Why "Regular" Exercise Doesn't Work -- And What Does
Even if one can still walk on one's hands for a hundred yards -- or run a (half-)marathon at ninety -- or eighty, or seventy, or sixty, etc. -- most will observe that that's pretty good for a person "so old," because they are more impressed that a person in that condition can do anything at all, rather than that that is what the person looks like they can do, and so there is no need to prove it.
Thus most of the fighting and competing takes place among the juveniles -- uncertain of their place and rank in their society -- rather than by the seldom challenged dominant leader in every field. Even psychopaths know better than to pick on the most robust and competent people in any environment, and will go after the weakest and most vulnerable they can identify -- to prey on and exploit. So 90% of the work, is this "display" behavior, or the "first impression" of capabilities -- which is usually not far wrong.
Those who "look "the healthiest, are usually the healthiest, and those that look the unhealthiest, usually don't have to have that confirmed by a panel of "certified" experts. That is universally obvious to everybody, in every language, so that the dying and deteriorating, don't need to be precisely calibrated and measured, to obtain that overwhelming impression. That is particularly true for the most sensitive and aware -- who determine these things before most others are aware of that fact -- and why they are the leaders -- in fact. They see things far before the rest of the pack does -- and why we want them out front -- rather than safely at the middle, being told what is going on.
Every individual, is also an entire organization on its own -- requiring the maximization of its own faculties and intelligence -- to achieve its greatest success in day-to-day living, making the best of their immediate circumstances. How best to do that, is usually not contained in a manual written for everyone, but is what every individual has to find out for themselves -- in making the best of every moment of their lives. That is the meaning and purpose of life -- which many lose along the way.
So one asks, without preconceived notions of what the answers are, how does one know what is going on in the immediate world they are (inter-)facing? That of course is primarily and most reliably, the information we get from our own senses -- which everyone is born with,and not the "perfect knowledge" a few will claim to have -- and offer to teach them, so that they don't have to rely on their own senses (good sense).
That is the problem of society and civilization -- when to trust one's (own) senses, and when can one (needs to) rely on others -- which is really the symphony of both. However, depending on the culture one is born or finds themselves in, there is varying degrees of this independence and interdependence -- so that the great horror of many, is that the society and organization, has almost total control of one's actions and outcomes, and the individual is even prohibited and discouraged from thinking for themselves, on most matters -- even and especially when they only can best serve themselves.
The ultimate attainment in every life, is one's best health, or base level of functioning -- to meet any and every challenge of life, as best they can. Logically, that would first be in knowing what is going on -- and what needs to be done, and not just doing things, just because they can be done -- or as one's compulsive entertainment to fill one's day -- because one never thinks they have to rise to the occasion of being their best. That is only the job of everybody else. But that one should ever have to do anything for oneself, is only memory of what ancient people used to do -- but is no longer necessary to do.
In such a contemporary society, not surprisingly, many are not well-developed -- enough to function minimally without the aid of others -- and kept that way, all their lives. A few break out and break through -- to find out what life is like beyond the mass experience prescribed (dictated) for all. Only those who do, will experience life as a unique and authentic experience. Those are also the people who will be most fit -- and know to move their senses in the greatest range of its possibilities -- located at the head, hands and feet. That is what needs to move -- and requires skill at moving -- especially as one gets older, weaker, and less competent (self-reliant).
One "knows" because one sees, hears, smells, tastes, feels -- what is going on around them, and not just what somebody else tells them is going on -- if in fact they are aware of these things at all. In order to do that, one has to be able to turn one's head to better see, hear, smell what is going on -- and not just "visualize" (imagine) what is going on. Many drivers will think it is enough, that the lane next to them is clear -- before they perform their maneuver -- than turn their heads to ensure that it is so. That ability, has much greater survival value, than a person who can no longer easily turn their heads -- to learn what dangers and conditions they have to respond to.
That is the intelligent design of the human body -- and not just doing the many things one can imagine doing, but have no real relevancy and need in actual life, except that everyone else has been convinced also, that they need to do them. Whether it makes a difference, has never been proven of seen -- as much as it has been rationalized. And that is the need to run a marathon, or even walk a marathon, as the basic requirement to ensuring one's survivability -- while ignoring the fact that the senses and capabilities of the head, hands and feet, have virtually atrophied because of their disuse in this proper and effective manner -- of being the primary sites where movement has to take place to ensure that they are maintained as essential priorities of a healthy human being.
The prognosis is not good for a person whose neck musculature has atrophied to an appearance of dental floss -- made possible because of the effectiveness of circulatory support and effect which results in the musculature, mobility and good functioning of those vital organs placed there. That is the very problem of the dementias, or the greatly weakened grip strength, as well as the balance problems of those whose feet have become so deformed because of that atrophy -- that it is a wonder they can balance on them at all.
That is the very predictable way that humans age -- and become useless even to themselves, and then require army of caregivers just to keep them alive in an immobile and unresponsive condition for the rest of their lives -- that can run through an entire generation, or several. That is the clear and present danger of an unsustainable and unviable life and future -- for too many, who think there are no other choices -- because those who have placed themselves in charge, have never thought there can be another way -- but the present, traditional and even ancient ways that haven't worked so far -- and produces the great health/aging crisis of these times.
Maintaining that status quo, and popularizing it even further, is not the solution -- that thinking very differently, makes easy, inevitable, and changes the course of human development to its greatest actualization. That is the simple and obvious, as soon as one lets go of the notion that exercise, in order to be effective, must be hard, difficult, painful and laborious, to be any good. It merely requires the integration of the mind and body (intelligence) -- in the only ways that make obviously good sense.
Exercising Intelligence
I saw two two very thought-provoking videos on YouTube recently: The first was a TED talk, in which the expert on aging, defined aging as the "accumulation of damage by the body" -- while suggesting there was a way (yet to be discovered). That sounds a lot like the age-old wisdom of karma -- by which all one has done and will do in life -- determines one's experience of life. That is to say, that life is not random, but there is a reason why things happen -- and if one does not see that yet, one needs to look beyond one's habitual thought processes -- which is meditation, or thinking beyond one's conditioning. In that way, one discovers how it is they think that way -- and think they thought of it themselves, rather than than that it is what another desires them to think -- as the truth of the matter.
The second video, was titled Kung Fu Genius -- in which the hero of the story reveals only at the end, in answering the question posed by the final climactic triumph -- as to where he had learned his invincible technique, that he in fact, learned it from his opponent in fighting him -- and thus figured out a way to defeat him, and that is why he was a kung fu genius -- as he learned while doing. And of course one had to agree, that is the essence of genius -- and not how much one knows prior to the doing -- if they ever get around to doing anything at all. Nist are just content to revel in their knowledge -- and presumed superiority -- even while knowing nothing worth knowing -- because they never manifest that knowledge in any action.
When one puts those two videos together, one arrives at a greater insight that either one alone possesses -- as one wondered why the first presenter, did not manifest and exhibit that robustness of vitality and vibrancy -- but instead, seemed to be old even before his time (age) -- as an "expert" on aging. Similarly, lot of people are experts on weight loss and diet -- because they've tried them all, and are definitive proof, that none of them work -- or the exercise instructor, who exhibits any muscle tone anybody can notice -- yet are proud of their resemblance to Gandhi, as the ideal of human understanding and achievement -- that we all ought to emulate.
It does not occur to such proponents, what the actuality of health might manifest, except to persist as long as possible, beyond the point which everyone marvels why they are not dead -- being in that condition of advanced decline and deterioration. That is not a hopeful prospectus for anybody considering their own longevity, and many think it is not something worth striving for, and the condition in life they want to prolong for as long as medical science makes possible.
That is a mind not breaking out of its prison -- and thinking there is a life beyond -- just a little more light, and a little more food -- as their nirvana. But for the mind that can break through all that -- they create the life they live, in living it. That integration of thought and action -- is health, physically, mentally, emotionally, and in every way possible. That is the work of man -- and not just making more money, and all the other obsessive behaviors that define many lives -- and so naturally, when they are "retired" to create their best lives without all those previous constraints -- many lose their way entirely -- into the various delusions that characterize people cut off from active engagement and participation in the larger society and social fabric, and decline in their own peculiar fashion -- because nobody tells them what to do anymore.
They are entirely on their own -- which is a great disaster for many people -- particularly for those who always relied on somebody else to tell them what to do. And if nobody does, they don't care either -- and so just dissolve into an indistinguishable mass -- seen only by their social and health care workers, as those that still have to. At that point, human beings have no idea what they should look like -- and the condition they should be in, that manifests (actualizes) the best that they can be. They no longer fell that necessary -- or even to fake it anymore. One is simply done -- and nobody, including themselves, expects anything more from (of) them. Life then, for all practical purposes, is over.
So how do we not get that way? -- the intelligent mind inquires. We should be learning as we are doing -- and not simply executing what we already know -- that doesn't work, and won't, no matter how long we persist at it. Obviously, we have to do something different -- learning in the doing -- and not merely learning apart from doing, academically, intellectually -- but unintelligently. That is what transforms and transcends the declining human being -- and not just simply, the denial of that reality. That is the most disastrous thing one can do -- becoming evermore detached from those actualities -- to live in their own world, their own personal fantasies and delusions of what they are doing, and how they are perceived by others -- doing their own thing, and encouraging everybody else to do their own thing also -- and so each retreats further into their own self-isolating activity, which has to result in a dead end, and not the wider ocean of life.
Conditioning for these Times
A lot of well-meaning but not very thoughtful people, think the meaning and purpose of our existence, is to prepare and condition ourselves to live in another era, under totally different circumstances and conditions -- rather than meeting the challenges of our very specific own times. So naturally, their ideal, is to prepare one to live a caveman's (or kingly) existence -- of perpetual struggle and conquest, in a very short and brutal life.
Hopefully, that is not the reality which most people have to face daily -- especially in the most prosperous society and culture of these times. The challenges may be in fact, quite the opposite of the desperate caveman's (or conqueror's) -- dealing with the abundance of food and other resources, rather than its scarcity -- requiring a whole different set of responses and reflexes (conditioning), to successfully meet the challenge of their living -- their everyday lives. And that is in fact, where most people are failing to meet these challenges -- in their everyday lives, from which they can only hope to "escape" -- in one diversion (entertainment) or another.
Not surprisingly, this whole industry of "entertainment" in one form or another, has come to replace the real purpose and meaning in many lives -- as their "reality," instead of the actual ones of their own existences. It is no wonder then, that solving these many manufactured problems of the media -- while not solving any real problems of their daily lives -- leaves them powerless to do any more, until finally, they give up trying in utter futility, and are convinced that nothing matters, or could make a difference -- rather than the proper understanding, that everything matters -- and that's why they are in the hopeless condition they are in -- despite what they think they're doing.
That is what we refer to as ineffective, or dysfunctional people -- those who are always and invariably solving the wrong problem at any and every time -- no matter how much it seems like they are doing. They are obviously doing all the wrong things. Yet they are convinced, that they are doing all the right things -- which is apparent to an impartial observer, is not the same thing -- but they have lost the ability to discriminate that -- because they have been conditioned, to believe that all discrimination is bad, and should never be done -- because it is the job of the self-appointed experts, to tell them what to think, and when to think them -- and so they become totally dependent on others to do all their thinking for them -- while they even believe they are thinking entirely for themselves!
That is the world (and plight) of modern man -- the world we live in now. That is the challenge of life in the very real time. Even virtual, doesn't get us there. It has to be the actuality of life as we actually encounter and deal with it -- not in some laboratory far away, or some boardroom of a marketing campaign -- but life as we encounter and are increasingly aware of it. For many, that begins and ends with their individual and unique health -- which is their very capacity to live and experience life.
The critical capacities, are the very organs by which we sense and experience the many things -- particularly at the head, hands and feet -- which are essentially our common senses. The plight of modern man is this tendency (conditioning) to rely on others to tell them what they feel and experience, rather than relying on their own common sense(s) -- in all manner of things. So most people, never figure out anything for themselves anymore. They rely on the doctor or politician, to figure out everything for them -- and think that is the only way it can be done -- and never that they can discover for themselves, what works for them -- if nothing else does. They may even believe that it is prohibited to discover their own way -- and especially if it works, because then there wouldn't be the problem, that so many have come to depend on for their living.
That is the failure of human beings to adapt -- effectively. The solution is always in the problem itself -- in asking the wrong questions, and not seeing the obvious -- because we are conditioned not to.
The failure of the body invariably begins at the extremities of the body -- in the vital senses, by which we have a clue (sense) that something is wrong, just as we do when everything is right -- and even sublime moments when there seems like there could be no wrong. Those are the moments one hopes to condition themselves to -- as their base level of who they are, and how they experience life -- in and over its entirety.
Increasingly, that means not outliving our capacity to experience and enjoy it -- because the head, hands and feet are the first to go -- while the traditional vital signs of the heartbeat continue on -- just because they can. Life under those conditions become increasingly meaningless. But far before then, we need to restore the central importance of life and its activities, to these proper center of focus and development -- which is where they really matter, and make a difference -- and not simply whether the heart pumps harder and faster, as the ultimate measure of anything of significance. That is the given -- but where we go beyond that, makes the greatest difference.
What Makes People "Old"
People begin to "age" when they no longer take in new information -- but only rely on their past (old) information, memories and knowledge -- in meeting the challenges of the present moment(s). As such, their responses are not likely to be as effective, productive and vital, as one who is taking in new information all the time -- while realizing even that is incomplete. The "old mind" thinks that the information they learned 50 years ago, is all that can be known -- and so it is a waste of time, to learn anything more, or new. That is what makes people old -- whatever age they are.
It is not that age is just a number -- but more a way of life -- in constantly taking in the new (information), rather than thinking that the old information (usually discovered and told to them by someone else), is the eternal and unvarying truth, and there cannot be anything beyond what was discovered and handed down thousands of years ago, a hundred, or even ten.
They are likely to claim that what was thought one thousands years ago, is superior to the understanding of today -- even in medicine, engineering, production, industry, athletic performance, social relations, etc. It is enough that the primitive rules should prevail for all time -- even that might should still prove right in every case, using the most delicate and finely-tuned instruments. the most familiar and constant, is the human body itself -- each one's own, and how they master it throughout their lives -- never failing to listen and learn, what their own bodies are telling them.
Those who turn a deaf ear, become more and more insensitive to their own "being," with naturally disastrous consequences. Many who should know better, will insist that the body alone tells one nothing -- but that one must listen to all the experts (teachers) telling them what they should do -- in preference to their own common senses. And so many, by following such advice, never develop a familiarity and confidence, in relying on their own faculties of discernment and discrimination -- but always defer to those "authorities," who claim that jurisdiction for themselves -- to tell everybody else, how and what to think -- as the only way one should be allowed to think.
This was the same way before every "revolution" in history -- when the mass of people, broke away from those constraints -- to develop another way of living and being -- that the institutions and traditions perpetrate and perpetuate, to keep themselves in control and power. It is also done most commonly at the personal level of human relations -- as the interface of every individual with the greater world they live in.
That absolute control of one's environment, can be exercised and achieved, if the world never changes -- which is only possible in the minds of individuals, as their fixed ideas, taking in no further information -- regardless of what they already know. In this manner, even those with a lot of knowledge (of the past), can fail to meet the challenges of the new and present moment -- and may prove to be the hindrance, at which they fall from the state of learning, and become increasingly "old," in cutting themselves off from the vital nutrients and information of the present environment, which is the ever-changing world around them.
It is not that the world is changing more than ever before -- but more that we are aware of that more than ever before -- except for those who choose not to be aware of such developments, because they prefer the world of fifty years ago -- rather than learn about, and adapt to the new. The person always adapting to the latest information, is not becoming old and obsolete in that way -- separating (isolating) themselves from life itself, in preference for another time at which they thought they were at their best -- many years, or even lifetimes ago.
Increasingly, that is the reality they choose to live in -- and become increasingly inaccessible to the new world unfolding daily around them. That is why people become old, irrelevant and ineffective -- and not that it has to necessarily be the fate of every life.
