Saturday, May 31, 2008

The Only Unacceptable Frequency is “Never”

Lifestyles are one’s willingness and ability to change.

People who do best are those who are sensitive to and change when conditions change, and they are often among the first to be aware of them; those who do badly are those who resist change when it happens, insisting it can’t be happening, shouldn’t be happening, or somebody else should do something about it.

Regardless of our conditions, life is the ability to change, to respond, to adapt -- sooner or later, and better sooner than later, but we all do have to eventually. It requires tough decisions and choices, and often means taking a loss -- for a greater gain, even it is a relief from stress and the feeling that one “cannot do anything else.” Sometimes the answer is in doing anything else but one is doing -- but nobody is a good judge of that for everybody else.

We frequently read of people who complain that we shouldn’t defend ourselves if it means having to hurt anybody or violate their first amendment rights to hurt/kill us. It would be nice if there were choices with no downside -- but they don’t happen in real life, as one always has to choose the best of the options they know about. Thus, the critical key is knowing of all the options -- that one can actually exercise.

Many propose solutions that have nothing to do with any reality -- as their perfect solution, in a perfect world, because such solutions have evolved only in their minds, and not the interaction of reality and experience. Thus, it is easy to say, “One should exercise everyday for 30 minutes,” but the probability of being able to do so, are extremely low. When the threshold is lowered to 3 minutes a day or 30 minutes once a month, it is not only possible but highly likely one can do that.

The greatest increment of change and improvement, is going from 0 to 1 -- and not 1 to 10, or even 1 to 100. The biggest difference that makes the most difference in the world, is going from 0 to 1.

However, many are convinced that if they can’t start out with 100, it’s like having nothing at all, or 0; and so they equate 1, 2, 3 or any other amount up to their predetermined "something," as though it is nothing, and so, they cannot tell the difference between something and nothing -- and think that all is futile.

That is the beginning of despair and hopelessness -- in trying to achieve the impossible before doing the simplest thing -- well.

That’s how one gets started doing anything, and making any worthwhile changes.

Monday, May 26, 2008

Change is the Name of the Game

Life is the difference between the quick and the dead -- or one’s responsiveness to change and challenges. A few people learn to do that gracefully, graciously and easily. Most people, however, have been taught the wrong lesson to resist changes in favor of superimposing their will upon the other and all.

Probably the people who have the best training in this, are those who learn to ride markets for change -- whichever way they flow, which is not to say, that everyone learns that lesson from that participation. Often in fact, people learn the wrong lessons in anything, and that handicaps them for life.

Not everyone who falls off a bike or a horse, gets back up and becomes a world champion rider because of their determination to overcome their initial failure. Far more often, one will conclude that bikes and horses were not meant to be ridden, and should never be done under any circumstances. And it is quite possible not to do anything without suffering any great consequences -- except maybe for a few things in life, like learning to control one’s own movements, which ultimately, leads to the greater achievement of controlling one’s own life and destiny -- that begins with the mastery over simple movements.

In fact, in a disastrous initiation into “physical education,” one might be taught that the world of thought and action are mutually exclusive -- and that one needs to superimpose one’s will over the other, rather than learning to integrate all one’s efforts in a single purpose. Thus, one is not saying one thing while doing something else; one is not thinking something else, while saying something different, etc., and all the self-contradictions that are the struggles of one’s existence.

The unity of purpose, being, and meaning, is the objective -- and not something one has no time to listen to because one is "too busy" doing all those other things that fragment one’s comprehension of that which is meaningful and productive to do. People seldom do too little; they are doing too much of that which is counterproductive and wasteful -- so that they rob themselves of the time and energy to do what would do them most good. Many people will encourage them on this path -- usually because they don’t know any better, but a few do know better and it is their profit to do so.

But profit is not just about money, and in fact, for most people, is less important than their ego -- and learning that everything they’ve built their sense of knowledge on, is false and untrue -- which means having to learn something all over again, or for the first time. But rather than that being more time-consuming and arduous, it eliminates the constant struggle against reality -- which is an indication that one is doing things wrong.

That which is really right and true, are inevitable if one knows better.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Can You Just Enjoy What Is --

without trying to make it into something other than it already is? That is the quality of appreciation and gratitude that probably is the single greatest differentiator among people in contemporary American life today -- those who can appreciate what they already have, and those who cannot, no matter how much they have -- they always want, and demand more, or something other than they already have.

Obviously, it is not that most people are homeless and destitute -- although many talk that way if they do not have everything they want, regardless of what they already have, which like many Christmas presents, are neglected and ignored once they have been opened. The entirety of the joy, was just in the getting and the anticipation of the getting -- and so anything they have, only stoked their demand for the constantly “More” (Better).

This mentality is present in every field of activity and pursuit -- and largely distinguishes those who are “successful” from those who aren’t. “Successful” people appreciate their successes -- as well as their failures, while those who cannot experience this success, can neither appreciate their successes or their failures, and in fact, will denigrate and degrade any successes they do have into a mighty failure.

These people think they are being very humble and virtuous in never allowing themselves to take any joy in their good fortune -- and so life is just one huge disappointment after another, with no enjoyment of anything, no victory, no accomplishment. Some people use this manner of thinking as a motivator -- which is obviously very destructive to one’s mental health. It scars one permanently with this sense of inadequacy and also entitlement -- that no matter how much they have in life, they are entitled to something more and better.

Often, such people do not think they have this “entitlement” mentality and actually believe that they are the truly deserving in life -- but of course, they are entitled to more and better.

Such thinking in societies of abundance and prosperity, become a mental illness -- because the reliable guide of human need, has been replaced by this kind of greed, that has been made into their virtue of depriving themselves of any pleasure, achievement and enjoyment of anything they have and do.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

It Really Doesn’t Take Much

Exercise and fitness have become great problems in contemporary life because people think they have to do way too much, rather than just enough -- and it is the “just enough,” that is beneficial, and not the “way too much.”

Something that is growing very rapidly and wildly popular among the “aging” baby boom generation, is the resorting to plastic surgery to alter one’s appearance, before trying the simple remedies of using their own muscles to effect such changes -- temporarily, appropriately, and as needed.

The eyebrows on most people can be raised whenever one thinks it is appropriate, if not naturally inclined to do so -- without having to permanently place one’s face in that inalterable expression. In fact, the muscles of the human body allow practically any expression one wants to effect -- including and especially the expressions of the face, and in most people only necessitate the development and conditioning of those muscles to do so -- which is the highly desired eyebrow and chin lift.

There are actually muscles that perform those movements quite unfailingly -- when required or requested to do so. In most people, that should be their first line of resort, rather than consulting with the best plastic surgeons -- who can create that look, as a permanent feature and appearance of the body. But the naturally ability to do so, resides in most people’s capacities -- just as standard equipment most people have, but never think to exercise and develop.

The major difference between bodybuilders and others who take great pride and joy in their appearance and most others, is mainly that they want to look and be that way -- more than that they were born that way. There's still a cultural stigma against people looking good -- and early on, people are forced to either become intellectuals, or vapid but pretty. There is no reason they can’t be both -- and there is every reason that they should be as completely developed as it is humanly possible for them to do so.

Some may relent that achieving some things are all right, as long as one does not desire them too greatly or work too hard at them -- or conversely, it is only all right if one desires them too greatly, and works too hard at it. But really, the great attainment of every life, should be full development, of every facet of one’s life that makes it possible and enjoyable to do so.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

The Conservation of Energy

Probably the greatest principle of life, is the need to conserve and manage its resources properly (successfully), including and especially, the absolute requirement for the conservation of energy -- and not its waste and inefficiency as though that was the virtue of life and living -- which is precisely why the present paradigm of contemporary life, especially and including fitness conditioning programs, goes against every sensibility of life that has evolved wondrously over hundreds of millions of years.

Understanding and appreciating life at that most basic level, enables to fully benefit from all the miracles of life and living, rather than constantly be fighting against, as though all pre-existing intelligence and evolution is the enemy, rather than the whole reason for being.

In the gyms, as well as all the other places information is transmitted, one should be careful to note what overarching message of life is being promoted. Is it a struggle against life on every front and particularly one’s own body, or it it the careful monitoring and heeding the information it is constantly providing us (biofeedback), which is reality.

Many schools teach a disdain for the information available to everybody and every common sensibility -- as though that was the height of human attainment and achievement, rather than the reason for its foolishness and folly. That is what the common recognizes in such people so full of their theories, explanations, and rationalizations for everything, that the obvious is not as obvious to them as it is to everybody else. Instead, for such individuals, everything is the opposite of what it seems -- and so their greatest enemy, is their own commonsense -- in deference to fools proclaiming their great wisdom that flies in the face of self-evident truth.

Giving in to the obvious is also the conservation of energy -- rather than the denial, suppression, distortion of what is, which some people, think is their whole meaning and purpose in life, their unique calling. Such individuals are the hopelessly deluded making themselves very visible with their messages -- on street corners, protest opportunities, and every forum they can commandeer. That dysfunction is predictable among the marginally balanced -- but less noticed is how that strategy is also adopted by many in the mainstream who think they tolerate no such nonsense.

Conditioning oneself by wasting as much energy as possible and creating great inefficiencies as though that were some kind of genius, is utter stupidity. The only thing that would make sense for supremely intelligent life forms to manifest and express, is the teaching of the greatest conservation and intelligent management of the abundance of resource life has already given them -- and not the need to develop more to waste evermore thoughtlessly.

That is the whole secret of achievement and perfection in every field of human activity, and all of life for that matter. The conservation and efficiency of energy and movement, would be the highest teaching of any conditioning for fitness -- and that is how one would recognize it.