The Prohibition Against What Needs to be Done

 In most lives, the reason for not getting things done, is the internal prohibition against doing what hasn't been done -- which is invariably, to solve a problem as soon as it is recognized.  Instead, the directive is to do everything and anything else -- rather than change the status quo -- even if it is not working, and that is the reason many people think everything they do, does not matter, or is futile -- rather than the reason for their productivity and success in everything they do.  Usually, it is because they have been conditioned to think otherwise -- that the arbitrary and even counterproductive is the value -- and the rectifying of those problems and issues, are forbidden -- and thus they live their whole lives in these mistaken notions -- rather than engaging the straightforwardness of reality.

That is the greatest handicap of all -- that actually prevents them from engaging reality at all -- in favor of a tortured existence they will struggle against all their lives.  Fortunately, there are many chances throughout their lives to break free from such thinking -- of which the most accessible is the exercise and testing of reality in our everyday lives, and everything we do.

There is no greater or more important challenge than what we have to do -- which is the simplicity of life for every life form less than human, as well.  Only in humans are we overwhelmed by the complexity of thoughts competing with our actual realities -- and so people are confused by which is important and urgent, and which are the fantasies of galaxies far, far away.  So we set off to slay the countless dragons -- rather than get more in touch with ourselves and our present capabilities -- which are the aches and pains of the body telling us what needs urgent attention first.

Instead, we ignore these signals and attempt to go about our normal activities and routine with these nagging injuries  and dysfunctions hoping to get through them first -- and all will be forgotten and forgiven.  So naturally, things just get worse -- rather than are nipped in the bud before it becomes a persistent, lingering problem that eventually dominates our consciousness and everything we do.  That's how these dysfunctions always begin -- so why not turn our attention to resolving them as the most important thing we have to do at that moment?  

We create an interval of time -- that removes us from that urgency of being in the moment -- as the diversion away from it.  That becomes the problem-solving paradigm -- always to do something else instead -- it may not matter what.  It is just an escape from solving the problems  of one's life -- in entertainment, food, drink, drugs, goals, etc, and so these things become more important in our lives than dealing with any problem immediately and effectively.  The escape is always the solution -- and when one returns to it, the hope is that it is gone and has resolved itself -- because that is what time has always done before.

Until one day it doesn't, and things just get worse with time, which we now call "aging,"  That is when all those things that worked before, no longer do -- and fall into that category now as the aging process.  That is simply the message that one is running out of time -- and time can no longer be one's excuse for not getting down to it.  The only question remaining is whether one has reached the end of the road -- or is another path possible?  That is true for any time and stage in life -- and why some are revitalized, while many others go into an irreversible downward spiral.

That is finally the only hope -- when that person turns their life around.  Some are more skilled and experienced at it than others -- because they've practiced it as their resilience in life.  People are what they actually do -- especially when nobody else is watching, or telling them what to do.  That's virtually everybody in "retirement."  What they make of life, is their own creation -- and the summation of their existence.  So it should be good -- because there is nobody else to blame but oneself.

A few will still be blaming everybody else for all their problems -- and at that point, it will never change.  That is the point of no return.  One has gone down that rabbit hole never to be seen again.  An increasingly rare few, will redefine what the effective human lifespan is -- for every subsequent generation as the evolution of human possibilities conspicuously into their 80s, 90s, 100s -- as we are witnessing already.  Not everybody gets there: it depends on individual choices they make -- in addition to a supportive, healthy cultural context.

That is the individual responsibility to make one as healthy as they can be.  That is the survival of the fittest -- and the fitness.  That is what is important to do -- before all diversions.

Getting Started

 Getting Started

As one gets older, just getting out of bed in the morning, becomes a monumental achievement — as the whole body seems to fall into a state of total flaccidity (incapacity) — that can be activated and energized once again systematically, in the easiest way possible. That is the challenge of changing from the resting (inert) state to a fully contracted one — as a sustained and progressive exercise — without the weights or gym equipment. All one is hoping for at this state (stage), is to make it out of bed — which is a challenge for a lot of people — especially the old, disabled and terminal.

Even champion athletes may have so exhausted themselves in an effort or game, that their body will feel so spent that they feel they cannot move a muscle they next day upon awakening, and feel like only a week of complete rest and sleep will enable them to fully recover — and that is the importance of exercising to failure from time to time — to condition the body to recover rather than avoid such supreme efforts when appropriate and commensurate to the risks.

Under the right circumstances, one wants to be able to go all-out and find out what that is — whether they are the world champion or given no hope for survival and told nothing further is possible. We want to find out what is the actuality of the possible — by manifesting it, and not what others say it is. That is the most important concept in exercise — to find out what the truth of the matter is by manifesting it — and not merely as a mental exercise — by which all things can be possible, or impossible. That is testing reality — and finding out what that really is.

When we are clear on that, it doesn’t matter at what point we start from — from the weakest to the strongest, because we know we can change that. That’s what muscles enable us to do — change. They either contract, or relax, and by that alternation of muscular states, producing the pumping action that is the flow of blood and other nutrients to those volumes — by first compressing the old out of those spaces, and then as those muscles relax, the heart has space to pump blood and fluids into it. That is the proper understanding of blood flow — and how it is effected by the voluntary (skeletal) muscles — and not the popular notion that the heart simply works harder and faster and forces the fluids out throughout the body — equally, nevertheless. Physics and physiology doesn’t work that way — no matter how many certifications they have.

To activate the greatest circulatory effect, one would produce such contractions at the furthest extremities of the body — which are the known weaknesses of the feet, hands and head — where if an engineer were designing the body, would place hearts at those extremities for optimal effectiveness. However, one doesn’t need dedicated hearts at those extremities, as long as they recognize that the feet, hands and neck/face operating in the manner of a heart which is to ostensibly contract and relax, achieves that same effect — which is the value of exercise for any part of the body. Fortunately, to get to these extremities, one has to go through the rest of the body — which is not true if the axis (focus) of the movement, stops at the hip or shoulder girdle — as most “exercise” does.

The axis (focus) of movement (contraction/relaxation) must move to the wrist, ankle, and neck to effect the most productive flow — which again, is where most contemporary sedentary lives virtually never move — with these well-known disastrous consequences of most of the afflictions of modern life.