me, right?
I loved that car. The onboard screen was Tesla-sized. The AI answered me in full sentences. The voice navigation worked flawlessly—except when it didn’t.
In Munich, I needed to get to the Apple Store downtown. Munich is a pedestrian paradise (read: a nightmare if you're driving). As brilliant as that car’s system was, it tried to lead me through a taxi stand and into a blocked pedestrian area—five times.
And there it was: a perfect metaphor. No matter how slick the technology, we still have to look up and make the decisions ourselves. Same goes for health and performance tools. Apps, trackers, and wearables are helpful—but they're not the territory. You are.
Doing cool stuff ain't free.
There’s a lot of “have your cake and eat it too” in health and performance. We all want to believe we can chase the extraordinary without paying a price. But that’s a fantasy.
Even though I ran myself ragged and got sick, the trip was worth it. That doesn’t mean throw your hands up and say, “fuck it.” But it does mean acknowledging that cool shit costs something.
Being honest about that cost can help. But when you’ve got a reserve, the temptation is to spend it. The reservoir of health we build isn’t just so we can (maybe) live longer. It’s so we have currency to spend when we want to go hard—without going broke.
Bottom line: “bad” stress costs us. But “good” stress isn’t free either. Know what you’re spending, and check how much is left in the pot.
Post Mortem Veritas
I'm back at the keyboard and working on a few things I hope will continue to add value to your health pursuits. Some of it is still taking shape, but I'd love to hear from you—what kind of topics are you actually interested in?
Here are a few formats I'm considering:
Research Reviews – Not dry academic breakdowns. I’m no lab coat. These would explore research topics through a holistic lens with real-world application. If you’ve got specific areas of curiosity, send them my way.
Now You Do It – Personal health experiments. Stuff I or my clients are doing that you can try too—training, recovery, breathwork, and beyond.
Health and Performance Philosophy – This will always be a mainstay. If there are ideas you’d like me to unpack, let me know.
Book Reviews – Less Breathe by James Nestor (I get asked about that one weekly), more unexpected gems like Free Play by Stephen Nachmanovitch—one of the best reads I’ve had in a while.
Also, stay tuned for updates on my upcoming book:
Check Engine Light: Tuning Mind and Body for Performance Longevity
Thanks for reading,
Rob