Fitness Is An "Expression" Of Who You Are

Probably the single greatest difference from my teaching of exercise from every other, is the realization that "fitness" has value, as the basic expression and communication of that individual, rather than as most others regard it, as a self-isolating and self-aggrandizing activity -- usually against, or in competition, against all the others, including one's self.

Such people condition themselves to make everything hard and difficult, as their virtue, and justification and rationale for doing it -- because they are uncomfortable with the idea that they are in this context of relationships and communication with all others and their environment. The classic tale of this, is the Greek fable of one who drew his strength from the earth, and eventually is defeated by an opponent, who lifts them off the ground from that contact and sustenance, for an easy defeat.

Even in the context of athletic activity, one's greatest success and triumph, can only come in the success in communicating to one's teammates, what they are doing, and what they intend to do -- and not simply limiting that information, to envisioning in their heads, with nobody else's knowledge and awareness of that fact. We call that mastery, making everyone (the team) better, and not only oneself -- as might happen if one thinks they are in competition with everyone else, including their own teammates, and even against themselves, which would obviously be a damaging and destructive strategy for conditioning oneself -- yet nevertheless, a very common one, by self-destructive individuals and instructors.

So two things to keep in mind in the performance of any movement -- is that one should always move with eyes wide open, and not as many do, with their eyes tightly shut -- because one would never move appropriately and productively, by shutting out that visual information. And so the conditioning, would also be the expression of lifting one's eyebrows so that the eyes are wide open at the moment of maximal expression -- rather than shutting them, as many do -- and in this way, lose their essential contact with what is going on, at every moment of their effort. Because in that blink, the whole world could have changed, and one would not be aware of that.

And secondly, while lifting the eyes and eyebrows (one of the most common plastic surgery procedures), one would wish to communicate approval and acknowledgement, which is the smile, rather than the frown and/or grimace, which indicates discouragement and denial, that one should continue in their own efforts. That is the basic work, as well as play, in contemporary society -- that coordination and collaboration with all others, at every extemporary moment, which is likely to be the "world" most leading edge individuals live in -- that social and environmental context, rather than isolated in a cave somewhere -- and conditioned to live in that mentality.

But such "fitness" would not optimize their lives in the contemporary world, but isolate and put them at odds with everyone else -- for a much more difficult life and existence, and seeming perpetual struggle, against ever greater odds. That whole way of thinking has to be turned around, so that one's basic conditioning (orientation) and fitness, is to first identify, the easiest and most effective course, before applying one's own efforts most successfully and productively.

That is to say, that one's first task, is to take in as much as the information as possible, and with that information, inform all the others of that same information, so that everyone's efforts can be maximized, rather than used to simply cancel out each other's, as a poor prognosis and response for survival. The individual (indivisible) means the whole, and not just the part.