Easy Does It

 The worst advice on exercise is to make it harder all the time -- aiming for a point beyond one's present capacities, and never being satisfied with one has actually done.  That kind of "negative" conditioning will cause one to abandon all efforts -- when just a persistent modest effort, would make a huge difference.  That becomes a huge factor in later life -- when one is often defeated and discouraged before one does anything at all -- and falls further into despair and hopelessness as their fate from here on out.  Why does it have to be that way?

Few have asked that right question because they;ve ben conditioned from the start to accept that Commandment -- as though it embodied some truth, or great wisdom -- rather than headinng in the right direction in seeking the path of least resistance -- which is the better way,  Why would one voluntarily take the most perilous and laborious path -- when it would make more sense take the easy and safest route -- in just about everything?

So we have been conditioned in the wrong direction and least rewarding and productive path -- as though it was some kind of wisdom and great virtue.  Why shouldn't we pick the low hanging fruit first -- and then only if necessary, and driven to it, would be to climb the most precarious branches -- even as impressive as that may be.  In this manner, we have been conditioned wrongly -- by people who don't know any better, to take the difficult and impossible path, rather than the easiest to ensure their success and rewards.

Such a strategy is particularly important the older one becomes -- and how difficult every becomes.  They want to know the easiest and most productive way to do anything -- and particularly, the momentarily impossible.  It is by making the impossible possible, that one becomes more skilled, and not the impossible, even harder - at every turn.  That would be sheer madness -- and the problems of aging.

Hopefully, one learns all those lessons throughout life, which is their meaning in life -- and not to forget everything they once knew, and learned 50 years ago.  They want to live their best now -- and not 50 years ago, or in 50 years to come -- when they are no longer.  Things have to make sense right now -- and in every present moment.  Otherwise, one may never know, or can tell the difference.

The classic case is instructing a person who has fallen on the ground, how to get up.  On hearing this, a lot of exercise instructors tell one how not to fall or be in that condition in the first place -- as though that were helpful.  Classes that instuct one how to get up off the floor are actually readily available as beginner Yoga classes.  But if one is too weak for doing even that, how would one begin?

I do that most mornings by just moving my head as far to the left and then as far to the right -- while wondering how I'm going to eventually get up.  But shortly, I don't worry about it anymore, and move on to activating and articulating my hands to enhhance that circulation and feeling.  Finally, I articulate the full range foot movement from the pointed toe to the retracted -- which some exercise researchers have named the Soleus Pushup -- thinking that function is peculiar and unique to those muscles, rather than the characteristic of all muscle function in its role to keep the body healthy.

It's not optional, and good if one has the time and leisure -- but is the "categorical imperative" for every living being.  It's not just for when they are young, or can win accolades for it, but essential to their very being -- all one's life.  That is the future generation beyond just making it to that age -- in poor and deteriorating condition.  Even to get to that age in any condition used to be a milestone -- but now we know better -- that an unprecedented quality of life can still be actualized.  Just good enoiugh is no longer good enough -- or enjoyable for that matter, and we now think we are entitled to enjoy life -- and not just endure it for as long as we can hold out.

That was yesterday's story.  The future is making the best out of life in every moment one can -- including waiting for the microwave or washer to stop.  Or waiting at the bus stop.  Those are opportunities -- and not just wasted time -- unless making it so.  That is the easy way to do it -- rather than deciding what priority it should have over everything one hopes to do in that day -- and how to manage our time, energy and resources to achieve it.  Some even believe there is no other way but the strict adherence to schedule -- with no exceptions and deviations from the one true path -- for everyone.

But the beauty of life is that we all get to find out -- for ourselves, what is true -- and then share that knowledge to as many as are open to it.  That is particularly true if what one is doing, is not working -- and no amount of additional effort seems to be the answer.  One encounters that frequently in life -- that the answer is not the right answer that actually works.  And rather than arguing over who has the right answer, we need to find out what actually works -- and discard everything else.  Knowledge that doesn't work, is useless -- unless all one wants to do is claim to know the most -- whether it is true and actually works or not.  Many people are satisfied in that way, having all the answers -- but nothing works as they should. They think it is because they don't have enough "likes," as though it is just one big popularity contest, or who is in power to tell everybody else what to do or think.

Some leaders are even thinking that those who "wrong-think"  must be locked away from the public for the rest of their lives.  We thought that those were just the Dark Ages -- but it could be at any time and circumstances.  It's that kind of world -- playing out daily.

So the key observation I come away with is that mental functioning seems to come about because of of the poor neck development produced by the lack of circulation that comes with not turning one's head to use optimize one's awareness.  That distinguishes those who know what is going on around them -- from those trapped in their own thoughts and show no such proclivity to be aware of their surroundings.  Then that world further shrinks and implodes.  That is increasingly the fear of old age -- and everything it entails.  But how not to be like that equally obvious -- with the perspective of evolutionary time.  We are the way we are for a reason.

Understanding that is human nature and the way we work.  That is the key to living and aging well.  Without that simplicity of understanding, no amount of effort will produce the desired results.