Thinking Clearly

The previous discussion on energy and what limits it, is important because the objective of an optimally fit and functioning person is not to waste energy, no matter how much that is the orientation of much discussion about exercise -- that it is the ideal way to burn calories. Exercise is a relatively ineffective way of attaining proper weight control and balance, in itself. In this matter, the best that can be said of exercise’s role in the caloric balance, is that while one is exercising, they are usually not eating -- concurrently.

Usually, the cause of obsessive-compulsive eating is boredom and disinterest in what one is doing. When one is really engaged and interested in what they are doing, they are more likely to forget to eat. A reliable guide is to eat when hungry -- and not to eat when one is not. Eating as a recreational activity, or entertainment, should be avoided. If weight control is a problem, something other than “fine dining,” should be one’s favorite activity. Or eating of any other quality -- even organically and supplementally. One needs to de-emphasize the importance of eating in one’s life. Obviously, that is not the deficiency in one’s life -- but the lack of other, more compelling and absorbing interests.

The popular culture in this country, as it is around the world, discourages depth of interest while providing many distractions from a focus in the study of anything -- as though understanding was simply an assault on our sensibilities -- rather than the freedom from it. This latter is the control over one’s own programming, rather than salivating at the carefully designed stimulus of others.

Often in these discussions, it is presumed that understanding is perfect, and only more effort needs to be applied -- rather than that it is the understanding that is deficient and defective, and when that is sufficient, extraordinary effort and discipline is not required. The proper understanding results in its own right effort. It is what it has to be -- not hard, not painful, not unpleasant -- but exactly right. So just in listening to the conversations people have on exercise, it is easy to gauge their understanding, experience and results.

Unhealthy people are preoccupied with their health -- and not healthy people, in the same way that really intelligent people are not obsessively-compulsively measuring their intelligence against all others. Their intelligence is a well-established fact, and not a matter of opinion -- for endless conjecture and argument. No intelligent person would spend all their time competing against others to prove how intelligent they are -- just as the world champion in anything is not always competing against every fast-gun just because they are challenged. So proving one is fit or intelligent is not necessary to establish that in one’s own mind and the minds of others.

Once one clears away all these distractions and bogus considerations, the mind is clear to attend to the simplicity of purpose. As in so many things, what is required is not more -- but less. One doesn’t need more theories and explanations -- but when the mind is free from these ideas, it is aware, and that awareness invariably produces its own right action.