Health Matters
If all deaths with pre-existing underlying health conditions are ruled out, then the recent virus pandemic, would have had virtually no impact. Those who invariably died, were those who were dying already -- in long term care centers, nursing homes, 55+ complexes, etc. That's where they go to die as comfortably as possible -- and it is miraculous when they do recover from their latest health crisis. It will be one thing or another until that fatal time.
Obviously, it makes greater sense than ever, not to get into that condition of ill-health and the unrelenting downward spiral -- that offers no hope for recovery -- only to keep one alive at the lowest level of functioning for as long as possible. I think most people would prefer not to live their lives in that prolonged declining state -- especially if that is purchased at the cost of all the vibrant and viable lives being sacrificed -- for the dying.
So it is not surprising when a nation that has the most people living longer with essentially terminal conditions and prognoses, has the highest mortalities of such people. They would have long perished under more subsistence cultures and societies -- as part of the normal life expectancy. So it should come as no surprise, that those who are healthier, have a much greater prognosis for continuing vibrancy and robustness -- which is the possibility and inevitability of health in the 21st century -- and not simply living longer lives in continuing and accelerating deterioration.
Those outcomes are not automatic -- nor random, but what each individual does to make themselves better and more fit to take on anything they may have to face in life. Of course, the great advantage goes to those who remain and attain greater health -- and not simply more comprehensive health care coverage. That won't offset the increasingly poor underlying health -- because that is not the doctor's job. Their province is just to treat one's sickness -- and not to achieve optimal health, which is a possibility just now stirring in people's minds as an actual possibility for the future.
Especially for us 70 or older, who really have nothing to lose by diverging from those norms -- in which people continue to get worse with age, as the age-related diseases, including death. I think it would be preferable to live 30 healthy, vibrant, robust years, and then die suddenly by not waking up one day, than to die slowly and obviously over the whole 30 years -- and dragging everybody else into the grave with them -- but that's just me, and I don't presume to speak for others, and how they think they have a right to everybody else's life as well.
I spent the first half of my life around world-class athletes and performers, and then my second half around the senior, disabled and dying -- and wondered if there could be an Olympics just for being as healthy as one can be at 100 -- as the finish line, and that was all that was required to achieve the title of First Citizen (to reach 100 without looking like 100). That to me, is the milestone we have to achieve before it is meaningful to speak of increasing life spans any further -- as a few astute in other arenas of life also recognize.
That achievement would not be simply a random event, but a very deliberate one -- and after initially breached, would then become the template for everyone else -- as what we have to do to live a healthy life, as long as possible. That should make uncommon good sense to everybody -- and not just the people peddling panaceas for every conceivable condition.
Usually, if one thing improves one health, it works for many other symptoms as well. That is one's underlying health condition -- which can be favorable, as well as unfavorable, and eventually hopeless and terminal -- if not reversed. Unlike time, health can go either way -- to get better, or only to get worse -- depending on the health model and paradigm. It's not too early in the 21st century, to note a trend to improving health -- with age, rather than just the familiar deterioration from here on out.
Obviously, the problem has been the invariable accumulation of toxins and waste products, rather than a healthy life's rejuvenation and renewal processes -- in eliminating and even recycling those resources. Such people seem to have a fountain of youth within them -- so that when one day they pass, there are no regrets for a life not fully lived. They always did their best -- for however long that was to be. But eventually, even they too will pass -- because that is the nature and reality of life. Unfortunately, many have not come to grips with those realities -- but demand that they should live forever -- even in an induced coma until a cure for whatever ails them, can be found.
However, more often than not, they could have cured themselves -- by mastering their understanding of the factors that have gone into their condition, and entertaining the alternatives -- diet, exercise, and lifestyle, and not just the ones that don't work, and don't make a difference -- but are highly marketed, and repeated. Mere repetition, is not proof of any truth. It needs to be proved in the actuality of each life. That is not the anecdotal, but the real -- the actual individual experience, and outcome.
That those outcomes are not equal -- should tell us something, and not that we can just mandate that all races should finish in a tie -- no matter how much we have to handicap all participants to ensure that result. Much effort and all the resources can be diverted to approximate that effect -- or one can examine more closely, why each experienced a different result, and what they could have done differently -- for a different result. That is the real world most of us live in -- and not the bureaucratic one of one-size-fits-all, no matter how badly.
That is the world of greater discrimination -- and not less, or none. The ability to tell those differences, is our highest achievement, and not simply repeating what one is instructed to do unvaryingly -- despite none of the desired results and favorable outcomes. If that doesn't change, then everybody just gets wiped out -- indiscriminately. However, when 99% of the people do survive, then one wants to be among that majority, rather than the dying -- though at that point, it seldom matters, and makes a huge difference. One percent of the population can always be expected to die -- with or without any complicating factors.
The reality is that nobody lives forever -- but most people live long enough to achieve whatever they set out in life to accomplish. Far fewer still, can reinvent their lives to sustain themselves longer -- for another generation. If they can, then they rightfully should live forever. They've certainly earned it. That means relearning everything at least every generation -- because what limited previous generations, was not that they had perfect knowledge -- but an imperfect one. That is no reason to quit and give up -- and resolve never to change again, because that has dire consequences.
Many have not changed -- for the last 50 years, but continue to think they are at the forefront of the consciousness revolution. All they think they need is one more reunion and revival -- to keep their lives going. But life is not like that -- endlessly repeating itself. It moves on -- with or without you. Each can simply do their best -- if they are so disposed, or their worst, if they are so disposed. But in any case, the outcomes will not be the same -- but differ according to merit. Good ideas are rewarded, while bad ideas are punished -- and extinguished. They don't work no matter how lavishly funded. That which works, takes on a life of its own, no longer requiring our nurturance, but carrying us towards a great future -- if we simply let it.
That is the familiar rise and fall of civilizations -- which have a life of its own -- greater than the sum of its parts. Underneath it all, is the unifying theme that there is a reason things happen -- or don't. Finding that out, is what science is -- and not just what authorities say is the truth that should never be questioned, even if they have to censor and suppress all the alternatives themselves. There have always been people like that.
They Don't Know What They Don't Know
Almost everybody recognizes that the person who claims to know all the "right" answers, usually hasn't even begun to ask the right questions -- or they would not be the foremost "expert" on why things go wrong. In fact, if they really knew what they were talking about, there wouldn't be a problem -- and getting worse because of what they "know." The Buddhists would call that the "right understanding," from which the "right effort" naturally flows -- because with the truly right understanding, it would be impossible to do anything else.
That is like experiencing a hot stove the first time -- which ensures that there won't be a second, or subsequent efforts to remind oneself not to touch a hot stove. But it is another matter entirely, to find out whether a stove is hot or not -- and not assume that it is -- or not, because of what they "thought" they knew. In such cases, they have to actually find out -- and it is not enough just to know that one should, or should not have left it on. One's entire life and future may depend on it.
It doesn't matter what the experts say you should have done -- or not done, because the only thing that matters, is what one did. This metaphor is a lot like what we encounter every day -- and hope to learn to get it right -- unfailingly, as early as possible in life, because not to, has disastrous and deadly consequences. That may be driving the wrong way on a one-way street for the first time, but hopefully, not the last time.
Life has many such lessons -- of which we hope to know better -- before it is too late. But that is what life is mostly about -- this learning from day one -- to do one thing, rather than another -- but even in the best of circumstances and precautions, bad things can happen, and that possibility exists, as long as we're alive. Ultimately, everyone runs out of chances -- and nobody lives forever. One just hopes before then, to make the best of all one's chances -- before one simply runs out of chances.
In a life of one hundred years, that might be doing and experiencing many things -- or just one thing, repeated every day. The end result will be the same, so it is largely up to every individual to decide which of those lifestyles one adopts -- with their varying consequences. The same outcomes, will not be guaranteed for everyone -- but a fair and enlightened society, will attempt to see that everyone starts as equally as possible -- but after that, there surely will be a different outcome for each. That is life -- in every shape and form of it.
All do not fare equally well from that beginning -- while a few, will even manage to begin many times over -- and get very good at it -- because they practice, and do not settle for only one start, and one race -- and no second chances. Thus the skilled practitioner of anything, is usually one who has practiced more than all the others -- even to the point that it is no longer practice for such individuals but simply what they do -- until it is so automatic, that it would be impossible to imagine them not doing it unfailingly.
That can be a sport -- but that is just one game among many others one hopes to master in their lifetime -- at least well enough for them to feel comfortable moving on to the next level of challenge and growth. That entails starting all over again -- learning as though one recognizes they do not know rather than being stunted in their feeling, that they already know all there is to know -- and everyone who does not know what they do, is an idiot. Usually it is true, that those who know less than they do, are idiots -- but that doesn't make them smart.
Such people think that because everyone else does not know what they know -- that they must be fools, and seldom realize, others may actually know a lot more, and that is the reason that they don't know what one does. That is the presumption of people who fail to master the right understanding -- and are mystified as to why everybody else does not do the same things they do -- with such catastrophic results. Of course, we call such people, "dysfunctional" because they fail to understand that one thing is related to every other -- and life does not happen in a test tube free of such variables -- most of which are unrecognized, as well as unmeasured.
But just because they aren't, doesn't mean it may not be even more significant to the outcomes -- so intent was the experimenter, in proving what he wanted to prove, and would not accept any other. Unfortunately, much of what we know, is predetermined in that way. That is not science -- but merely authority -- like the Pharisees and Scribes of every time and epoch. What they say, is what they say, and there should be no other -- by law or custom. Those who disagree, should be thrown into prison, or very publicly be crucified -- so nobody else is tempted to follow in those footsteps.
Who those will be, is usually taken upon themselves -- to be the exclusive judge, jury and executioners -- although the latter they will usually cede to others, to make it seem more legitimate, and the will of the people -- whom they should tell what to think. Even better if they can convince the people that they thought of it themselves.
But not everybody can think for themselves -- although all will flatter themselves that they do. They will say that is what the science or evidence says -- but never speak of any particulars, so one can determine if that is true or not. The science simply says, or the evidence is overwhelming, but what that is specifically, is never forthcoming -- presumably because it would be too difficult for anybody less qualified to understand. But that is what real science is -- that even a perfect fool could understand, and not just self-proclaimed and anointed geniuses of our times.
Long before that authority is challenged and questioned, a better understanding is being suppressed -- usually because it is not as profitable -- though it may have greater benefits in the long run, and the bigger picture. What is actually more desired, is infinitely greater health, and not simply, more and more expensive health care -- to make the vested interests richer. The greater benefit, is actually to have healthier populations who minimally need acute expensive care -- for those with multiple chronic conditions that plague them all their lives -- and are never cured.
The obviously better answer is that everyone takes better care of their own health -- rather than a few specialists who take care of all. That is not an efficient way of achieving those objectives -- just like old academia, where a few pioneer the knowledge for all. That was the old model -- prior to the 21st century, when now everybody has all the tools for research -- as well as publication. That's a hard one to give up -- for the entrenched status quo. It's not likely to be discovered by committee, either. More often than not, the great discoveries come by serendipity -- and merely paying attention. In such a state of mind, one sees more than what they are trained to see -- which are not simply aspects of reality, but the whole of reality.
But if we only go about it the same way that hasn't worked before, any advances will be merely illusory. It is only when the mind is totally silent, without the limits of its prior knowledge, that something new comes into being. And that may be exactly what we want -- and not the failed prototype in one more manifestation. So when we have a disease that only kills off the unhealthy, one should ask, is anything wrong with that? -- or is that even a problem? That is the way life works.
The greater question is, how do we get healthier? -- because that is the solution -- and that works for everything else in life. We need to drastically improve health -- and not just prevent the sick from dying. That is a real solution.
The Freedom To Be
Before we discuss sickness, one should inquire into what is health -- and not merely presume that everything one does is right -- or wrong, without first considering, what is health? For many, especially in the health care professions, that means enabling sickness and dysfunction -- which makes them vulnerable to all kinds of catastrophic events and challenges. The presumption is, that the way we already are -- is normal, or healthy -- when the truth of most lives, is that it is mostly a deteriorating condition, beginning with as soon as they reach their full maturity -- and then it is all downhill from there.
Seldom does one heed the information that they might simply be doing things wrong -- or badly, while even thinking they are living optimal lives -- when for many, if not most, that is obviously not true -- if one thing after another, seems to go wrong, and eventually, nothing seems to work right -- forevermore. Even most exercise -- thought to be healthy unequivocally, is often what causes that damage and injury, and if not recovered, leads to permanent dysfunction and disability.
As often as not, ceasing one's normal activities, results and allows a full recovery from injurious efforts. That phenomenon is experienced by nearly everyone in hard training -- who make most of their gains in a brief experiment that is not sustainable for longer periods of time. That is the familiar boom and bust cycles of training -- particularly notable in competitive bodybuilding activities -- in which those short term gains are achieved by fanatical obsession for short periods of time, doing everything possible and even dangerous, and after 6 weeks, experiencing a breakdown of some sort. A natural break from those activities becomes imperative and inevitable -- but the more desirable model, is to be able to do something and be capable daily, when one needs to.
Thus like in achieving wealth, one progresses slowly, steadily and relentlessly -- rather than the boom and bust cycles requiring frequent breaks and timeouts for "recovery" -- which then seems to be most of the time, and eventually, all the time. Frequently it is noted, that one cannot even do -- what they formerly were the best in the world at doing. Many end up prematurely dead or disabled by their practice -- and for some, it is inevitable, and they would have it no other way. It is said of such people, that they died doing what they loved to do -- which in the minds of many, is the perfect scenario.
However, even better, is knowing when that threshold and margin for error is not breached, and one can safely live out a long life enjoying all those things they like to do -- without an overly premature end. That is the frontier that needs to be explored, expressed, manifested -- and not simply living in fear of doing anything, and taking any chances. That would not be healthy -- and the difference in outright dysfunction and disability, is difficult to determine.
Thus individuals, as well as societies, often swing a pendulum from one extreme to the other, trying to fine-tune the balance -- but never presuming what those ultimate limits are -- until they actually find out. That is largely what life is about -- and not simply repeating a pattern or protocol mapped out by the so-called "experts," claiming to have perfect knowledge of such things. Most only know what they know, but the far more valuable thing to know, is what they don't know, and are eager to find out. That is the real miracle of life.
Unfortunately, most of those claiming to know it all, are more intent on profiting off of that claim -- rather than finding out whether what they know, is truly worth knowing. That is often compounded by another's attempts to claim that knowledge or any other, as their own invention and authorship -- which is the root of authority and authoritarianism. The latter, is the claim to know everything that can be known -- and all others must be brutally suppressed, censored, intimidated. That observation, should be the premise in the study of every subject -- as the limits of the known, and what is essential to explore.
We always live in such times -- and so the greatest books ever written -- is invariably about that timeless story. The best one can know, is what they don't know -- and will then embark to find out, otherwise, one is too full of their own knowledge, and never bothers anymore to even question that what they know, is worth knowing. Far more can be known, than can be applied practically and productively. The rest is sound and fury -- signifying nothing of importance. In this, "many are called, but few are chosen." One mistakes what they know, for all that can be known -- which is the greatest catastrophe of all -- in every field and endeavor.
One doesn't want to be "that guy" -- so full of their own knowledge -- that destroys civilizations and societies because they cannot allow that they do not know everything -- as though that alone, is their exclusive jurisdiction, and all others must be eliminated. That is the only way they can assure their own victories -- and are interested in no other. Such people are endlessly engaged in turf wars -- as the only thing they know what to do -- and it does not matter how many others have to be "sacrificed" to prove their point.
That is the perpetually self-aggrandizing ego -- devoid of any humor and perspective -- who thinks that only their way, is the only way -- and there is no room for any discussion about that. That is always the danger to a civil society -- that a few coerce the others into believing only their way. That is also a deranged mind -- who thinks others exist only for their own self-aggrandizement.
So real health is also this relationship with everybody and all else -- not to be employed ruthlessly only for the benefit of the one -- even if all the others must be sacrificed. It is not the most good for the greatest number -- but for only the one, at all costs. Such costs are regarded and justified as a necessary means to the end -- and morphs quickly into the necessary evils to those ends -- which they will be the exclusive judge of that.
Such absolute power corrupts absolutely -- and doesn't matter what their station in life is. In fact, it is invariably an inverse relationship -- of the least, feeling fully justified and entitled to their delusions. They think life is only about winning and losing -- and never about just being -- as fully as each individual is capable of doing. That is a mind that is always comparing and competing with everyone else -- and can never recognize that life is not that brutal, relentless and endless struggle against everything and everybody else.
That outlook destroys everything in its path. It builds nothing -- for any future; it argues only with the past -- as though that can change anything.
People in Good Health Live Longer and Better Lives
Do everything possible to be in one's best health. It seems so simple and obvious -- yet escapes so many. Many hope to be the exception to the rule -- or just don't know any better, or care to. Usually they come from a conditioning in which they've never questioned the information they were spoonfed from their earliest years not to question -- even using sugar as the primary reward for inducing and reinforcing behaviors. That's where it all begins -- and unfortunately, never ends for those who age and die way before their time.
The number to be concerned about is all causes of mortality -- rather than just the one particular certain industries are promoting -- even if it is "heart health." All death is characterized by the stoppage of the heart -- unless of course, the heart continues to live on beyond the point which all other functioning has ceased -- particularly vexing if one is responsible for that continued maintenance. Thus, the more meaningful functioning is more likely to be neuromuscular and cognitive functioning -- by which which we recognize the individual responding and reacting to its supporting environment.
It is far more appropriate to think in terms of neuro-muscular functioning rather than nervous and muscular apart from each other -- because they are so codependent on each other. As such, ancient thinkers recognized the advanced integration as the highest intelligence -- which is the reason for the establishment of the gymnasiums and the monasteries for the exercise and practice of highest actualization and attainment.
So now in these times, to actually outlaw such institutions of civilization, is particularly disturbing -- because what replaces it? The mass media would like it if they do -- because the opportunities for control is that much greater, when there is no checks and balances of others present. Control then can be absolute.
We call that relatively new development -- "self-isolating activity." One has the illusion that they are engaged with others and their environment, while it is wholly contrived and exists only in their brain -- with no corresponding external reality. That was what was called in earliest times -- "delusions of grandeur"" -- where one simply retreated more and more into the inner realms in preference to a shared reality.
Nowadays, in many cases, it is called any number of diseases and conditions -- but the result is still the same -- the deterioration of one's abilities to respond to the exigencies of the realities of their time and place. Some merely call it "age," and insist there is nothing further one can do about it. But many insist that begins at graduation from high school -- or even kindergarten, at which point they stopped learning anything else, and further. A few even pride themselves on such an achievement -- as enlightenment. To them, it is a return to the womb -- where one no longer has any responsibility for one's own nurturance and actions.
So independence and self-reliance is further discouraged -- as the cultural imperative to be the mass rather than the individual. Individual means not apart, but the whole, and indivisible -- contrary to the popular meaning of that word, while mass, is really to be only a part, or a small part of something much larger than themselves -- and only to play that part. As such, it was invariably a fragmented perception of the totality -- as though reality existed in that way.
That misunderstanding, is the reason things do not go as we expect them to -- often with disastrous results -- one still maintains, proves the futility of any understanding on their part. Yet it is seldom the case that one knows "too much," than it is likely that they know too much of what is not valid and true -- which is always worse than knowing nothing at all, because what they know, is likely to be the opposite of things as they actually are, and work -- while those beginning with an acknowledged complete ignorance, are likely to find out what is true and valid -- without the presumption that they know better.
In this way, knowledge can become a handicap -- as the separation between their knowledge and things as they are -- grows wider. If that is the case, then how does one begin integrating that knowledge from the actuality? That is the very reason for the value of exercise and practice -- as it is the integration of mind and body, and its highest attainment -- health. In colloquial terms, that would be "firing on all cylinders" -- from which all else merely flows. They get it right first, and not just hope that it will all come together at the end. It doesn't happen that way. That is merely wishful-thinking -- the belief that simply persisting at all the wrong things, will somehow be miraculously transformed into some kind of utopia -- in another time and galaxy. The universe just doesn't work that way.
Obviously, healthier individuals do their best -- including and especially at surviving. Not all life is equal in that way. Some may pull ahead for a short while, but only a very exceptional few, will continue to improve with time -- mainly because of what they are doing. There are always exceptions -- but that is the generally well established rule. So, far more important than extraordinary life support, are the things one does to provide extraordinary support for themselves -- and that is validated and actualized by their health. All that matters is what one can do for themselves -- and then the rest may be helpful, but never in place of.
Try as they might, there will never be equal outcomes -- no matter what one does. There will be differences of outcomes -- depending on what one actually does. That should be no secret -- or worse, forbidden and suppressed knowledge. That will do no one any favors -- and make all the dysfunctions of the present time inevitable for those following that advice. So the question is not how to enable such people with greater dysfunctions, but how do they not get there in the first place -- by developing good (healthy) habits?
At that juncture is where contemporary society has fallen off the tracks. Good outcomes don't just happen. That is the selection process. Yet somehow, we have been brainwashed that only the opposite is right -- no matter how disastrous. Why should so many be in poor health -- from their own doing? But that doesn't mean that healthy people will live forever. They will simply continue to live better -- for as long as they do, and that is good enough for even the most highly intelligent person to do.
That is simply making the best and the most out of their lives -- and they can be very happy with that. That is as good as life gets -- and they are at peace with the universe, and one with it.
Sometimes the Worst that can Happen
Is the best thing that can happen -- because then, the worst fears are realized -- and overcome. Until then, the fears become the limits of what we think is the unthinkable, but only when we are forced to confront it in the actuality, and not just academically and theoretically, we really never know anything with any certainty, and discover the truth of the matter.
It was formerly thought that the world was flat, and if one sailed far enough to the edge of the world, one would simply fall off -- and never be heard from again -- when the truth of the matter, was that there were worlds that existed that one could not imagine -- as the New World yet to be discovered. So it was realized, that the only thing we had to fear, was fear itself -- and not the realization of any actuality, unless we were forced to make that desperate leap.
Otherwise, one can never sufficiently be motivated just by curiosity and intellectual satisfaction to go far enough beyond the present known -- with all its fears and trepidations. That is often the case when young birds are finally forced out of the nest -- to learn that they can fly -- when they have to! Those are the essential lessons of life -- without which, one is crippled, and will not survive for long -- and that is the way of Nature that has gotten us this far, so well.
Could it have be done better or even differently? Time makes up for a lot of mistakes. When one has all the time in the world to get it right, eventually one has to get it right -- and that is the only thing that matters, but until then, we never know for certain -- as many presume to.
But as has been pointed out many times before, the thought is not the thing itself -- but always only an approximation of what we are actually dealing with. What we think we are dealing with, may not in fact be what is -- and that is the root of most misunderstandings and the problem. The problem is other than we thought it to be, and until that is understood properly, is the reason the solution fails, and all one has done, is created more elaborate explanations of why everything goes wrong. Obviously, the problem is not the solution -- but merely multiplies the problem into a bigger one.
At the present time, it should be obvious to most people considering a future, that crowded big city environments are not viable on their present course -- nor are settlements in pristine forests -- so the answer might lie somewhere between those extremes -- as the best of all possible worlds. That is still a choice for most people -- rather than to live a horrible life where one presently is, and so the greatest task of organizations and individuals, is to find that optimal for themselves -- and not just settle for their dismal prospects remaining where they are.
In a previous time, the best advice was to go West -- until everyone took that advice and those areas became too popular and crowded as well. But now, the best advice to increase one's prospects, would be to move inland, away from the overcrowded coasts, where many places are offering attractive inducements to move there. What has one to lose? One has a chance for a fresh start -- and that should never be taken for granted, or overlooked.
Nobody ever had the right to be overwhelmingly successful being where they are -- no matter what. Ultimately successful people, had to move into the void of greener pastures to make their lives and fortunes. It won't happen living in their parent's basement. They have to be forced out of the nest -- to fly, otherwise, they will simply soil their own environment until they are drowning in it. That becomes the problem of hoarding on the other end -- when one is simply holding on to everything, and letting nothing go. Then one is buried by all that trash.
So what is the world telling us now?
Floor Exercises: The Key to Lifelong Health
The obvious advantage of floor exercises is that one doesn't have to get up to do them -- and for that reason, are the most beneficial when one most needs to exercise -- when one can't get up. Then, just getting up, is a monumental and life-saving achievement. Most people take that ability for granted -- when that eventually, will be the difference between life and death -- that one no longer has to be bedridden, but from that basic skill, determines their freedom of all other movements. Conversely, when one is so weak that they are not even capable of turning themselves while lying down, they will eventually develop bed sores and resultant infections, and not be long for this world.
So this ability to change from the most immobile condition to regain full functionality, is really fundamental to lifelong mobility and health. One can always begin small and minimally, and progress on up -- rather than maintaining a futile notion that popping immediately up and onward, is the only way to be. It is the ability to change, that characterizes movement and its value. People are not born running, or born unmoving -- but change from one position to another, as evidence of their viability and robustness, and their dynamism in doing so, impresses others.
Much less impressive, is just holding a steady state -- as that does not indicate any other possibility, nor potential for anything else. That is all one does, and there is no indication that they can do anything else -- until they actually do. Usually what one does, is all they can do -- and one should not assume they can do anything else but what they exhibit -- despite claims and promises to do otherwise. Very simply, what you see is what you get -- with very rare exceptions and surprises.
So, far more indicative of their abilities, is the range of their movements -- rather than just the one movement repeated countless times, or with greater resistance. In athletic exhibitions, those who can demonstrate many different movements, are far more impressive than those who do only one thing flawlessly -- because it is the change that creates the impact.
To go from lying to standing, is a much greater change than to go from standing to walking. In fact, there is no greater engagement of all the muscles than in going from lying to standing -- which is the characteristically great advantage of choosing yoga as one's bedrock movement activity, since it specifically cultivates that change, as integral and fundamental to its conditioning program -- which is not duplicated in any other activity -- and particularly, among its oldest participants.
It is very impressive to see a group of 100 year olds getting up and down off the floor -- which is generally their cohorts' greatest fears. So when these oldsters are able to rise gracefully from the ground, there is few things more striking in contemporary society. They don't have to put on makeup or wear flashy gym attire to look young and with it. Just the fact that they get up and down off the floor easily, gracefully and uncomplainingly -- is a lot more than most contemporary younger people are prepared to do.
But that is the real meaning of push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups -- to lift oneself from a lower state to a higher one. It's not even necessary to do 100 consecutively without rest -- because 100 done nonconsecutively, with as much rest as one desires, is even more valuable, especially when performed in the normal course of one's day. That is a meaningfully active life -- and not one that is arbitrarily active for just a brief period -- usually under only one proscribed set of circumstances -- and is sedentary and poorly positioned otherwise throughout most of their day. That latter, causes most of the aches and pains of a poorly aligned posture.
Most of those specializing in back pain will tell you that those misalignments and malfunctions don't just spontaneously happen -- but are invariably caused by poorly designed furniture. shoes and postures. So their job is to observe and detect such misalignments and misuse, and reprogram them on the proper mechanical advantages of such movements.
That mechanical advantage is finding the easiest and most economical way to perform that movement -- and not to make it harder and more difficult until it eventually becomes painful and impossible. Yet that is the path many take -- thinking it is the shortcut to quick gains. That will always result in a premature cessation of such movements and activities -- if not crippling them outright. That is simply the truth of the matter -- and why most former top trainees, no longer can do what they did as younger and indestructible people. Many even die prematurely of heart failures -- from pushing their hearts too hard, too many times -- thinking that all that is necessary, is to push their hearts as hard as possible -- until it fails. That's not a good plan.
The heart will always be the last organ to fail -- and once it does, that is death as we usually define it. Meanwhile, many other organs may have long failed to function -- but we don't know that, because we have not tested for that failure. If we have 600-800 muscles, we only know definitively that a dozen or so still work -- because the rest we don't think to test, or even recognize they exist. So if one can perform a movement that requires all the muscles to be activated whether we recognize them or not, that would be the perfect exercise -- and especially important and useful to cultivate throughout one's life --as the measure far more meaningful than any other.
I've never encountered a healthy person who could not easily get up and down off the ground. I've met a lot of unhealthy people who could not get up from a lying or seated position -- much less walk, or stand. That to me is the difference between a fit person -- and those incapable of independent living. That threshold seems unduly low -- but seems to be fairly consistent for every individual. Most get to that point -- no matter whether they once were world champions, or the average working person.
Cultures, societies and individuals are impressive to the extent that they retain that upward and downward mobility -- more so than by running, jumping and throwing -- which are much less necessary activities, and being the source of injurious wear and tear that are best avoided. At that point in life, it is usually all pain and no gain -- and will often set one back weeks and months for recovery. Many never fully recover, but merely adds to their load of future handicaps and limitations -- until the disadvantages outweigh the advantages that they never try again.
That's a bad place to be. Usually they got there thinking they could not be any other way -- when the truth of the matter, is that there are many ways to be -- even if one has to create it for themselves. Far from being the most daunting prospect, that is the way of truth for every individual that has ever lived and prevailed. That is their singular mission and purpose in life -- to find out what works for them -- if nobody else. It doesn't have to work for anybody else -- as long as it works for them, and that is proof enough.
It's great if it works for anybody -- or everybody else -- but the only truth that matters is that it works for you -- perfectly. That's why there is diversity -- and not just arbitrarily mandated by the political correctness of the day -- for they don't know what good reason. Diversity is not a value in itself. The greater purpose is in achieving the best result -- by entertaining the various different plausible possibilities and their paths, and preparing for them. But diversity in itself is merely randomness without that higher criterion. That has to be results.
What is the difference between a healthy young baby and a dying old person? The newborn gets on its feet as soon as possible because they realize their very lives depend on it -- while the dying old are simply left behind. Nobody has to force them to leave the herd. In that way, the story of life and death is played out in each life -- in its own unique tale. That's what life is. The ups and downs -- and how we manage those transitions.
Death is no longer wanting things to change -- but to stay the way they are permanently -- and that is not possible. So that requires dying to everything, and the body is not far behind. The fundamental question in yoga, is not how much can one lift or how far one can run, but simply, can you still get up -- and show me. That is as basic as it needs to get. And if you're still doing it at 100, you've won.
More of the Same is NOT Better
In a previous time, it was thought that "more" was always better -- not realizing that things could be any "different." It wasn't until the modern age when people began to realize that the transformation of more, was something different, almost entirely. That happens when the critical mass is reached -- and so something entirely new and different becomes possible -- but not until then.
Most of the time, we never get to that point. The obvious one is wealth -- at which a sufficient amount, doesn't need more -- but realizes the imbalance with all other aspects of that life. Then the rest has to get better -- or all that wealth is meaningless, and more, simply the lack of any better ideas for putting money to good use.
At that point, the wise will embark on a wholesale upgrade of their lives -- but as with everything in life, simply more is not enough -- they require something different, on a higher level of appreciation and functioning. Thus, simply more food will not be better -- but the highest quality of nutrition becomes paramount. What is more important than taste and generous portions, are the most nutritionally dense foods one can consume on a regular basis.
Eventually, that's what builds the body -- and not the most enticing foods one can prepare and delight over. It doesn't matter how visually appealing, or how insatiable the food makes one consume -- if baseline nutrition is not addressed and satisfied. Not surprisingly, that will vary from individual to individual -- with a great deal of overlap. But the ultimate reality, is each individual's actual experience. That is not merely "anecdotal," but the actuality of their existence.
Thus the generalized notion of what is good for one must be good for all -- without exception -- is disproven time and again. What works for some, will not work for others, but it is still important, to find out what works for any one -- as the purpose of their whole existence. People who pride themselves on these generalizations miss this point entirely -- and think they must merely apply more force and coercion for their models to turn out "perfectly" -- as they perceived in their own minds. But that is seldom, if ever, how things actually work.
It is the individual realities, that add up to the big number, and not the big number, that dictates the outcome of every individual -- regardless. That is placing the cart before the horse, mistaking the cause for the effect, and never knowing the difference. It is in knowing this difference, that determines the successful, from failures. Often, that cannot be measured in money, or IQ scores -- or any other one thing, because it is the totality of everything -- and no longer simply one thing, no matter how prolific.
In fact, that is frequently how many successful people fail in life -- and fail to get it. That is ultimately what it is -- that undefinable greater than the sum of its parts as viewed through the veil of half-truths, and partial understandings. It misses the whole point entirely -- by its observation of only one small part of it. Of course it is the ultimate presumption of the self-absorbed mind -- that regards itself as all that can be known, and knowable.
That is not just the way it was in a long-forgotten past, but the reality of everyday life -- however much we are in denial about certain aspects of it, and would wish to edit and erase certain parts of it. But what parts of it? If one knew that, then there would be perfect understanding -- and not the quest for it that the inquiring and intelligent mind has always been driven to.
It is that certainty -- that has always been the greatest calamity in human experience -- whether in this age or another. It just comes in different forms in every era. In this age of the technocrat, it is thought that they have the rights to the claim of the ultimate truths as their exclusive monopolies and jurisdictions, and others simply don't know any better -- or anything worth knowing -- rather than looking for that grain of truth in every particle of life and behaviors.
And so many have come to the erroneous conclusion that simply more of anything, is the whole truth that matters -- and not that there can be a qualitative leap beyond the quantitative "more." Living forever in a vegetative comatose state? Yet that is still how many hope their lives will play out -- not suspecting that better, if shorter, might be far better. And that is how the story of life has played out -- up to now. However, there are now those proclaiming that henceforth, no one should die -- for any reason because they claim that prolonging life is the only meaningful measure of it.
Denial of death is not exceptional -- and in fact, is the basis of many religions -- speaking figuratively, and metaphorically. By that they mean, the one individual life merges back into the greater whole of it -- and that is the significance of life -- individual and otherwise. It is important to think deeply on such matters because it is the depth of life that matters, and not simply the frenetic activity at the surface -- which many are entirely consumed by as the measure of their "success." This is not just the spiritual side of life but the deeper meaning of it -- that modern people frequently think they are way beyond, and as such, they lose their mooring, anchorage and direction.
As a famous author once observed, "it is all sound and fury -- signifying nothing." Is that what modern life has come to? Many are "busy," but have no idea "why?"
Tyranny of the Old
The more things change, the more resistance there is to the new ways -- even when they are far better. Nowhere is that more true than in aging itself -- that many will affirm and insist that that is what getting old is -- and must be forevermore, even when modern thinking has discovered the true keys to health in longevity. Many will still prefer the old ways of relentless aging and dysfunction -- to living a different life. That is all they've seen and know -- and all they think possible.
Even in their best case scenarios, it is to deteriorate as long as possible to eventual indefinite artificial life support -- rather than renewal and rejuvenation as they experienced earlier in life. Obviously, they won't get there following the advice and even commands that haven't worked out so well -- for anyone! Still, that is the expectation -- if not the demand from everyone around them -- to just be like everyone else, and fall apart piece by piece.
But it doesn't have to be that way -- if it definitively is not working. One then has to realize they have to find their own way -- and not just the way prescribed for everyone else -- that is not working for either. And in fact, they all come down with the same predictable "age-related" diseases -- which are more accurately, just a matter of time to manifest.
Those are the metabolic diseases of accumulation -- of all that is toxic, while simultaneously eliminating all that is healthful to the body. Chief among them is the substitution of sugar (carbohydrates) for every other nutrient -- with the predictable results. The brain, muscles, and all the other organs cannot repair and rejuvenate themselves -- until all that one has, is depleted, and there is no more life force and the resources to sustain them.
That is not metaphysical, but the actual realities of any existence. To the right-thinking person, that is fair enough -- and proves one's fitness for life -- that they got it right, and no amount of wrong, can make that difference. It doesn't matter how many "experts" say it is so -- if it doesn't work for you -- and that is the whole truth of the matter. It doesn't matter how many others it has been purported to work for.
"Science" is being able to test the truth of any matter for oneself -- and confirm or disprove the truth of it for oneself, and not just "listening to the experts," who may have their own agenda entirely. Very often, it is to command what everybody else thinks is the truth -- rather than in allowing them to find out for themselves. This manner of promotion, is merely authoritarianism -- in which people just accept whatever the authorities tell them -- and are usually forbidden to think and find out otherwise. It is an age-old thread in human experience and evolution -- before a great leap forward -- because reality demands it.
But not everybody makes the leap -- and then those of the old guard -- become the last, while the eager and bold, become the first into the new world. Again, time plays its role -- waiting for everything to fall into place -- even in the most unpredictable ways. Who would have guessed that all the gyms would be shut down -- and then the only way of exercising, was with no equipment, accessories, and uniforms -- and everybody would be forced to create exercise as best they can, with whatever they have. The magic is not in the machine -- or any other apparatus. It is in the knowledge of one's own discoveries and insights.
Insanity is doing the same things over and over again hoping for a different (better) result -- rather than discovering what actually works -- and then improving upon it. Knowledge is always at the beginning of the journey and not the end of the need for understanding. For a whole generation to come to that reckoning is a global shock in consciousness -- that simply accumulating information is not enough, but the integration of all that is known into something unpredictably greater -- is the next step in evolution.
That is the transformation from health care to real health, as the new reality of our existence. Then the possibility of people living to 100 -- in perfectly good health becomes possible, rather than merely wishful-thinking for most. Of course one doesn't get there just by eating everybody else's desserts. In fact, that is the known path to all diseases. It should be obvious by now that doing all the wrong things results in poor health -- and that is not just handed out randomly, or to those who doggedly repeat what is not true -- and gets no favorable results.
There is a reason some are more susceptible to all manner of diseases and misfortunes -- while others experiencing those same challenges -- overcome those adversities and become stronger and fitter -- with time on their side. Then the game changes entirely -- when time is on one's side, rather than working relentlessly against them -- waiting to go off. That's the chance everybody takes -- whether they want to or realize.
With those prospects, one should hope for the best, while preparing for the worst -- because the reality will fall somewhere in between -- and just hoping for the best, OR preparing for the worst, will not be a sufficient response for life ahead. That is what an intelligent person does -- prepare for many scenarios of varying possibilities -- and never expecting that everything will go according to their demands from everybody else.
Life is extremely personal in that way. It's not a random walk through life -- but an increasingly focused and sensible one. Increasingly, what one sees, is what they get, and not something opposite -- as many believe possible. But that is a good model for testing -- to hone and refine one's knowledge to greater precision and effectiveness -- than just knowing the one thing that isn't working very well, and thinking that is all life has to offer -- for assuredly, it is not. There are all the possibilities of life -- that some will convince us are disastrous except for their solution -- but merely prolongs and exacerbates one's condition, until finally there is nothing left.
That is the choice of freedom -- to be what one individually wants to be -- and not just have it determined by the authoritarian others -- who say "this cannot be done, and that cannot be done," because all things are possible -- until proven otherwise. Then, one can discover and actualize the greater life the powers that be insist are impossible, and should never even be thought about -- as their chosen role in society.
Self-Reliance (Self-Discovery)
In troubled times, one is required to do everything for themselves -- and not rely on anybody else to do it for them. Most often, those others will simply not be around -- especially if one is on a road less traveled. If one has ever been in such a situation, one vows to be better prepared the next and all subsequent times -- and not take it for granted that help will arrive -- just because one wants it. Increasingly, most of life is that way -- and any help and cooperation is always appreciated, but should never be taken for granted, or worse, feel entitled to.
The obvious situations are the earthquakes, fires, floods, plagues, famines, along with innumerable man-made disasters -- often by following sanctioned advice. But as long as it doesn't work for everybody else, nobody notices that there could be another way -- a better solution, especially when all thought of such is banned and prohibited -- by the powers that wish to exercise that exclusive control. Such watershed events happen at least once in every lifetime -- whether it is a war, plague, tsunami, personal disaster and loss. Everyone will experience at least once in their life -- and those who haven't, still have that to learn, and benefit from.
So it is much better to have won and lost a fortune, than only known winning -- with never a loss, because that loss teaches one something even more valuable than never having loss -- yet. Because one day it does come, and one is totally unprepared for it -- which is always a greater calamity than those who have been there before. That is one of the advantages of age -- and having lived a long enough life to have experienced many things -- and have died and been reborn to survive anew.
The caveat of course, is that one survives to learn from that lesson -- and also learns not to tempt fate unnecessarily. Every mistake and overestimation of one's abilities, could be one's last. And that is not foolish, for those who survive to 100. They've demonstrated what it takes to get there. But just crawling over the finish line after everybody else has gone home, is not enough -- to make one "first." One wants to discover something else in which they can really be first -- and not the last, and receiving a "Participation" trophy for still thinking it matters.
Better they should create their own event -- in which they really do come in first -- such as the first to live to 100, and not look 100. That is yet to be achieved -- but surely, that milestone will be breached -- as has to, for living even longer, to have much meaning at all. So those who merely they can live forever on artificial life support, obviously haven't thought the implications of life at all. Even if one has all the money in the world to afford, does one want to end up a pile of unrecognizable protoplasm in some laboratory-sealed bunker -- far from the river of life?
I don't think so -- but there may be a billionaire or two looking forward to such a precedence. Much things are possible these days -- but why not the truly amazing, and unthinkable? That would obviously be for a person to live a hundred years while still getting better -- not as a lie not to hurt their feelings, but actually so, because they actually do all the right things -- and not simply the "right" things that don't work. That could be true for diet, exercise, lifestyle -- if it doesn't actually work -- but instead, multiplies the many incurable contemporary diseases and afflictions of these times.
A few perceptive researchers and thinkers about life have questioned that maybe everything they thought was true, is not -- as the simple and obvious explanation for why their models and theories do not work -- rather than insisting that they must be true -- despite the results and consequences. That has been the experience of human consciousness and thought for as long as there is a record of thoughts -- and how individuals, cultures and societies, have attempted to circumvent it -- as the cult of "immortality" in every civilization -- that forms the basis for most religions.
It is the "greater life" in some vague manner that resonates in every culture. But how that is to be manifested "in the flesh," remains to be seen. That is what we really want to know -- as the fountain of youth, or the holy grail -- which is that eternal quest for the unknown beyond. The "known" has its obvious limitations -- that does not get us there -- obviously. Thus, one has very little to lose going where everybody else has gone before -- even if it is the conventional wisdom that fails everybody else. We don't need further proof of that.
The answer must lie beyond this known. It is the unthinkable. But only time will tell -- as the first who get there, and share that accomplishment in the unprecedented manner not possible before. One YouTube video claimed to be a 100 year old ballerina -- which would have been impressive if that were true -- but alas, she turned out to be only 78 -- a remarkable achievement in itself -- and opening up the possibility that it will be achievable in her own lifetime. However, ballet is a perilous vehicle for achieving and exhibiting that -- and any fall from that grace, might put an end to further progress.
So it would be appropriate to ask, how would one demonstrate the robustness and viability of life at that age and condition? Does one necessarily have to run a marathon -- that actually eliminates the field rather than increases the access -- by anybody still living and breathing. That's really not hard to conceive -- if one can let go of all the requirements of all those activities that aren't working, and in most cases, eliminate the participation. You don't get there by eliminating the field of participants.
And that is what the competitive model of athletics and activities deliberately seek to do -- eliminate all the others until only the one remains. But is that necessarily what one wants to do? You can always isolate the one who will be the rare exception -- but if one wishes to discover a general principle, that is the last thing one would do. You don't want to know what only works for one -- no matter how exceptional. You wish to find out what works for most -- so many get there, and then you see the possibilities -- of life beyond.
A sedentary life, or even a bedridden one, should not be a limitation. If one prefers to sit, one need not be forced to stand, nor the bedridden to walk -- when doing so only increases their risk of further danger and injury. Even then, that does not preclude any and all movement -- particularly of what is most significant to move, and that is the blood -- not primarily dependent on the constant heart action -- but greatly impacted by the engagement of those muscles seldom mobilized. If fact, many think they are immobile -- when they are still capable of the greatest movements possible, which are at muscles of expression. They are also the areas greatest distance from the heart -- at the head, hands and feet -- which articulating, and increasing their health and functioning particularly, is mostly the movements that matters.
If those fine-motor movements and expressions can be maintained -- and even enhanced, then one is still improving, and growing. There is no greater self-evident truth.
