Chapter thirteen – Healthy body, healthy mind.
It is all best understood in terms of systems. The physical body is a system, a biological system, a physical system, it houses our info-pro-sys. This physical system requires (consumption of) certain things (such a oxygen, water, and certain proteins and minerals), and should avoid (consumption of) certain things (such as arsenic, carbon monoxide, polluted water), in order to maintain relative health. In short, we should avoid heavily processed foods, and carbohydrate heavy meals, and eliminate as much added sugar from our diet as possible (soft drinks, sweets, and those processed snacks/drinks heavy in sugar). We get the most (and best quality) of stuff our bodies need through eating fresh (and best if raw/lightly cooked) fruits and vegetables, whole grains and nuts. Look around, find out what other people have to say about the human body and the types of things it needs to function with relative health (this is quite important stuff, basic stuff, because we need our body working well so we have the energy to create in mind and shape our physical world).
It is important to maintain physical activity throughout life. Remember the principle of rhythm; if we do not use our body it fades away (atrophies), our muscles become useless, and it becomes harder to do certain things we may need or want to do. When we are active we swing the pendulum the other way, we move from fading to strengthening, defining our physical body. Ideally we should gain the physical activity we need as we go about our life; there should be no need for ‘exercise’ (no point in doing certain activities for no other reason than to work out the physical body – unless you want your body particularly strengthened for some reason, maybe you want to be an All Black, or a champion shearer?).
The key to maintaining our physical body is posture; meaning that focusing on your physical posture is a great way to subtly exercise. Tai chi you life =). The practice of Tai chi essentially involves performing martial arts moves in slow motion (pretty cool in itself). Well, slow motion is a bit of an understatement. It is taught to ‘move through the motion’. Instead of just thrusting your arms into a certain position, controlling the movement of muscles to change the physical body from one stance to the next. It is this principle we can all bring into our life – tai chi life.
Find you desired posture (shoulders back, chest out, chin up – do some research and explore your movements until you find it). Spend a few weeks trying to remember this posture every second of the day, notice when your posture changes from that ideal you have set, and change back to where you desire. With practice and time our desired posture will become default, meaning that we will no longer have to think to maintain it; this posture will become usual, and changes from it few (and usually as immediate reactions to situations). While, and to help in, developing our desired posture we can bring the practice of undertaking our movements in a slow and controlled manner. Cooking dinner, cleaning, mending/fixing things, any part of our usual lives about the home; all tasks can be done as a development of our physical body – tai chi life.
As below, so above. The key to maintaining our mental self (mental world –that which we experience within mind) is posture; meaning that focusing on your mental posture is a great way to mentally exercise. Meditate/mindfulness your life =). Maybe that doesn’t work as well as ‘tai chi life’, but the principle is the same. Perspective is something we grow with experience, information. Our experience within mind is the most important thing in the world, it shapes who we become; if we do not control our mind we do not control who we become.
There are two aspects to personal ‘control’ of the mind. One is the development of the tools of mind, such as the ability for logic, reason, abstract thought, etc, the other is the development of spiritual connection through meditation/mindfulness practice. Development and maintenance of the first is important generally, although without the second the tools of the mind are prone to be used by our emotional drives (leading to fantasies and behaviours; most of which may be benign, although some of which we are not proud of). Through meditative and mindfulness practice we develop the aspect, the state, of mind in which we are able to accept and obey the subtle influence of our essence (this is wisdom holding the reins of mind).
This is only words placed in order to convey meaning, and all this is meaningless if you do nothing to demonstrate understanding. To see where you are at now, how your information processing system is operating (relative polarisation and even emotional dominance), try and clear your mind for 30 seconds. Find somewhere quiet, no external distractions (no TV, radio, people immediately talking), and let go of all thoughts. Give this a go for ten minutes or so and see what you find.
How easy/hard was it? Were you able to make ten seconds? Many people find it hard to go even a few seconds without that voice talking away within mind. We are somewhat socialised to identify with that voice in our head, to deeply ‘feel’ that it has something to do with ‘who we are’ (while in reality that voice in our head has as much to do with ‘who we are’ as the clothes we wear on our body). Did you take notice of the quality, the emotional base, of the thoughts that entered your mind? Were they fear based (anger, pride, contempt, boredom, etc – isolating, drawing away), or were your thoughts driven by curiosity, a drive to explore, to grow (connecting, drawing together)?
While it is suggested you further explore the concept of meditation (and mindfulness), especially from different perspectives (such as meditation in Buddhism, Christianity, or from a non-religious perspective), we shall go over a brief outline. Meditation is an activity which involves shifting perspective from ‘within’ mind (as part of, identified by, the contents of mind) to that of observer (of the contents of mind). An analogy of a river is often made. Imagine a meadow with a river running through it; the river represents the contents of mind, while the meadow represents the entirety of mind. The contents pass through mind quickly, never pausing, always moving. When we identify with the thoughts, believing that they are who we are, our perspective is from down within the water of the river (we live in a mental world in which we are (our attention is) constantly swept away with thought patterns driven by basic emotional responses, such as bigotry, racism, sexism, greed, lust, gluttony, depression, anxiety, boredom, etc).
The practice of mediation, of clearing all the thoughts from our mind, entering a state of mental calmness and detachment from the chattering aspect of self, is like swimming toward the surface of the river and climbing out onto the bank to exist in a state of peace, where we have a better perspective of what is going on. Mindfulness is supplementary to meditation; while with meditation we can focus on just clearing all thoughts from mind, we can also use the process to explore the nature of our thoughts –the connections between ideas/beliefs (basically emotional/sensory/language glyphs). We do this to develop knowledge about what triggers (emotional base and things/situations within the physical world) lead to the thoughts/behaviours we want to change – develop a plan for change, and work to make that plan reality.
Throughout our day we can remember to notice how we react to things within our head; what were the thoughts and, more importantly, what was the emotional response that drove those thoughts after you experienced that situation, person, behaviour, thing, idea, etc. Are these the emotional responses (and beliefs/ideas) you want driving your processing system? Remember that everything we experience becomes a part of us. So all those emotional responses (and associated concepts) stimulated from experiencing corporate media, entertainment (suspense/anxiety, lustfulness, etc), advertising, etc, they shape the emotional (and conceptual) aspect of your information processing. Whomever controls the eyes controls the mind.
Walk the path to greater silence in mind, spend the time and effort to learn and apply the knowledge needed to enter the desired state. In doing so we confront the prominent emotional drives and concepts (belief systems) which have developed to dominate our info-pro-sys (and therefore shape thoughts and behaviours). We slowly take the time to explore within mind and go through (reflect upon – bring conscious) the personality (emotional/sensory/language – conceptual self) we have developed through experience – with the ultimate purpose of moving forward, toward greater understanding of our universal existence.