And this months season seems to be personal development. I don't know if it's because I have so much free time, if it's because it's spring, or if it's just because this has always been something I'm passionate about, but I find myself engrossed as of late in the doing part of the doing/being continuum. For the past year or so I've been caught up in the being side, with the occasional doing, in terms of gaining more knowledge. Now, however, I want to do. Do-do. Wow, I'm mature.
Anyway, I know that I'm getting out of hand when I start to look into things like the Neuro-Programmer 2, Home Edition. The program on this site is essentially an audio player that contains several different tracks that supposedly help guide my brain waves to different types (alpha, beta, theta, etc.). I've always been a little skeptical of any of these "listen your way into perfect bliss" sorts of promises1, but this one has a 15 day free trial, so I thought I'd give it a try. Plus, I know for a fact that brain waves have a lot to do with how I experience reality. The question is simply does this technology have the capabilities to manipulate my brain waves. A 15 day experiment it is!
Now to the physical fitness aspect of my self-actualization campaign. Let me start of by making a simple statement: if you're not in peak physical condition, you're not going to be in peak anything else condition. The Self builds up from phsyical to biological to mental to spiritual. Therefore, the physical and biological components lead to and therefore partially control any further levels of development. All that mumbo jumbo basically means: if you want to change something in your life, start out by getting physically fit, and it will be a lot easier for everything else to fall into place.
Fitness and physical exercise aren't things I often blog on, mainly because I don't see how I should have any right to. I'm a relatively fit guy, compared to most Americans, but being above average when the average is in the dumps doesn't mean very much. Plus, I've been a strength training horror story in that I can't gain (muscle) mass for the life of me, and therefore stand the chance of being scoffed at should I provide any fitness advice.
But, disregarding those two caveats, I'm going to go out on a limb now and talk about my recent forays into physical fitness, strength training, and other random fitness things. More specifically, as of late I've been focusing on bodyweight exercises for strength training simply because of the fact that I don't feel I have the equipment to do strenth training with weights. I figure I'm making progress, with the hopes of being able to do 100 pushups and 12 pull-ups within the next three months. Considering just 2 years ago I could do 0 pull-ups, I figure my strength training must be doing something for me, even if it's all neurological training.
While trying to find some good strength training, bodyweight routines, I came across Matt Furey's Combat Conditioning via Paul Salamone2 (he's [Salamone, that is] one of the numerous Integral bloggers I read on a daily basis). Although all the hype looks kind of offputting, the exercises look solid and useful. I've been doing pushups, situps, and pullups (can't you just tell by looking at me :) ), but I think I'll definitely give some of these exercises a try. If all else fails, I can return to my non-exercising self. Well, not really.
Hm, maybe all this inspiration will get me to start practicing martial arts on a regular basis.
All I know is that for me, with exercise, simplicity is key. When I had all these plans and complicated exercises to do, I just didn't do anything. Now that I know that I just want to go for a 30 minute walk or do X number of pushups, motivation comes easy. A lesson, I suppose.
Well, this has turned out to be a rather long post. I suppose it's easy to tell that I'm passionate about stretching myself to max. Passionate about, but still just a side-line to my love of philosophy, science, and chilling with the friends.
Namaste.
1 My main hesitation with such technology is that I might become dependent on it to attain focus, clarity, etc. I suppose as long as I continue to practice meditation, I will maintain my focus. Besides, driving a car doesn't make it impossible to walk, and likewise I don't suppose using this technology would make it harder to think. Even if it is new age whooie, I'll never know until I try it.
2 By the way, if you're at all interested, Paul's 90 Days of ILP chronicles his journey of discovery using the Integral Life Practice Kit . I have to say, the idea behind this kit (which I'm not quite willing to shell out $200 for) has spurred a lot of my personal development exploits in the past few months. Well, that and the ever-conscious Steve Pavlina In fact, I'm even thinking of creating my own personal ILP from all the various practices I've picked up over the years. I might even post it here for your viewing and using pleasure!
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1 comment:
Very interesting and inspiring. Glad you're getting all motivated to get in shape and mentally and physically healthy.
One thing though... about comparing yourself to Americans... or whoever for that matter. Don't do it. The 80th percentile for the mile is 6:06 at our age. I run 5:00. That's about 17% faster than the 80th percentile, and yet, I represent only the average track runner. My point is, never strive to be average. Strive to be your best, wherever it may fall. It may fall at average; it may fall at worst ever. But it also may fall much much higher than you were expecting. Don't go by others; find what you want your standards to be and make them. Be a leader! Woo!
Good luck!
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