Life is What You've Done -- and Think You've Done

So if you have a fantasy, it should be a good one -- that lasts a lifetime.  Unfortunately, many have to discard theirs many times -- after learning something difficult, the hard way.  Hopefully, they learn to meet life halfway -- and the vision and the actuality, are in the same ballpark.  But it is better to have the two rather than just the one -- because that gives one perspective -- of each to the other.  The greatest mistake in life, is to see things only in one way -- unvaryingly, for the rest of one's life.  That makes one blind to all things.

But life is always changing -- if one allows it.  It takes its own course, and its own time.  The question is, if you get to see it.  Especially if it is a vision everyone else would like to see.  Invariably, that is a world without hopelessness -- as every savior would like to sell with their miracle product.  That's pretty much how we can tell them apart -- from the real people, actually doing good.

The sale might be selling the infomercial.  Whoever pays, dictates the terms -- and the content.  Unfortunately, commercial (professional) writers heed no higher law.  They'll write, whatever somebody pays them to write -- regardless of any other consideration.  That's what the rest of us are up against -- The Scribes, the mouthpiece for the Pharisees -- wise men have been warning us to be wary of for time immemorial.  They will always claim to be the pious, righteous, merciful, enlightened and just -- as their personal province.  "$99.99" is just their way of "giving back."  Mostly they are just confused with what they really want.

It used to be said that what was "good for General Motors" was good for America," as though they were one and the same, and now many individuals think that what is good for them, is good for the world -- and not just their own unique work they have to do. That larger cause is what keeps them keeping on.  But really, the largest perspective, is the realization that one is the entirety of the world -- in which one hopes to find their niche, and not merely the egomaniacal projections of a dysfunctional upbringing.

In such a worldview, it is believed that the world did not know it, until one personally "discovered" it.  There is no provision nor possibility for the unknown -- as greater than what one already knows.  Of course, that is the critical operating mistake in any discussion of the known -- and hopefully to be discovered.  In any inquiry, one only looks to confirm what they already know, as all that can be known -- which for many years, the institutions and old mass media dictated.  And they warned, there was nothing else beyond -- no coming back from falling off the edge (of the world).

As recently as the 20th century, learned scholars were proud to proclaim that all that could be known, was already discovered and known.  They had no idea that that was just the beginning -- and not the end of the world.  To have such a worldview, is always limiting -- never allowing for the possibility of any solutions to any persistent problem.  They use whatever knowledge they have, to defend the status quo -- that the problem as they see it, are inviolable rules of our existence -- and there is nothing beyond, no possibility of anything else -- only more or less, of the same.

That is the culture of poverty -- for lack of better ideas -- that become a consensus with repetition, and their conventional wisdom.  Life and effort is futile -- and makes no difference.  There are no "breakthrough" moments -- as distinguishes any life of merit.  Just more of the same -- and worse.  Life never gets better -- only worse.  Some call that normal aging -- even commencing immediately after high school.

Lifestyle, Diet, Exercise -- Putting It All Together

The three foundations upon which every individual has immeasurable control over their outcomes, is lifestyle, diet and exercise.  That is the world they live in -- more than what society and any other imposes on them.

The key to lifestyle is mindfulness, for which the alternative is mindlessness -- which in everything one undertakes, determines the quality of their experiences.  Mindfulness developed to a high degree, is what people also call meditation -- or cultivating that mindfulness.  It is achieved simply in being aware of what one is doing -- and not hoping to achieve something other -- which is the fragmentation of thought from action, resulting in mindlessness, in everything they do -- no matter how much of it they do.

So the best way to begin, is to do nothing -- and be aware of that doing -- and not thinking, "I should be doing something -- or I should be doing something else," which takes attention away from what they are actually doing.  Many unfortunately live their entire lives that way -- preferring the illusion for the real.  Eventually they cannot tell any difference -- and so nothing matters, and every action is futile.

So one asks, "How can one achieve this mindfulness?"  The simplest and quickest way is to fast -- which observant people have been saying for ages.  That is to do nothing, and be intently focused on that -- and that is the easiest way to "know oneself" -- as simply as possible.  Anything else becomes a bit more complicated -- and so in learning anything, we begin with the easy, and not the most complicated.  There will be plenty of time for the complex -- but that understanding begins with the simple, and easy. 

However, many on hearing this, immediately pose a complication -- and so can never get started -- even for a moment.  And that is all it takes -- to begin any journey, and accomplish anything monumental.  They never begin -- anything.  They will talk long and hard at how difficult (or impossible) it would be to embark -- piling difficulty upon difficulty that makes even the thought of such an action prohibitive.  It is simply the unthinkable -- anything but that.  But that is also how they are with anything else -- and all they need to, is convince everybody else of that futility of judgment and action.  And so they are mired in hopelessness -- never venturing to find out what would happen if they did otherwise.

One does not have to administer a half-day intelligence test to test another for this resolve.  It can be determined in their willingness to find out their own limits -- in the simplest terms possible, which in laboratory mice as well as humans, can be readily observed by their action towards food.  Can they resist it -- even for a moment?  And then it was noted that those that could defer those immediate gratifications, were capable of achieving much higher rewards in the hierarchy of needs.

And those are the things that really matter -- and not just showing up for every meal -- or treat.  They have much bigger fish to fry -- and more important things to do.  So that is a very powerful exercise -- is learning to distinguish the more important from the less so.  And that is what we are seeking to accomplish in every thing we do (exercise) -- or we can just wear ourselves out, rather than prepare us for successively greater achievements.  In that manner, we become much greater than we could have imagined from the beginning -- without practice.  But each practice, is a benchmark for any other subsequent attempts.

However, one will never get anywhere, never taking the first step -- and so it is essentially important to begin -- even without knowing where one hopes to end.  The awareness of where one is, will guide them on the proper path.  So the beginning or the end is not important -- as knowing where one is, and what one is actually doing.  As always, the easiest place to start -- is at point zero -- and know where one is, because if one doesn't know that, they could already be at where they think they want to be -- yet thinking they have to be somewhere else.

And so they search the world trying to find a perfect place -- yet have never bothered to discover where they are.  So what makes them think there will be any difference being somewhere else? 

For the last fifty years, we have been advised and warned not to listen to our own bodies (senses), but instead to heed the "experts," who it now turns out, have no idea what they are talking about -- but that doesn't stop them from mindlessly repeating the fallacies of the past as though they were eternal truths.  It's not like finding out the truth for oneself, will cost them their lives -- as they are often warned -- with the threat of an imminent heart attack, stroke or Alzheimer's -- for disobeying the dietary and exercise guidelines, although they haven't worked.

In fact, they are the very diseases and problems of these times -- the obesity, diabetes, metabolic syndromes -- despite following all the rules.  It could be that it is not in spite of following that advice -- but actually because of it -- that is responsible for the health crises of our time.  But now the tide may be turning -- because people are being advised to listen to their own bodies and senses -- first, and not in deference to the expert opinions that may have no idea what they are even talking about.

That's how much the world has changed -- and is much better for it.  "Experts" now have to prove they know something -- by actualizing it.  Otherwise, they're just "jerks" pretending to know what they have no idea what they are talking about -- but repeating it because they think that makes them seem knowledgeable -- even if they have not begun to ask the right questions.