“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
- Leo Tolstoy.
Last week, I touched upon the need to revisit our reasons for making choices in our lives, whether it is going to a gym, going on a diet, choosing a path for your life, or deciding whether or not to marry someone.
The question is, after we revisit our reasons, what process are we going to employ to be able to make better choices?
Basically our values; what we think important in life, is one compass that we can use to point us to our priorities, however most of us aren’t even clear on what our values or priorities are.
The perspectives of Taoism and Abraham Maslow/Carl Rogers’ Humanistic psychology complement each other and offer a basic answer.
These two views (small bias toward the Taoist view) believe one’s hierarchy of focus should be self, environment, loved ones, and passions/talents, these all give aid in developing one’s full potential as a human being.
Rogers maintains that we behave as we do because of the way we perceive our situation. "As no one else can know how we perceive, we are the best experts on ourselves."
Rogers’ position is that when someone is in touch with the here and now, and his or her subjective experiences and feelings are continually growing and changing, one is creating an environment to be self-actualized.
Taoists, on the other, hand focuses attention on the mind and body through diet, exercises, and mindfulness and stresses conserving personal energy for one’s own health and longevity instead of focusing too much on society’s many energy draining “distractions”.
If you are in touch with yourself; and learn to understand and ultimately trust your feelings, instincts and gut-reactions, you will know what’s right or wrong for your body or your life for that matter, it won’t be about blindly following what someone else says because they are the “authority”.
If you are in touch, you will instinctively understand what you are lacking or what you are overindulging.
It applies to your loved ones as well; if you are in touch with your loved ones and pay close attention you will develop an instinct to be sensitive to their needs.
Our relationship to our environment whether natural or man made follows this principle as well.
Case Study: MARTINO.
People seem genuinely shocked when they see me sore from a workout, working on a kink in my neck or back or sniffling due to a cold, It’s as if the requirements for become a fitness coach were accelerated healing, super strength and an inability to get annoyed.
To the contrary, I am as human as anyone else, I have to work hard on maintaining my fitness even after 35 years of regular physical activity, compared to my agility, speed, and endurance, my strength is disturbingly lacking, I often have issues with eating the right way with regards to what I want to accomplish and my emotional shortcomings are many.
Physically:
My activities as an aging breaker and martial artist along with my bad posture and poor sleeping position have begun to catch up with me. The years of abuse have caused my neck , shoulders, rhomboids and groin to be in spasm frequently, leading to headaches on occasion.
I’m hoping that once I give up the activities (in time) the discomfort won’t be so bad.
Nutritionally:
I don’t cigarettes or weed, I don’t drink alcohol (not wine, not beer, not even wine cooler, blech!), Cake or ice cream, I’ll have a bit occasionally, but will pass most of the time.
BUT SODA!!!
It is no secret that I am a COLD soda junkie. It is a fight I acknowledge every day, Chubby (jeez! THAT should be illegal!), D & G Kola Champagne and now they got these brilliant Trini drinks, Apple J and Angostura Lemon Lime & Bitters. I try not to indulge, except if I’m eating out with friends or get offered a drink, if everyone’s drinking. Sometimes I fall off the wagon, but I fight to get back on, and I’m ok for a time… ah boy..smh.
Emotionally:
A couple of years ago, I wrote about an episode of high blood pressure that I tackled. That was about 5 years ago, since then it’s been a litmus test for reflecting on my current behavioral patterns. My blood pressure fluctuates between normal and mild hypertension regularly.
My personality may be an indication. The combination of tendencies to maintain relatively high standards with my undertakings, my obsession with understanding the mysteries of the human condition, my compulsion to always question the status quo and my need to be a “fixer” puts me in a state of constant elevated stress which as you can imagine does wonders for my blood pressure, not helping is my deplorable 5 hours a day sleep habit.
Bad habits over time WILL eventually catch up with you and you’ll have to pay the piper i.e. suffer the consequences.
Whether it’s bad squatting, bad posture, treating people badly, putting garbage in your body , investing in destructive relationships or living in New Kingston (hee hee). You have to be watchful on every level to ensure that our behavior and habits reflect what we really want in the long run.
We are all beautiful works in progress but an awareness building process will give us the direction we need in our lives.
Have a great week,
Train hard and have fun.
P.S. For those of you who have neck pain due to bad sleeping position I've attached a picture to show how pillow positioning can help...
- Leo Tolstoy.
Last week, I touched upon the need to revisit our reasons for making choices in our lives, whether it is going to a gym, going on a diet, choosing a path for your life, or deciding whether or not to marry someone.
The question is, after we revisit our reasons, what process are we going to employ to be able to make better choices?
Basically our values; what we think important in life, is one compass that we can use to point us to our priorities, however most of us aren’t even clear on what our values or priorities are.
The perspectives of Taoism and Abraham Maslow/Carl Rogers’ Humanistic psychology complement each other and offer a basic answer.
These two views (small bias toward the Taoist view) believe one’s hierarchy of focus should be self, environment, loved ones, and passions/talents, these all give aid in developing one’s full potential as a human being.
Rogers maintains that we behave as we do because of the way we perceive our situation. "As no one else can know how we perceive, we are the best experts on ourselves."
Rogers’ position is that when someone is in touch with the here and now, and his or her subjective experiences and feelings are continually growing and changing, one is creating an environment to be self-actualized.
Taoists, on the other, hand focuses attention on the mind and body through diet, exercises, and mindfulness and stresses conserving personal energy for one’s own health and longevity instead of focusing too much on society’s many energy draining “distractions”.
If you are in touch with yourself; and learn to understand and ultimately trust your feelings, instincts and gut-reactions, you will know what’s right or wrong for your body or your life for that matter, it won’t be about blindly following what someone else says because they are the “authority”.
If you are in touch, you will instinctively understand what you are lacking or what you are overindulging.
It applies to your loved ones as well; if you are in touch with your loved ones and pay close attention you will develop an instinct to be sensitive to their needs.
Our relationship to our environment whether natural or man made follows this principle as well.
Case Study: MARTINO.
People seem genuinely shocked when they see me sore from a workout, working on a kink in my neck or back or sniffling due to a cold, It’s as if the requirements for become a fitness coach were accelerated healing, super strength and an inability to get annoyed.
To the contrary, I am as human as anyone else, I have to work hard on maintaining my fitness even after 35 years of regular physical activity, compared to my agility, speed, and endurance, my strength is disturbingly lacking, I often have issues with eating the right way with regards to what I want to accomplish and my emotional shortcomings are many.
Physically:
My activities as an aging breaker and martial artist along with my bad posture and poor sleeping position have begun to catch up with me. The years of abuse have caused my neck , shoulders, rhomboids and groin to be in spasm frequently, leading to headaches on occasion.
I’m hoping that once I give up the activities (in time) the discomfort won’t be so bad.
Nutritionally:
I don’t cigarettes or weed, I don’t drink alcohol (not wine, not beer, not even wine cooler, blech!), Cake or ice cream, I’ll have a bit occasionally, but will pass most of the time.
BUT SODA!!!
It is no secret that I am a COLD soda junkie. It is a fight I acknowledge every day, Chubby (jeez! THAT should be illegal!), D & G Kola Champagne and now they got these brilliant Trini drinks, Apple J and Angostura Lemon Lime & Bitters. I try not to indulge, except if I’m eating out with friends or get offered a drink, if everyone’s drinking. Sometimes I fall off the wagon, but I fight to get back on, and I’m ok for a time… ah boy..smh.
Emotionally:
A couple of years ago, I wrote about an episode of high blood pressure that I tackled. That was about 5 years ago, since then it’s been a litmus test for reflecting on my current behavioral patterns. My blood pressure fluctuates between normal and mild hypertension regularly.
My personality may be an indication. The combination of tendencies to maintain relatively high standards with my undertakings, my obsession with understanding the mysteries of the human condition, my compulsion to always question the status quo and my need to be a “fixer” puts me in a state of constant elevated stress which as you can imagine does wonders for my blood pressure, not helping is my deplorable 5 hours a day sleep habit.
Bad habits over time WILL eventually catch up with you and you’ll have to pay the piper i.e. suffer the consequences.
Whether it’s bad squatting, bad posture, treating people badly, putting garbage in your body , investing in destructive relationships or living in New Kingston (hee hee). You have to be watchful on every level to ensure that our behavior and habits reflect what we really want in the long run.
We are all beautiful works in progress but an awareness building process will give us the direction we need in our lives.
Have a great week,
Train hard and have fun.
P.S. For those of you who have neck pain due to bad sleeping position I've attached a picture to show how pillow positioning can help...
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