All Entries Tagged With: "human potential"

Energy is Life

“Your body is precious. It is your vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care” - Buddha

Energy is life. The amount we can generate is a return on your investment into life itself. The brilliance of your energy as well as its endurance is self made.  The unrealized state of energy that most accept, is a  tragedy. As with much in life; what we know and understand through our own physical experiences is is but a fraction of what is possible. Your energy is the essence of who and what you are. If your energy is not optimized your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual efforts aren’t either. It is not about how our efforts in life compare to others but if our efforts are truly the best we are capable of. To establish optimal energy an applied system of production, maintenance and regeneration must be in place. Are you operating at your potential?

“If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” - Thomas Edison

Energy management is the most important aspect of realizing your potential in life. For most of us it is critical. If you are a saint, blue chip athlete or genius you will have a big head start in respective spiritual, intellectual, and athletic accomplishments.  Most of us are not saints, blue chip athletes, or geniuses. For us it is critical to get the most from ourselves, to operate at full throttle. For most of us it is the difference in making the team, landing that job, getting that promotion, finding the one you love, keeping the one you love, and ultimately enjoying our lives. Narrow degrees of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual application differentiate our outcomes. A system of  energy/health management has a paramount, positive impact on our life performances.

“ He who has not first laid his foundations may be able with great ability to lay them afterwards, but they will laid with trouble to the architect and danger to the building.” - Machiavelli

What I am talking about here is nothing new. What I am presenting has contemporary scientific evidence to support it, but has been understood to be a benefit as long as history has been documented. Many ancient healing practices conceptualize “energy” as a critical component in their actions-from acupuncture to meditation to yoga to qigong.,  We have gotten away from INTEGRATED LIVING. We strive to get as much as we can so that we can retire and enjoy the fruits of our labor. I see this as a very flawed approach, as by the time most get to that point they are a shell of their former self and a fraction of their realized body-mind-spirit potential. The solution is to apply a system of integrated self-health management sooner than later. The human body is a miraculously resilient organism, which regardless of the physical degradation it has seen will respond, as long as there is still breath and movement within it.

BODY-MIND-SPIRIT wellness must start with the BODY. The body is the base our being. Without physical energy we cannot maintain consciousness and apply our mental ability. When our physical energy is low or impaired our emotional response is affected. It is a serious mistake to ignore the need of a healthy, high performance vehicle in our worldly and spiritual pursuits. To pursue healing the body through spiritual enlightenment or to pursue intellectual cultivation without the balance of physical fortification is fractional, illogical and potential limiting. A state of integrated health and fitness supports a natural transition of evolving spiritually.

There are times when I am fatigued and uninspired. The ebb and flow of energy is a natural order. When I get to this state there is no worry, it is part of life. I quickly recap the actions responsible for the state and immediately start applying the regeneration my body needs. If I am physically fatigued from heavy training, I know that my body needs rest, water and food. If someone close to me has taken me off my mindful balance with friction or conflict, I know that separation and meditation are needed to restore my balance. Ignoring imbalance takes much of the contol we have of our energy away. If I have been sitting for a long period writing or reading and feel my focus and clarity waning, I know some moderate exercise or mindful physical activity will regenerate my circulation and revitalize my energy. These are just a few examples of the endless assessments and adjustments we must continually make throughout life. As you can see most of these are very simple, common sense based realizations and actions. As simple and beneficial as they are, these applications of management are not within the operating framework of most of us. Not only is this limiting our potential, but it’s depleting our joy and happiness. There is a place of absolute truth in your consciousness that realizes the quality of our actions in life. We can only be happy and joyous when we recognize, at this level, that the qualities of our life efforts are equal to our present potential. Balance is the key to health, energy and long term satisfaction with your efforts.

When our energy is depleted too low, it takes time to replenish. It is affected by our activity. This is an ongoing, never ending, constantly changing part of life, one that it in all of our best interests to understand and do our best to manage.  The regeneration of this irreplaceable resource is not automatic as many assume. To be able to constantly make adjustments to maintain balance, and progressively enhance our energy level, a foundation must be in place. The basic foundation is very simple, yet can be difficult dificult to apply consistently as a whole in our busy contemporary lifestyles.  Maintaining and regenerating optimal energy cannot be discussed until an integrated foundation of production is applied

Progress comes to those who train and train. Reliance on secret techniques will get you nowhere.” - Morihei Ueshiba

Ok. I am sure you have an understanding of my stance by now, and are looking for the formula. Before we start talking about “The Fountain of Youth”, which we all want with one pill or treatment a basic foundation must be in place and applied as an integrated effort, daily. Oxygen, water, food and sleep are understood as pillars of life. Although exact needs are unique to the individual, applying these four components to the best of your ability, with the knowledge you are already equipped with, will suffice to produce very noticeable, positive results to your state of health and vitality.

The Basics of Energy Production:

• Breathing Exercises
• Adequate hydration
• Wholesome nutrition
• Daily physical activity
• Adequate sleep

Deep breathing exercises are an integral pillar of Blue Collar Zen habits for health and performance. In the book, Blue Collar Zen, an in depth explanation of the health dependency and positive effects will be presented. Here I will stay with presenting it with all esoteric, and metaphysical veneer peeled away: Without oxygen we die within minutes, with optimal oxygen we thrive and operate in an enhanced state. Deep breathing, via the central nervous system, creates stimulation and circulation from your internal organs throughout your musculoskeletal system. It is the physical act that generates Chi, Qi, or Prana, in martial arts, Asian healing arts, and yoga, respectfully.

Basic Breathing Exercise:

1. Find a quiet place where you won’t be distracted. If doing the exercises inside, make sure the window is open to allow plenty of fresh air into the room.
2. Sit on a chair, cross-legged on the floor, or lie on your back on the floor. The best benefit will be attained with a straight spine, so do your best, if sitting to sit up straight.
3. Breathe deeply and slowly, without strain, through the nose.
4. Exhale, through the nose, at the same pace as you inhale. Exhale each breath as completely as possible
5. Maintain a connected focus with the process.
6. Do this for 50 - 100 complete breaths (approximately 5 minutes), to start, upon waking.

Try this basic approach, and I guarantee you will feel better because of it. If you need assistance get it. You have but one life, take responsibility to make it your best effort.

Gandhi on Health & Fitness

I watched “Gandhi” the other night, again, and was inspired to write a post in tribute to the beautiful, little man, with a mind devoted to peace, love and humanity and possessing the heart of a warrior.

“….man acts as a guardian of his body. It becomes his duty to take such care of his body as to enable it to practice the idea of serving to the best of its ability.”

All the great prophets and spiritual leaders are very clear in their belief that creating an optimal state of health and fitness is a primary responsibility for each of us so as to create the energy needed to live a life of harmony, continual growth and contribution. Gandhi was no different.  He had plenty to say on diet, hydration and exercise. In his own life he provided a very real example of the effects on health with his own fasts. In his historic Calcutta fast Gandhi used a, fast to the death, threat as a means of stopping the Hindu-Muslim violence uprising. http://www.globalwebpost.com/farooqm/study_res/gandhi/gandhi_fast.html

Gandhi knew very well the fact that quality, balanced food intake was irreplaceable fuel for the physical action of life. He stated it irrefutable that 99.9% of men and women in the world eat merely to please the palate. Gandhi is often associated with strict vegetarianism. For 6 years he was exactly that. Not taking into account the accumulative effects that diet could have, his health forced him to make a change in 1917, and recognize the need for adequate protein in his diet. He said, “In year 1917, as a result of my ignorance, I was laid down with severe dysentery. I was reduced to a skeleton, but I stubbornly refused to take any medicine and with equal stubbornness refused to take milk or buttermilk. But I could not build up my body and pick up sufficient strength to leave the bed. Gandhi believed that he who is able to control the palate, will easily be able to control the other senses, and that there should be an odium attached to those who slavishly pander to the palate.

“modern education….  has no relation with our everyday life. Thus, it leaves us almost utterly ignorant about our own body. ”

Much has remained the same since Gandhi’s time, and much of what he lived and promoted have fallen to the wayside. Almost 100 years ago he was commenting on the need for individual health management. Today many are still starving, most are malnourished, a sub-species of obesity has formed, and the majority of the population apply minimal effort, if that, to their health and fitness.  His quote, “The modern generation is delicate, weak and much pampered”, has only multiplied in quality and quantity in time.

“No matter what amount of work one has, one should always find some time for exercise, just as one does for one’s meals. It is my humble opinion that, far from taking away from one’s capacity for work, it adds to it.”

Gandhi was very clear on his opinion of physical labor as part of life and believed, “… a man should be able with ease to walk ten to twelve miles a day, and perform ordinary physical labour without getting tired.”

“Exercise is as much of vital necessity for man as air, water and food, in the sense that no man who does not take exercise regularly can be perfectly healthy. Exercise, as is food, is as essential to the mind as the body. The mind is as much weakened by want of exercise as the body, and a feeble mind is, indeed, a form of disease. A sound mind in a sound body alone constitutes true health.”

Gandhi’s health advice stressed the need of adequate hydration for health and performance, recommending, at least 9 cups of pure water per daily.

‘”…everyone should carry his drinking water with him. Many orthodox Hindus in India do not drink water whilst traveling on account of religious prejudices. Surely, the enlightened can do for the sake of health. What the unenlightened do in the name of religion”

As you can see the game has not changed that much. Whether coming from Aristotle, Hippocrates, Buddha, Morihei Ueshiba, Gandhi, Jack Lalanne, or a Blue Collar Zen master it is acknowledged that health and fitness is an integral pillar in life that has no replacement, and if ignored detracts from our life performance and thusly our happiness and harmony. Make the commitment to yourself, and honor your obligation to God and mankind to be your best by taking charge of your health and fitness.