This week has been heavy. We have those kind of weeks. The heaviness makes it hard to focus, hard to believe that things are sustainable. We carry on. We muster through. But are there better ways to treat the heaviness?

I’ve been reading one of Thomas Merton’s works, a collection of his thoughts and contemplations during his first five years in the Gethsemani monastery in Kentucky. Thomas Merton is absolutely one of my favorite writers. He shares so simply his thoughts and emotions, whether good or bad, shameful or unabashed. He wrote about “heaviness,” a short paragraph, a glimpse into his soul and a remedy for deliverance away from the heaviness we feel from time to time.

He often wrote about his writing career, even while living in a monastery. He wrote many books that were published for the Catholic Church. He shared, in reference to a book he was about to have published, “At first I felt pleasure at the thought that the book was going to be printed. But the pleasure soon ended up in a dead, heavy feeling inside me.” Oh, do I know this feeling. For a moment, the thrill of the unknown, the excitement of a possibility. And then quickly those pleasant thoughts dissipate and return to heaviness. Why do we do this?

I began searching over the last two years for methods to rewire our minds to eliminate this heaviness. Thomas Merton, after remarking about his heaviness, gave a remedy, a treatment for this emotion. He stated, “I have a way to get away from all that. I think about solitude.” That’s it. I think about solitude.

Last night, lying in bed, the thoughts traveling, unstoppable, the heaviness unbearable, Merton’s words were in my mind. Think about solitude. How can I do that? I closed my eyes. It took me back to a moment. Me, surrounded by those I loved in complete purposeful solitude. My spouse and I, in another land, in a Mass, for an hour of complete solitude and worship. I could see the solitude. I could feel it. And I didn’t have to be there. I was just laying on a pillow, in my bed, eyes closed, my mind experiencing the memory.

That’s all I had to do, go back there in my mind. I didn’t have to be there. It worked. The peace immersed me. The heaviness lifted. Again, another treatment for rewiring the mind for our souls to enjoy peace in a crazy world of uncertainty.

I would love to hear your stories. How do you get rid of the heaviness? Do you read, meditate, cry? Our minds need rewiring. I’m working hard to demonstrate ways to help.

Speaking of rewiring the mind, not only closing our eyes and thinking about solitude, we can work on preventative methods and repairing our gut. Our microbiomes are directly connected to our brains via the vagus nerve. I work often to repair and replenish the microbiota that live there, and here’s a great recipe for you to try too. Prevention is so important. We have to keep our minds clear, our neurons working to benefit our body and our soul. It’s all connected.

Enjoy the benefits of the summer harvest. This past week I began harvesting our gherkin cucumbers, planted just to harvest and ferment and enjoy the benefits of repairing my gut and brain health. Here is a quick ferment. Use only gherkin cucumbers. Easy to find this time of the summer. This recipe does require a kitchen scale.

Fermented Pickles — 3% Brine

What you need: mason jar, kitchen scale, glass fermentation weight, breathable fermentation lid (cheesecloth or a MasonTops-style airlock), cucumbers, non-iodized salt, filtered water.

Step 1 — Weigh the cucumbers.

Place your mason jar on the scale and tare to zero. Add the cucumbers. Write down this weight.

Step 2 — Add water and get your total.

With the jar still on the scale, pour in filtered water until the cucumbers are fully submerged, leaving about an inch of headspace at the top. Write down this new number — that’s your cucumbers + water total.

Step 3 — Calculate the salt.

Multiply the total from Step 2 by 0.03.

Example: 860 g total × 0.03 = 26 g salt.

Step 4 — Measure the salt.

Put an empty dish on the scale and tare to zero, so the dish’s weight doesn’t count. Add salt until the scale reads your target number.

Step 5 — Dissolve the salt.

Add the salt to the jar and stir or swirl until it’s fully dissolved. Undissolved salt sitting on the bottom won’t protect the ferment.

Step 6 — Weight the cucumbers down.

Place a glass fermentation weight on top. Everything must stay below the brine line — anything exposed to air can mold.

Step 7 — Cover.

Add a breathable lid or airlock so carbon dioxide can escape without letting oxygen in.

Step 8 — Ferment.

Keep the jar somewhere cool and out of direct sunlight for about a week. Start taste-testing at day 5 or 6. When they taste right to you, swap in a regular lid and move them to the refrigerator.

I am attaching a link to products for fermentation. I have attached a link to the scale I use, the lids, and specialty items. (I am an LTK creator, so if you do buy from any of these links I would get a tiny commission, but these are recommendations. You can find these anywhere after you take a peep.) Link to my Fermentation Items.

Here is link also the Thomas Merton’s book. The Sign of Jonas

I will continue to strive for ways to help us get through this thing called life through food as medicine and strengthening our faith. It gets heavy sometimes. But we got this!