what the body does
03 Jun 2013
(fitness != “working out at the gym”)
While working out is definitely a part of fitness, the inverse is not completely true. Fitness is being physically fit and also being healthy. The latter part of that statement is key to life.
Recently I have fallen in love with fitness of the body and mind. Let me clue you in some stuff I discovered and hopefully you will take away something insightful.
Prana
Many people work out in the morning to get their mind going. For some, it’s a replacement for coffee while others drink coffee with their exercise. Caffeine and exercise dilate blood vessels and allow the pirate ships of oxygen to flow through the brain, muscles, and organs.
When blood flows easier, our minds tend to work better, moods are elevated… life simply flows.
Calisthenics
That is what most yoga classes preach. Yoga has become popular because it is a good form of exercise. In the yogic tradition, the poses that are commonly taught are asanas. These positions enhance the function of muscles and allow the body to function properly. The most important benefit of asanas is something that is rarely talked about, but may be something you have noticed.
The yoga postures were designed to open up the pranic pathways in the body. Working out actually is a pre-requisite to meditation.
Thinking Clearly
When our body is happy with the way we treat it (how we use it, what we put into it) then our mind can work properly. Undistracted.
The more nonsense in our lives and in our bodies, the less sense our mind will make of it all.
Eating Right
Diet is simple. You know what is healthy and what is not. Eat well.
Sleeping Right
Food can weigh down not only your body, but also your mind. Do you know the ‘itis? That’s the feeling after eating a big meal where all you want to do is sleep. That is probably the best thing you can do in such a situation. Hopefully you’ve exerted your body before that big meal, because that ‘itis is your body’s way of telling you it wants you to rest so it can turn that meal into body mass.
This is the first in an on-going series about self-learning. I fear that I am boring my friends to death with my obsessions, so I need a place to write down my thoughts.
Please share your wisdom in comments.