Sunday, October 8, 2017

Understanding Conditioning -- Volume Nine

The Problem is Not the Answer

Many people's solution to a problem, is to create another problem instead -- rationalizing that it is the lesser of two evils, or at least a different problem -- as though that was the best of all worlds, rather than eliminating all problems as best they can foresee.

In this way, all the energy that should be freed by the preoccupation with the problem, is merely diverted to another, and so it seems, nothing ever changes -- as truly they have not.  That is excellent job security -- for those who make a living off of those problems, that of course would be eliminated, by the elimination of the problem.  And so they are vested in the perpetuation of those problems -- rather than the elimination of those underlying conditions -- all the while demanding, unlimited more money -- to "solve" a problem they have no intention of eliminating.

That ties up a lot of money -- as well as energy, and other resources -- and before one knows it, time and life are over, without making any progress from one generation to the next.  Life frequently can go on for generations that way -- before there is a breakthrough, and the course of human history and evolution are transformed entirely. But surely that time will come again -- as it always has before.  Nothing stays the same forever -- especially if it was ever alive.  That is the quality of life -- that it is the process of change, and thus the possibility of improvement.

The greater life, is the measure of change -- but the meaningful question is, what changes?  Is it simply running faster, jumping higher, or lifting more weights -- or would it more meaningfully be measured as the robustness and vitality of life in longevity -- as we've never witnessed before?  That would be the great challenge of this age -- when increasingly more of the population ages with their well-known "problems" of aging.  What if those problems were eliminated?  How would human consciousness be transformed? -- without nearly half of life being consumed by the preoccupation with remaining robust and vital throughout whatever remaining years?

Those should be the thoughts of truly progressive people -- and not merely, how to achieve more of the same?

Exercise as a Daily Function of Life

That is the key to remaining healthy all one's life.  What else more important does one have to do?  This is particularly true the older one gets -- and has more time to do it.  There is simply nothing better and more important to do.

The problem is that self-proclaimed experts will still insist that you have to do it their way -- or presumably, not at all.  But one is no longer in kindergarten or high school, and can exercise anyway they like -- and particularly, in the way they like.  Nothing makes more sense.  Still many will insist that one has to run a marathon or bench press their bodyweight to qualify as "proper" exercise, when in fact, any movements one wishes to do and become proficient at, is fully acceptable -- if one enjoys it enough and sees the benefit of that movement, to want to do it every day.

But make no mistake -- it has to be a movement, and not just thinking about doing so.  That is where many people fall short in their thinking about exercise.  It goes no farther than their brain -- and so no actual movement is discernible.  They think they can just will their way to health -- rather than actually doing something about it, and actually move.

However, movement does not have to mean moving the entire body at once; it is even more effective and productive, to be able to focus movement around a singe joint -- particularly the furthest joint possible, which are known as the fine motor control -- of the head, hands and feet, which contain the critical organs of sense and cognition -- that makes all the difference.

The entire design, structure and intent of the human musculature, is to move these areas and faculties for most effective use. So it is not running, jumping, lifting, or any one thing; the usefulness is in being able to do all things -- as needed.  As such, one can become skilled and efficient at those movements, with very little practice -- as little as a minute each movement, each day.

There's relatively little gain with more -- and many athletic events are actually over in a second -- but that second is focused around
one movement.  That movement is not about more or less, but the quality and range -- which is really the objective of any practice.  One wishes to become better, and not simply do more of a poor performance or nothing -- which the undiscriminating mind, can't tell the difference -- and is thus perpetually wondering why they don't obtain the same satisfactory results.

It never matters how much one does poorly and thoughtlessly; all that matters is what one does to the best of their ability -- and the only way to find that out, is by actually doing something.  Just thinking one can, is not enough or sufficient, to obtain the best results.

Unfortunately in a world of mediated experiences and knowledge, many are convinced there is no difference.  Many have even lost their ability to distinguish when they have done something, and only thought about doing it.  But the results don't lie.  Some  become good at what they do -- because of what they actually do, while others become good at doing nothing, because that is what they actually do.

It's not necessary to throw the javelin or pole vault -- as much as it is to maintain one's functioning of the sensory and cognitive organs at the extremities of the human body -- throughout one's entire life, and not only until one reaches retirement age when many think they never want to do anything again.  At that point in their life, it is more important than ever, to exercise daily, the faculties they wish to keep, maintain, and continue to improve.

But they can let go of all the extraneous and arbitrary requirements of doing it for anybody else -- and replace them with their own fundaments of intelligent living.  That's what they have to get better at -- all the days of their lives.  That is the measure and meaning of their lives.  Without that, they implode as many do at this critical juncture of their lives.  It doesn't just happen.  It is a lifetime in the making.

That is what we are all called to account for -- for there is no roll call to have to answer to.  That is what their whole lives has been a preparation for -- the truly independent life, that each creates for themselves.  It's not just about the money, or other accomplishments or attainments, but about how it all comes together in a fully integrated life.   Then everything makes sense -- and there is no thinking apart from the doing -- and one's doing, is one's being.


That is the wholeness of life -- and as healthy as one can be.

The Best of Times

Every species knows that to experience the best in life, they have to be at their best -- at all times, and especially so as they grow older -- otherwise, they just are not going to be around.

That doesn't necessarily mean being the Alpha Male -- which is necessarily a high risk occupation of constant challenges and endless responsibilities.  But even alpha males know there comes a time when it is right to step aside to a lower profile niche position there is less competition for.-- thereby retaining their usefulness to the greater society.  That is usually exhibited by the ability and willingness to take care of others -- or just to take care of themselves so as not to be a liability to the group but an asset when sheer numbers require as many able bodies as available.

That doesn't mean just being a warm body is sufficient.  Frequently, all that is required is just to show up -- at the right time and moment.  That mere presence is often enough to turn the tide of an outcome.  Of course that is life on the grander scale -- than the pettiness most have come to accept as their lives.

Thus the quest for a greater sense of participation in the lives of all others, has become an integral part of contemporary lives we know as "entertainment," and distractions from our actual lives.  Many come to prefer those fantasies over the possibilities of actualizing their own lives to the greatest extent possible.  They in fact become incapable of distinguishing the fiction from the reality, the virtual over the actual.

The actual is how we manifest our own lives -- and not how much we identify with some other fictional or ideal -- wishing it was true for us.  Many have lost this ability to distinguish between what they know to be true, from how they actually live that truth -- which then becomes a greaat problem in society.  What they do may be the opposite of what they think they are doing -- or hope to convince others is what they are doing.

When that difference is pointed out to them, they will get angry and demand that one believe as they are instructed to, and not what their own senses are telling them.  In fact, they are frequently told not to believe their own senses -- in favor of what the self-proclaimed authorities would have us believe were handed down directly from the Most High personally, to convey to the masses.

Invariably, that message is to abandon one's own judgment and capacity to judge and discern such matters for themselves -- in favor of what the experts proclaim them to be.  As a result, very few come to know themselves well -- because they believe what others tell them they are, rather than finding that out for themselves -- as the ultimate quest of every meaningful life, and as Socrates said, "the only life worth living."

That is one's own -- and so why not the best?  That's really the only thing that makes sense -- making the best of one's own life -- no matter what one has to work with.  Very few begin with absolutely nothing, and very few begin with absolutely everything, and so the first task, is finding out what exactly one has -- and beyond that, their individual strengths and weaknesses.

Thus every wise advice, has consisted of the instruction, "to know oneself" -- instead of presuming to know everyone else.  That is their business and order of the day.  That is in fact, how one distinguishes the wise from the unwise -- how much they know themselves, and not how much they want others to think of them.

The latter will always be miserable -- because what they know is useless to themselves, because they cannot prove it on themselves.  They are powerless to act on their own problems -- and can only project them on to others to solve.  They can solve all the imaginary problems of the world, but never any real ones -- particularly in their own lives.


Those who can, are living in the best of times -- doing the best they can, and that's all that matters.

You Have to Change to Get Better

Getting better is change.  That's why doing the same things over and over -- expecting a different result, is the very definition of insanity.  Yet many live their lives hoping to disprove this age old observation -- thinking maybe, that they can be "first" at something for the first time in their lives.   Well-meaning advisers may even encourage them to persist -- at what they are doing unsuccessfully -- thinking that if they persist at it long enough, they are bound to be successful -- misunderstanding that is the reason for their failures.

The most commonplace in most lives, is this experience of aging -- badly, and hopelessly, and thinking that things can never get better again, and there is nothing they can do about it -- so justifiably, they do nothing about it.  They simply want to get better -- without changing, and of course, that  is the definition of absurdity.

Yet that is the conversation one will have with everyone who does not get better -- because that is their core belief -- and life expectancy -- that predetermines their outcomes and everything they do, and experience in life.  So it is not a matter of doing more or less -- of what they already do -- with unfavorable results, but adjusting the understanding before doing anything further.

It's not a bad idea to question everything one does -- and paring down to the essentials, and the known qualities in that life, and beginning all over again from that solid base.  Over the course of time and one's life and dealings, one has often come to accept errors as the truth -- therefore leading them astray and off the fruitful path.  Periodically, all that has to be weeded out -- retaining only the pearls of wisdom, and getting rid of the clutter that now overgrows and overwhelms their lives.  That is invariably the lifestyle of the acquisitive and accumulative personalities who think that is the goal and objective in life -- and therefore think that the answer to everything, is simply "More" -- without end.

Eventually, they just run out of space to store everything, and nowhere is that more true than in the finite space of their memories -- even with the latest devices available.  At that point, memory fails to serve them well -- because they need a better method of distinguishing the most essential from the superfluous -- and mistaking that, never get around to the essential and critical -- no matter how much they do.

That means asking all the right questions from the very beginning -- instead of assuming all continues to be valid.  The fact that things aren't working out satisfactorily -- should tell one otherwise.  They may have worked before, but they no longer work now -- which may be the first realization that what one thought worked before, may not have before either -- and the real reason for their previous success, was for another, greater reason -- that reveals itself in time and age.

That is particularly true, obviously, in the realm of conditioning and athletics -- where frequently champion athletes, succumb prematurely, a few short years after their previous success, and apparent invulnerability.  The frequent cause of death, is heart attack and/or failure, exacerbated by overexertion, enlargement of the heart, and thus the weakening of it.  Usually once such people are in recovery, they are advised not to participate in activities that overstrain the heart again -- but rather than do nothing, could devise movements that do not strain the heart at all excessively, but shifts the demand onto all the other muscles to enhance the circulatory effect, since that is a basic function of all the muscles as well.  

That is how one directs prodigious development to a certain area -- in priority to every other.  Understanding that, one should think long and hard at what one now wants that to be --  and not thoughtlessly, how they can simply burn more calories, as though that wastage was a good use of the human body, or any valuable resource, for that matter.  

That means rethinking all one's activities and expenditures as frequently as one is inspired -- as well as when they are absolutely forced to -- when their continued existence depends on it.  This forethought beforehand, allows a margin of reserve, when the margin for error is critical, and makes the difference between survival and extinction -- and before that, a neverending downward spiral of getting worse, and feeling there is nothing they can do about it themselves.


At that point, life is usually not considered viable -- which means meaningful.  Even plants respond to light and nourishment, and move in that direction -- and continue to do so, until there comes a time it does not respond so.  But before then, the gardener does everything they can, to see if they can change those conditions t get better.  They don''t just hope for a change in the outcome without doing anything different.

Until Something Works

We remember Thomas Edison for the one time he succeeded -- and not the thousand times he failed -- but each failure was different until he succeeded, and not just failing the same way every time.  The more different ways one fails, leads them eventually to success -- and not just failing the same way over and over again, ensuring their failure.  That is the difference between success and failure -- and not that one never makes mistakes, or fails to try.

One learns from failure -- until something works.  And then when something works, one merely repeats that -- and moves on to learn something else, something new and different.  In this way, energy is released and refocused to something else, the next challenge that stands in the way of ever-improving life.

That is what evolution is about -- finding a way to win, and not merely resigning oneself that it doesn't make a difference, and nothing matters.  Yet some people regard that as the height of intellectual sophistication -- that they can no longer discern the difference in anything -- the true from the false, up and down, left and right, the authentic from the inauthentic,  

It all averages out they proudly proclaim. So why try harder -- when the least amount of effort will do, and better yet, why do anything at all, if the reward will be the same for all -- regardless of merit and effort.  In fact, such people think that the more useless they become, that they have won the game of life -- because then everybody else will have to do everything for them, and they no longer have to do anything for themselves.

Naturally such a life is a self-fulfilling prophecy -- and they become more useless to themselves, more dependent on others, less free and independent -- which means doing for oneself, as much as possible.  There is a certain joy in being able to do things for oneself -- as well as survive and thrive under many challenging conditions from which many others might perish.

It might be as simple as being able to cross the street by oneself -- with some assurance of safety -- rather than just stepping into traffic regardless of what others might be doing.  The safest person in such an event, is one who is aware of what everybody else is doing -- and not merely preoccupied with what they want to do -- thinking that everybody else's responsibility is to look out for them.

The world, and life, does not work very well that way.  Every individual has to be their own first line of defense -- being aware of what their unique vantage/perspective can provide to the larger community and culture.  Early on in life, that is mostly provided by the larger to the individual -- but at some point it is hoped, the best individuals will greatly reward that investment into those formative years.

A few don't get there as fully "mature" people -- at any point in their lives, which should be a great concern for those responsible for that function and learning.  But in order to do so, they have to be able to tell the difference -- and not despair that no matter what they do, nothing makes a difference.  It won't as long as they keep doing the same thing -- hoping for a different result.  Nothing works that way.

Instead, they have to do something different -- and notice the differences that result -- good or bad, because both are equally important in providing information that gets them closer to the results they want.  The mistake is to persist only in believing in the outcome they want -- rather than the actual results, that they will deny as being valid.

Their beliefs (ideology) prevail over everything their actual experiences are telling them.  The actual may even be derided as "anecdotal" -- or having no scientific basis because the properly designated "experts" have not discovered or thought of it first, and gotten funding for their studies.

Science is not about a hierarchy of experts but the access to the truth by anybody, and particularly those not indoctrinated by the current thinking which oversees this problem only getting worse without end.  Obviously, that current thinking, is what doesn't work, and one should be free, to explore other solutions that might -- confident that there is nothing to lose by maintaining the status quo, and accepting the dismal prognosis as a certain fate.  It's not surprising then, that many people find their own "cures."


Very often, it is one of a kind -- at the right time, place and circumstances -- when nothing less will do.  And if it works, one stays with it -- until it doesn't, and then one has to discover again, what works.  And failing that, not proclaiming proudly to all, that nothing works, and nothing can make a difference.

Growing Better

Time, like life, is individually what each makes of it -- as well as what each has been uniquely given to work with.  In that way, we are equally bound to our own abilities -- and the ultimate expression of them.  It doesn't matter then that we are not born with equal abilities as all the others -- but uniquely our own, and that is what we have to work with.

That is the beginning and ending of every life.  With each having their own unique parameters, the relevant question is whether one is growing better -- or worse, as the only sure guideline of how life is going.  And that changes with time and experience.  It doesn't mean simply being a better or worse version of what one was as a twenty year old -- as the immutable yardstick.

And if in fact one lives their life right, the person at fifty is quite a different person entirely from the one they were at twenty -- knowing very little, and having still their whole lives ahead of them.  That is true of any extraordinary growth achieved in any life: the person they became, was unimaginable at any more youthful and inexperienced age.

On the other hand, those who did not grow much, always seemed the same, predictable, repetitive, obsessive-compulsive personalities -- until the day they prematurely met their untimely end.  The sadness of such lives, is that they frequently caused great pain and hardship for those affected by those lives.  Life was always this constant struggle against their own demons -- and everybody else was collateral damage.

Not to affect others in this disastrous way, is a good and successful life -- from the beginning to the end.  That doesn't mean undoing all the good, or taking it with them to the grave -- as also their "entitlement" -- before they go.  They leave net positive -- so their posterity, can move beyond those constraints of tradition and custom.

In this way, all of life grows better -- and not simply preying on the less able -- as a zero-sum game simply repeating itself for eternity.  There is movement towards better -- and not simply random movement signifying nothing, as though it is the same thing -- and even the height of sophistication and enlightenment.  Obviously, that is the mark of despair -- that one cannot distinguish the difference, and thinks that is an achievement in itself.

That would be the failure to distinguish the authentic from the inauthentic, or false.  Authenticity is revealed in the truth of that living -- whether it solves the problems of its own living, and not merely one success at the cost of all the others.  That is the balance one hopes to achieve -- when one is "firing on all cylinders," and not simply one -- for however long that lasts.  Usually it doesn't last too long before it destroys all the others.

Nowhere is it more obvious and spectacular than the short-lived athletic lives that sacrifice everything for that fleeting moment of glory as the one they hope to recapture all the rest of their short-sighted lives.  And they are encouraged by those who should know better -- but really don't, until it is too late to do anything about it.  Those people just get worse -- without knowing any difference.

When does one irrevocably become one of them?  Frequently it is associated with age -- but not necessarily.  Some begin at a very young age -- to exhibit this failure to grow and thrive.  They may even at one time been very promising.  But they never turned the corner -- and with time, grew farther from that promise -- rather than ever actualizing (owning) it.

This burden of self-actualization was passed on to every succeeding generation -- as the unfinished business of humanity -- with no serious intent to actualize it by any particular individual, only in the vague abstraction.  Thus, it was just a noble fantasy -- and not the reality of most lives, and especially, the most thoughtful lives.  And in fact, the thoughtful life was dismissed as the ultimate fantasy -- rather than the solution to most problems in one's life.


If that focus could be given to one's own living -- instead of distracting it into so many ways of amusements and entertainments that divert that attention, life would have quite a different ending for many more -- rather than the dire prognosis we've been led to accept as the inevitable fate for most.

The Times Are Changing -- Again

The key to a long and successful life is always changing and adapting -- and not just once and thinking one need never change again.  That is always the fatal formula -- why even the powerful dinosaurs that once ruled the earth, are all extinct.  They couldn't adapt fast enough -- or at all.  They were perfect for a certain time and conditions, and when those changed, they had no skills for changing.

That is the important lesson for any time -- and conditions; one has to be prepared for change, and to change again, and as long as they are, remain viable, fit and able to whatever challenges arise.  The sadness, and the sad lesson, are those reliving their youth, as the only way it can be -- thinking it will always be that way, even if only in their minds, which becomes their self-isolating and self-fulfilling prophecy.

Those are the people who age badly -- while good aging, are people changing with the times -- to be their best at any time.  That formula is just as obvious -- as well as the look of one always changing, adapting, perfecting their responses.  As long as one can change, adapt, improve, they have more than a better chance of being successful -- and surviving.  That's what success is.  There is no other.

It isn't some other static, immutable, unchanging metric for all time and ages.  It is the very ability to re-create oneself -- as needed, and as appropriate -- that is fitness, in a very real world, as the only place that matters.  That is the ultimately and consummately successful individual.  That is the person creating the parameters -- of any given age, time and place.

Those of the old, will insist that one has to repeat the patterns of the past -- as the only way it can ever be -- insisting it is since time immemorial, of which they also claim to be the heirs and caretakers of that legacy and culture.  But time passes them by -- no matter how much of the old they accumulate -- thinking one day, it will all be relevant again.  It never works that way -- no matter how much of the old they accumulate and repeat -- and remember.

All that is gone -- and something new and very different rules the day -- and that is what they now have to learn and master.  Those who won't make it -- will go into denial, refusing to acknowledge the present realities -- increasingly living only in their minds and memories, as though that was enough of a survival response to remain in the game and flow of life -- rather than the certain death it has always been.

Some prefer that certainty to any change -- but it is in embracing change that is the way -- and not simply doing what they have always done before, as though that was enough to ensure their survival or prosperity -- especially if it hasn't worked before!  But by then, they've become these obsessive-compulsive personalities that just go through the motions -- without relevance and acknowledgement of the current realities.  They pine for another time -- of their greatest glory, whether it actually ever was.  Their memories and thoughts are all they think necessary -- to cling to, until they are no more.


At one time, that may have been the predominant mode of thought -- but alas, that too has passed on.

Knowing Al the Wrong Things

Knowing all the wrong things is not the same as knowing only one right thing.  The one right thing enables one to find the other right things, while knowing only the wrong things, provides no such foundation for any other exploration.  One is on constantly shifting sand -- a fantasy island of one's own delusions -- and never questioning the difference.

In any dispute between the two, one will always choose what they wish to believe -- over what the actuality is telling them.  In that manner obviously, things can only get worse -- no matter how much they do.  They even come to believe that nothing matters, and nothing can ever make a difference.  

The less one knows, the more certain they are that they know everything there is to know -- even though using that knowledge, results in catastrophic results.  Such people just plow ahead harder -- never suspecting that the fault might lie in their understanding -- and not the effort.  So they apply even more effort and force -- as surely what can overcome any lack of understanding.

Predictably, as they go through life, they only seem to get worse -- and never any better, and all those they choose to hang around with, confirm similar "results."  In fact, their choice of "associates" and "acquaintances," are chosen mainly on the qualification that those chosen, are even worse off than themselves -- and so can be more easily exploited -- in a very vicious circle and cycle.  That is the dysfunctional society of why some people fail -- in almost every aspect of their lives, and drag everybody else down with them.  Nobody has a clue -- that something terribly wrong is happening.

That is simply how the world is -- and there is no changing that, no matter what, and one should (over)eat, (over)drink, and be (over)merry, while one still can -- before one can't (as a result of that over)indulgence, and never having a clue what one's part in it played.  No matter how "guilty," they will protest their "innocence" -- thinking that is enough to make it so.

In their world, the "facts" are what they can get anybody else to believe.  Of course the most obvious of these, are the pathological criminals -- but less obvious, are those who are better at convincing everybody else otherwise.  In fact, that is their source of pride and joy -- manipulating everybody else's opinion.  But alas, they cannot lie to themselves -- and the truth reveals itself in their daily living.

That is why some people age badly and some don't -- the truth of what they tell themselves.  If it doesn't matter, then that will reveal itself -- in time, when it is least convenient and propitious to do so.  It may seem for a while that one can get away with anything they please, but it catches up to them.  Each is his own worst victim -- or beneficiary, of all they have done -- and nobody gets away with anything.  

That is the most powerful argument for living the best life one can -- not for the sake of anyone else, and the approval of others -- but the quality of life one provides for themselves.  The world is, what one is.  That is the simple truth.

Lucky Accidents

The greatest discoveries in every life are not those merely confirming what one hopes to know -- but is the unexpected, unanticipated, and unforeseen.  Merely to confirm what one already hopes, is merely to confirm what one already knows -- and the great learning, is discovering worlds and possibilities one had no idea existed before.  

That is the limits of human understanding -- thinking what they know, is all that can be known, and never bothering to find out anything more.  It doesn't matter how much they know -- because what they don't know, is infinitely greater.  It takes a truly intelligent person to realize that -- but that is all they need to know.  When one knows they do not know, then they can easily find out -- because that is the inquiring mind.  The mind too full of its own knowledge -- which is usually not working, simply denies that everything is not as it should be.    

That is the mind in denial of everything as it truly is.  Everything goes wrong despite of everything they do -- and not because of everything they do.  The outcomes are always random -- and they are quite proud of that enlightenment, and resulting self-righteousness.  If only the world knew, everything they knew, all would be right with the world.

And so they develop "ideals" apart from the actualities of their actual experiences -- and think they are quite noble for it, and feel quite justified on imposing that reality on everybody else -- because they know better than all the rest.  Most simply recognize them as delusional people -- whether they are old or not.  That is what we've come to expect of "old" people, and it is quite alright that they continue in that way until the end -- because they are avoidable.  That is the familiar isolation of the old -- that they simply become irrelevant and harmless to nobody but themselves.

That is quite acceptable, and even the "norm."  Young people even hope to have that right when they are "old," and not be forced to conform to any reality anymore.  Whatever they want to believe, is what they are "entitled" to believe -- come what may.  "They've earned it," the sympathetic are heard to say -- as though that was enough to absolve them from any consequences.

But the world doesn't work that way -- no matter how much they wish it could be so.  There are always consequences -- causes and effects.  Even ancient people called it the law of karma.   Later thoughtful people observed that there was a reason for everything -- even while the priests insisted that it happened on their say so, as the favored disciples of the great deity.


More often than not, the great discoveries of the world, was a lucky accident of its time -- that some perceptive person noticed, because they didn't know better.  Those who did know better, were already certain that nothing new could be discovered -- because everything that could be known, was already known, and so there was "nothing to see."

Just Do the Hard Part -- The Rest is Easy

In most people's exercise, they spend most of their time doing the resting -- while avoiding the hard part -- and so their results "show" it.  Despite all they say they do, it looks like they have not done anything -- or at least nothing productive, for the results they want to achieve.

But with time and persistence, they may get better, and those results will manifest -- unless they continue to have no idea of what they are doing, and hope to achieve.  For unfortunately many, they have no real idea of what they are doing -- except that somebody instructed them to do so, who professed to know better -- but often, that "expert" showed the same lack of desirable results that would inspire confidence in the discerning student.

That is particularly so as people get older -- and show less results for their efforts, until eventually, they stop all efforts and accept the fact that nothing they do anymore, seems to work -- even if it might have when they were younger.  But now, everything they know, has betrayed them -- rather than realizing that what they know, may not have been valid in the first place -- and what seemed to work, was not the reason they thought.

That realization should challenge them to further inquiries -- rather than causing them to abandon any further inquiries and learning.  Learning, they will insist, is what only young people need to do -- and not everyone, every day of their lives.  That's the only thing that makes sense, right?  

Any learning begins with just paying attention -- and seeing what is actually happening, rather than what they would like to think or believe is happening.  There often is a huge difference among people in that -- which largely accounts for their success in dealing with the world, in all its interfaces and interactions.

The large disparities between what one does, and what they believe they are doing, or would like to have everyone else believe, is cognitive dissonance.  The results usually override -- sooner or later.  Nowhere is that more true than in the rapidly declining health and well-being of those who think they are doing everything "right" -- with only disastrous consequences as a result -- producing injuries, worse conditioning and functioning, even death -- despite all the good they think they are doing.

That was notably true of those participating in bodybuilding competitions in the 90s -- when many of their luminaries started dying of various forms of heart failures -- and other critical failures of the human body, because they were exercising them to "failure," in the mistaken belief that what did not kill them, made them stronger.  It caused the thoughtful to begin to back off from that dangerous manner of thinking -- and reflect, that that manner of conditioning did not seem to be working -- especially if longevity and well-being in it, was also a part of the equation.

So now, with definitively established longer life spans, thoughtful individuals want to enjoy those peak years for more than ten before prematurely dying, or being disabled for the rest of life -- especially as a result of their conditioning activities.  Yet people are still allowed to abuse themselves in the many ways -- until the reality hits the fan, and they can no longer physically continue.  Not coincidentally, that's what usually ends most athletic careers -- the injuries, no matter how great they were at one time.

What matters now, is simply doing the best they can -- at living their everyday lives and activities.  Still, that can be done and improved for considerably longer and better than most think is possible, by avoiding the extremes of overexertion (abuse) alternated with extreme inactivity, negligence and indifference.

What is surprising, is how little attention, time and energy is needed to attain those beneficial effects -- when all the beliefs, thoughts and destructive conditioning are abandoned, and proper thought and observation merely introduced.  In most activites, beginning with the basic muscle contraction, most of the time and movement is actually devoted to relaxing and resting the muscle in preparation for its "firing" -- which is very brief, followed by a prolonged relaxation phase -- again.  

But it is the contraction only -- that puts the muscle in the shape and condition one wants it to be (toned), and not the relaxation.  One of the earlier realizations of this, resulted in the promotion of what was called "isometric" exercises -- which was to get into a fully contracted muscular position and then hold it for as long as possible -- which required one to also stop breathing, and produce undesirable internal pressures as a result.

An even earlier version of that training style, was popularized by Charles Atlas as dynamic tension -- which didn't require weights, but pitting one muscle against another -- in a prolonged contraction -- also requiring, that one hold their breath to prevent moving out of that contraction.  There is no reason, or advantage for holding a contraction as long as possible -- as doing so increases the disastrous effects, that multiple, extremely brief discrete pulsing contractions while maintaining that position, does not.

There's no reason or necessity to move a muscle back into the completely relaxed (extended) position -- except to give it more rest, for a next attempt.  One can eliminate that portion of the movement, and simply pulse further contractions -- while maintaining the original contracted position -- forcing muscles not recruited in the original contraction to fire -- until all the muscle fibers are recruited (exhausted) in that way.

The result is that one is immediately toned and conditioned by using the muscles in that way -- to achieve their maximum contracting capability -- and deliberately eliminating the rest that is most of the time one is "exercising."  And so very brief workouts are necessary to achieve maximum results -- immediately, and with frequent practice, one gets better at it -- also very quickly.

This economy and efficiency -- while also eliminating the possibility of joint pain and injury (which is the characteristic pain/danger of contracting from a fully extended position) -- is what anybody can do -- anytime, anywhere, very inconspicuously -- because the entirety of the movement, is confined within the body -- with minimal visibility of external movement (which is not what is producing growth).  And that is what is really important -- not the overt, but the inverted movement of the muscles -- even with minimal visibility, or show, for anybody else's benefit, or approbation.  But that is the way we've been conditioned to exercise -- for the visible benefit of others -- rather than what is going on inside the body.  That -- is presumed, but results in the lack of desirable effects/results -- obviously.

The joints are minimally stressed -- because there is minimal movement at the joints in their strongest positions -- while still activating the muscles -- which is a major disincentive for aging, aching joints -- while providing superior muscle activation and stimulation of the nerve pathways.  That's what one really wants to do -- to attain, retain and enhance the optimal responsiveness of the voluntary muscular system by which we accomplish most things in our daily living.

It undoubtedly is a major shift in thinking (paradigm shift) -- when the well-established ideas no longer work -- especially when it critically must, in the aging.  That is the test of time.  The most obvious and highly visible proof -- are the parodies of the aging bodybuilders, who doing (or trying to do) the same things they did before, no longer get the same results -- and frequently are discouraged from continuing by the innumerable and overwhelming pain caused by those movements (exercises) and misadvised to endure the pain to even greater tolerances -- yet still the gains are not forthcoming. 

Injuries and debilitating pain eventually cause them to quit entirely -- instead of rightfully reflecting and rethinking what they are doing.  Often in primitive conditioning, that is expressly prohibited -- that one should question what one is doing, and merely respond, "How high?" when commanded to jump.

So the question is, what movements can one do -- without the pain, and only the productivity?  One begins by eliminating the extraneous -- even as widely as they are the unquestioned and unchallenged truths (premises) of what one is doing.  Is it necessary to lift a heavy weight -- to produce a muscle contraction, or is it sufficient just to know what position is the contracted position -- and pulse further contractions, while exhibiting very little movement externally?

You're not doing it to impress others -- or even set a Guinness World's Record for the oldest person to finish a marathon -- or climb Mt. Everest, for that matter.  One really hopes to be the oldest person going about their normal daily activities -- without any signs of impairment, pain and disability.  That is the obvious.  Straggling across the finish line looking like one is dying, is totally unnecessary at that point in life.  Many look that way without trying.

Muscle control and responsiveness -- even without the conventional measures of validation -- are impressive in themselves, especially at that point and stage of life.  Not to be moving feebly, or even grossly, is the faculty maintained by a rare few.  Masterly control and movement cannot be faked.  That is the manifestation and appearance of a healthy, well-functioning individual.

The Simplicity of Change

People not wanting to change, insist that change is very difficult -- rather than the easiest thing.  Everything in life and living, is change.  The thoughts, memories and illusions, are unchanging -- and that is most people's problems.  If they respond to the present realities, there is never any problem -- but only responding to the exigencies of the moment, as best they can.  It is when instead of responding to the present challenge, that one responds to the past, or the future, that they become detached and lost from the demands of the moment, and out of synch with it.

Then they are solving "problems" that don't exist, while neglecting the simple demands of the present -- that make things better.  So even when people think they are doing everything possible to make things better, if that is not confirmed by their actual results and experience, what they think they are doing, is not making things better, but worse -- and continuing to do so.  That should be obvious.

But only a rare few, will question further -- to all their assumptions, premises and prejudices -- to learn any other than to confirm what they think "right," but obviously isn't working.  This self-righteousness is the same in the most knowledgeable and educated, as it is in the most ignorant, dysfunctional and despairing.  They don't want to know anything but to confirm what they already "know" -- that isn't working.

The fate for those, will undoubtedly be cruel and unrelenting.  They are certain that that is how life must be -- for everyone, and not that a rare few, will find a better way.  That is not the privilege of only a few -- but the quest of any, who choose to live their lives that way.  But it has to be chosen -- and not merely given, and "entitled."  It has to be earned by each -- and there is no other way, although an unscrupulous few, will promise it can be sold to them.

But life is not like that -- only available to the most unwary and gullible -- no matter how much money they have, or can get.  The real value is in the skills learned and mastered -- and not just mimicked, as though one knew -- or claimed to know all there is to know.

Invariably, such masters of the universe, will wake to the realization that what they knew, was not all there was to know, and experience critical failures when the need to know is paramount.  That is glaringly obvious in what we regard as the natural "aging" process -- when everything one thought they knew that worked, suddenly abandons them.  Usually, their response is "too little, too late," and they don't want to have to learn anything new all over again.  They just want to go to their graves knowing everything they already know -- but increasingly, forget.

One quickly forgets, what is no longer useful -- or does not work, because there is no reinforcement of that behavior.  One merely goes through those motions compulsively -- until one even loses that.  But learning something new that really works, is revitalizing and renewing -- and recharges one for the next ten years.

And then something else can be discovered -- giving one another new lease on life.  That means change -- and not just continuing as the same person one has always been.  That is the secret to great vitality -- that one dies to the old, and is reborn in the new.  It is also the great spiritual teaching -- and not just carrying the dust of many generations into the next.

Change is the reason for practice and exercise.  By it, we hope to get better -- and not just stay the same, or get worse a little slower.  Yet that is many people's approach to any practice and exercise -- and not that there can be significant, dramatic and immediate improvement -- as self-evident truth.  Instead, it becomes merely a belief in some distant time in the future -- and even into the life thereafter, if all else fails. 

For the aging bodybuilders, the lesson unheeded over a lifetime is usually lost by then.  That is the grotesque imbalance and priority given to developing the biceps and the "six-pack" abdominals -- to the total neglect of those parts of the human body that becomes glaringly problematical for them as well as for most people with age.  That is their feet, knees, hips and back -- which should be given highest priority, and the way to do that is not by variations of the deep knee-bend -- which is painful for most, but the slight knee bend -- in all its variations, as actually the cure -- from those years of abuse.  That includes even sitting in a chair -- for prolonged periods of time -- or standing with a bone-on-bone lockout.  Either, and both are damaging because it does not engage and lubricate the knee -- preparatory to any movement.  In order for that to happen, the knees have to move forward in front of the toes -- which the self- certified exercise "experts" command must never be done -- thereby ensuring that lifelong problem.


That is the proper positioning of the Horse Stance -- from which every effective movement has to be initiated from -- whether one is aware of it, or not.  That is the slight knee bend -- pulsed for a count of 50 -- as the key movement that must be done to ensure the highest functioning of the supportive structures, as often as one can think to do it.  Then the myriad of other problems don't arise.  That is the simplicity of change.

Nautilus Revisited

I might have been one of the first persons to embrace the Nautilus Principles after its inventor Arthur Jones described them to me -- as we took smoke breaks together during the congregation of many luminaries of weightlifting and weight-training at the Teenage Nationals and Teen Mr. America at York, Pennsylvania in 1970.  

At least I was the only one who was not hostile to hearing him expound them, and felt I had to have his back when he fearlessly took on a roomful of Mr. Universes and other weight training gurus who countered his observations with threats to knock off his head if he persisted in preaching his heresy against the sacred authority of brute force.

In that arena, Arthur was attempting to inject persuasive scientific plausibilities against the notion that in order to obtain fantastic results, one had to spend all one's time in the gym, lifting as much weight as possible.  The crux of his argument was that in doing so, one was increasingly prone to injury -- because the violent, explosive contractions were capable of tearing the tendon off of their attachments, because the beginning position exposed the structures to unfavorable leverage -- while also noting that the finished position was its position of greatest strength, and so to accommodate those varying differences, the Nautilus cam produced the desirable varying resistance -- over the pulley.


That was the essential problem with the pulley -- increasingly being utilized at the time -- in the Universal machines, which claimed as its major feature, that it was safer than free weights.  The problem with the pulley was its inherent mechanical advantage -- that one had to explode violently to overcome the resistance -- but once it got going, momentum reduced the need for further muscle involvement -- and one could just ride it to the finished position, and then simply resist it going back to the starting position.


The Nautilus cam actually nullified the mechanical advantage (and danger) of the pulley, by providing the appropriate resistance throughout the range of the movement, and in that manner, would work the muscle harder, while also ensuring safety.  But the critical mistake, also became its undoing -- in thinking that the resultant severity of muscle soreness was a positive in the process, rather than the negative that pain indicates.


A few years later, some would profess the new liturgy of training as, "No pain, no gain," which set lifelong exercise back an entire generation -- in the religion that pain and intensity, were the Holy Grail -- and not that that mentality, conditioning and training, would cause premature and unnecessary death and injury to many because of the exorbitant and insatiable demands on an individual's personal resources and reasonable wear and tear.


One would not expect to take one to the edge of their capabilities every day, and not succumb to death or injury -- prematurely.  Nothing else would be possible.  You just can't go there everyday, and not expect to pay the price.  You can't tax the body to the limit, and think that one will always recover stronger for it.  One day, it will kill them.  Long before then, wise men know to draw back from the edge, and save a little more in reserve, for the time they may actually need it.  Doing so will enable them to build up those reserves -- for the later years of life, when most have traditionally reached that age and stage, totally exhausted, and barely hanging on with as little recovery ability as they can still muster -- not knowing how to.


And that is the whole point of one's conditioning -- not to drain all one's energies and resources at every frivolous opportunity, but rather, to conserve and build up one's reserves -- throughout life.  There's no quitting and going home at 5 pm, or at age 65 -- and waiting for one's final demise.  Maybe in an earlier time, that would have been a life expectancy -- but now, who knows what those possibilities are?  That remains to be discovered, and manifested -- in this day and age.


So quite predictably, there is a break from that past -- or better is not possible.  Far more meaningful in this day and age, is the obviousness, of people needing to live better -- longer, and not just win the championship at 25, and then go into irreversible and unrelenting decline thereafter.  Few would call that a life well lived -- for that single moment of fame and glory -- sacrificing it for the greater life of lifelong improvement.  That's a very different story, altogether.  But that is the story being written as we live it -- in this unprecedented time, and not simply a repetition of the past, many are content to defend and perpetuate -- as though nothing else was possible.


The possibilities are being created -- as we speak.  The major defenders and perpetuators of the status quo, are those who fancy themselves as the institutions of their time -- legends of their times, and in their own minds.  They know better than everyone else -- what is best for all, and particularly themselves -- at the top of the socio-political pyramid.  They are the self-appointed, self-designated, self-certified gatekeepers of all that is correct and righteous.  Meanwhile, history, evolution and progress marches on, leaving them to fight the rearguard battles -- until most have passed on to the new era


Traditionally, they have been the old left behind -- too weary to go on, unwilling to embrace the new, even if it is available to all. They've had enough.  "They've seen it all" -- even if they haven't seen anything yet.  Everything they know, they learned in kindergarten -- and then stopped learning anything more -- and could die peacefully and content, knowing they had lived life to its fullest.


That was another age.

Change is Good

In a lifetime of any length and quality, change is good and desirable.  Nobody in their right mind, would think that never changing was preferable, since without change, improvement is not possible -- only doing the same thing over and over again, hoping for a different result.  The world doesn't work that way.

The healthiest individuals are those who can deal with the greatest changes -- and effect the greatest responses -- using that challenge as an inspiration and springboard to outcomes not possible previously.  But the dysfunctional, interpret all change -- even if desirable, as a threat to their continued dysfunction -- which they seek to perpetuate above all else.

But even the breakdowns and crises are the catalysts for greater action -- in rising to the challenges.  And there will always be challenges to those who can recognize them -- unlike the many whose typical responses are to go into denial -- that anything out of the ordinary is happening -- until it is too late to do anything about it.  In that way, they never have to change -- but continue blissfully in their delusions of paradise, no matter how high the debris is piling up.  They simply, would rather not know -- or they might have to do something about it.

Meanwhile, those in the vanguard, are inevitably those who realize something extraordinary and unprecedented are happening -- in that, and every moment of their lives.  Those are the lives of great significance -- and not those who waste every moment and opportunity in the stupor of their choice.

That is their escape from reality -- which their lives have become entirely about.  Thus no real problems can ever be solved -- while the imaginary, are executed to perfection -- so there is no improvement needed.  Things are perfect as they are.

It's hard to argue with that -- when no improvement is desired, despite the constant talk that things were other than they are.  That is the life in denial and self-contradiction -- living in another world than is apparent to most other people.  Not that most other people are also not deluded in their own way, to their own degree.

And so the quest for the greater life, is to be free of these delusions -- beginning with one's self.  If that essential work is not done, then nothing else can be known as well -- as it will be just a projection (distortion) of who one is, or wishes to be.  But merely wishing  things were different, does not make it so.

That is the importance of action -- and knowing the difference.  Knowing this difference -- is the meaning of intelligence.  All the knowing, of that which does not result in action,  doesn't make a difference -- and is not worth knowing -- even as much as one places great importance, and spends all their time thinking about it.

All they do in fact, is to retreat and withdraw farther from the world of substance -- in favor of this diversion and entertainment -- of which they increasingly cannot tell the difference.  And if one can no longer tell the difference, what does it matter?  In fact, the culture may encourage one to let them do all their thinking for them -- since they never have to find out the truth of any matter for themselves.  "The authorities" will tell them what to think.  They should no longer be required to think for themselves.


As they are assured, everything will be "taken care of" -- but not necessarily as one hoped they would -- but by those who know better, what is best for them -- and everybody else -- on their say so.

Movement is the Resistance

As people get older, moving itself is difficult enough -- without adding further resistance, so that the challenge then, is to make that movement possible, and even, as easy as possible -- because the movement itself, is the value.  The deception is the thinking that simply adding weight, is the only meaningful measure, when in fact, it may not indicate anything meaningful at all.  What is meaningful, is simply the range of motion, and secondly, its frequency -- of performance.  However, the major difference is the difference of possible from impossible -- as a person being able to stand, is in a realm of difference from one no longer capable of even that anymore.

And then if they can still do that, the frequency of such an occurrence, is greatly preferred to that of exhibiting it once in a great moon.  In that manner, one exhibits the ability to change at will, and as needed -- and not being able to respond adequately, even if the house is burning down.  In such events, the difference from those who can, and those who cannot, is the critical response.  Those who cannot get out of their chairs, are at a survival disadvantage.

More often though, the challenges and outcomes are less dramatic and stark -- but only to a degree.  All that is usually lost on the young and able -- until they are old and immobile -- who take it for granted that they will always remain so, and so don't bother to deliberate what is involved with such essential movements -- as well as the extraneous ones, which is when a few like to exhibit that they can do what few, or nobody else can do -- to distinguish themselves above the rest.

That is the realm of athletic competition -- which sole purpose is to eliminate the weak, and not make them stronger.  That's why that is not the model for strengthening when one is weak -- and trying to get stronger.  A few may overcome in that way, but most will be eliminated -- by the very nature of that self-selection.  Instead, what one desires to do, is to formulate a strategy by which even the weakest, can get stronger -- and not simply eliminating all the participants until only the strongest remains -- and then studying them as though that was the winning formula for everybody else -- rather than the exception.

But such limited studies of exceptionally small population samples, are frequently the basis for promoting strategies and regimen that work for nobody else -- as evidenced and exhibited by the population at large of that cohort, and even former champions who have aged badly as well.  What they testified work at their peak, they are now wise enough not even to attempt -- which does not stop a whole generation of young at their peak, from recommending it anew.  And then they get older too, and the same does not work for them either.  And so that leads to the inescapable conclusion that nothing works anymore -- as well, and so it is time to prepare for one's passing -- instead of looking for better ways that might work.

Of course, that would change everything -- even as much as people complain about things as they are.  They feel that an even worse fate, would be for everything to change for that certainty that the status quo provides -- even if it is hopeless, and vain to think otherwise.  This is true no matter how old or rich they become; they are trapped by the conditioning of the previous time and generation -- and cannot make the leap to another, to remain in the newer generation -- that every succeeding one is simply born into.

And so it becomes a quandary and a choice -- to leave the old, and embrace the new -- that many simply will not make.  They are conditioned to the old -- even if it is nothing working very well for them.  Such people have little to lose, and much to gain, by embracing the new -- but their erroneous conditioning, won't allow them to leave.  They are the casualties of every age and stage of human development and evolution.  They provide the resistance despite it being unnecessary and counterproductive because they were ingrained to believe it was necessary and productive -- despite the obvious results.

What might be less obvious, is that the resistance is coming from within the muscle itself -- as in many muscular diseases -- and dysfunctions.  What is often overlooked is that the muscular action produces the more obvious movement -- and not vice-versa.  All the body cares about, is what is actually happening within the body -- and its organs.  Externally, it could care less how much weight is being lifted or moved.  It can be effected by a machine, gravity, momentum, leverage, inertia, another.  Once that is seen clearly, that all that matters is the muscle action in itself -- which is the effectiveness of its change in state -- from full relaxation to full contraction, and how effectively that is effected -- even without resistance.

Many older people, just do not have that range of movement, nor the control at will.  And so the movement itself, overrides all the considerations of how much further resistance to add -- to an already restricted and compromised range of motion, that deteriorates even further from the added load.  Certainly that can't be better -- because the limited range is the overriding problem. If one can get them to move beyond the range of their momentary restrictions, that would be the greatest achievement.  That is true for every movement -- whether one can, or not -- regardless of making it more difficult, and impossible.  The better course, is to make all movements easier and less restricted.  That is the healthy range of movement -- while the very restricted, is an indication that all is not well.

But the typical ill-advised remedy, is to make it as hard as momentarily possible -- and at no time, should it ever become easy and effortless.  Yet that would be the articulation of a robust individual.  When does he ever get to express it?  Most testing is devised in this manner -- to make it difficult, rather than as easy as possible, to qualify as many as possible.  And that should be the public/community health standard, and not disqualifying and disabling as many as possible -- with arbitrary demands.

So the important question is not how much weight one can lift overhead, but how many in the room can lift their arms overhead -- in the full range of that possibility?  That is, without the limitations of range of movement that marks them as a feeble and failing individual.  The ease and grace of movement, is much more telling, than a show of brute strength -- exhibiting no such grace and ease.  We are looking at the wrong things -- thinking we have seen everything, and enough.  We have not even begun to ask the right questions.

Practice Makes Perfect

Many people think there is a point in life at which it is no longer necessary to keep improving -- and think that they can only get worse -- no matter what they do, so that many just give up trying.  Therefore, the prognosis for everything is not good -- as a self-fulfilling prophecy.  

They already know the outcome -- and there will be no positive surprises.  Mostly, that is their conditioning -- rather than undeniable fact.  Some people do go on improving day after day -- not by chance, but by deliberate intention.  That skews the odds away from randomness and entropy -- which is increasing randomness.

It is quite fashionable among some cohorts --to believe that life and everything one experiences in it, is random, and there is nothing one can do to make a difference -- so bad things just happen, and good things, are not what they seem.  Thus they warn, if it seems too good to be true, it is -- and so they will not even consider those possibilities as real, and actual.

In this way, they live their whole lives in denial -- that everything that seems obviously true, are false, and vice-versa.  The obvious is never the truth -- or actuality.  The mind, they are convinced, must convert everything it experiences as the actual reality -- into its opposite, and do that for everything one encounters and considers in life.  Thus it is easy to fall into confusion and contradiction -- forgetting which is the true and which is the mind making a conversion into its opposite.

The simple-minded have no energy to waste in doing so.  They simply accept the obvious as the obvious -- because they don't know better, and haven't been conditioned otherwise.  Of course, that is the tactic of advertising and marketing -- to convince one of what is not true, and deceive them(selves) into buying whatever they happen to be selling.

The world was never meant to be so complicated and convoluted.  People get good at what they actually do -- and not merely what they wish not to do -- even if it is the obvious.  That is the deception of wishful-thinking -- that it is the same as actually doing anything, especially by those who pride themselves in knowing better.  They think that knowing is simply enough, and not doing anything based upon that knowledge.  If fact, those believe that knowledge is a substitute for doing -- and even better.  So they never bother to practice and effect the value of that knowledge; it is merely enough for them  "to know."  And so they never find out the truth of the matter.

Yet that is what practice is -- finding out what is the truth of the matter, not only once, but as many times as one can -- until one can't.  When that day arrives, there's nothing they can do about it -- but until then, they do it to assure themselves they still can, and know what they can do.  They live their lives that way -- every day of their lives, instead of falling far short of when they actually cannot -- and have long given up trying -- claiming they are too old, too young, or inexperienced.

That's what practice is for -- to gain that experience and expertise.  It may not be the same as it was before -- but learning the new limits is even more valuable than dwelling upon memories of what one had before.  That's what young athletes do to get better -- practice.  That's also what the devotees of any discipline do -- to get get better -- even if it is to better learn their new limitations, as well as capacities.  

In doing so, one strengthens themselves in unexpected ways, and increasingly less in the expected and predictable ways.  That is real progress -- and not merely staying within the box of their limited expectations.  That is the ultimate intent of "practice" -- to break through to where one has not gone before, or even thought possible, and not merely to repeat the tedium endlessly -- as though somehow that is transformative.

The practice is to make perfect.

Productive Exercise without the Hassles

Whenever we think of "exercise," we think of something hard -- missing the whole objective that it is a practice of making the difficult easy -- and not increasingly more difficult.  That misses the whole point entirely -- and precisely why exercise is of little use and benefit, precisely when we need it most -- to be easier and more accessible.  Instead we create unnecessary barriers to it -- instead of lowering those bars, and even eliminating those constraints.

Then all you have are the benefits -- without the hassles, reservations and objections established by the self-appointed gatekeepers.  But it must be productive, and not merely another way of wasting time -- because one has no better idea of what to do with one's time and energy -- but to waste it.  Along the way, we at least hope to remain interested -- if not entertained -- for lack of a greater meaning to what we do.  "Anything is better than nothing" -- we rationalize these behaviors, while not entirely convincing ourselves.

At best, we hope to simply be able to "go through the motions" -- thinking that is enough to make a difference -- anything but this relentlessly deteriorating condition we seem powerless to do something about.  The best we can hope for, is to slow down the rate of deterioration -- long abandoning the notion that we can ever get better anymore.  And that is still the state of our conditioning and exercise -- for those who need it most.  They need something that works -- fast and immediately, and not only after staying with the program for years -- but becoming discouraged way before then.

So is it really possible to obtain the benefits of exercise -- without all the hassle and hard work we are conditioned to believe we have to endure to obtain those benefits?  Why not immediately get into shape -- which is quite possible for anyone -- and then stay in that shape for as long as possible?  It's possible right now -- for anybody who can still move, to do so.  All it requires is understanding what that shape (and position) is -- and maintaining it for a discrete muscular contraction (change) -- as the shape one wants to be in -- preferably and more often than any other.

That would be the "contracted" state -- rather than the "relaxed," or flaccid state.  But no matter what condition and "shape" one is in -- one can move into the contracted state, and "condition" oneself to do so -- but must understand that is the intention and purpose -- and not any other, usually offered as "motivation," or some other rationalization for obsessive-compulsive behavior.  That has been the usual approach to conditioning -- to make it an obsessive-compulsive behavior -- rather than an intelligent manifestation of this higher understanding and insight into this process.

It is still largely, this brute force mentality of forcing square pegs into round holes -- and failing that, applying even more force -- until of course, something breaks,  Those are not the instruction manual to an intelligent way of being -- which becomes even more obvious with the passing of time and years, leading most to believe that it no longer works as one ages -- mainly because that manner of functioning and operating the body, was never a good idea in the first place, and only disposed one to the inevitable injuries that would put a stop to all that nonsense once and for all.

But it doesn't have to be that way, and in fact, the intelligent approach to exercise and conditioning, is the only way it can be.  Any other way, simply does not work -- no matter how many centuries the practice has been going on -- also not working, but not stopping anyone from continuing to do so.  The success is not that they continue to do so, but are the results (effects) they get from doing it -- and not merely the affirmations that it is working, though it is obviously and apparently not working.

In that manner, many go into denial until the inevitable -- and are no longer capable of functioning at all -- not in spite of their exercise and conditioning, but because of it -- as the only outcome possible!  That is particularly true of those engaging in obviously dangerous occupations and preoccupations -- even maintaining to the day they die, or is the cause of their dying, like professional wrestling, boxing, or other injurious activities -- from which the "lucky" ones even get to retire from.

But even those lucky few, usually stop doing anything -- because all they know how to do, is to exact further damage on themselves -- until they are crippled and disabled for the rest of their lives, which is usually prematurely shortened.  Obviously any further activity, must be focused on therapy and recovery, and not exacting further damage until it is not physically possible to do any more -- and then they stop.  At that point they have no choice.

But at that point, they can still move on -- heal and recover -- to even better than they ever have been, because they now know better.  However, it should be obvious also, that it can't be done simply in the old, familiar ways that brought them to that state of disrepair (dysfunction).  At that point, only the rare few, will take it to the next level -- of immeasurably better health, beginning with the understanding of what they have been doing -- or simply, awareness.

That is no longer operating obsessive-compulsively -- but now deliberately and intentionally for the better -- because one now understands this process, and sees things clearly.  That is the step beyond the traditional and conventional ways -- that are not working, despite a few still being able to do them.  If it really worked, everybody would be doing it -- but they aren't, and are offered no other possibilities, largely because they've never heard of any other -- at least none that made any significant difference.  There can be many alternatives that do not work similarly -- but those don't make a difference.  They are simply more ways that do not work, and what we really want, is something that actually works -- and not simply to convince ourselves and each other, that what doesn't work, is working

That has largely been the progress of exercise and conditioning to this point -- that we don't recognize that it isn't working, until it is too late, and we are offered no other possibilities.  One either gets with the program that isn't working, or doesn't -- but there is no option of anything working any better, if at all -- especially when their lives depend on it, in their later years.  All they can do, is the same thing they have been doing, more feebly and ineffectively until they can't do anything at all -- and then they are done, and free -- to move onto the next life, but never the next level.  That movement, is not an option.

That failure, is what we have been conditioned to regard as "aging," which is the ultimate failure to understand better -- before it is too late, and we perish.  There is nothing inevitable about it; we are simply provided no other choices, no better understanding and insight  that would free us from this hopeless chain of self-destruction.


Once we have wiped the glass clean, we can see very clearly what we have to do -- and the bonds that have kept us that way -- the way we were.

Take All Day If You Have To

Probably the egregious error most make in their lifetime, is the value of time and its use.  Most regret that it was wasted in their youth -- never to be regained, restored, and even revitalized -- which is the remarkable and ultimately most meaningful achievement in any life.  How does one use time to increase it?  In that way, time is always on one's side -- and not the fearsome arch-enemy they come to regard it.  A large part is how we've been conditioned to think of time -- as the enemy, rather than the friend.

We always think we're in this race against time -- when we'd be better served to think we have all day to get anything done.  This is especially true of how we've come to regard exercise and athletics -- to see who gets it done first -- and not who finishes last, or when all the others have long given up.  The one who keeps going, is the stand alone winner.

But does that mean we all should take up marathon running -- and see who is the oldest ever to finish a marathon -- or climb Mount Everest, or die trying?  There are a lot more personally meaningful things one could do -- and keep on doing for as long as one is alive -- and the day they stop doing it, is the day they die.  But until that end, they are capable every day of their lives -- for as long as they live, and that is all that matters.  Then one day, you just don't wake up -- and the greater life goes on.

Many on realizing they haven't done their exercise for the day -- think they are too late to get it done then -- whenever they realize that.  Time has not moved on, but is waiting for them -- to once again, get with the program.  There is nothing more important for them to do -- at any time they realize it.  They simply have to begin it now -- and if they finish in the morning, afternoon, or before going to sleep , that is soon enough, and plenty of time to do it.  One has to make time for the important stuff -- and not let all the unimportant stuff deter and dissuade them, which for most people, is simply watching more television.  Eventually, that is all they do.

Long before they get to that point, they can realize that they don't need to watch any television at all, and would be immeasurably better off if they didn't -- including even watching exercise videos.  No amount of watching all the exercise videos in the world ever made, will put them into better shape than discovering what works for themselves -- in the doing.  Some people are amazed that anyone can learn (or is allowed) to learn on their own in that way -- like all the great prodigies of every field had to.  Nobody else could teach them -- what they alone knew, and brought to the world.

For such individuals, time stands still -- because what they do is the timeless -- and they are so into that moment, that it is the summation of everything that ever came before it, as well as changing the course of its future development.  In that course, many will become obsolete in that instant -- and leap into the unknown and undiscovered.  That is what we want to know -- even more than the known, and what everybody knows -- but is not working.  Obviously, it is more valuable to know what works -- than all the knowledge and information that doesn't, and has led us to the present problem and conumdrum.

And invariably, that is to the realization that what we thought works, doesn't anymore -- no matter how hard we try, and how much time, energy and other resources we devote to it.  Meanwhile, that which does truly work, is worth doing nothing else. Regrettably, that is what we fail to get right -- determining the useful from the useless, and preferring greatly, the useless over the useful -- and leaving no time and energy for it.  That is the tragedy of the human condition -- that assuredly, is not hopeless.  It is simply the road less traveled, and the path less trodden -- but assuredly exists, even if it is much denied.

However, it is not just a matter of wishful-thinking and affirmations in spite of the actual realities -- but actual fact, as improbable as it seems.  That is "the word made flesh," the manifestation of reality, and no longer simply the belief in that possibility.  That is the integration of thought in action.  But simply believing is not enough; what matters is the exercise of that belief -- to see if it makes a difference -- incredibly, instantly -- and not simply as a matter of time, and especially, psychological time -- as many are convinced, is necessary, to make any difference.  The difference is noticeable as instantly as turning a screw: it either makes a difference or it doesn't, and then in the positive or negative direction -- but the change is instantaneous, and not only apparent in a matter of months and years.  By then, it is too late -- and all will have been lost -- as the proverbial "too little, too late" -- to do anything about it.

What 10% of the effort, gives 90% of the results?

Because we live in a world of finite resources (reality), we have to ask the question, what do we get out, for what we put in? -- and not as the personal motivators of every stripe insist, that we get out what we put in -- with no regard for efficiency or economy.  In such a world, there is no loss -- and there is only gain, no matter what they do -- which is convincing argument, that one should do anything, because anything is preferable to nothing -- and "nothing" includes thinking seriously, of what one is doing, or about to do, before mindlessly doing so.  That is the habit, especially novices and thoughtful people who wish to grow old successfully need to consider and cultivate -- before always learning the "hard" way -- that things are not so, and the world really doesn't work that way -- even as much as one would desire it so.

There are differences -- for good reason, and it becomes increasingly important to understand them for what they are -- before proceeding to go "all in" -- on what not might be their best bet.  Even champion boxers and predators spend their first rounds finding out about the capabilities and reactions of their opponents -- before launching an all-out attack on the unfamiliar.  One first must grant the benefit of the doubt -- to find out first what one is dealing with, and any problems that might arise, and be well-prepared to handle them.  The thing encountered, may be like nothing else previously encountered -- in the textbooks, as well as individually and personally.  And that is the reality of the situation -- and not the generalization and stereotype.  Those who can master that, are the masters of any situation -- including the many changes one can expect to handle throughout a long and varied life.

Unfortunately, many novices don't learn that wisdom before meeting an untimely and premature end -- as happens over every species of life.  All and every, will not be so fortunate -- even among the apex predators.  Their chances of survival are usually 1 in a 100 -- at best, and so something much larger must come into play if they are to survive another day.  That ability is the intelligence to survive and thrive -- in the many possibilities every individual must devise for their own lives.

Increasingly, that is dominated by individual experience and learning -- rather than the collective pre-digested, that can only take anyone so far.  At some point, they have to leave the safety of the collective, and venture out on their own path -- learning what works best for them -- even if it works for no other, and the proof is in the being.  Many will profess to "know," but one would never know it from looking at them -- because everything appears to be a contradiction and nullification, of everything they claim to be -- and so that confusion and turmoil becomes apparent to know that one has observed and learned enough -- and should more productively move on, in every individual's personal quest for intelligent life in the universe.

That is searching for the 10% that works better than the other 90% -- and to be able to tell that difference.  Some foods are better than others -- and for every individual, there is an optimal diet -- which can also fail miserably with others.  Yet to this day, there are purists insisting that there is one best diet for everybody -- and that everything else should be "outlawed" -- just as in ancient times, when most allowed the few to do all their thinking for them -- unquestioningly.

In that environment and culture, few learn to discover the truth of anything for themselves -- but are merely told that "the experts say" -- which is only what they would like everybody to believe, rather than any actual experiments, observations and measurements.  Naturally, another group of experts will be saying something different next week -- or in some other publication or forum, many created especially for that occasion and promotion.


So what is one to believe?  Most of the information one is privy to, is likely to be this kind of advertising and promotion -- even as oneself as the expert in manipulating what one thinks.  That seems to be the particular challenge in the age of information -- in determining the credibility of their source of information.  What is their agenda?  Often, it is just the simple objective of establishing themselves as the expert.

Sometimes the Worst That Can Happen...

-- can be the best thing that ever happened.  It is moments like those to force one to go beyond themselves -- to where they've never been before, or even imagined possible.  Particularly so if what they think they have, cannot get any better -- and there is only worse, which surely cannot be all there is in this expanding universe.  But any loss, is regarded by the status quo, as a threat -- even if it represent an opportunity to improve and get better -- often, infinitely better.

That is the progress and evolution of life -- if one merely goes with that flow, rather than demanding that the whole world stop, and maintain their particular status quo -- or status.  Life doesn't work that way; it waits for no one, as much as we are singularly pleased with where we are -- and thinking it should always remain this way.  The test of any life is not that it remains one way "forevermore," but that it relentlessly moves forward -- largely by overcoming what seems like insurmountable obstacles.

Even the bad news, is just information for what one has to do now -- rather than dwelling on the good news of how things used to be great at some imaginary and wonderful time in the past.  That will serve one no good purpose -- but waste their valuable time reliving the past, when obviously, the present challenge is the only hope for a better future that may be only realizing how the world has changed for the better -- since one last assessed these things.

The present crisis forces them to look -- at the other ways of doing things, and not merely doubling their efforts in ways that are no longer working.  That invariably means change -- for the better, rather than the worse they convinced themselves was the only alternative to what they are presently doing -- often with disastrous results, that predictably, brought them to their current crisis.  At some point, they have to wake up -- or go into irreversible decline.  That is the law of nature.

Those for whom that is not true, will increasingly withdraw from engagement, and retreat to their memories of better times -- insisting that nothing better is possible, and the future only dire -- and growing more so daily.  That's obviously not a mindset that will flourish and prevail -- but predictably shrinks along with that vision of the world as a shrinking pie -- with all the good pieces already taken.

But if one lives long enough in this world, it is obviously getting richer -- and even those things that even the richest and most powerful in their time could not have -- is what is readily available to most, if not all.  "Money" is somewhat of a limiting factor -- but even more so, is the refusal to consider all the options -- including and especially life as we've never imagined possible for ourselves.  That may be exactly what we have to do -- but dismiss off hand, and obviously if we do that, nothing else will make much sense.

That is frequently the explanation of the most troubled and hopeless people on the planet -- that they dismiss the most obvious, and then develop elaborate explanations and justifications for continuing to do what they are doing -- with such disastrous results.  That is the dysfunctional lifestyle and adaptations -- hoping for a different result.  Of course it will end badly -- often tragically.  These things don't just happen -- but are made more likely to, and then the reporters will depict it as a random event.

It's not so random -- just as good fortune is more than just winning the lottery -- that frequently turns out to be the worst thing that ever happened for those unprepared for that windfall.  Within a short time, they are even more impoverished than they were before -- because their problem was not money or the lack of it, but their inability to manage any amount effectively and intelligently.  In that way, it is like any other resource -- time, money, energy, thought and exercise.


It doesn't just happen.  Life is what one makes of it.  It can be better or worse.  But first, one has to find out what is out there -- and not be content to think that everything they knew 50 years ago, is everything there is to know -- and that is what they wish to return to -- as the best of times.  The world is not like that -- anymore.