Optimizing Health and Functioning

 The meaning and purpose of life comes down to this: if one dies in the process of achieving it, then that is life -- but in the meantime, each does their best to actualize what that can be.  That is the simplicity of living.  It's easy to get side-tracked and blind-sided by all the trivial considerations at the expense of the greater, ie., seeing how much one can bench press before it crushes them, or how fast they can go before crashing, or how much one can get away with before somebody stops them, etc.

Understanding this, is called balance in life -- weighing each thing carefully against everything else -- and achieving that optimal balance -- and not just the one thing at the expense of everything else.  For these indicators and measures, the most important are at the critical faculties of the head, hands and feet -- rather than just development of the showy muscles of the biceps and abdominals -- or achieving the highest heart rate ever -- before succumbing to it.  That is not the objective of all these activities -- but to function as well in as many daily and ordinary challenges of living -- which increasingly, seem to be about increasing pain and immobility in all its manifestations and guises.

That seems to be an increasing fact of life -- and the reason we get "older."  Until then, we expect to increase our capacities -- even if just a tiny bit more, because it is this direction of change that signals appropriateness and progress over an entire lifetime -- and not just any particularly short-lived glory of the moment.  That is how lives are built -- each small thing after another -- so at the end of the day, the world is a different place, and better than before.  That is the story of civilization when all the lives are put together -- and not just the zero-sum game many academics proclaim their one thing explains all the others -- even to the suppression of everything else.

Nobody has that monopoly on truth -- and so all are empowered to test it for its validity -- and in that process, discover the many other things in life which might matter even more.  Science is more than just confirming what one wants to believe but recognizing when one thought was all that could be known, was just an unquestioned and unexamined premise -- and the truth lies beyond.  Until then, the future looks like a dead-end -- with only the end in sight.

But once we regain the right path, the possibilities seem endless again.  Life goes through such cycles -- as does every living thing.  We see both individuals and societies in decline and a few rising from the ashes and rubble to go on to unimaginable better lives because of it.  They have figured out what the problem is -- and not just know the solutions without even asking the right questions.  Unfortunately, much of that passes for our present education and conditioning -- and why the problems are interminable.  It is not enough just to have the "right" answers, but to know what actually works -- and not just more elaborate explanations of why it doesn't -- despite all one's "knowing."

Knowledge like that is life's greatest handicap -- knowing what doesn't work, and defending that ignorance to one's dying day.  Of course such people cannot change their outcomes.  They wouldn't know how to begin.  They no longer or never had the ability to distinguish "better" from "worse," and were taught instead, that there is no difference -- and anything is just as good as any other.  In fact, the good is only what "they" say it is -- beyond all review and recrimination.  It is because they say it is so -- and questioning it is forbidden.  

That has been the story since time immemorial.  New worlds were forbidden to be discovered -- because it would upset the old apple carts entrenched in their favorable spots -- to collect the tolls from all who were forced to pass.  It was always the straight and narrow.  

But life is not that way: it is the wide and vast -- which no one person or group can monopolize forever -- even the young or old.  Now we know that what works for the old, works for the young and everybody else -- and not that if one still behaves as the young, it will prevent them from becoming old.    One has to understand what makes the old "old."  It is the failing at the head, hands and feet -- that should be prioritized over the development of the biceps and six-packs they exhibit so proudly in their unflattering tank tops and leisurewear -- while gesturing unnaturally to emphasize those developments.  They've become caricatures of stereotypes rather than the picture of robust health and vitality -- which can be obviously seen at the neck, hands and feet.

Hands and feet weren't meant to be just clubs and stubs -- but are the very impressions unique to human beings.  Particularly characteristic of declining cognition and mental functioning, is also this distinctive lack of head movement -- which is the physical manifestation of the lack of awareness of what is going on around them.  That is how traditional humans took in information -- from which they could react appropriately to all the challenges they had to adapt to.  Now, they can just ignore it all -- because they have devices that tell them what is going on -- on the other side of the world!  But that kind of knowledge and information is virtually useless for responding to the requirements of their immediate environment.

Not surprisingly, they become increasingly disconnected to their actual realities, and all the people in it.  To hear effectively, requires directing all one's attention to the source of the sound -- and not just having the best headphones possible.  That's a very truncated and fragmented version of the world.  It is much like the conditioning of the classical dancer who has to be fully aware of the space of their performance, and not simply focused on what it is they do -- like the few who think that an entire weight-room exists for their exclusive use, and everybody else does not matter.  Such athletes make very poor teammates, and usually are locked into their own performance and world as though it is the only thing that matters -- which is a very distorted and unbalanced view of the world that can lead to many problems and conflicts -- and particularly to the damaging perspective that they are perpetually in competition with every other.

That precludes the much greater power in realizing the advantage of cooperation -- which magnifies the effectiveness of any one individual, no matter how formidable.  We've all seen the videos by now of how even the King of Beasts cannot prevail over a pack of hyenas or wild dogs, but even two, resumes the advantage in their favor.  Then when the numbers are equal, the rout is on.  That is frequently how the leadership changes -- beyond the one on one.  Thus the leader is not only the one who is the strongest but also skilled at mobilizing the collective force as well -- which requires awareness beyond themselves.

The less successful frequently have this tunnel-vision, or lack of awareness of anybody but themselves -- as though that were sufficient to achieve any worthwhile task, let alone achieving a monumental undertaking.  It requires more than just the sum of the parts -- but is a comprehensive greater whole, and life is firing on all cylinders -- and not just the one -- which then is an uncontrollable explosion, which then become our disasters.

So in our training style, we want to develop not only power, but also patience, persistence and endurance -- for the long haul so we are still there at the end when everybody else has passed.  That is the last man standing -- and often, that is what it requires to be successful -- just showing up.  Merely that, is the survival of the fit -- to still be in the game.