When to Collect Social Security -- In a Nutshell

The reason a lot of people take early Social Security is because they have no choice. They are out of work and have exhausted their unemployment compensation with no prospects in sight, or are in poor health and barely hanging onto their jobs. I'm sure the people at the welfare office are not going to allow them to collect welfare if they qualify for Social Security -- or have other resources.
But those who have an income (including Unemployment Compensation) who don't really need the extra income, are shortsighted to grab the money just because they can. If you don't need the money, it is wise to let the benefits grow until one does, but if one does need the money, one shouldn't put oneself under hardship and duress thinking they are wise not to avail themselves of that money -- because that is what the program was designed for -- and not to maximize one's benefits if one doesn't need the money. Those people have other means (choices) to increase their money.
Many people don't. The object of American life is no longer being the richest person buried in the cemetery -- or having the most money at the end. I think Warren Buffett and Bill Gates already have those honors locked up.

Understanding Flow

Probably the key to understanding the universe and life, is the principle of flow -- or movement; life would not be possible otherwise, and when that flow is impeded in the many ways, it creates the disruption that is the source of disease and poor health and functioning.

Most people know that the heart is the organ responsible for pumping blood through the rest of the body, but most are unclear of how the rest of the body, pumps blood back to the heart -- as though that was something that needed to be thought about at all.  But that is how people are not created equal -- as those who are the healthiest, are the most skilled at doing -- even if they are not aware of that up to now.

When people become aware of this simple principle of why and how there is movement, then life itself takes on a whole different meaning and purpose -- because one has this control of their essential well-being and functioning to a greater extent than they ever thought possible.  It's not something profound that should not be discussed except by the great philosophical and physical Masters, but something every person should learn as early as possible -- as their basic understanding of life.

Atoms and molecules move from where there is a greater concentration (pressure) to where there is less; blood flows not because the heart is pumping, as the greater principle that it expands and it contracts to create pressure differences in the direction that allows it.  Once the blood and nutrients are at the extremities, they do not just turn around and return by the same path they came, but by the network designed for flow (movement) only back towards the heart.

We know it -- if we distinguish the difference at all -- as the arterial and the venal systems -- that operate distinctively differently -- and largely determines the differences in people, and in individuals themselves -- when they are operating at their best (in the flow), and when they become diseased and dysfunctional (blocked).  The ancient people had all kinds of explanations for these blockages -- and how to restore those passageways -- so that one returned to health -- or suffered an untimely end.

They are more effective because of the better understanding of the principles of flow -- and how they better effect that flow, rather than subvert and impede them -- both deliberately and inadvertently.  In athletic competitions, performances, events, behaviors, that is the unifying objective -- to get into and achieve that flow which is the success of any undertaking.  Not to, leaves a sense of incompletion and dissatisfaction that all did not go well -- and something was missing, even when they aren't sure of what "it" was.

Many even condition themselves to the struggle -- and not the flow, until it is too late to learn anything else.  By then, their bodies may be totally exhausted or compromised, and becomes the cause of their own demise.  It might be the dementia from breaking too many bricks or boards with their heads, catching too many punches with their heads, absorbing too many blows on the football field, or professional "wrasling" -- convinced as they were, that what didn't kill them, made them stronger, rather than increasing their exposure and risk to self-inflicted permanent disability.

Thus, people a hundred years from now, will regard as mind-boggling, that people now inflict injuries upon themselves thinking that is making them healthy, instead of directly understanding how to restore the flow to the area of their lives needing it.  That's why postures don't work, or holding a contraction for as long as one can -- because both work against optimizing the flow, in preferring one state over the other, when it is both that are required to maximize the flow -- just as the heart does with its rhythmic alternation.  That is what the heart does unfailingly -- at its end of the bargain.  It would be doubly appreciated, if that is what the muscles of the rest of the body did, to optimize the flow, and therefore health, of the entire organism.

That is ignored, and often placed off-limits by the specialists who believe that is their exclusive province to administer -- as though God gave anybody that exclusive domain over all the others.  But even if God doesn't, men will conspire to claim those exclusive rights for themselves -- through some exercise of power and exclusivity -- as though they knew with certainty about such things.  But theirs is just their own understanding -- and not necessarily the truth, unless one chooses to believe it so. 

Many are convinced that if they just lift enough weight, or run a certain distance, that will optimize their health for life -- rather than that it could harm it prematurely. The greatest cause of injuries, is from people hoping to become more fit -- whether in the gym, track or football field -- until finally one day, they realize they are past the point of recovery.  So in designing a program for lifelong well-being, there should be minimal risk of injury -- instead of producing them, as one will do in activities seeking to push themselves beyond their present limits.  A better practice, would be to learn what one's limits are -- and not to push beyond that, jeopardizing one's well-being and readiness, if not life itself.

That is simply "knowing oneself," rather than "becoming" what one is not -- however greater one might think to be.  That is a very key understanding -- that the greatest achievement is knowing the person one is -- rather than all the illusions and delusions of  another one wishes to become.  That is the simplicity of understanding -- out of which life flows.