Thursday, August 13, 2015

Understanding Conditioning -- Volume Seven

The Golden Age

Retirement is great -- as long as one is healthy.  When one is in declining health, nothing else can get much better.  That is dependent on one's health.  Therefore, obviously, attention to health must have our highest priority -- and implies the quality and vitality of one's life.  If one is getting better, what more can be said?   And if one is in a declining health spiral, eventual disability and death seems the only certainty.

Yet many are paralyzed by the fear -- rather than realizing they have nothing to lose in doing everything they can to make themselves better.  Certainly, they can't get any worse.  But most don't want to change -- even if it means getting better.  The inertia is too great -- to get moving again.  They don't want to move on; they want to die where they are.  Formerly, people made those choices for themselves.

But now with so many health care workers, social workers, home health aides, one can be kept alive longer than their own efforts alone make possible. That is fine -- as long as any other doesn't have to sacrifice their own health and well-being for any other, whether the young for the old, or the old for the young.  Often, it is not just one for one, but many for the one, until one has a whole empire serving the needs of The One -- for which any sacrifice, is not too great.

That is not the trend in modern societies -- fortunately.  The highest attainment is the greatest self-reliance and self-sufficiency, because everyone is given equal access to all the resources -- particularly information of what they are, and how to access them.  But the outcomes and results, will never be the same for everyone because of individual variations that ensures the survival of the species in the diversity of responses to any crisis or challenge  Otherwise, one thing would wipe out everyone in an instant -- rather than allowing a few exceptions to the rule, to survive and eventually flourish in drastically changed circumstances.

It could be that some can stand the cold better, while others the heat. But as such, some enhance their survival prospects by moving towards their most favorable conditions -- rather than their most trying and difficult circumstances -- as proof they can withstand anything.  Far better, for them to identify and move towards their greatest strengths and favorable conditions -- in optimizing their life and existence.  That is what every living thing must do.  That is their categorical imperative -- the drive above all the others.

The individual must survive -- in order for the group to.  If none of the individuals survive, than the group is not possible.    That is why the individual must survive, and beyond that, thrive -- to make all things possible beyond that.  And rather than retirement being the end of those responsibilities to do well, it is actually the test tube of experimentation for how life can be -- if one's primary responsibilities are no longer the perpetuation of the present society, and its dependencies.  It can be a life of greater independence, than increasing and inevitable dependence.

That is a choice -- that the most able make, because they can.  That creates the society of the future. -- and not simply extending the lifespan of failing/fading life.  That formula is doomed to extinction. -- because the measure of life, has never been its quantity -- but its quality.  And quality is not just more of the same -- but significantly and appreciably different and better

Those are the foundations of a golden age -- of individual or collective life, when one has access to all the information.  The limit then, is not the information, but one's own desire and drive to tap it.  Many don't even want to know about it -- because if they did know about it, they'd feel compelled to do something about it -- and so let themselves off of that responsibility, by choosing not to know, and turning away from every possibility of knowing.  So theirs is the age of darkness -- repeating life as it has been, for thousands of years before.  Or even the generation before.

That is the betrayal of all that have come before us -- not to see what lies beyond.  Quite probably, it is of life beyond the money and cares of our traditional lives -- which we think is the ultimate goal and destination. And then we die -- or spend the rest of our lives worrying about it.  That too, will come to pass, but to spend the better half of one's life worrying about it, is wasting the best years of one's life -- in the actuality.

All of life up to this point, has been a preparation, for moving beyond the past and knowledge that limits us. Only those who take on the challenge and responsibility of finding out the life never lived or imagined before will enter the golden age of these discoveries. And that is to embrace and embody, all that has gone before -- and go beyond that. That is the golden age of discovery.

The Answer is Out There

The Great Realization is that we know far less than what we don't know -- or think we do.  Just because we don't have the answer, doesn't mean that nobody does.  It may even be that what we think is hard and difficult, is really very simple and easy -- but our conditioning (education) is to think that everything is hard, and requires years to learn -- especially if the "educator's" job, is their own lifetime job security -- for as long as they can convince their students, that nothing else is possible -- for everything that can be known, has already been discovered, as though knowledge were always a thing of the past, and not the future work of humankind.

For surely, that is the work of everyone -- and not just a self-selected and designated few.  It was not always that way, and among the oppressive individuals and societies what makes them distinctive and dangerous as the world becomes more populous.  We no longer live and organize to conquer and vanquish every other -- particularly those who do not believe as they do, and demand that everyone does on forfeiture of their lives, as they deem necessary.

That is true even of societies that consider themselves "enlightened" -- as they predictably do -- justifying all actions to enforce their "consensus."  Formerly, they owned the machinery of control and propaganda, and so could be fairly successful -- especially in the schools of indoctrination to convince the young and impressionable, that they did know "everything there is to know."  But the answers, are not just what they control, and even create -- but the actualities every individual life creates for themselves.  That is what is real, and happening, at every moment in time.

How much we know of it depends of every individual's openness to those possibilities -- that they may not know everything there is to know, or even the little to solve the problems of their own daily living -- before presuming to solve all the great problems of human existence -- for everybody else.  Invariably, those who never solve the problems of their own living are "too busy" solving the problems of everybody else -- and so there is no time left over for the selfish pursuits of "cleaning up their own act," and in that way the proper work of the world is left undone while much that is unnecessary and counterproductive have highest priority.

And things just get worse, year after year, unfailingly -- even calling it "paradise," or the "Best of all Worlds. "  They may not convince everybody of that, but they convince enough people to make that their "localized" reality -- and all that can be known.  Dissenters from those lockstep truths, are purged, or purge themselves -- in moving to more agreeable conditions rather than accepting that life can be no other way.

Those are the brutal struggles of societies of the past -- hoping to remain in that past, rather than discover the future in which those problems and difficulties that have tormented humankind for time immemorial, are solved, because that's what people do, and live their lives to do. Either that, or they just accept the lives that were handed down from the past, and go no further -- as the unwritten taboo -- of where no one should go.

Information used to be scarce and hard to come upon -- and societies were organized to maintain that situation as the competitive advantage for those who got there first, even if it meant exploiting their own progeny -- because that is what they were convinced, was what everybody did, from time immemorial -- and that was their fate and destiny too.

Now we know that if we don't know the answer, it is that we haven't asked the right persons -- even if we have to find that out for ourselves rather than just accepting what we know that doesn't work -- as the be-all, end-all of that matter.  Those capabilities are programmed and designed into the very tools we use -- not just to hammer nails or threaten others into seeing things the way they would like us to, or even telling us what they know but arriving at the essential question, how do we know? -- and beginning beyond that.

 Easy Does It
  
Most people who think that exercise has to be hard and difficult, end up not doing any -- because just the thought alone, is enough to discourage them. Eventually, it is not even a consideration, or an impossibility -- for some trivial reason. They just never "go there" anymore.  What do they do instead?

Exercise is what one actually does -- and not just the thought of doing something, that one doesn't. The human capacity is expressed in this manner -- or loses that capability for the lack of its actualization and expression (exercise).  One tends to keep and improve those capabilities they actually express -- as the requirement to keep them intact, fully functioning, and improving as long as one does so

Those faculties not exercised, naturally atrophy and are extinguished as unnecessary baggage particularly with diminishing resources.  That is just the way it has to be.  So at all times, one has to be choosing to do this or that, and not that by doing neither, all capacities remain in top form -- just because they ought to.

People become good at what they practice (exercise), whether it is beneficial to do so or not. That is their conditioning - and far from doing just one thing, an obviously better approach is to determine what range of movements and actions one wishes to become good at -- even if at first, they don't start off doing it perfectly.  A large part of any practice, is to simply become better and more efficient at it -- to make it easier and more disposed to moving in that way.  Those variations are not unlimited. -- but they are varied -- and not just one motion, repeated as the entirety of one's repertoire of movements -- enabling all whenever one has to.

The superior performer, has a greater range of movements than just the one done repetitiously and unvaryingly -- as many people's choice of the one capacity they wish to maintain, while the rest are neglected, and predictably atrophy. In this perspective, running alone would be a very poor choice of an adequate response to most real life demands  In fact, it is distinctly useless in contemporary life -- when the speed of transmission, is the speed of light and electricity.

The obvious and most visible places people deteriorate, are the extremities of the head, hands and feet, that even athletes who should know better, regard merely as stumps -- which they often become -- because those parts are never moved.  That has a catastrophic effect on doing those things most important and critical to do -- and not merely speeding up the autonomic functions of breathing and heart beat.  Autonomic means simply that -- that they don't require conscious thought and effort to effect or optimize, and as we often see, many can go on breathing and beating, for many years beyond any other willful motions of intent and expression -- which is the bane of lengthy lives -- with no other meaningful and willful capacities.

Fine motor coordination and capacities is the first thing lost, and is the most reliable predictor of declining health -- rather than breathing and heart beat, that can distressingly continue way beyond most resources to support in that state.  The appearance and functioning at those extremities, are the indicators (whether people realize it or not), of vitality and responsiveness -- that most people consciously ignore, and are never taught (or learn), as the highest expressions of human capacity and life.

That is what needs to be exercised -- no matter how much one runs, jumps, bicycles, walks -- without attention to those extremities of expression -- as in writing, drawing, playing an instrument, taking care of oneself as deftly and skillfully as possible.  It is a very serious disability not to be able to feed oneself.  Those abilities don't just disappear easily -- but have to be maintained, as well as perfected just as children are taught to do, as their basic conditioning (education) in life.  But as people get older, all that is taken for granted, and when there is serious dysfunction and disability, few think there is anything they can do about it -- like making that development the focus of their activities (exercise), rather than all the other things that are doing fine without that need for attention and attentiveness.

One has to address those needs and weakness -- and not simply divert all one's time and energies to doing what doesn't need to be done -- thinking that is all one can do.

 Appreciate What You Have

The greatest attainment and the key to life, is making the most of what one has -- rather than desiring, and even attaining, insatiable more, which as wise people realize, always is a little more -- no matter how much they have.

That is the first consideration, and not the last, for those who want to be efficient at personal problem solving -- before one can go out and save the world.  One has to first direct that improvement to one's personal problem solving -- before it can be effectively scaled to solving the larger problems.  Obviously, solving the problems of one's own health, should be the primary director in every life.

That is what it means fundamentally, to appreciate what you have -- to make it greater.  That's the meaning of the word -- "to make greater."  That is what appreciation does.  Once we understand that, we can make a little into infinity.  But we can never do that, if we can never appreciate what we already have -- to make it more.

That is particularly the problem of health in older people -- who think they can get better, without doing anything about it.  Of course what one does makes a difference, and all of life is not just a random walk in each lifetime -- "signifying nothing."

Jesus said, "I give you talents, but you have to make them greater."  Or you lose them.  That's the difference between those in good health, and those in failing health -- whether they are getting better.  If they aren't, there is no hope -- because it is just a matter of time...  But most people can control their own health and destiny to a remarkable degree and extent -- but they have to find out themselves to know the actuality that is their reality.  Finding out for oneself, is the quest of a lifetime -- at any time of life.  That is the secret.

The Exception is the (Greater) Rule

Some "highly educated people" think that the object in life, is to see no difference in everything -- rather than the uniqueness in everything.  And so they think they've seen everything, when they have not even begun to see anything, or to look earnestly.  So even when something is new and different, they will only see it as the same, and are quite content to confirm that it is what they already know -- even thought they have not even begun to inquire and investigate.  They just know they are right -- and there is nothing more to know.  That is the end-all and be-all of any inquiry -- just to confirm what they already know, and have done -- repeated one more time.

In that manner, nothing new will ever be discovered -- but only the ancient wisdom confirmed, reasserted, repeated -- as though nothing new can ever be discovered, or will ever be.  And of course, for such people, nothing ever will -- though they will claim to know many things, because they have been the invariably same thing repeated through the generations.  Such minds, and therefore bodies, become old before their time, and there is nothing they can do about it -- because that is the way it is -- and there is nothing they can do about it, etc.

People just age badly, because that is what they were meant to do -- and there is nothing to do but commiserate, as the fate all must endure -- and not that life and fate could be any other way, as it must be, for the few who will be the successful exceptions to the rule of failure.  One will invariably know only that failure, until one discovers the success against it.  That is what individuals who are successful, eventually do.  They find a way to overcome and prevail, against the rule of failure, that thus far prevailed and ruled life until that point.

That is what changes life -- and the world, and not just repeating the failures and mistakes forevermore.  Individuals find a way to win, and prevail, when the collective wisdom and "the averages" say they can't, and suggest they should not even try, or even think about it.  All must simply acquiesce, or give in, to what those who claim to know all, and better, say is the rules for all time -- just as they have always been up to now, and nothing more is possible -- because all knowledge and wisdom, was perfected long ago -- by their chosen ones, and it is heresy to believe anyone can do any other, more, or differently -- under threat of even death, which they feel comfortable and justified to enforce.

That is invariably "the news," just as it has been for all time before -- and not that the real news, is the unveiling of the challenge to the rules revealing a greater underlying truth -- formerly dismissed, as only an exception to the rule, and an aberration not worth knowing about.  Thus the "law of averages," remain inviolable and sacrosanct, as laid down previously by "the authorities," which are the self-appointed few of every profession and self-interest.  They are "the experts," and no further proof and demonstration, is required other than their say so, which must not be questioned -- or the gods themselves would be upset.

That was the old world order -- that new information revealed as the limits to thinking that retarded the progress, until it too was challenged and overcome -- and life became very different, for the next generations to come.  It has always been that way -- until it isn't, and becomes the critical failure, at which life ceases as we know it -- and something radically and unfamiliarly new and different, comes into being -- as the natural evolution of how it must be -- with or without us.  Life will go on.

But the question for every individual, is to remain a part of it -- and not the many falling by the wayside -- until we can't.  That is quite different, from the many who drop out, because they refused to find a way to go on -- but were discouraged and frustrated at every turn, until they simply gave up trying and waited for their end -- even for however long that might be.

For too many, that is sadly when one no longer has dedicated teachers and guidance for their improvement -- and they are "on their own," to provide it for themselves -- as the successful individuals, they are conditioned to be.  Instead, they learn all the wrong lessons -- that plagues them all their lives.  Society then has no recourse, except that they must enforce the rules for such persons, because they cannot mature as individuals -- discovering the truth for themselves, as the exception to the rules -- they are uniquely privileged to discover for themselves.  That is the reward, of their very living -- and not just what everyone is "entitled" to, regardless of how they live their lives.

That is the reason for their living -- and the meaning and purpose of their lives, they've given to themselves.  That is very different from those who think that "Shit happens," and because of that, they have no control over their own lives, but should control everybody else's -- for the same results, or worse.  What is important for such people, is that all experience the same results -- without variation, or individuation, because their golden rule, is that everything be the same, for everyone, for all time.  That is their "Paradise," and what they strictly enforce.

They simply do what everybody else does -- thinking "more" is all they can do -- and never differently, or better.  Such things are not possible -- to their way of thinking.  Only more or less -- in only one way of thinking.  And so their problems are never solved, but only get worse with time and age -- until the critical failure when it is impossible to continue any longer.  But that is not the one way it has to be for everyone.  That is the value of those who discover the "exceptions to the rule" -- that reveal the even greater truth lying undiscovered beneath it.  It was there all along too.

It was the "simpler" truth -- there for the taking, but nobody could figure out how to make their exclusive profit from it -- and so it languished, neglected and ignored, until impossible to overlook anymore.  It was the mountain overshadowing all the molehills people claimed as their exclusive turf and could work their own profit from.  That is the greater life beyond present imagination to recognize -- that transforms life immeasurably without such limits and preconceived notions of what it is.


Why We Grow Old


It's not so much age -- as it is whether a person is constantly improving, or constantly getting worse.  The surest way for things to get worse, is to deny that there is any problem -- because then one doesn't seek a solution but accepts the problem, as the way things ought to be -- ie. "just getting old."

All of life is a problem we need to solve.  The challenges are different at different times in our lives -- but we still have to rise to that challenge every day of our lives.  That IS life.  That is what all life faces, and when they can no longer meet that challenge, they perish -- quite understandably.  That is the way of the world.

Most of the problems that people accept as the normal, are conditions they can do something about -- but are conditioned (educated) to accept them as normal by whatever peer group says it is so.  That's why it is good to have a diversity of exposures rather than the consensus that everybody has to be that one way -- of inevitably and invariably getting worse, but maybe going into denial about it.

Some can and do get better -- but not necessarily in the old and familiar ways.  Younger is not necessarily better.  Better is something else entirely different -- and not just more or less of the old and familiar.  And that is the mistake many of the old make -- in wanting to go back to their youth -- instead of exploring and creating the greater life ahead, which no one taught them to do, or was possible, so they don't do it, and can't imagine it possible, or another way.

That is the very crux of the problem.


"Exercise" in the 21st Century

The bottom line is that we have to change our thinking -- as well as the way we talk about conditioning activities.  The "old" manner of talking about exercise, is a huge part of the problem -- that one has to run three miles every other day, or have to bench press our bodyweight as indicative of greater fitness.  Exercise doesn't work "even" for older people; it works "especially" for older people -- and people in deteriorating conditions.

But those "exercises" can't be ones that increase one's risk of injuries disproportionately to any benefits.  That's as preposterous as the health experts advising people to stand up all day -- as though that is the best thing for sore feet, aching knees and backs.  I don't know how many times I've heard a 100 year old frail and blind person explain that they fell trying to follow their expert's advice to walk a half hour each day.

That's not an appropriate activity for such an individual.  And any running would be worse.  But one can create movements they can do in bed, sitting, or standing in one place -- when they realize the really meaningful movement, has to take place at the critical joints of the head, hands and feet -- rather than the attention to the autonomic functions of the heart beat and breathing -- which is the problem when they persist, when movements (and activities) at the head, hands and feet, are no longer exhibited in any meaningful and responsive action.

And reviving 5,000 year old understandings of the human body and health -- as the latest and greatest new insights, are moving in the wrong direction -- towards a 21st century vision of actualizing lifelong health of extended durations.  The parameters for these measurements and discussions focus on the wrong things -- and simply doing more of the same things, is not the answer but the problem.  People won't do them because it doesn't make perfectly good sense.  When things make perfectly good sense, there's nothing more important or effective for them to do to begin each day.

That is the clarity they have to begin each day with -- or no amount of coercion masquerading as "physical education," will overcome.
 


 The Karma (Aging) of Our Lives

 All that one does -- is the person they are, and become.  That is the significance of growing "old" -- or better and wiser.  Obviously, if one doesn't learn to live their lives better, they will suffer for it -- because there is a cause for everything, and is related to everything else -- and not that nothing is related to anything else, and so one can feel free to do anything they think they can get away with -- because nobody will know any difference.  Life doesn't work that way.  There are consequences to every action, thought and deed -- even if nobody else is watching (knows), because that has never been a requirement for why things happen.

The good or bad, is how well one ages.  It all comes home to roost, and take root, as the course of the rest of their days.  It does matter what one eats, how one exercises, the excesses one indulges in, the risks one takes, the damage they do, or the good nobody else witnesses -- that all becomes the person they are throughout life, and especially, at the end of it.

A few will know what to do -- to all the challenges of their lives, and continued viability and well-being, while many, will have no clue what to do with every incident (crisis) that arises in their lives.  They never learned how to solve a problem, and never thought it was important to -- because somebody else would do all those things for them.  That's when many lives unravel, or are revealed for what they truly are.

That's when the truth comes out -- what one has really been doing -- and not just what one would have others believe.   By then, it is too late and too overwhelming to undo all the damage one has done to their own lives -- if one continues as one always has.  But one can change what one always has done before -- and in that manner, create a whole new course for their lives.  But that change, will not come about just continuing to do what one has always done before -- thinking there can be a different result than the one that always has been before.  That's not how life works.

Life works in the way we make it work -- as the practice and conditioning of our lives.  We get good at what we actually do -- and practice.  If that is merely to make life harder and more difficult for ourselves and others -- then being around such a person, will not be pleasant and avoided by most people.  So of course the eventual result of "conditioning" activities that make every effort harder and more difficult, is not to make one stronger -- but to make one not do it, especially when healthful activities and movements (conditioning) would be most beneficial -- when even a little would go a long way, while doing nothing, is the problem, and makes it worse.  But such people don't know how to make what they have to do possible; they only know how to make it more difficult, and therefore, impossible, not to mention painful.

They convince themselves that the ONLY way to learn, or do anything, is the hard way, and to make it increasingly harder and more difficult, as though somehow at the end, everything they know to be true, is miraculously reversed -- as though that was the way of the world.  So they believe to achieve anything in life, one has to do the opposite -- as though that was some guarantee of anything, and are surprised, when nothing turns out as it should -- and that is what they think life is, just a random crapshoot -- in which nothing happens as they would like it to -- and that is what "getting old" is all about.

In such societies, there obviously are no (role) models for successful aging -- but everyone inevitably and invariably turns into monsters -- and as the old "fairy tales" had them, they ate young children who were careless or foolish enough to venture near them.  The wise simply avoided them.  Hopefully, we live in a more enlightened time when we can make better discriminations of those who aren't so predatory on others BECAUSE they exhibit great independence and self-sufficiency not to suck on the lifeblood of the young and vital -- as the only way they know how to be.

That is the future that makes longevity meaningful and fulfilling, and not just getting invariably and incessantly worse -- without any prospects for life getting any better.  The ultimate test of all that one has learned, is the preparation for this life at full maturity -- when they each must go their own way, answering to themselves more than any others.  All of life before then, is just a preparation for a life in maturity.  The end of immaturity, is not the end of life -- but the beginning of this new way of being, which every society in history, has hoped to create and manifest.

It is not simply the continuation of the old way of doing anything -- at any stage of life.  It is to create something wholly, and wonderfully new and different -- as the fulfillment of that society.  So obviously, it is not just going back to the old ways of a hundred years ago, or as some pride themselves, in going back to the cave-man era -- as though they knew everything there was to know back then, and worth knowing.  All those people lived short, brutal lives -- so that is no blueprint for a future of extended lives of unimagined fulfillment beyond foraging for their daily survival.

We've long passed that life at the constant brink -- to retain that as our highest ideal of what is now possible.  All this is built, on what has gone on before -- and what we hope to take to the next level.  Obviously, at this time, the great challenge for individuals as well as society, is how do we make the "golden years" of our lives, the best ever?  That is wholly possible -- and not simply, how do we make the best of what life has always been before, that always ends so sadly?  Can there be a different ending?  All signs point to it -- as the inevitable development of these times. 

 Even Treadmills Can Be Dangerous

Most people, in considering fitness activities, don't calculate the most important -- which is the risk-to-benefit in doing anything.  Mountain climbers have a tendency to fall from great heights -- and those who love water sports, have a possibility of drowning.  Treadmills force one to move at a greater rate than they are inclined to.  People usually meet their end, doing what they usually do -- whether they like it or not.  That's just a fact of life -- and living.

Thus, one should spend as much time doing what they truly think is worthwhile -- and do that until the very end.  Just watching television, or smoking as one primary activity, robs time and energy from better pursuits.  These days, that might be isolating oneself with one's own thoughts -- while absenting oneself from their actual environment, and what is happening in their immediate vicinity.  That can be dangerous.  Particularly if one is driving a car.

However, that does not mean one should be afraid of everything, or doing anything.  One just has to realize the risks -- that there can be danger in anything -- even running on a treadmill.  Much less dangerous, is just moving one's body -- relative to itself.  Moving the body -- in relationship to external measures, has been the traditional measure of activity -- rather than the internal change of directly improving one's health, which surely, is likely to be more meaningful.  That is, the measure of productivity is effecting movement within the body (circulation and respiration), rather than moving a weight a certain distance in an amount of time.

That actually has very little to do with producing the desirable effects in sustaining lifelong growth, while it could retard it greatly through injury and even death.  But long before that, one can see the success or failure, in the changing health of an individual -- whether they are improving, or deteriorating (disintegrating) -- most notably at the extremities of the head (neck), hands and feet.  Those qualities can usually be determined by the obvious appearance of decreasing vitality and expression -- and measured on performance scales as cognition (mental functioning), grip strength, and balance (foot strength).  Those deteriorations, compromise one's level of functioning in all one does -- and even thinks of doing, anymore.

As nearly as possible, one's conditioning activities, should be as close to their actual usage as possible -- rather than thinking that one grows more proficient, by doing something that has no real world equivalent in practical matters.  One is not simply trying to become the best at the treadmill -- which is the embodiment of activity with no purpose -- but has become the gold standard for so many.  It makes one's heart beat faster -- but so could so many other things, with much more usefulness.

It seems to me that one of the greatest, most useful activities, is to deliberately and systematically optimize the circulation to those parts of the body most vulnerable to the lack of circulation produced by non-use -- and not taking it for granted that that happens just because the heart beats faster -- or at all.  The characteristic of effecting a greater flow, is producing an alternating condition of contraction and relaxation (expansion) in any muscle, which is the pumping effect that is distinctive of the heart, but also capable by any muscle conditioned to produce that same rhythmic effect.

To the body, that is the single most useful "work" that can be done -- to maintain and increase one's health, and produce all those other desirable effects of improved appearance and functioning.  The cardiovascular flow, has to be effected by the neuromuscular flow of impulses that cause that change in state, and greatest range of expression from the relaxed to the greatest contraction -- beginning at the extremity of which there is that deliberate firing to invoke.

Ignoring that, means the typical failure of the extremities to maintain their capabilities, despite the amount of increased work one may be demanding of the heart alone -- which was never designed to do it all.  This is particularly true for those suffering from the deteriorating conditions that begin at the extremities of their body -- and working its way back to the heart because of these circulatory failures -- until the heart may be the only well-serviced and well-functioning organ, even while all else has failed.  Obviously, that is even a greater failure than death itself.  Unfortunately, that is an increasing possibility is such a singularly misguided focus on the value of conditioning activities -- which should be to increase the range of one's activities and competencies, and not just the one while the rest languish and deteriorate into a horrible end.

The greater life, is much greater -- and not just the one, out of proportion to all the others.  That sense of disproportion and imbalance, invariably leads to unforeseen catastrophic results.  Life is the whole -- and not just the part, however important we ascribe to it.  It is the complete development that has always been the objective of every conditioning (educational) program worthy of its time and focus. 

 A Sense of Proportion

 Exercise doesn't have to be hard (long), to be effective.  Even for those who (should) know better, that is a difficult conditioning to overcome -- the belief that something good in small quantities, are not better in unlimited larger ones.  While a little walking, running, or any other activity may be all one needs, indiscriminately more has a negative impact -- so it is discovering that delicate balance of greatest benefit for the least risk and wear, is the magic equation -- and not simply more or less, all good and all bad.

The best life, is this constantly balancing act -- of discovering what this optimal relationship of all to all, results in the highest actualization of well-being and functioning.  If one takes too great a risk, danger is imminent, if not certain.  Nevertheless, that is how many people live their lives -- from one catastrophe to the next -- thinking they are wise.  Unlimited risks, do not result in greater rewards.  Usually, only a slight increase in risk, may convey an advantage -- but it is still not equal to a little, all one's life.

Yet the very measure of these things, is often and foremost, how much -- instead of, at all -- which adds up over time, whether that is savings, or just to live (fight) another day.  So before one becomes too advanced in age, the hope is that one gives up as much unnecessary risk-taking, even while knowing that eventual death is a certainty.  Nobody -- not even the gods, seem to have gotten past that one.  That is what we know of life.  That it continues -- until it doesn't.

There is no thought or action, without its impact, and knowing that, one is always asked to make a choice -- while the foolish think they can "have it all."  No matter how much one thinks they know, there is always more that can be known -- and not the lament of the foolish, who think they know it all, and tell everybody as much -- constantly, until they are silenced -- usually by their own actions.  That brought one to the time and place of one's choosing.  One is likely to die -- or live, doing what they enjoy doing -- rather than at what they seldom, or never do.

That is self-evident truth.  In movement, one has to actually go through the motion, and not simply think or wish it so -- no matter how earnestly.  The problem is seldom that one has to overcome a great resistance, as it is to move a bodypart at all -- that one has not moved in a long while.  That simple movement, would be a 100% or even tenfold improvement -- immediately, particularly in those we have given up seeing such responsiveness again.

But if one conditions such movements and never stops because it is made possible in the doing -- one maintains such movement, because one can.  Until one can't.Humanity will get by with some one else bench pressing 500 lbs. or finishing a marathon -- because it has nothing to do with simple, varied, useful  movements.  Yet that is what we don't do -- and wonder why that is lost.  That was never exercised.  Instead, they chose to do things that were not necessary to do -- until they couldn't do them anymore, and even then, did not replace them with the simple movements necessary to maintain their viability and responsiveness in any noticeable manner.

What are they choosing to do instead?  What is the meaning of a bench press or a squat -- to get to that day when they can no longer bear to move at those joints?  And so they don't -- forevermore.  It's not a good tradeoff  -- but we seldom see anything else.  Yet the variety and range of movement,  distinguishes one's vitality -- and not just one motion, repeated relentlessly.  That is the failure of running or walking, no matter how much it is done.  It is only one movement, repeated countless times -- until it inevitably results in destructive wear and stress.

But that doesn't mean that one can't do something else -- just that one thing, of the many things one can be doing.  More importantly in one's conditioning, is to do what one hasn't does before -- not just in making a familiar movement more difficult, but in doing something entirely different -- as the conditioning best suited to solving life's many challenges.

That is the conditioning that enhances one's survival chances -- rather than just doing one thing, no matter how proficiently.  One is conditioning oneself for success in life -- and not just proficiency in any arbitrary and contrived measure, whether that be running, walking or weight-lifting.    The big picture, is much more important than the narrow focus and specialization -- that may have very little value and significance in the big picture -- that is conditioning for successful longevity, which hasn't been achieved so far.

That milestone is achieved by the first person to reach 100, who doesn't look 100 -- as we're familiar with it.  That is obviously the logical step in human evolution -- and not just remaining as we are, longer -- which is totally preposterous and meaningless.  We don't need to decline longer; we need to improve as long as humanly possible -- even if that takes less, and not more -- in variety and range, to achieve that balance.

 Taking Better Care of Ourselves

If things don't change, the coming crisis will be the lack of caregivers to take care of other people -- caused greatly, by people not taking better care of themselves -- first and foremost.  If people did that, the need for others to care for them, would diminish greatly. 

There is nothing inevitable about decline and deterioration at any time in life -- except that it is an accepted "normal" in many -- especially those who were never very good at it at any point in their lives.   Naturally and predictably, they just got worse -- as the only way they knew how to live out their lives, because they didn't see good role models of anything else.  They saw only self-destructive types, who inevitably self-destruct -- but there is nothing normal, or desirable about such a path -- no matter how much help from others -- that might entitle them to. 

Such individuals do require greater guidance and assistance throughout life -- not only in harming themselves, but others around them -- creating a path of destruction in their wake.  It used to be much worse -- but is improving with time.  The progress and evolution of human society, is that people become better -- even if they have to make themselves so

That doesn't necessarily create more jobs -- in the traditional sense of doing something for someone else, of which caregiving is the ultimate manifestation of.  "Caregiving" may be necessary for babies -- but the object in life, is to become more self-sufficient, self-reliant, and self-sustaining -- rather than increasing one's dependence on others, even if that is socially approved, condoned, and provides many jobs for others -- even as the fastest growing industry.  That is not a good measure of progress.

It is obviously moving in the wrong direction.  When it takes ten to look after one, or even one other to look after one, that is a zero-sum game, no matter how much time, energy and other resources are put into such a scheme.  Then those caregivers, haven't the time, energy and resources to devote to themselves,  and the most dependent and/or dysfunctional, call the tunes -- for the rest of society to dance to.

Therefore, the only thing that makes sense, is for everyone to become more proficient at caring for themselves -- so that they don't require that attention by others.  The obvious cases are bicyclists who believe that it is everybody else's job to watch out and ensure their safety -- as though they don't have that primary consideration for their own.  Criminals and other social deviants are a similar drain on everybody else's resources.  They think that is the primary reason for everybody else's existence.

That is an immature (erroneous) view of the world, and the place one has in it.   The question then, is not what one should do for another, but what can one do to better themselves?  That is the most meaningful action any human can take.  But that does not mean exclusively for one's own benefit -- and nobody else's, even to being in conflict with everybody else -- for everything.  Even to thinking that one is in competition with everybody else, for everything, all the time -- which is even thinking about being in competition with oneself -- to justify and disguise such ignoble intents.

The most productive action, is that which benefits many others -- as well as oneself -- as the first and prime beneficiary.  But if one cannot provide that benefit even to oneself, it is a stretch of imagination to think that they are providing that benefit to everybody else but themselves.  That was what they called, "sacrificing" oneself for another.  A healthy world and outlook, does not require such "sacrifices."  The healthy world is where no one sacrifices and subjugates themselves to another -- especially by their own choice and deliberation.

That would be a sustainable and growing society -- and not one consumed by the obsession, "Where will all the future caregivers come from -- when it is my turn to become the chief beneficiary?"
Hopefully, that day never comes, and one dedicates their lives to ensuring that as much as possible.  That would be especially true in retirement -- when people have to justify their lives beyond the usual affiliations and occupations.  At that point, many lives implode because they've never thought of these things before -- and have to justify their own existence.  Life then, is what every individual makes of it -- but their entire life before then, has preparation for.

For many, that will be a disaster -- as they realize they are totally unprepared, and everything they have done, has been a dissipation and waste of every opportunity that ever presented itself -- even to the most underprivileged.   That is to say that even privileges, have become everyone's entitlement.  Unfortunately, reality is seldom as generous as to be fooled by such sophistry.  It demands real results.

The world hasn't seen such actualizations before -- because that is the work of the present generation.  That is why we live.

 Doing Everything Wrong -- and Refusing to Change

That is a fatal combination.  Not surprisingly, that is always and inevitably fatal. One could not expect anything different -- yet many people make up their minds, even at an early age, to do everything wrong, and refuse to change.  That is the process of dying, and before that,the slow dying we call "aging," because we refuse to change, for whatever reason.  One is set in their ways, and is no longer responsive, and meeting the challenges of their everyday living, appropriately.  One simply waits, for the inevitable end -- paralyzed in thought, deed and action.  Waiting for the end.

It doesn't have to be that way, and isn't, for those who remain responsive to life -- at every age.  But that is the difference -- whether one is responsive, and responds appropriately, optimally, beneficially -- and not just indiscriminately, as though nothing makes a difference, but one keeps on doing it anyway.  Obviously, if something is not working, doing more of it, is not going to make the difference one desires -- but only give them the same result -- time after time, after time.

The obvious is that one must do something different, to get a different result, and eventually, the desired result -- but one cannot achieve that, by doing that which doesn't work -- no matter how much more times.  Fortunately, there is not just one way things can be done -- but many ways, until one discovers what works wonderfully -- and can move on to the next challenge to a better life.  That has always been the challenge of living in any age.

So the solution must solve the problem -- and not just keep it going, and getting worse.  The easy answer then, is that one must be doing the opposite of what one is doing, and not just the opposite of what would make perfectly good sense to do, and would actually solve the problem, rather than perpetuating it for all time.  That is the culture of dysfunction -- and not a more perfect society, which of course, must be composed of more perfect individuals.  It doesn't just happen because people wish it so.  They have to do things that actualize that reality -- even if they are the first, the pioneers in doing it that way -- that leads to a better way for others.

But first, it has to be discovered and manifested by one, to make it a reality and choice for others.  Until then, we don't know we have that possibility -- until someone actually manifests it -- and not just say that someone (else) should.  Few are conditioned to think this way.  Most are conditioned to believe they have no choice -- in all the thoughts and actions of their lives.  Somebody else is always responsible -- for solving the problems of their lives.  But they themselves, think that they cannot solve the problems of their own lives -- in that direct and obvious way, in being the way one lives their lives successfully.

Seldom is it the case that there are "no results."  Much more likely, is that there are not the results one desires -- rather than that it is acknowledged that one is getting the wrong results, and the desired results, require different actions -- beginning with the understanding of the problem, and the conditioning that makes it so.  One is never simply "doing nothing," but always "doing something" -- even if for a wrong and disastrous result.

Then one sees the cause and effect -- or karma, of actions leading to results.  It may not be what we intended, or would like others to believe is true, but it is the result of our actions.  Some would have us believe that there is no link or consequence between what we do, and what we experience -- as the result of our actions (exercise), which largely explains (determines) the person we are.  That may be a prematurely old and dysfunctional person -- but doesn't have to be, not just because one wishes it were not so -- but doing differently to make it so.  That will make a difference.  That is the only thing that will.

 Nothing More Important To Do

It should be obvious, but to many people, it isn't.  They insist they are other than what they actually do -- and would like other people to believe they are.  So for such people, there is always the difference between what they do -- and what they wish other people to believe, despite what they actually do.  That leads many to conclude that they are "hypocrites" -- people who do one thing, and claim that it is something else, so that others should not trust their own senses, but instead, believe what they say.  In that way, others become as confused as they are -- of what their true "intentions" are, in addition to their actions.

That manner of "doing," becomes quite acceptable as the way of the world, where nothing is as it obviously is.  Thus, many do not know what happened, until somebody else explains it to them -- in their very contorted logic.  Such people are easy to spot, spending most of their time explaining what they are doing, rather than actually doing anything.  How could they be?

Doing is always an integrative action.  Talking is the act of fragmentation -- of creating many different versions of the one reality.  Reality is always the One Thing -- and not many different explanations of what is happening -- which of course, fragments the reality into many tiny parts -- often in contradiction of one another.  That is the problem of living in any age.

Many cling to the tiny parts as though they were the whole -- which must be a unifying comprehension, and not just more separate, conflicting realities.  That only adds to the confusion -- and never reducing it.  Usually, the facts speak for themselves -- rather than needing interpreters of every persuasion and ideology.

So all of life, is a quest for this truth of the matter -- and this truth, will keep them ageless.  but when one only lives in the shadows of their delusions, eventually it must come to an end.  Before that, is the dying to the truth more and more each day.  That's what kills.  Dying to the truth.  But if one lives fully in the truth, there is no such dying -- for the truth is living in the present and each moment -- fully. Somewhere along the line, we lose that connection, the mind-body, and live increasingly, in lonly the reality of the mind.  That is the danger at any age, but especially so as one ages.  That is why some do it well, but many do it badly.

That is the final challenge, and we hope to get that right too. 

 Denial is not a Solution

 Many insist there is no problem -- as their way of solving it.  But the problems never go away, and naturally grow worse -- though they go into denial, more and more about those realities. Eventually there is a full disconnect -- from the realities and one's explanation of it.  Ultimately, nothing is related to anything else anymore, and the explanations (excuses), take on a life of their own, because it has no tie to any reality anymore.

That's what people and a culture are like, when they prefer their wishful-thinking over the actuality of their actual circumstances -- until they can no longer deny or ignore the many catastrophes -- that seem to have come up quite without warning and deserving.  "Randomness just happens," they will proudly proclaim, as though that explained everything.

Especially in Paradise.  Naturally, there are too many "homeless" and "poor," living in Paradise -- as though such a thing were possible.  True paradise would be the elimination and absence of those problems -- and not just the denial of them, wishing it would make it so.  As long as they are denied, it is not possible to solve any of them -- but once they are recognized, is the foundation for a solution.  Solutions must be based on a foundation in reality -- and not simply the desire that things were not as they actually are -- with no way out, nobody who believes any problem can be solved anymore, because nobody had done so, in many decades now.

It even came to be believed, that the job of everyone now, was to perpetuate the problems -- as their own job security.  What would the world be like -- if it wasn't for all the problems to keep idle minds and hands busy?

But the true work of any society, is to improve life beyond what it has been before -- and not just repeat it, for time immemorial -- even if it is "the way we've always done things" -- as the fall from grace and perfection, many believe we began from.  And ever since, it's been downhill.  

In certain places, that can be the reality -- rather than the improvement most feel are their birthright now.  Unless they choose badly, one of the few places where the quality of life seems to be in decline, among those who do have a choice among the many.  Just the belief that there can be no place on earth better, prevents one from considering and exploring the alternatives.  Those who can, are obviously at an advantage -- over those who are certain, nothing could be better -- even as badly as things are for them.

Improvement is nearly impossible under those conditions -- as the "work" of society, has become the perpetuation of their problems, rather than any resolution of any of them -- which drives off the "fit," as their means to survival.  The "fit," are those who can see the truth as the truth, and the truth in the false -- and be able to tell the difference -- rather than deny, that there can be any difference.

 

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Understanding Conditioning -- Volume Six

The Power (to Change)

One is weak to the extent that one cannot change -- when their very life and survival depends on it -- in response to a challenge of their very existence.  That can happen at any age and time, but particularly so as people get older -- not because life becomes harder and more difficult, but because the ease of their lives doesn't evoke the necessity to change -- and so they grow out of the habit, as people who are younger and more adventurous are wont to do.

That expression and exercise, is what we consider characteristic of the younger and more vital -- those who quickly rise to the challenge -- first in realizing the need for action, and secondly, that a new response is necessary, and not simply doing what has always been done before -- which may in fact, be the source of the problem that has grown into the present crisis.

In that case, more of the same does not solve the problem, but merely speeds things on their way to an inevitable disaster -- of which many injuries and weakened conditions are a natural consequence.  It is also not the case that doing more would render than invulnerable to such inevitable results.  More often than not, a complete cessation may be in order, in favor of a different direction -- that one may have thought was wrong before in preference for another solution -- that in time, would reveal its fallacies.

So in the preparation and conditioning for the life we desire to live, that is what we must practice from day to day -- and so the right moment manifests, we are well-prepared to act -- and change the present course of our lives.  That is the ultimate power -- because if one can change oneself, that individual, will change the world -- just by being in it.  That's how life interacts, and is affected by the power of change.

Up to now, change has always been thought mainly as an undesirable fate -- for the weak, and not that it is a choice the strong make -- in knowing how to produce and effect change.  that is the obviously bigger picture that makes the sum of the individual actions result in far greater than individuals merely opposing and canceling out one another -- even if it is just a game, and diversions from the very real problems of life.  First and foremost, that is their individual health -- which many people feel are in decline, all throughout their lives.

That is what first has to change.  That is  the very way we think about life -- to give it power -- and not just burning off extra calories that we consume because we have no better use for our time.  Each moment determines what our subsequent moments are like -- altering the course of our lives in that obvious and logical way.  That is why we should not smoke -- or do anything obviously hurtful to our environment and thus, ourselves -- and not that our environment is more important than human beings.  Humanity is the environment.

So in our conditioning programs, it is important to first ask, "What are we conditioning ourselves to do, and therefore be in the best condition to do?"  The very simple and obvious answer is, "To change."  That is what has greatest survival value -- to oneself, and as a collective effort.  That is the key to transforming the world.  Far quicker and more easily accomplished, is to change individually, completely -- than to try to change everybody else first.  One has to change themselves, and that action, changes the world -- and not just establishing one's position in the pecking order in the more primitive life forms, and then doing nothing else but consuming all the spoils (perishables).

That is a very limited view of life -- that unfortunately many, never grow out of -- no matter how long they live.  In fact, many get worse -- thinking they have to consume all the resources -- before everyone else does.  So no matter how much they have, it is never enough -- they need more, far more than is healthy for them to consume, or even lay claim to.  They don't need, any more than they can actually use -- and not unlimited dreams of "having it all" -- as people had, in scarcer times.  That's how they grow -- in age and wisdom, or should, if they are not stunted, and everything they do, only reinforces those limitations.  That is also one's conditioning -- in the erroneous belief that doing anything, is better than doing nothing -- when that "anything," may be the cause of their problems.

That is what they have to stop doing, by merely embarking on a different course.  They don't have to undo all the past actions -- but merely enact the different one.  Many don't condition themselves in that way -- to do that.  Instead, they may even think it is a superior idea to resist change -- by maintaining (holding) a position for as long as possible -- often by holding their breath, or suspending breathing throughout the effort (contraction).

That is how the body must invariably fail -- because the brain is the first to detect the effects of breathing (or not), and will direct the effort (or failure).  Many schools program such failures as critical to their learning process -- rather than recognizing the inevitable problems with it -- especially pursued to their extremes.  So it is not surprising that many "successful" people in that manner, are its first victims in reaching their logical conclusions (ends).

That is the ultimate result of trying too hard -- rather than just enough, recognizing there is a danger in too much, as well as too little -- or no effort.  So what is important, rather than the extremes of all or nothing, is to familiarize oneself with the complete range -- and know when that application is appropriate to the task -- as is the signature of their intelligence, age and wisdom -- and not just "More," as the answer to every question.  Often, it is less that is better.  But one never knows, and finds out, unless one is familiar with the whole range of choices -- and not just the one obliterating the other. extreme.

Both are equally necessary, and gives meaning and value to the other. -- as the paramount lesson of the heartbeat.  The heart always straining in effort, will be overworked and vulnerable to critical failure, while the heart never used to any exertion, may not be capable of it -- at any time, and thus lacks that essential responsiveness sometimes necessary to ensuring their continued existence and viability.  That is simply exercising the power and ability to change -- at one's will, rather than simply maintaining that position (contraction or relaxation), for as long as possible.

That is movement at its most basic, and simplicity. That is the power to change and meet every challenge of life -- at its most meaningful level of personal responsibility and accountability, that one wishes to maintain and enhance all the days of one's life.  That is the significance of life -- and all its activities.

 What Makes People "Old"

People begin to "age" when they no longer take in new information -- but only rely on their past (old) information, memories and knowledge -- in meeting the challenges of the present moment(s).  As such, their responses are not likely to be as effective, productive and vital, as one who is taking in new information all the time -- while realizing even that is incomplete.  The "old mind" thinks that the information they learned 50 years ago, is all that can be known -- and so it is a waste of time, to learn anything more, or new.  That is what makes people old -- whatever age they are.

It is not that age is just a number -- but more a way of life -- in constantly taking in the new (information), rather than thinking that the old information (usually discovered and told to them by someone else), is the eternal and unvarying truth, and there cannot be anything beyond what was discovered and handed down thousands of years ago, a hundred, or even ten.

They are likely to claim that what was thought one thousands years ago, is superior to the understanding of today -- even in medicine, engineering, production, industry, athletic performance, social relations, etc.  It is enough that the primitive rules should prevail for all time -- even that might should still prove right in every case, using the most delicate and finely-tuned instruments.  the most familiar and constant, is the human body itself -- each one's own, and how they master it throughout their lives -- never failing to listen and learn, what their own bodies are telling them.

Those who turn a deaf ear, become more and more insensitive to their own "being," with naturally disastrous consequences.  Many who should know better, will insist that the body alone tells one nothing -- but that one must listen to all the experts (teachers) telling them what they should do -- in preference to their own common senses.  And so many, by following such advice, never develop a familiarity and confidence, in relying on their own faculties of discernment and discrimination -- but always defer to those "authorities," who claim that jurisdiction for themselves -- to tell everybody else, how and what to think -- as the only way one should be allowed to think.

This was the same way before every "revolution" in history -- when the mass of people, broke away from those constraints -- to develop another way of living and being -- that the institutions and traditions perpetrate and perpetuate, to keep themselves in control and power.  It is also done most commonly at the personal level of human relations -- as the interface of every individual with the greater world they live in.

That absolute control of one's environment, can be exercised and achieved, if the world never changes -- which is only possible in the minds of individuals, as their fixed ideas, taking in no further information -- regardless of what they already know.  In this manner, even those with a lot of knowledge (of the past), can fail to meet the challenges of the new and present moment -- and may prove to be the hindrance, at which they fall from the state of learning, and become increasingly "old," in cutting themselves off from the vital nutrients and information of the present environment, which is the ever-changing world around them.

It is not that the world is changing more than ever before -- but more that we are aware of that more than ever before -- except for those who choose not to be aware of such developments, because they prefer the world of fifty years ago -- rather than learn about, and adapt to the new.  The person always adapting to the latest information, is not becoming old and obsolete in that way -- separating (isolating) themselves from life itself, in preference for another time at which they thought they were at their best -- many years, or even lifetimes ago.

Increasingly, that is the reality they choose to live in -- and become increasingly inaccessible to the new world unfolding daily around them.  That is why people become old, irrelevant and ineffective -- and not that it has to necessarily be the fate of every life.

Conditioning for these Times


  A lot of well-meaning but not very thoughtful people, think the meaning and purpose of our existence, is to prepare and condition ourselves to live in another era, under totally different circumstances and conditions -- rather than meeting the challenges of our very specific own times.  So naturally, their ideal, is to prepare one to live a caveman's (or kingly) existence -- of perpetual struggle and conquest, in a very short and brutal life.

Hopefully, that is not the reality which most people have to face daily -- especially in the most prosperous society and culture of these times.  The challenges may be in fact, quite the opposite of the desperate caveman's (or conqueror's) -- dealing with the abundance of food and other resources, rather than its scarcity -- requiring a whole different set of responses and reflexes (conditioning), to successfully meet the challenge of their living -- their everyday lives.  And that is in fact, where most people are failing to meet these challenges -- in their everyday lives, from which they can only hope to "escape" -- in one diversion (entertainment) or another.

Not surprisingly, this whole industry of "entertainment" in one form or another, has come to replace the real purpose and meaning in many lives -- as their "reality," instead of the actual ones of their own  existences.  It is no wonder then, that solving these many manufactured problems of the media -- while not solving any real problems of their daily lives -- leaves them powerless to do any more, until finally, they give up trying in utter futility, and are convinced that nothing matters, or could make a difference -- rather than the proper understanding, that everything matters -- and that's why they are in the hopeless condition they are in -- despite what they think they're doing.

That is what we refer to as ineffective, or dysfunctional people -- those who are always and invariably solving the wrong problem at any and every time -- no matter how much it seems like they are doing.  They are obviously doing all the wrong things.  Yet they are convinced, that they are doing all the right things -- which is apparent to an impartial observer, is not the same thing -- but they have lost the ability to discriminate that -- because they have been conditioned, to believe that all discrimination is bad, and should never be done -- because it is the job of the self-appointed experts, to tell them what to think, and when to think them -- and so they become totally dependent on others to do all their thinking for them -- while they even believe they are thinking entirely for themselves!

That is the world (and plight) of modern man -- the world we live in now.  That is the challenge of life in the very real time.  Even virtual, doesn't get us there.  It has to be the actuality of life as we actually encounter and deal with it -- not in some laboratory far away, or some boardroom of a marketing campaign -- but life as we encounter and are increasingly aware of it.  For many, that begins and ends with their individual and unique health -- which is their very capacity to live and experience life.

The critical capacities, are the very organs by which we sense and experience the many things -- particularly at the head, hands and feet -- which are essentially our common senses.  The plight of modern man is this tendency (conditioning) to rely on others to tell them what they feel and experience, rather than relying on their own common sense(s) -- in all manner of things.  So most people, never figure out anything for themselves anymore.  They rely on the doctor or politician, to figure out everything for them -- and think that is the only way it can be done -- and never that they can discover for themselves, what works for them -- if nothing else does. They may even believe that it is prohibited to discover their own way -- and especially if it works, because then there wouldn't be the problem, that so many have come to depend on for their living.

That is the failure of human beings to adapt -- effectively.  The solution is always in the problem itself -- in asking the wrong questions, and not seeing the obvious -- because we are conditioned not to.  

The failure of the body invariably begins at the extremities of the body -- in the vital senses, by which we have a clue (sense) that something is wrong, just as we do when everything is right -- and even sublime moments when there seems like there could be no wrong.  Those are the moments one hopes to condition themselves to -- as their base level of who they are, and how they experience life -- in and over its entirety.

Increasingly, that means not outliving our capacity to experience and enjoy it -- because the head, hands and feet are the first to go -- while the traditional vital signs of the heartbeat continue on -- just because they can.  Life under those conditions become increasingly meaningless.  But far before then,  we need to restore the central importance of life and its activities, to these proper center of focus and development -- which is where they really matter, and make a difference -- and not simply whether the heart pumps harder and faster, as the ultimate measure of anything of significance.  That is the given -- but where we go beyond that, makes the greatest difference.

Exercising Intelligence


I saw two two very thought-provoking videos on YouTube recently:  The first was a TED talk, in which the expert on aging, defined aging as the "accumulation of damage by the body" -- while suggesting there was a way (yet to be discovered).  That sounds a lot like the age-old wisdom of karma -- by which all one has done and will do in life -- determines one's experience of life.  That is to say, that  life is not random, but there is a reason why things happen -- and if one does not see that yet, one needs to look beyond one's habitual thought processes -- which is meditation, or thinking beyond one's conditioning.  In that way, one discovers how it is they think that way -- and think they thought of it themselves, rather than than that it is what another desires them to think -- as the truth of the matter.

The second video, was titled Kung Fu Genius -- in which the hero of the story reveals only at the end, in answering the question posed by the final climactic triumph -- as to where he had learned his invincible technique, that he in fact, learned it from his opponent in fighting him -- and thus figured out a way to defeat him, and that is why he was a kung fu genius -- as he learned while doing.  And of course one had to agree, that is the essence of genius -- and not how much one knows prior to the doing -- if they ever get around to doing anything at all.  Nist are just content to revel in their knowledge -- and presumed superiority -- even while knowing nothing worth knowing -- because they never manifest that knowledge in any action.

When one puts those two videos together, one arrives at a greater insight that either one alone possesses -- as one wondered why the first presenter, did not manifest and exhibit that robustness of vitality and vibrancy -- but instead, seemed to be old even before his time (age) -- as an "expert" on aging.  Similarly,  lot of people are experts on weight loss and diet -- because they've tried them all, and are definitive proof, that none of them work -- or the exercise instructor, who exhibits any muscle tone anybody can notice -- yet are proud of their resemblance to Gandhi, as the ideal of human understanding and achievement -- that we all ought to emulate.

It does not occur to such proponents, what the actuality of health might manifest, except to persist as long as possible, beyond the point which everyone marvels why they are not dead -- being in that condition of advanced decline and deterioration.  That is not a hopeful prospectus for anybody considering their own longevity, and many think it is not something worth striving for, and the condition in life they want to prolong for as long as medical science makes possible.

That is a mind not breaking out of its prison -- and thinking there is a life beyond -- just a little more light, and a little more food -- as their nirvana.  But for the mind that can break through all that -- they create the life they live, in living it.  That integration of thought and action -- is health, physically, mentally, emotionally, and in every way possible.  That is the work of man -- and not just making more money, and all the other obsessive behaviors that define many lives -- and so naturally, when they are "retired" to create their best lives without all those previous constraints -- many lose their way entirely -- into the various delusions that characterize people cut off from active engagement and participation in the larger society and social fabric, and decline in their own peculiar fashion -- because nobody tells them what to do anymore.

They are entirely on their own -- which is a great disaster for many people -- particularly for those who always relied on somebody else to tell them what to do.  And if nobody does, they don't care either -- and so just dissolve into an indistinguishable mass -- seen only by their social and health care workers, as those that still have to.  At that point, human beings have no idea what they should look like -- and the condition they should be in, that manifests (actualizes) the best that they can be.  They no longer fell that necessary -- or even to fake it anymore.  One is simply done -- and nobody, including themselves, expects anything more from (of) them.  Life then, for all practical purposes, is over.

So how do we not get that way? -- the intelligent mind inquires.  We should be learning as we are doing -- and not simply executing what we already know -- that doesn't work, and won't, no matter how long we persist at it.  Obviously, we have to do something different -- learning in the doing -- and not merely learning apart from doing, academically, intellectually -- but unintelligently.  That is what transforms and transcends the declining human being -- and not just simply, the denial of that reality. That is the most disastrous thing one can do -- becoming evermore detached from those actualities -- to live in their own world, their own personal fantasies and delusions of what they are doing, and how they are perceived by others -- doing their own thing, and encouraging everybody else to do their own thing also -- and so each retreats further into their own self-isolating activity, which has to result in a dead end, and not the wider ocean of life.

 Why "Regular" Exercise Doesn't Work -- And What Does

Even if one can still walk on one's hands for a hundred yards -- or run a (half-)marathon at ninety -- or eighty, or seventy, or sixty, etc. -- most will observe that that's pretty good for a person "so old," because they are more impressed that a person in that condition can do anything at all, rather than that that is what the person looks like they can do,  and so there is no need to prove it.

Thus most of the fighting and competing takes place among the juveniles -- uncertain of their place and rank in their society -- rather than by the seldom challenged dominant leader in every field.  Even psychopaths know better than to pick on the most robust and competent people in any environment, and will go after the weakest and most vulnerable they can identify -- to prey on and exploit.  So 90% of the work, is this "display" behavior, or the "first impression" of capabilities -- which is usually not far wrong.

Those who "look "the healthiest, are usually the healthiest, and those that look the unhealthiest, usually don't have to have that confirmed by a panel of "certified" experts.  That is universally obvious to everybody, in every language, so that the dying and deteriorating, don't need to be precisely calibrated and measured, to obtain that overwhelming impression.  That is particularly true for the most sensitive and aware -- who determine these things before most others are aware of that fact -- and why they are the leaders -- in fact.  They see things far before the rest of the pack does -- and why we want them out front -- rather than safely at the middle, being told what is going on.

Every individual, is also an entire organization on its own -- requiring the maximization of its own faculties and intelligence -- to achieve its greatest success in day-to-day living, making the best of their immediate circumstances.  How best to do that, is usually not contained in a manual written for everyone, but is what every individual has to find out for themselves -- in making the best of every moment of their lives.  That is the meaning and purpose of life -- which many lose along the way.

So one asks, without preconceived notions of what the answers are, how does one know what is going on in the immediate world they are (inter-)facing?  That of course is primarily and most reliably, the information we get from our own senses -- which everyone is born with,and not the "perfect knowledge" a few will claim to have -- and offer to teach them, so that they don't have to rely on their own senses (good sense).

That is the problem of society and civilization -- when to trust one's (own) senses, and when can one (needs to) rely on others -- which is really the symphony of both.  However, depending on the culture one is born or finds themselves in, there is varying degrees of this independence and interdependence -- so that the great horror of many, is that the society and organization, has almost total control of one's actions and outcomes, and the individual is even prohibited and discouraged from thinking for themselves, on most matters -- even and especially when they only can best serve themselves.

The ultimate attainment in every life, is one's best health, or base level of functioning -- to meet any and every challenge of life, as best they can.  Logically, that would first be in knowing what is going on -- and what needs to be done, and not just doing things, just because they can be done -- or as one's compulsive entertainment to fill one's day -- because one never thinks they have to rise to the occasion of being their best.  That is only the job of everybody else.  But that one should ever have to do anything for oneself, is only memory of what ancient people used to do -- but is no longer necessary to do.

In such a contemporary society, not surprisingly, many are not well-developed -- enough to function minimally without the aid of others -- and kept that way, all their lives.  A few break out and break through -- to find out what life is like beyond the mass experience prescribed (dictated) for all.  Only those who do, will experience life as a unique and authentic experience.  Those are also the people who will be most fit -- and know to move their senses in the greatest range of its possibilities -- located at the head, hands and feet.  That is what needs to move -- and requires skill at moving -- especially as one gets older, weaker, and less competent (self-reliant).

One "knows" because one sees, hears, smells, tastes, feels -- what is going on around them, and not just what somebody else tells them is going on -- if in fact they are aware of these things at all.  In order to do that, one has to be able to turn one's head to better see, hear, smell what is going on -- and not just "visualize" (imagine) what is going on.  Many drivers will think it is enough, that the lane next to them is clear -- before they perform their maneuver -- than turn their heads to ensure that it is so.  That ability, has much greater survival value, than a person who can no longer easily turn their heads -- to learn what dangers and conditions they have to respond to.

That is the intelligent design of the human body -- and not just doing the many things one can imagine doing, but have no real relevancy and need in actual life, except that everyone else has been convinced also, that they need to do them.  Whether it makes a difference, has never been proven of seen -- as much as it has been rationalized.  And that is the need to run a marathon, or even walk a marathon, as the basic requirement to ensuring one's survivability -- while ignoring the fact that the senses and capabilities of the head, hands and feet, have virtually atrophied because of their disuse in this proper and effective manner -- of being the primary sites where movement has to take place to ensure that they are maintained as essential priorities of a healthy human being.

The prognosis is not good for a person whose neck musculature has atrophied to an appearance of dental floss -- made possible because of the effectiveness of circulatory support and effect which results in the musculature, mobility and good functioning of those vital organs placed there.  That is the very problem of the dementias, or the greatly weakened grip strength, as well as the balance problems of those whose feet have become so deformed because of that atrophy -- that it is a wonder they can balance on them at all.

That is the very predictable way that humans age -- and become useless even to themselves, and then require army of caregivers just to keep them alive in an immobile and unresponsive condition for the rest of their lives -- that can run through an entire generation, or several.  That is the clear and present danger of an unsustainable and unviable life and future -- for too many, who think there are no other choices -- because those who have placed themselves in charge, have never thought there can be another way -- but the present, traditional and even ancient ways that haven't worked so far -- and produces the great health/aging crisis of these times.

Maintaining that status quo, and popularizing it even further, is not the solution -- that thinking very differently, makes easy, inevitable, and changes the course of human development to its greatest actualization.  That is the simple and obvious, as soon as one lets go of the notion that exercise, in order to be effective, must be hard, difficult, painful and laborious, to be any good.  It merely requires the integration of the mind and body (intelligence) -- in the only ways that make obviously good sense.

 Why Not Move (Exercise) Everyday?

Would there ever be a day -- or some day(s) -- when one would not (want to) move at all?  And if one does move, wouldn't they want to move as best they can -- just as they would if they were an athlete or performer?  When would one not want to be at their best -- doing the everyday things of one's life.  That becomes the baseline quality of their life -- and not doing things badly, thoughtlessly, or not at all.  That is the improper conditioning one wishes to rectify -- every day of their lives, which becomes who they are.

That is their conditioning -- the way they condition themselves to do things -- each and every day, and not just the "work" days, or the school days, or special occasions that become more infrequent as time goes by -- unless they make it a habit to be so -- every day of their lives.  Those are their "good" days, and all the others are their "bad" days, when they do everything badly -- or not at all, until one day, they can do absolutely nothing well -- if at all anymore.  

That condition is mostly unavoidable -- for most people.  More people make themselves that way -- then become that way because it is imposed upon them by forces "beyond their control," and most would honestly admit that.  For those who do, there is still hope -- unlike those who live in denial that anything they do could make a difference.  Thinking so, makes it so -- but that is only the first part.  The second, which is actually the much easier part, is doing so.

That is why one's daily exercise should be just that -- something they do everyday, and not just on their good days -- that understandably becomes increasingly few and far between, because they don't do it everyday.  So rather than running a marathon everyday, or attempting a personal best all-out lift as the only way they think of moving and exercising, everyone should start at the beginning -- of the most rudimentary movements one makes to enhance their health and well-being, which is not surprisingly, the same for everybody.

Those are the critical movements at the head (neck), hands (wrist), and feet (ankles) -- which most people don't move, or think is important to move -- and so can't, as they "age," because those are the pivotal points that they have overlooked, and even avoided moving, in preference to what they have been convinced are the other areas to move and develop -- but ignoring the critical faculties that ultimately define their functioning as effective human beings -- at the head, hands and feet.

These failures, are effectively and reliably, the critical failures of human functioning -- at the head (thought), hands (grip), and feet (balance) -- which are the markers of proficiency and/or impairment.  Those who lose those capacities, are usually adjudged to be in decline -- regardless of whether their hearts are still pumping.  In fact, the most distressing and shocking encounter for many, is the first time they meet with a totally unresponsive person, who sits or lies for days on end in that way -- until their fortunate passing.

So the question is, how do we not get that way -- and what can we do about it, each and every day so that we never get that way.  The answer is surprisingly simple -- and easy, and requires one to move at those specific areas for 20 minutes each day, the first thing one does -- every day!  If one does anything for 20 minutes a day -- each and every day, they will become good at it -- and remain so each and every day, until they don't.  It is simply that simple and easy -- but those who would be "experts," think that they have to make that as complicated, painful and difficult -- as their superior strategy overriding millions of years of evolution that makes the effective and efficient triumph with the passing of time.

In the meantime, one can do anything for a short while -- before realizing they can't sustain that pace indefinitely, and move on to something else for another while, until in the end, there's nothing that can sustain their interest and effectiveness, and so they stop -- for the remainder of their lives, and their exercise then becomes telling us what they used to do -- as though that was an adequate substitute for what they can do now -- which is increasing less, until nothing -- and most accept that pattern as the normal and inevitable experience of life, rather than the result of their present conditioning. 

That is invariably, if not deliberately, not to move at the head (neck), hands (wrist), and feet (ankles) -- which in time, proves absolutely disastrous -- when one no longer can move there.  And that is where most of the effectiveness of movement becomes telling -- in the growing ailments and disabilities that manifest there foremost.  When that diminishing responsiveness is complete, even the vital ability to communicate with others, ceases and becomes a living death for those who remain in that condition -- for however long it is possible to keep their hearts pumping.

But that alone, is not enough to ensure lifelong health and functioning at the extremities that become the first to fail because of the diminishing capacities of effective circulation to those areas -- specifically, and as priorities -- beyond competition and familiar athletics.  It requires a different model of conditioning -- for a longevity of usefulness and vitality -- that was never possible before.  That is the challenge of these times -- that requires a new understanding that works, rather than the same one that doesn't -- because they can't/won't do it when they most have to.

That is even the traditional requirement that one has to stand, or get into any other difficult position to master in order to execute -- rather than wholly rethinking what are the real requirements of meaningful movements to exercise, and keep healthy all one's life.  Obviously one loses those capacities they take for granted and never exercise (move).  That is the vitality and responsiveness expressed and exercise at the head, hands and feet specifically and directly -- and in doing so, will impact all the other muscular structures of the body -- because it is not possible to do so otherwise.  That is the quantum leap that makes lifelong exercise possible and effective -- while the familiar traditional conditioning has proven not to, and in fact, makes impossible to achieve.

One simply makes it easier to accomplish -- because of a better, simpler understanding of the process -- effected (exercised) daily, because nothing else makes more sense to do -- every day of one's life.

 The Minimum and the Maximum

The first thing one should consider in designing a personal movement strategy (conditioning), is to establish the parameters of the minimum and the maximum -- and not just fixate on the maximum one hopes becomes the minimum.  

The minimum has to be just that -- the absolute minimum one can do at any time, in any condition -- and not only once, when they are at the top of their game in peak condition, or they're discouraged and depressed because they know they cannot do it -- and so never try again.  They don't want to embarrass themselves -- in coming to the realization that they're no longer that once in a lifetime best -- and accept their momentary condition, as what they actually have to work with.  That is dealing with reality -- and not simply the wishful-thinking of what they would like to think.  That always gets one nowhere but farther away from their realities.

That is doing the most simple and basic things until they become automatic -- otherwise, that is putting the cart before the horse, thinking the horse will figure out what you want it to do.  That is the reason for practice -- and actually doing anything great; one has to begin by laying the foundation for that greatness -- which in any case, is constant and steady improvement -- beyond doing the same thing one always did before, and even getting worse at it.

Finally the cognitive dissonance (difference between one's thinking and the actuality) becomes so great, that one is convinced that nothing makes a difference anymore -- and whatever one wishes to think is sufficient.  That's how people go into irreversible decline -- suspecting the worst, but denying it until they are no longer capable to distinguishing any truth anymore.  They just think it is all "entertainment" -- some more entertaining than others, but nothing that has a reality beyond the moment -- lost in the next.

Therefore, nothing ever amounts to any progress -- or even just staying as good as one used to be.  All is simply lost, and there is no base from which they can ever get it back -- or know where "back" is.  Thus the necessity for developing a base, and baseline performance -- not to improve, but to know where one is, and starting from.  Then one can go places.  But first, one has to know where one is -- presently, before it is meaningful to discuss where one wants to be.  One might already be, where one wants to go -- but won't know that, unless they first determine where they presently are.

The minimum, is that baseline grounding -- of where one presently is.  That is what scientist call a "control" -- otherwise, they have no idea of what is different, or changes -- if in fact, there are any.  Most unscientific claims, have no such controls or starting point -- but proves anything the promoter wants to prove, because saying so is enough.

All such claims though, still have to stand the test of time -- that one is still doing it 10 or 50 years later with the same results and effectiveness, and not that what caused them to claim the world championship at one time, results in death or disabling injury in another.  Much of competitive athletics has that fine-line separating the extraordinary performance from a career-ending injury; one hopes not to cross that line, but most inevitably will -- and finally not return, no matter how much the spirit is still willing.

One greatly minimizes the risk of injury from common everyday movements -- by performing a minimum of movements that serve as a warmup and preparation for most movements they make in their daily lives -- regardless of whether they participate in athletic competitions.  That doesn't mean they even have to be competing with themselves -- which some think is a more enlightened thing to do, but is the same competitive mentality that predisposes them to injury and overtraining/burnout, which results in the same premature retirement from such activities -- with the same awful consequences of one going into irrecoverable disability and decline.

The desired maximum is knowing when one is approaching that line without crossing it -- at more infrequent bouts that allow sufficient time for recovery and adjustment to enhanced levels of demands -- over the normal.  But there is this need for both the minimum of daily exercise (warmup), and a slightly more demanding, but more infrequent higher capability of meeting a greater challenge and demand -- on a schedule of once or twice a week -- that can be maintained all one's life.

Just doing the minimum, or just doing the maximum -- is not sufficient.   One needs to do both -- for each to give meaning to the other -- just as the relaxation gives meaning to the contraction -- in the beating of the heart, and why focus on one phase or the other, in preference over the other, is dangerous and counterproductive -- just as it is with all the other muscles of the body.  So just to contract a  muscle for as long as possible, or to relax them for as long as possible -- is not how the body is made to work, but requires both -- or life ceases, and before then, diminishes and deteriorates over a long period of time.

Most people just drop out from these activities -- once their "competitive" days are over, because they have no strategy for lifelong health -- which is the much bigger picture, and greater significance of their lives.  Life doesn't end at 30, or sixty, or even 90 now -- and one hopes to be at their best throughout, although the accolades have long stopped.  Remaining competitive in age-groups limited by the participation, is mostly nonsense because it is not the competition that is important, but a distraction from the essential understanding required to uniquely be one's best.  That is way beyond the competition.  That is one's reason for being, and doing, that will sustain them all the days of their lives.

 Don't Make of Time An Enemy

A large part of our social conditioning, is the making of time into an enemy -- and never a friend and ally.  If we've learned anything over the course of human history, it is that time always wins -- but there is no reason that one has to be on the other side.  Time is not the enemy unless one insists on making it so -- and most people do, despite knowing that time will always win.

There's really no real reason why one has to run a mile in less than 5 minutes, or lift a heavy weight all at once.  Most often, it is enough that one just gets there -- on their own power, on their own devices, or lifts the heavy load, bit by bit -- until the job is done.  Usually, there are no bonus points, for lifting the full load all at once -- except that one may get to lift an even heavier load the next time -- and the next, until finally, one breaks down.

What pays off -- is persistence and persisting -- more than the haste, because it is well known, that haste seldom lasts but is quickly extinguished, in one way or another.  It has no history of enduring -- when times are good and bad -- but are good as long as the going is  good, and stops when it is not, and is easily discouraged and distracted -- onto something new, until that too loses its luster.  That pattern of behavior is not dependable or enduring, which is what one is looking for, in determining reliability, security and peace of mind -- that enables one to move forward on that base.

Yet many condition themselves, to live in that way.  On days that they want to, they may show up; on days that they don't want to, on the flimsiest of excuses, they won't show up, and it is up to you to guess, when they will and when they won't -- and thereby live on those terms, which is not good enough, even for one's own sake.

That is the treatment and reliability many give to themselves -- their health and their well-being, and so not surprisingly, they have no reserve of riches to draw upon -- when they need them.  Their cupboards are always bare -- and kept that way, so nobody else can access them either -- as the communal abundance everyone contributes to. 

That is the environment and supporting structure that every individual operates in.  It can be optimal and abundant, or it can be a vast desert in which survival is tenuous at all times.  That is what one is building -- besides their own personal resources.  One moves forward, but is also blazing a trail for those who come after them, and building a road to make it easy for the next person, and not just going their won way, oblivious to all the others.  The next person through, may only be themselves.

In this way, people make it easier for themselves, or their lives are always hard, and never gets easier.  They're always starting, from where they started the last time, and so, never moving ahead -- and think that life is nothing but endless repetition, always starting from nothing -- instead of building on what one left off.  That is the constructive mentality of those who build a little each day, as opposed to the destructive mindset of releasing as much energy at once in an uncontrollable rage -- leaving nothing behind and intact, as their only expression of power.  It is power expressed all at once -- but nothing that can be sustained over time, built on, added to, and refined.

That is the regard most have towards their own bodies -- that it is a ticking time bomb waiting to fall apart, and so they're not going to put any energy and time into it, to ensure that it won't.  They're abandoning ship, at the first sign of trouble.  But each has the one body they were born with -- and it makes a huge difference, the care and maintenance they give to it, far down the road.  That makes the greatest difference of all.

It may seem like a small thing -- that one has to care for their own body, before they can care for anything els because it is that body, that will ultimately carry out everything they do.  There is no separation between the thought and the doing.  There is no actor, apart from the action.  One thinks one can do, because they are that person.  Everything else is a delusion --that falls apart in time.

Is time cruel in that way?  Only to the delusions -- but not to the truth.  For the truth, time proves its worth -- even to still be doing it, until the day one dies.  All the others, will long have been forgotten, and fallen by.  It is the countless things one no longer does -- because they cannot be sustained in one's present condition -- and that is the test of any reality.  It doesn't matter that one lifted 500 lbs.,  50 years ago -- if one cannot lift 5 lbs presently, nor no longer thinks to try.  It is more meaningful to move the 5 lbs now, just as it was 50 years ago -- because the 500 lbs, did not make time stand still, and simply repeat as a memory.

So the question one asks is not, what is the most one can do -- and never do anything again?, but what is the least one can do, that ensures one can do the same all the days of one's life?  That is what one wants to do -- all the days of one's life.

 What One Thing, Changes Everything?

What is the condition and conditioning fundamentally all about?

It is to refine and enhance one's ability to change -- as a response to any challenge one faces in life -- giving them greater survival value.  That is the big picture -- before one gets lost in all the minutia that doesn't mean much of anything.  It's not about the trophies won, highest achievement or greatest risk undertaken -- but capacity to handle most of the circumstances one will encounter in living their own unique lives.  If one can do that, than the results speak for themselves -- but if one is always complaining about not being in the condition to meet those challenges, then those are the opportunities missed, and the life unfulfilled.

And then one asks, "What is one doing otherwise?"  How is one wasting their time (and life)?  Even the greatest athletes in the world, don't spend most of their lives competing -- or training to compete.  It's usually a very small part of their lives -- and the majority is just living it, from day to day, as most people do.  But even in those daily lives, there's a huge difference between those who look forward to each day with purpose, and those who dread another day falling further behind -- and that is the biggest difference that one can make in their lives.  It matters much less how much one bench presses -- if one ever does it at all, even once in their life.

Far more important than sacrificing everything else in life for such an arbitrary objective -- including one's health and limbs as the most fanatical inevitably do -- it makes much more sense to ensure those capabilities over the full course of one's years (life), which for those living now, is not unthinkable to last 100 years.  However, up to now, most don't live that 100 robustly healthy -- and most are in obvious physical decline beginning at 50, and as some proclaim as soon as they graduate from high school, that they're already starting to get "old" -- meaning a noticeable decline from their peak at youth.

In many traditional and primitive societies and cultures, that was about right -- because the lifespan only reached 40 for the luckiest, and the less fit and robust, were weeded out much sooner, out of the necessity of a marginal hold on life -- for everybody.  Now, the average person lives like only kings and pharaohs used to previously.

That is the greatest opportunity of living in these times -- that many are totally unprepared for -- that most just take for granted and fritter away -- the greatest capacity for the fulfillment of their own lives, from beginning to end.  Many people's visions still include a prolonged stage and period of life in which they are totally incapable of doing anything for themselves even -- thus requiring an army of others to be employed just to keep them alive in that state (condition).  That is what many still regard as the normal expectation of a long life -- and not the possibility that it could be robustly lived from beginning to end, as the new and quite predictable new normal.

That is the ending of "age" and "aging" as we've known it up to now.  It's not just one thing that changes -- as we are used to thinking of things -- but everything that changes, as the new paradigm of condition and conditioning.  What one thing, changes everything?, and no longer thinking, of the many different things that need to change as though they are unrelated to one another.  There is not enough time or energy in the world, to change everything in the world as though it is unrelated to every other thing -- requiring change, but what is the critical path, by which one changes everything?

That is obviously brain functioning -- at the root of everything else one does -- including thinking -- apart from the doing.  That requires a conditioning in which, the doing is one's being -- rather than doing one thinking, while thinking one is doing something entirely different -- as the fragmented, divisive mind is conditioned to.  The mind is not apart and separate from the body.  The health and functioning of the body, is the mind, awareness and functioning of the mind.

Obviously, the most important functioning to effect, is the functioning of the brain -- above increasing one's bench press or time in the marathon -- before one does anything else, or even attempts to.  It might be that by increasing the functioning of the brain, that one will see no need to bench press a maximum weight, or run ever again unless absolutely necessary -- and not because one doesn't know what else to do to burn more of the calories one thoughtlessly consumes -- as their preoccupation and abuse of every opportunity they've been given, and presents itself daily to them.

One doesn't have to continue -- doing only what one has done before.  The whole realm of possibilities -- awaits being taken.  But that means seeing the world freshly -- from the very moment one awakes.  Otherwise, there is only the continuation -- of what one did before -- and not beginning the day freshly, without preconceived notions of how the day must be -- like every other before it.  So only in that first moment upon awakening, is an entirely new day possible -- and not later, and later, until one is too exhausted -- to think and do freshly, but fall asleep again.

And so nothing ever changes.  

The Obvious Truth About Aging

People in decline are most obvious -- at the extremities of the head, hands and feet -- not only because they are the most visible, but also because they are the sites that will first suffer from a decreasing effectiveness of circulation resulting in impaired health and functioning.  

That is so obvious as to be a self-definition of what aging is about -- the loss of full and effective functioning in those organs that most uniquely and distinctly differentiate individuals in their proficiencies -- most meaningfully.  Therefore, to place them in primary importance as an exercise and conditioning strategy, is the only thing that makes sense -- in light of the greatest deteriorative fears of people promised a long life -- by which they hope, to still possess all their faculties -- which are implied to be the critical full functioning at their head, hands and feet -- even while it is less necessary to exhibit the greatest range of movement at the "core" muscles necessary for stability and support -- much more than movement.  

That is their proper role -- and not vice-versa, as many are conditioned to think, and therefore act, which is the fallacy and shortcoming of their conditioning efforts to remain robust and fully functional all their life.  Many still think such a thing is impossible -- that the head, hands and feet should precede the body in its deterioration, rather than being the smart way not to.  In fact, nothing else is possible.  

If the circulation is optimal at the extremity, it must be so through the pathways to it -- but not necessarily so, if one places the greatest importance at the proximity, or at the source of the circulatory function -- which doesn't necessarily indicate or even imply the effectiveness at the extremity -- and in fact, most commonly performed "exercise" movements, divert or stop the flow to the extremities -- in misguidedly favoring the development of the larger core, supportive muscles that subvert the fullest articulation at the extremities.

In all people, regardless of condition and conditioning, the only reliably working muscle is their heart, and what distinguishes the more proficient from the lesser, is not that the heart works harder and faster, but that the head, hands and feet, are capable of expressing that effectiveness in some meaningful and prolific fashion -- which is athletics, performance, art, communications, writing, expression, etc.  If all that were necessary is to hook up every one to heart monitors and measure the rapidity and strength of the heartbeats alone, than surely, that is what we would do -- and think that by that, everything is done.  But that is obviously just the beginning -- and not the end.

Some will still insist that that is so -- which are like those insisting that intelligence is the score one obtains on an I.Q. test, even if they never manifest it in any real life expression and practicality.  Hopefully, that is just a primitive and naive notion that a poorly conceived (arbitrary) measure of anything, is the measure of its significance.

In humans, the measure of greatest significance, would not be running the greatest distance, or lifting the most weight, but in consciousness and cognition -- leading to the appropriate (right) action.  That is the failing one fears most -- that threatens their survival and quality of life.  If the head, hands and feet of the human individual is not deteriorating, that individual is not in declining health and condition -- or what we commonly recognize as aging.

That individual simply persists as a vibrant and robustly-functioning individual -- dare we say, highly-actualizing individual.  We can not expect more or ask more from that individual -- because they are already outperforming everybody else's expectations of what is humanly possible.  In fact, they are defining it -- not only for themselves, but for the whole human species.  In that, is the evolution of the species.

That is the unspoken reason we all exist -- to evolve the species, if we can -- and if we can't, die like all the others before us -- having been given the chance.  That is all, anyone can expect, or hope for.  That recognition and realization, is what we all live for.  That is our life's purpose -- to fully express that possibility, as the greatest meaning of our own lives -- each in their own way, by their own calling.

For some, it is a golden opportunity, or age -- while for too many, that is the beginning of dread, and despair -- because they have no clue, and are already running out of cards.  If one has no idea who they are by then, retirement is a tough time to find out.  One should just be beginning their real life's work -- having gotten to that point, as the necessary preparation to embark on that fulfillment and expression.

It is not about just consuming endlessly more food, entertainment and resources -- with no expectations that one could do better.  But that is what life, and aging, has been up to now -- when enough have arrived to create a critical mass -- from which new possibilities explode -- because they have to.  That is the way of nature.   

Why Running is Overrated

Healthier people are more likely to run than unhealthier people.

But as many people point out, it wreaks havoc on one's knees, feet, back -- and so most people don't run anymore -- particularly as they get older and more out of shape.

The geniuses at the high school physical education departments of the world, would be doing something much more worthwhile and valuable creating/describing movements that everyone can do without causing the injuries, deterioration and pain that tells most people not to do something -- with good reason.

Just turning the head 360 degrees left and right -- for 5 minutes standing or seated, would activate all the muscles of the body and keep one in that condition and proficiency all one's life, rather than produce the graveyard of knees, feet, backs that precludes one from meaningful, healthful movements anymore -- because they injure themselves in that way, but are convinced by the "experts" that those are the only movements that matter -- as if they mattered.

The UPS driver needs that skill at turning one's head and knowing conditions all around him to act safely -- rather than he needs to carry a package for 5 minutes to deliver to the next carrier along the route. 

Humans are an  information-gathering/processing animal, and not one reliant on brute force/strength or ruthless competitiveness for survival.  More often than not, problems solve themselves just in taking in enough information to know what is going on -- at which point, one only needs to contribute a little bit of effort to that understanding and awareness -- rather than invent the wheel entirely with only their own efforts.

That is not an effective or productive way for a human to be -- reinventing everything from scratch -- without that awareness of what already exists -- and leveraging that understanding with readily-available tools.  One of the great inventions, is the chair -- for which many things can serve that purpose, and so one doesn't need to build a chair every time one wants to sit -- for the purpose usually, of sparing their knees, feet, back and hips from unnecessary wear and tear -- so that one has those capabilities ready when actually needed.

That is what humans are doing -- preparing and building the reserves so that they have them when they might actually need them -- and not just burning as much calories, time, energy and resources -- because they have no idea of what else to do, and think that alone is enough.

Let's move health reporting out of the Stone Age.

The Future Will Be Different

For most of recorded history, those in charge, tried to convince us that the future would be no different than it had been in the past -- which is to say, that history merely repeated itself, and never broke new ground -- when the real truth is that the future has always been different, and never just the repetition of the past.

That's why civilizations and cultures rise -- and fall, just as individuals are born, and then they die -- to make possible change, which is to say, "different."  Otherwise, people can only be victims to their past, and not the creators of their future -- to the extent that they can imagine possible.  But that does not simply mean that anything is possible, but rather, one finds out what is possible, which is the discovery of truth -- at least for that moment.  That truth of the moment, is not necessarily, the truth for all time -- but only for that moment, and that is why one is always discovering the new, and not merely reaffirming the new as the old -- as many think is their duty to do.

In that manner of living, all that is new, is merely made old -- and not being reborn in the new, as life has to be to remain fresh and young.  Clearly, that is how some are young, while others are old -- in their time, and before their time.  They refuse to change anymore -- but are insistent, that the world and everybody else, change for them -- so they can remain the same.  That which is unchanging, is that which is dead -- because the nature of life, is that it is always changing -- which is manifested by movement.

That is the value of movement -- that it is change, and the life-giving force it brings.  One doesn't move to stay the same; one moves to produce a change -- and this understanding is critical, for determining and designing programs of exercise, that hopes to produce desirable changes, and not just more random activity -- signifying nothing meaningful and productive.  That is to say, that it is important not to just learn anything -- but to cultivate specifically desirable results -- that are obvious and measurable.

However, often what is measured, is not what is most important to measure, but simply, what is easiest to measure -- as in the common example of heart rate, rather than goals, food, tools, or any other tangible expression of what one things is important to effect.  The objective is not just to work harder and faster, but to produce a specifically desired result -- of a better body, health, and life -- that doesn't come about just by increasing random activity.  

Understanding this difference, is the reason some succeed, and many fail -- because they fail to distinguish, that which is relevant and significant to do.  Instead, their efforts, are likely to produce failure and frustration -- rather than the greater clarity, of what they are doing, and attempting to improve at.  But that doesn't happen, just by doing anything -- or only that which they've done before,  that has failed.  They have to do something different -- in order to succeed, and get better.

That's obviously how the future is changed -- and made different -- or it doesn't matter what one does, and how much one does of it.

The Best of Times


There is a conspiracy by "The Media" to convince us that these are the worst of times -- rather than as always, the best of times -- as life is getting better as evidenced by there being not only more lives, but as longer lives, as well as many more, living as well as only one person could do previously.  That is to say, that the "average" person, now lives like only kings could -- even 50 years ago, maybe even 20.  For one thing, the "average" person, now knows as much as only a rare few had access to -- only 20 years ago, and it is this increase in knowledge, that is the greatest measure of one's quality of life, as indicative of choices one has -- unlike the person of a poor quality of life, who has no options.

That used to be the world we lived in -- as recently as 20 years ago, when the World Wide Web was just beginning to include most people in the world -- especially in the developed countries.  There, the possibilities of life, multiplied geometrically -- truly limited only by what we knew, and chose to know.  This is the major difference between people -- living in these times -- or not.  Many can still choose to live in a much more limited and oppressed times -- the times of their grandfathers, and before that, the fathers of their nations.

Such people who are like the proverbial Rip van Winkle who fall asleep for 20 years, and wake up to find that the whole world has changed -- but they have only grown old, and not wiser -- in those last 20 years.  So they alone, have not improved, and stayed connected to the current life all around them -- but have cut themselves apart from the vital movement of life that keeps improving -- because that is the way of life.  It must improve, or face a certain death, and before then, deterioration because they fail to embrace the opportunities of their time -- by taking in new information, but are convinced that information thousands of years old, have not improved since then, and the caveman's brute force, is still the law of the land, and the arbiter of every difference of opinion and judgment.

Such people think that the only way to settle that difference of perspective, is to fight it out -- until the other is dead, or so crippled and compromised, as to no longer be able to express another perspective -- but the one, that they champion and enforce -- as their station and duty in life.  Sometimes entire cultures think that way -- and think it is the only way to think -- and those who don't think so, must be punished and killed, which of course, is the carryover of a medieval times and mentality.  Some people are still living that way -- but not those who feel they have all the choices in the world offered in today's marketplace of ideas, goods and services.

That is also the answer to the question of "Where is the Best Place to Live?"  In that area that allows one the greatest choices of the possibilities -- and not just the one, so-called perfect one for all times, places and conditions -- that allows no further improvement, no progress in understanding.  The solution that may have worked 20 years ago when one was 40 -- may not work when one is 60 -- and rather than accept that that is the way it is, the proper course, is to find a solution that works now.  That guarantees that one will live in the best of times -- and not just in some distance past and memory -- that things were perfect before, and never the best of the present -- which now is what one is convinced, is all they can expect forevermore.

Time reveals that what they thought was the truth -- was just a thought, and not the the truth.  The truth, is always discovered and revealed in the present moment -- and not simply a remembered thing.  That kind of truth, has no validity -- if it doesn't stand the test of the present moment.  It is not that people grow old and increasingly incompetent, but that what they knew to be true, has been revealed in time, to be false.  It has failed to prove the test of time.

That is why a lot of exercise and practices that seemed to work when one was young, doesn't work when one is older.  It is not that the body fails, but the knowledge one was so certain of -- fails spectacularly, when it has to face the ultimate test.  One can believe that simply lifting the most weight or running the most miles will keep one young for eternity -- rather than causing most people to abandon their efforts, because they now obviously destroy one's health and viability.  At which point, many abandon all efforts -- and fall into the despair of thinking that nothing can be good anymore -- rather than that they need to look for better answers, and that what they thought they knew unfailingly for all time, needs to be rethought, re-examined, relearned -- just as when they were experiencing the best times of their lives -- learning everything because they didn't know everything -- especially all that turned out not to be true, relevant, or valid.

That discovery, is the best of times.

"Senior" Citizenship


Arguably the greatest milestone in every life, is reaching the status of full, or senior citizenship -- when one is entitled to all the benefits of living in their society.

Until then, one has to struggle largely on one's own -- feeling "less entitled" -- until the day one reaches the magical age of 65 -- when the entire machinery of that society, is now dedicated to helping one out.

Early benefits can be obtained at 62 -- or even earlier, if one is judged "disabled," but no questions asked entitlement, begins for most at 65 -- when Medicare also kicks in.  Then the great equalizer is how healthy one is -- all things being equal, because at that point, one will be as equal to anyone else -- with the machinery of the government and society, now on one's side.

For most, that means not being completely dependent on the vagaries of the market and "other people's opinion," to largely determine what one's choices will be.  At that point, nobody cares -- if one conforms or not to the tyranny of opinion -- because they'll continue to receive their full entitlements, whether anybody approves of them -- or not.

That's a huge advantage to have -- that most will not feel fully entitled to, until they reach the milestone of full (senior) citizenship -- with all the seniority rights, of no longer being held to account -- to anyone else, but themselves -- at which point, accounting to oneself, was never so important -- leaving woefully too many, totally unprepared -- for that responsibility and accountability in their lives.  That is also one's greatest opportunity -- to choose the life one wishes to live, or more accurately, is the karma of one's life -- up to that point.

The person one is then, is the summation (result) of the life one has lived -- that earns them their entitlement for life beyond.  Obviously, one hopes to embark on that stage of life, in the best condition of one's life -- rather than reaching the point of despair that life cannot get any better, but only worse, from here on out.  Those latter, have failed to prepare themselves for the fulfillment of their lives as the golden years of their existences.

That period should not be the beginning of decline and deterioration -- if one has learned all their lessons correctly.  Of course, many will have learned all the wrong things in life -- and done them, to their detriment.  But life doesn't have to be that way -- in the actualizing world of full functionality -- rather than the old paradigm of dysfunction, still acceptable to many, as the only way life can be -- and particularly, end.

Life doesn't have to be -- and end that way -- short, nasty and brutish anymore.  It can have whatever ending, and meaning, one can imagine it being -- and living that way.  That means living healthy and intelligently -- as the way to ensure one's best health and well-being, and no longer just leaving it to chance, and the arbitrariness of others -- to determine for all, how best everyone should live their lives.  Everyone, as a "senior" citizen, has a right to determine that for themselves.

But many, will not know how to rise to that challenge and golden opportunity in their lives,  because they've never prepared themselves for that possibility -- and the possibilities, but have only done what they were told -- for the benefit of those telling them what to do.  So doing what is for their own benefit, is something that many have never been taught to do, discovered for themselves -- or even thought possible.  That's how the world fundamentally changes -- upon reaching senior citizenship status -- that even people who have thought they've prepared for that stage of their lives, have largely missed the point -- thinking it is simply the continuation of life as usual, but one is older, and less capable -- rather than rightly, as being at their most powerful.

At that point, money is not as important a differentiator as the vested interests would have us continue to believe -- because what is even more important at that point in life, is all the knowledge, information and experience one has learned in their lives -- that leverages any amount of money.  "A fool and their money is quickly parted," has been known for ages.  But a wise and intelligent person, will find a way -- no matter how daunting the situation may first seem -- because that is their learned response to a problem -- to solve it, rather than  accept and give into the problem as their inescapable reality.

The solution may not come immediately, or in the next few days -- but they will continue to work on it -- all their life if need be, until they resolve it.  That is the meaning and purpose of their lives that they have dedicated themselves to -- that persists long after they have stopped working at any job -- simply for the money, power, status, etc.  They have created a meaning for their life -- which keeps them going far more compellingly and powerfully than the usual incentives -- that when they stop for most, leads to their disintegration and deterioration -- because that motivating force that was the vitality of their existence, has disappeared.

So while one is still young, or more importantly, at any age -- one is preparing oneself for the best life one can envision -- and manifest.  It is not simply life as we have known it in the past -- but a whole new way of being that has not existed before.  That is the work of man -- and all humankind -- to be all that one can be.


65 is the New 21


Roughly a century ago, a person of 21 could look forward to a life of "maturity," for another 30 years, and then it was time to prepare for the end -- of so few making it beyond 65.  In fact, that was such a given, that the initial founding of Social Security a few decades later, relied on the fact that so few would live very many years after they reached 65 -- and if they did, all the power to them to live as long as they could.

Now, pretty much the average person makes it to 65 -- and lives many years beyond, which is one of the unintended consequences of Social Security and other government assistance programs.  People who live better, live longer -- and those who prepare better to live longer, are unprecedented in human history and experience. With that lengthening of the life span, the smartest people will take as long as possible to prepare them for real life -- instead of the traditional 21 years, and in times past, maybe only 12 -- before they were finding their way in the world, on their own.

Even before the invention of mass factories employing child labor, children were often shipped off to earn a living as soon as they were able -- at the end of their childhood.  Adolescence then used to be a difficult time because many of that age physically as strong as adults -- but lacking the knowledge and experience in life, to be easily manipulated and exploited.  Formal education was a luxury few people had.  What they knew, they largely learned from their own experiences in life.  There was no mass media to tell everybody what to think.  Everyone had to figure it out for themselves.

Needless to say, it was not a very efficient and welcoming system and society, but a very difficult one -- and so few reached the age of 21 unscathed and unscarred -- as most do now.  That is now regarded as every child's birthright -- to have a happy and undeprived childhood -- for which the purpose of government now is to ensure, and even lengthen -- now pass the college years, until they can truly find their way in the world.  The norm is graduation from college but now that passage has been deferred indefinitely -- with the realization even, that some will never grow up -- no matter how long they live.

So it is quite possible, never fully to mature -- which is good and bad.  The good is not stopping to learn -- and "get on with it," prematurely before one really knows what they are doing -- while the bad is never having to feel one has to "grow up" and take full responsibility for their own lives.  One came into this world as an irresponsible baby, and leaves the world like an irresponsible baby -- requiring the care of others, to keep them alive.  At no point, do they ever exhibit any capacity or inkling, to care of themselves -- as their primary responsibility and meaning and purpose of their lives -- as symbolized by the age of maturity, self-sufficiency, and independence.

Such discussions, are even deemed "politically incorrect" -- to hold anyone accountable for their actions, thoughts and behaviors -- as the essential social contract.  Rather, they are inculcated with the notion that everything in life is random behavior -- and so there can be no consequences, no causes, no effects.  People are just enabled to do whatever they want to do -- and the more entertaining, the better -- but it all signifies nothing, or better, whatever one wants it to.

In an earlier time, this coming of age and responsibility as a truly mature person of society, was the advanced age of 21 -- when the life expectancy was 42, and now it is twice that -- and better, but significantly for those living better lives.  That may take them their entire adulthood to accomplish -- and then they are "retired," and not expected to work hard anymore to support themselves.  It is only at that time, that most achieve that independence in the new world of freedom from want and hardship -- that formerly characterized human society, history and its literature.

The world has changed so dramatically -- particularly in these last hundred years, and especially in the last twenty, that life is very different now -- obviously to everyone but those still insisting that there is nothing new, and that history just repeats itself -- and so should they.  But even as much as people will admit that life is very different now -- from even twenty years ago, most are not aware of the magnitude of those changes -- to realize that the age of 65, is really the milestone that 21 was previously.

The progression, has been geometric and not linear.  The difference has been a quantum leap in human evolution and lives -- particularly for those who can embrace that reality.  Each now has access to the total knowledge and information -- which would have taken years, if not lifetimes, to learn -- which no longer has to be learned, but only accessed, used, and forgotten -- just as quickly and easily, to be able to move on -- to the next thing they need to know.  

Such a mind, never grows old -- but is always learning something new, and not simply repeating the old, as the old are wont to do.  That is what makes them "old" -- and that can happen at any age in life -- when an individual stops growing, and decides that they know "enough" -- not to have to learn anything more, or new.  Those who stop that learning at 21, age in the predictable familiar manner; those who don't stop that learning at 65, create possibilities for themselves they could not even imagine before.

That is how much life has changed.

Evolve or Die


People don't change because they want to; people change because they have to.  If they don't have to change, they won't -- even as much as they say they'd like to.  It is only when they have no choice, that those who can change, will, while those who can't -- when they have to, perish.  That is the story of evolution -- the overriding imperative of all of life.

It's okay not to want to change -- but when one has to, that's the difference between life and death -- and those who live another day, and actually improve their survival chances.  Individually, that is also the story of "aging" -- which is usually meant to indicate one is becoming less fit -- to survive and thrive.  The fit are those who survive and thrive -- not just in the familiar sites and conditions of athletic competitions, but more importantly, under whatever conditions present themselves.

The best of course, create a response that hadn't existed before -- the literary tour de force, or unprecedented achievement that is the quality of that individual.  As such, it is not the "average" performance, or stereotypical response -- but something wholly new, which is the culmination and integration of that particular life -- manifested as the meaning and purpose of that unique existence.  That is what we all hope to live for.  That makes our lives extraordinary -- even to us.

Psychologists have called it the "peak experiences" that revitalize and change the course of one's life -- if they properly regard it that way.  To those who can't or won't, those are the crises that send them into an irrevocable reversal that they never pull out of -- that ultimately ends their life.  For most, that will take many years to run its course -- but the trend is unmistakable: one just gets worse, and there is no getting better.

That happens in every life -- so the challenge is to use those crises as the opportunities for transformative change that revitalizes that existence and life -- from that continuation that offers them no escape from that dismal fate.  That is the greatest wisdom and lesson in our lives -- that most do not dare define and confront -- because it means having to choose the untraveled path -- as the only hope from that certainty of doom.

One doesn't get to that point until one feels they have nothing to lose.  They don't even have to feel they have something to gain.  They just know, they have nothing to lose.  Those are the turning points for lives that get better.  They have to get immeasurably better -- unforeseeably better.  They have no idea where they'll end up from their act of desperation -- except they know they cannot go on as they have been.

For many, that is the "health crisis" -- in all its variations -- signaling that change cannot just be casual or moderate.  It has to be a total change -- to meet the challenge that threatens that very livelihood, questioning its every precepts and tenets -- before life can go on.  Those are the supreme moments of every life -- its defining moments, that tests their true capabilities -- and what they are all about.  Nobody can answer that, for anybody else.  That is everyone's moment of truth -- when they have to stand alone.  It is in those moments, that they find out who they are, and the person they've become.

Many don't want to know that.  They prefer to hide in the safety of the average and anonymity -- never knowing who they themselves are.  That is not on their agenda -- of things they want or need to do.  They are entirely content to know only the "average," and never any particular individual -- especially themselves.  They don't want to know that.  But that is the whole beauty of living and life -- of knowing how one could have been different, and made a difference in one's own life.

Instead, they wished to be distracted from their own lives -- into the entertainment and amusements offered by others -- that can consume an entire lifetime.  So in the end, they've lived like everybody else before them -- or thought they did so.  And that was "all there is."

It is thought in most societies and cultures, that the old know all there is to know, and are absolved of learning anything more -- when that is when it is most important to reimagine life very differently all over again.  The young do that because they don't know any better -- and so are open to the possibilities.  That is the fire that drives them -- until they feel they have seen it all, and have nothing more to learn -- because they know it all, of a rapidly shrinking universe.  That is how people grow "old" and die; they are no longer evolving, nor think it possible for themselves -- because they just want to hold on to the life they've always known before.

But every ending, is also a new beginning -- that brings new life and energy, for those who can embrace it.  That's how the last, can be first -- but not if they just continue with their losing, dying ways.  That won't change anything.  But if one does all the right things -- the right way -- it bears fruit, in its own good time.  That is the unmistakable lesson of the universe.  That's what matters.

 "The Total Package"

There used to be a time when time and resources were so scarce, that any one person, could only hope to be proficient at one thing -- even and especially at the expense of all other things.  In such a world, one might be a good breadwinner, but also be the worst person in the world -- to achieve that.  

The idea that any one person, could be all things, or as complete a person as they were capable of being, was such an alien concept, that anyone suggesting such a thing, was thought to be suffering from delusions of grandeur -- or at the least, be unaware of their shortcomings and inadequacies, and probably repressing and denying them -- to make themselves "look good."  A few thought it sufficient, just to look good, or to control the image others had of them -- even if it meant "false and deceptive advertising."

All that mattered, was getting the other(s), to buy what they were selling -- even if there was no actuality or substance behind it (the claims).  That was notably and distinctively, the 20th century mind(set) -- of everyone being less than a whole person in themselves, as the ultimate realization of society as an mass manufacture assembly line.  In such a society, each individual, could only do one thing -- repetitiously, and unvaryingly -- until they themselves broke down from that mechanical repetition.  Then younger, more nimble hands would replace them.

But what became of the old and weary?  More often than not, they just continued in their downward spiral of disintegration and deterioration -- but were compensated for their years of service with pensions sufficient to keep them alive.  But other than that, there were no guarantees of "happily forever after."  For that, each was left to their own designs -- and fates.

At that point, many begin to fail -- even when all things may be as equal as they will ever be.  That happens because life is more than just about "making money" -- but reveals itself as the sum and totality of the whole -- and not just one part, no matter how disproportionately expressed and developed relative to the whole.  It is the whole -- and balance, that gets them to where they want to go, and be.  Many realize that too late, while others never realize that at all -- and the is the reason for their underlying sense of incompleteness and incomprehension -- that makes life seem endlessly more difficult and hopeless -- even when they thought they were on the verge of utter triumph and vindication -- in the one sliver of their focus and preoccupation.  Meanwhile, the world was collapsing around them.

Then we read about such lives in their spectacular dissolution -- that invariably, most did not see coming -- because they too, were focused on only one parameter of their activities, and not the whole of that life.  When that is finally seen and understood, then it all makes sense -- and nothing else was possible. We cannot infer the whole from the part, but necessarily have to see the whole as the whole -- and not selectively repress and deny what we like, and see only what we want.

That has been a problem for as long as people have thought they knew something worth knowing -- and distinguished themselves above the others -- as God's chosen few.  Reality and actuality, has no such separations and fragmentations -- into those who know, and those who do not -- as many are wont to do.  That creates the difficulties of their lives -- the artificial and arbitrary divisions, making the transition from one to another, difficult and impossible.  Each individual, is the totality of the whole, as the indivisible -- of the good and bad, the knowledgeable from the ignorant -- and embracing that acknowledgement, is the comprehension of the whole -- and not the continued endless arguments of the parts -- thinking they are the solution to anything.

Thus it is said, "Those who know, do not talk; those who talk, do not know."

 Expressing Health and Well-Being

As people diminish in health, how it it expressed?  The same way it is expressed in increasing health and well-being -- by the muscles of the face (head), hands and feet -- which most people have never learned or exercised to express -- and so those muscles get very flabby, and incapable of ,movement (expression), until there is no movement at all.  At that point, one seems to be unresponsive to everything going on about them -- even if the critical function of circulation and respiration have not ceased, whereupon they would be pronounced "dead."  But often, long before that definitive proclamation, many stop being acutely and fully responsive, for which we often note that their expressions are "dead," or lacking in animation (movement).

Many people think it is enough just to have their faces fixed in permanently smiling or uplifted expressions -- without variation, or the possibility of movement (change), as all that is required to fool the most undiscriminating observers into thinking they are healthy and well.  But really, it is more the range of movements that communicates the truth of that being -- well or ill.  That's why it is often noted that an extremely depressed person, shows no change of expression -- that is striking to people who are aware of such differences.

Unless they are actually in the commission of a crime, such people only note the strangeness of the expression -- as though one were not responding and interacting with one's surroundings, but rather, the mind is someplace far away, living in another world.   Upon noticing that, the appropriate response is to approach such individuals cautiously, not knowing what their responses might be, since they have no awareness or intention, of communicating their thoughts, feelings, and responses to any other.  This is important because communicating all this, is the primary function of all human beings -- and not running, lifting, jumping, throwing, walking, etc.  The primary function of the human being, is to communicate -- thoughts, feelings, responses, etc.

That is mostly done by the muscles at the extremities of the human body -- which are the head, hands and feet -- where most do not think it is important to maintain, improve and optimize -- but surely, is the summation of human expressions and proficiencies.  However, in the teaching of activities, they are not considered of primary importance -- but it surely is, to the very observant.  That deftness of movement (fine motor coordination), is what distinguishes the great artist/athlete/musician, from those who have only mastered the gross movements -- of seeming to do the same thing, but not as masterfully, definitively, authoritatively.

Most simply see the gross movement -- and are not aware of the fine movements -- where the prodigies of every activity, distinguish themselves.  That is what they do better -- and not simply, more of, what everybody else is doing.  They are doing something that makes a difference -- apart from just doing more.  Those are the finer points of life.

When one is young, it is not so important, but with time and age, become the difference between life and death, and before that, the difference between a good life and a bad one.  Those are distinctions, we are pretty much prohibited from making -- in the misguided intention, that such things shouldn't matter -- but they do, and so are critically important to distinguish, and discriminate -- in favor of.  That is the whole point to life, the survival of the fittest -- which must happen, regardless of what the legislation says.  We cannot legislate  nature -- which is what is.  What is, dictates everything else.

Aging diminishes the capabilities at the extremities more importantly and critically than anywhere else.  Those are usually the first to fail and so act as the barometers of overall well-being -- way before life is threatened.  The muscles in the face, hands and feet, are the most important to maintain, and beyond that, optimize -- even if there is no contest for motivating it.  That's particularly true for those with arthritis -- which begins to include most older people, on top of those born with that congenital challenge.  With age, the lack of muscular development in the hands, feet and head, are impacted tremendously so as to produce deformities -- because the musculature is not strong enough to maintain the structural strength of proper, pleasing shape and design.

The head is also being impacted in less noticeable deformities due to disintegrating musculature.  The question should be obvious which are  the most important muscles and faculties to maintain and develop -- over less critical parts that most think are more important.  They seem to be important until aging becomes a factor -- which is not just about being a certain amount of years more than most.  It is fundamentally about how fit one is for life.  Fit means getting better.  Age can mean either getting better or worse, but most think only gets worse.  Is that age, or just the wrong choice, and then the refusal to change -- ever again? -- until the day one dies, which one certainly will.

But way before then, there is much one can do to fully develop the faculties one is born with.  That is Knowing Oneself.  The simple truth some have offered throughout time.  That is the Secret of Life -- Knowing Oneself.  The only way one knows, is to develop it as well as possible.  If the face, hands and feet never age, then that body never truly ages -- because that is where it shows most -- if one is looking for it.  The health of the rest is implied -- by the condition of the extremities.  That's where the human body ages, and fails first.  

Those are the cognitive faculties.  When that is the pattern of failure, it is easy to address, by specifically designing and implementing those exercises -- in preference to all others.  It is more important to move the foot full-range, than any amount of limited range repetition -- which is likely to be walking and running.  But that doesn't necessary imply full-range movement -- which is what one wishes to maintain, and develop beyond that.

 Solving the Problems of One's Own Living

With all the talk about what somebody else (government) can do, what is never discussed anymore, is the possibility that one can solve their own problems -- by themselves, as their primary responsibility, and the objective of their very living.  Unless one does that, the situation is indeed as hopeless as the vested interests make it out to be.  

That is the culture of these times -- cultivating the belief that not only is it necessary to achieve anything except by organizing a mass number to go along with them -- in forcing someone else to do something for them -- but is even thought to be impossible that one can ever, or should try to do anything for themselves anymore.  That is exacerbated by living in crowded cities which foster this feeling and sense that one is powerless, and the victim of their own environment -- rather than the creator and master of it.

So the only thing left for everyone living in such a society, is to force somebody else to do something for them -- and never simply and more efficiently, to do it for themselves -- first and foremost, and then if that proves impossible, to mobilize and organize more help.  That is obviously the first resort to solving any problem -- and not making one's own problems, everybody else's -- who have their uniquely own problems to solve.

Even the gravest problems of our times -- casting a shadow on out to the future, is the problem of increasing dependency, caregiving (for others), running out of money and people to do so, if everyone requires more than themselves to take care of themselves -- as though it were a gigantic pyramid scheme favoring those who got in first, and have secured all the assistance they can before any others can establish their claims to it.

In that manner, there is never enough to go around, because the more resources available, is quickly absorbed by those requiring evermore, and so these problems become predictably worse -- as the problems of living in contemporary society.  How will we be able afford 30 years of being totally dependent on others to take care of our daily living and every need?  The obvious answer, is that we shouldn't be living that way; that is not living at all.  That is merely consuming as many resources as possible -- as the American way of life -- as an end in itself, without any productivity, meaning and purpose.  Certainly there is no fulfillment, as everyone simply gets worse, and is encouraged and supported to do so.

The wise ones will be the first to recognize the futility of that way of life -- as well as the true objective of human life in becoming more independent on everybody else to fulfill their every need, and will realize nobody else could serve one's own needs and purposes they can themselves -- or would want to.  Otherwise it becomes prohibitively expensive trying to force another to do what one could do better for themselves -- each and everyone of us.

That is the life we can choose for ourselves -- and no longer be the pawns and victims of everybody else -- in the nameless and faceless, "government,"  which we've come to accept unquestioningly, as the definitive authority on such matters -- because we ceded that power to them, and has become an irrevocable and exclusive right.  Meanwhile, they work and live in cubicles -- as the "best of all possible worlds" -- because that's what everybody else wants to do also -- hoping to accumulate enough of a fortune, to allow them to be completely useless, for 30 years or more.

There has to be something obviously wrong with that "dream scenario" -- that all the financial advisers and care industries, are adamant that they are the future.  We see it playing out in the test tube environments like Hawaii -- where the cost of living is 5 times higher than the mean everywhere else -- and those at the bottom, are ignored until they ultimately just go away -- somehow.  But that's not a plan -- or any solution.  That is not the desired "Paradise" one hopes is the best place one can hope to be -- because the cost of that caregiving, is the highest in the world, and for that reason, families must band together even tighter and unfailingly -- for that purpose.

Otherwise, they just go away -- and nobody knows, or wants to know of their fate somewhere else -- because they have for all intents and purposes, perished -- because certainly that is the fate of all who no longer reside there.  But the reality is that most invariably go on to much better lives -- although they can no longer surf everyday.  Life goes on, and gets better, as the objective of their lives -- and not simply to get worse, so they can consume infinitely greater resources -- before everybody else beats them to the punchbowl.

Societies are laboratories of experimentation to find out what works -- better, trying the many things, and not just forcing everybody into the one -- that is predetermined from birth for everyone.  That is a society still living in the dark tribal ages of brute force determined by whole can amass the larger army to force their ways on all the others.  In this case, it is those who can control the vote.  And that becomes an end in itself -- just to exercise that power, and nothing else.  It does not matter what they do after the election -- and nobody cares anymore, and didn't even care to vote.

Those are the experiments in "democracy" that go wrong -- because they overlook, or have no guiding principle of greater independence and autonomy -- as the real reasons for being.

 Living One's Best Life

Nobody can do it for another.  Each has to live their own best lives -- regardless of what everybody else does.  That has always been the simple fact -- of everybody's existence.  We're all given one chance -- to make the best of it -- or not.  There is nobody, who never had a chance -- at least one, in their lifetime, to make a difference and change the course of their lives.  Most in fact, many chances -- all of them squandered, and so they claim, they never had a chance -- even once in their life.

Even in the most repressive societies and conditions, people have a chance -- and nobody is completely shut out.  So the question is, how does one make the most of their chances?  One can complain to the day one dies, that they never had a chance -- usually because they never took a chance, and found out what was on the other side -- of the road not taken.  Instead, they will insist, that there is no other road -- because they choose not to even recognize it as such.

So for those claiming to live in "Paradise" while complaining how hard their lives are, they just need to find out how else they could be living, if they weren't already living in that perfection. Many will find that they don't need to be working two-three jobs just to keep a roof over their heads --  nevermind getting ahead.  That's not even in the realm of possibilities -- and imagination.  No, one had better just unquestioningly and uncomplainingly keep on doing what one is doing -- because it is the best of all possible worlds -- that has been predetermined for all, for all time -- by those self-appointed to know these things.

That is the true price of Paradise -- never to determine those things for oneself, but always to have it imposed by some superior being -- who tells them what to chant -- and nothing else will be tolerated.  It's good to see when a few escape from such "paradise," and discovers what the rest of the world has to offer.  That is the story of humankind ever since the legend of Adam and Eve, and the Garden of Eden.  What is the rest of the world like?

Some would say it is a sin to find out -- or think that there can be other ways -- than the only one way they have been taught, and to reject all others.  It doesn't matter what that one way is.  It could be a good way, or even a glorious way -- but it is only one way, and really, the genius of life, is that there are many ways, and even many right ways.  However, each still has to choose for oneself -- and nobody can do it for another, or all others.  That's why we live our lives.  To find out.

Many will willingly accept how badly their lives can be -- while never entertaining how good it can be, and if at all times, they are living the best life they can be -- under any circumstances.  It doesn't matter that the circumstances aren't perfect -- all the time; what matters is that one is doing the best they can, with what they have -- and that invariably makes things better -- but not if they think it doesn't matter, what they do -- because they don't matter.

All that matters, is what one does -- actually, and not what they wanted to do, and all that noise.  It is just their entertainment, their distraction from the important work they have to do.  That's what they don't want to know about.  But when the mind is quiet, it is all there.

Doing What NEEDS to Be Done

Obviously, doing what doesn't work, or what works badly, or just anything at all, is not going to produce the same results as doing what works, and needs to be done.  It doesn't matter what burns the most calories, or costs the most money -- produces the most pain and/or injury.  Yet many people think that is enough -- just to go ahead and do whatever they want to do, whatever turns them on, no matter what glaringly needs to be done.

And therein lies the crux of most human problems and conditions -- doing what has caused their problem, and not doing what would prevent, or cure it -- in the mistaken notion that doing whatever they want, or feel like doing, is sufficient -- and what they are entitled to do.  But life doesn't work that way, no matter how much one wishes it to.  And so one has to observe and experiment with what actually works, and not merely the most popular opinion of what does, or for that matter, the oldest idea of what is going on.

Yet somehow, many feel that the most popular and/or oldest ideas about the universe, are the most valid -- rather than the most primitive misunderstanding of what is at work.  The truth is not a long-standing belief or an ancient wisdom, but what can be discovered in the present moment, and at any time, by anyone.  That is the scientific method.  So one doesn't need a cult of "experts" to tell them what to believe -- as though truth can only be handed down by the properly designated hierarchy and bureaucracy that have placed themselves in charge of such matters, and would like everybody else to pay them their dues, from here on out.

The truth is something much more serious -- and above and beyond the validation of such payments.  That's why the best things in life are often undervalued, while the most worthless things, are the most popular, and in demand, because it is more profitable, to continue in that way.  Thus, many of the solutions to problems, do nothing more than continue them -- rather than eliminating them completely -- because it is more profitable to do so.  And that is the whole objective of that undertaking or industry -- to perpetuate the problem.

That was even more true of the past than the present -- built on the foundation of ignorance instead of knowledge.  It was once more popular to think that power derived from the control of the ignorant, rather than enlightening them.  Many primitive societies and cultures, still think of education based on that model -- of indoctrinating the misinformation that will keep one a captive audience/customer for life -- never breaking free of that control and monopoly.

The ultimate, is just getting one to pay forever, without ever questioning anymore, what value they are getting for it.  They have been successfully conditioned just to continue that behavior obsessively and compulsively -- for no good reason, and even despite the fact that it creates the problems and injuries that now overwhelm them.  And so the best they can do is stop -- and not that they can be doing something much more productive, healthier and profitable for themselves,  in achieving a better life each is entitled to -- while not exploiting everybody else to accomplish that.

For such reasons, one can be convinced to go to war against all those not  in one's clique  -- as though that made them the proper targets for such exploitation and ruthlessness.  That is the "old" mind at work -- that makes them old -- doing what doesn't need to be done, while not doing what would be wise to do -- and never changing that.  That is the root of why people get old -- they refuse to change despite their unfavorable results, and will not attempt to do anything different that might work.

Thus, they are in a hopeless situation -- that has no end or possibility of improvement.  They simply get worse, from here on out.  That is basically how they are different from the young -- in which there is every expectation that life should get better for them, and when they absolutely feel that is no longer possible, claim the mantle of being old -- as their reason.  But it is not a reason -- but a way of life they have chosen, not to change, and not to improve any longer.  The best they can hope for, is to deteriorate for as long as possible -- even dragging as many down with them as possible.

All that would seem so preposterous and sad, if it weren't so true an observation of the present aging crisis in the world.  There aren't enough able-bodied people to take care of all the hopelessly deteriorating people in the world -- who aren't taking care of themselves the best that is now possible.  That is the forbidden thought.  What chaos would be unleashed, if everybody could best take care of themselves -- and not have that done for them, by whatever powerful interest group, was most successful in that power struggle, that they should do the thinking and therefore take care of everybody else -- because that would be the most profitable outcome for them.

Once one is clear in one's thinking, then the methods and paths are many -- and not just the one that doesn't work, and only ensures one's doom, desperation and hopelessness -- as the only way it can ever be.

 The Value is Hearing What Other People Think

Many people think to create forums (media) so that they can tell others what they think -- rather than creating forums so that they can hear what other people think -- and that is the problem of communication in this day and age -- despite all the marvels that make those transmissions possible.  Nowhere is that more true, than on the social media -- in which everybody now has the opportunity to tell others what to think -- especially about them.

It becomes everybody's opportunity for self-advertising and self-promotion, which formerly was available only to those who could afford to pay for that privilege.  Now anybody who wants, can try to manipulate the thoughts of others -- rather than merely revealing the limits of their own, and their ability to express them.  The positive, is that more are motivated to master those skills with very tangible results other than just the grades they receive trying to live up to other's expectations of how well they are doing.

The advantage therefore, goes to the rare few, who are gifted and skilled, at seeing themselves as others see them -- rather than merely how they wish others to see them -- which is the age-old problem of the human condition.  There is no problem when everyone sees the same thing; the problem arises when everyone only sees what they want to see -- and nothing else.  

In a previous time, that was attributed to Madison Avenue, and the effects of advertising, which were considered among the highest skills, because that was the ability to unilaterally control how most people thought -- since most people could not afford to pay the high advertising rates of the existing publications (media).  One literally got, what one paid for.  The balance of power, was additionally weighted to those who could hire the best writers, and advertising minds.  If they were political rather than commercial, it was propaganda, rather than advertising, but it was marketing nevertheless -- evolving inevitably into the infomercial -- in which even their creators can no longer tell the difference.

Obviously, it becomes much easier to be delusional and incapable of distinguishing fact from fabrications -- and many come to prefer the latter, if not exclusively -- often as their "entertainment," or what they believe is their first amendment right, to believe anything they want to believe -- as the truth, and even higher than that.  Some think that is the "progress" beyond the truth -- of which they can convince themselves.  Thus evolved the preference for many, of virtual reality over and above the actual reality.  To such people, there is no difference -- and not just literally.  

That has unfortunate consequences for those who do not assess risk and reward properly, as life eventually instructs them definitively.  Many get away with their wrong thinking because they never actually test the truth of anything they know, because in most cases, it is enough merely to go along with the thinking of others -- until it is critically important that they have to think for themselves because the challenge is unique to themselves and to their situation -- which nothing else in life has prepared them for.

Under those conditions, many people predictably fail, or perish -- because life is only guaranteed for each individual uniquely, rather than unconditionally no matter what.  Some even miscalculate to the extreme of taking more risks that guarantee their demise and extinction.  Usually, that is just a lesson to the others, not to do the same.  But there is no guarantee that everyone is paying attention -- and sees what is happening, because they may be attending to some alternate reality, or virtual reality instead.  

That is not unlike the very common problem of being "distracted" by anything other than what one should (must) be paying attention to.  For that reason alone, one should not be conditioned to be distracted from thinking about what one is doing, in preference to better awareness of what they are doing -- as the integration of thought in action -- that transcends the power of either thought or action without it.

That is the crux of the problem of modern life and contemporary living -- as wonderful as it could be, but few yet have actually actualized to its fullest promise.  That is the greatness that is the promise of life in the 21st century.  That is the challenge and response of these times.  Everything else is just a distorted narrow view searching for this whole -- that even the sum of all the parts, if one could individually gather them, would not be equal to -- if in fact, one could gather all the parts in one's lifetime.

That becomes the key --  to understanding any of the parts, or bits of information, that will be proffered as the whole truth on the matter -- in the many infomercials and fabrications one will encounter.  Is there any relationship to any actual reality one is familiar with -- or is every reference, merely to another wishful thought -- never pointing to and grounded in any actual reality?  That integration of thought and action, is the difference between success and failure, in everything one does.

There is no secret to life.

Creating Value

Many people think that "making money" is the be-all, end-all of life, when there is something much more fundamental at work, and that is "creating value" when there was nothing before -- and that action, is what is monetized in some financial transaction (exchange) -- or not.

In many cases, it is inefficient and counterproductive to place a price on an item to value it, if there is no one readily available to value that on the other end -- and so the better values may go unappreciated, while lesser values are greatly overpriced.

That is not to say that it shouldn't be that way -- but rather, there may be another value system in play -- frequently much greater -- like the air we breathe, and the company we keep, for surely, that is the world we live in and enjoy -- and not going down into our vaults, and lying in our money.

Thus the value of something, can be immense (immeasurable) to one, but of no consequence (value) to another -- as in the case of a person who rides a bicycle, and another who eschews it because it is not a car, and wouldn't think to ever use it -- and thinks the value of it is getting rid of it, to free up space so they can maneuver their car without it.  Thus, not having it, has more value than having it -- while the right person, would have their world expanded greatly into essential transportation.

Obviously, the key then, is to have and be able to function in many, alternative value systems, and not just the one -- and beyond a certain point, may not be a reliable measure of one's actual quality of life.  That becomes increasingly true when information and understanding is the transformative catalyst that determines ultimate, or useful value.

"Usefulness" is what many lose sight of -- which determines how much value one gets from the same thing.  A coat is not valuable in the tropics as much as in a colder climate -- where it might be the difference between life and death, or just being an ornament and adornment, one could just as well live without unless one subscribed adamently to the dictates of fashion (fad), as affluent societies are often prone to regard as the current essentials of contemporary life.

But while there is that super culture at work, those living closer to the edge, or more in touch with actual needs, can better determine for themselves, what are the essentials, and what are the wants generated by the various trade associations -- as the must-haves, if one subscribes to their programs, and values of how one ought to be living their lives.

It is easy to get caught up in those confusions -- depending on their sources of information and marketing.  The common concern of these times, is frequently how much one needs to have, not only to live well now, but well into any reasonable lifespan -- and beyond to ensure that affluence for all one's progeny as well.  There is no amount of money that can assure that success for everyone -- for all time, because that capacity has to be learned as well as earned, in living each individual's life.

That can't be done by one -- for everyone else, for all time.  Each individual has to learn and earn that ability -- as the be-all, and end-all of their own living.  That is the meaning and purpose of life.  That is what it is all about.
 
 Going With The Flow (of Information)

Probably the greatest difference between the Old Mind and the New Mind of the 21st Century, is that the old mind was conditioned to work against the information presented -- as though it was in competition against it -- rather than allowing that information to work and manifest through them.  That old mind, was particularly conditioned to think that all the information of others, was also to be regarded as against them -- and never allowing that any information could be used mutually.

That is probably best expressed in the notion that one has to beat the market -- or beat all the other participants in the market (activity), because they were conditioned to believe that the only way they could win, was for everybody else to lose -- and never that what could be useful and valuable to one, might also benefit every other.

That mentality of course, sets one up against every other, at every opportunity -- whether the situation calls for it or not.  In such a framework, information is used only as a weapon against all the others, rather than as a tool for everyone to access as needed, and as such, does not needed to be accumulated and/or hoarded, but is abundant and reaffirmed in each use.

This particularly becomes a problem as one ages in this manner of thinking -- because it makes the world and environment one is operating in, invariably hostile, and so one's energies are increasingly and endlessly consumed in protecting one's "hoard," or "turf" -- with little remaining energy and resources available to take in any new information -- in that moment, which is of course, is the reality of the situation, and not merely the memory of a past situation (knowledge) and response.  Such people noticeably, are always living in the past, or even future, but never in the present -- even as much as they will frequently remind themselves, to live in the present (moment).

The very fact that they fragment their reality into the past, present and future, is already an indication that there is no perception of the totality of information with no such divisions.  The present information, implies the past and the future, and so is unnecessary to consider, as additional information -- rather distracting and detracting from their attention to the relevant -- which of course, is this particular moment -- unlike all the others.

Such an orientation, is a fresh mind -- allowing one to reach conclusions and responses one has never before -- instead of merely repeating only what they have done every time before -- whether the situation and/or information, merited it.  As such, their perceptions and therefore responses, are a private reality or fantasy they increasingly withdraw to -- in preference to increasing their exposure to whatever the outcome or information is now telling them -- and which now requires an adequate and appropriate response.  But that is frequently not forthcoming, because such minds are absorbed in the old, which has less and less to do with actual realities anymore -- so immersed has one become in their own thoughts and memories, which is not an inevitable part of aging, but certainly a certain path to it -- at any time and age.

One simply has made up their minds, and is determined never to change it -- no matter what information comes into view -- because that is one's intention, and not going with the flow of information and outcomes constantly monitoring and reassessing -- so as to actually improve the situation for increasing benefit -- and not despite and in spite of "no matter what" happens.  That is the distinguishing feature of the primitive (old) mind, from today's emerging fully-integrated, and integrating, actualizing healthy individual.  They are so by acting in concert with all the information -- and not just that small part that they would like to take as the whole -- in preference to it, which of course is reality -- and the only one that counts.

In simpler terms, that is going with what works -- rather than superimposing their idea of what should in preference to actual outcomes, and adopting mere repetition as their truth -- over any other feedback.  So it is enough to think that simply repeating what they have always done before, is doing all they can do, even if it is not working, or creating the desired (optimal) results -- rather than paying attention to the outcome, as the totality of what they now must respond to -- and in that manner, things greatly improve, rather than staying the same, or more than likely, getting immeasurably worse over time -- which they blame on "aging," rather than accept the truth that they need to change, and thus can improve, and continue to do so all their lives.

That is obviously the right approach -- and not simply doing what one has always done before, thinking there will be some miraculously different result.  Every outcome, is simply more information -- one should not ignore, in preference for only that they want to believe.  That "solves" the problem every time.  That aligns them with reality -- from which the truth is manifested through them, and flows.

 Easier Than You Think

What works almost as well as a complete layoff, is only one overload workout a week (to stimulate growth) -- particularly as a person ages, and their recovery ability drops off dramatically. They should still continue light daily movements to aid the recovery and prevent severe muscle soreness from setting in. One has to fine-tune to their recovery ability -- rather than the arbitrary objectives of benching their bodyweight at age 90 -- or whatever they think will defy that decline.

No matter how determined one is to override the pain messages and the lack of recovery that begins to accelerate the aging process that leads them to abandon exercise entirely, they have to recalibrate what load and frequency sustains gains, rather than increases the pain -- until there is debilitating injuries and accelerated aging -- indicated by decreasing range of movement.

At 90, one is less impressed with how much one is bench pressing, as it is that one still can simulate that range of movement -- with no resistance at all. People who can no longer lift their arms or legs -- are in obvious decline and deterioration brought about by their efforts -- and not the lack of them.

That's what a lot of young people do not adapt to -- as they grow older. That's true for Arnold, Casey Viator, Frank Zane, Dave Draper, Kobe Bryant, Tiger Woods, and many of those cross-fitters who think that they can continue to jump out of the building -- for as long as they continue to do so, because nobody tells them to stop -- before they absolutely have to -- when they inevitably tear their (Achilles) tendon. Less fortunate people have heart attacks -- because the heart doesn't have unlimited capacity, as many world's strongest men have already proven. Or the legendary John Henry. Even the original marathon runner, dropped dead right after delivering the news that "We prevail." Or all those WWE Superstars.

Life doesn't end at 40, or 50, or 60 -- crippled by all those past abuses inflicted upon ourselves. The body doesn't get used to it, but breaks down -- when the objective is to break the body down unnecessarily and needlessly. So is there a level of muscle stimulation that can be sustained indefinitely so that at age 90, one has the full range of all their movements -- if no longer the speed and explosiveness, because that is seldom an actual requirement to maintain functionality throughout an extended lifespan? And that should be the greater objective -- that one maintains their full range of movement throughout life -- and not that they're crippled and so no longer attempt any movement anymore.

But the curious thing is that the maintenance and extension of range of movement -- results in the greatest muscular contraction possible -- even without any added resistance. That's what I pointed out to Arthur Jones when he was determined to create machines that could provide resistance through the full-range of movement -- which he never went far enough to realize that the fullest range itself, invariably provides that resistance, and results in the ultimate muscular contraction we know as a "cramp." But the trick is, can we move easily in and out of a cramp? That is what we're trying to condition the muscle to do.

The old folks get cramps a lot -- and therefore don't contract their muscles anymore -- which results in that atrophy, because the most valuable "work" of any muscle, is simulating the pumping effect of the heart, that increases the circulation that maintains the health of any organ, and improves it. It's possible to produce the pump without the pain -- and increasingly desirable and beneficial to do so. But not if one is conditioned to believe that the pain is necessary; it is actually a deterrent for doing so.

 Thinking Through Time

Truth reveals itself in time.  That -- which is false, will fail the test of time.  In all probability, it will just be forgotten and ignored, because there is no payoff for sustaining the belief-- with no facts to substantiate it -- until maybe some time in the future, when someone revives the old as the new -- for one more time, to those who haven't heard it before.

There is always a fresh class of recruits who will revive an old fallacious idea, thinking it merely failed before -- for the lack of trying, and not that it was recognized as a bad idea -- with good reason.  For that reason, many think the secret to youth, is doing the things one did as a youth -- with realizing, that is what caused them to lose that youth -- or they wouldn't be trying to regain it.  So one can't simply do what they did at their prime -- thinking that is all that is necessary to remain so -- indefinitely, because those peak performances, also have (had) a cost, even if it was one they were willing to pay at any price -- thinking that was all they needed to attain "immortality" -- in whatever hall of fame was important to them.

In that way, many sacrifice their health (and sanity) -- for that moment of fame and glory -- for as long as they can, which no matter how long, will only be momentarily in the greater scheme of things -- which is their greatest life, at every stage of it -- and not extinguishing it prematurely, in going beyond the point of no return or resuscitation.  That has always been a difficult balance for those trying to fine-tune to their optimal lives.

Youthful misjudgments, take the lives of many too soon, while many others are waylaid onto a path of lifelong dysfunction, criminal and antisocial behavior -- never seeing the light of what they are doing, seeing the consequences of their actions -- which requires other people to do it for them.  But the efforts of all the others, can never be enough, if one thinks their part, is to oppose all the others --  in a relentless struggle and competition -- as though that's what life was all about.

That may be so in prisons and restrictive cultures limiting one's choices -- but obviously not the case in a society and environment of the greatest choices and freedom to make those choices without duress and biases.  For many nurtured in an oppressive condition, the very thought that one can choose without limit -- was never a possibility they were prepared to encounter in life, and so their instinct, is to destroy it for everyone else also.  Only in that way, could they achieve a competitive advantage in playing the "only game in town" allowed.

Not that one has to buy every "latest, greatest thing," but one should be open to the possibility that there are other things, than just the one way they were thought -- and punished for thinking any other.  By that, some think that the only way they can win, is to cheat -- even when it is not necessary to gain that advantage.  That is the only way they know how to play the game -- which obviously has to result in chaos and anomie in society, as well as breakdowns and crises in individual lives, they even think is the normal process of aging -- rather than taking full responsibility for their bad choices, and resolve not to change.

Of course it is an untenable position to maintain and defend -- despite all the information to the contrary.  The only hope, is that one will change, and when they can't, their situation is hopeless and unsustainable.  So one asks, "What is a sustainable?" -- and not that, "It won't matter because I won't be here to see it -- so why should I care?"  That attitude allows them to evade the responsibility and ownership for everything going on in their world -- to which they are just a tourist, having no right to determine the course of that culture.  One's total responsibility, is to "Enjoy," as though that were an end in itself.

Such people are lost, and will never care about anything of significance and consequence -- because they are not producers of anything, but only consumers after all the work has been done.  And so they think it's always been there -- just for the taking, and become skilled and clever at "taking more than their fair share," as all they become good at.

If a person produces everything, or most of it, certainly they are entitled to all or most of it -- and not rather, that they should be in line like everybody else, or even as they now will insist, for that very reason, should stand in the back of the line because they are capable of producing even more.  That's how societies and individuals, begin to fail in time -- because that is not a sustainable society.

One ultimately will reap what they sow -- even if they don't like the results.  But rather than ignoring or denying the results, the wise individual, uses that information to determine what they do next -- and keep improving, as their way of life.