As I have said, I have not really been enjoying the sitting around waiting for my legs to heal. So, I got myself to the gym the other day and did a little bit of of upper body work, though I could still feel it in my legs the following day. Not bad though. And then I had the stitches taken out by family on Sunday, so tonight I went again and did more upper body stuff. So far so good, but the real tests can't start for a few weeks when I can put more pressure on the legs. Doing upper body stuff sucks, but I am of the mind that if there is a problem with one part of the body, it shouldn't stop the exercising other parts.
In the time I have been away from the gym for a few weeks, they actually shut the gym for a few days and reorganised all of the equipment, so they can introduce some new classes. This is good, because while I don't generally go to classes, my wife hates going to lift weights. She prefers the classes. But, the new classes are weights classes, in the gym, rather than in the room where they normally hold group classes. Now she is forced to go. Well, not forced - but far more likely.
Lifting heavy things is healthy.
There are so many benefits to putting in the work lifting weights, especially for women, because it builds bone density which becomes far more important later in life. Not only that, lift weights well and do compound exercises, and the muscles, tendons, and all the other bits align and function better together, improving coordination and balance - again key for health in older age. One of the simplest things we can do to improve our quality of life when we are older, is make sure our bodies are as balanced as they can be.
It doesn't take much.
It does take consistency though, which is what most of us struggle with in many aspects of our life when it comes to anything that takes work, or discomfort, or is boring, or requires effort... The easiest things we can do is of course, what is fun and enjoyable, tastes good and we can do without even having to try. They just happen to be predominantly the bad things for us - the things that are going to cost us our future health, and the opportunities that comes with it.
It really is very easy.
And if you have the dedication, you don't need to go to a gym at all, if you don't want to. One of the fittest people I have seen is a guy who was borderline homeless in Australia, who would work out along the esplanade in the city, doing push-ups and chin-ups where he could, dips on walls and squats - and lifting rocks. Seriously - random rocks on the beach.
Fit - and happy.
While there is a lot of variation in experience, I feel I am somewhat qualified to talk about ill health, because I have spent a full two-thirds of my life with chronic illness so far. Not only that, the stroke I had gave me a very good look at how mental degradation feels, and it isn't pleasant. Sure, most people have it happen slowly in older age, but it is still going to suck a lot.
We aren't very good at predicting how we are going to feel about something in the future, especially when doing so takes away from our monetary pleasure now. Most smokers wish they never started, but most have also resigned themselves to keep smoking, because quitting is hard. Do they think the same if they have lung cancer and are in constant pain? Some might, but I bet the majority would have never started if they knew what it felt like then. Perhaps this is what AI and augmented reality can provide -
What it feels like to live in a body that is riddled with disease.
All the pain and suffering, the loss in capability, the costs of healthcare, the loss of work, the impact on relationships. If a twenty year old could truly experience that feeling, would they do a better job of looking after themselves?
Imagine living for a decade in the life of someone who is retired, but living in poverty, having to chase money from government handouts, make extreme choices at the shops, deal with the bills, calling to postpone payments, asking for help from children and family. Perhaps that simulation could be possible in the future, using the dream wiring that can elongate time and squeeze large amounts of experience into minutes.
But you know what would happen...
Rather than teaching us how to be better humans, we would use it to avoid having to deal with the degradation. We would immerse ourselves into a reality where we look and feel great, doing as we please in a fantasy world in our mind, while our body wastes away, fed with tubes, harvested for electricity and fed back into the system as energy when it eventually collapses totally.
We would choose the blue pill.
We choose it now.
Every time we pick up our phone and scroll, or sit down in front of the TV, we are making a choice to take another blue pill, a choice to avoid the truth of our reality. Sure, this sounds extreme, but that is what we are doing, and the more we do it, the more addicted we become, because the alternative gets more unsightly, more difficult to deal with, further from where we ant to be.
Avoidance is convenient.
But there is always a cost to the opportunity to avoid, just as there is a cost to the opportunity to engage. But the thing that makes avoidance so easy, is that the return is immediate and it is the cost that is postponed, delayed, kicked down the road to the future us, the one we are not good at predicting feelings for. The cost of engagement is felt right now, and the payback on the work is in the uncertain future, the one where it is easy to say "I could get hit by a bus tomorrow, so spend and enjoy now".
Not many people get hit by buses.
Most will live the average length of time. But the quality of that time isn't built at that time. It is an investment made well in the past, whether it be physical, emotional, social, or financial. We all live in the "now" because it is the only place living can exist, so it is a stupid thing for anyone to really stake their claim to. However, the future is full of "now" also, like the one between this word, and this one.
You lived through it, from one point to the next.
In a space that actually has no points, and no time at all. But we don't need to become philosophical about life and the now, in order to have a higher quality of experience in all the nows to come - we just have to do what is likely to help us live that better life. It doesn't mean killing all moments in a grey mass of work until times are better. It is about having better times now doing what happens to also improve us for the future.
That is the red pill.
The one where we disengage from being entertained as a way to live, and engage with living an entertaining life, where what we value is what makes us better, not what keeps us from being better.
Is it so hard?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Be part of the Hive discussion.
- Comment on the topics of the article, and add your perspectives and experiences.
- Read and discuss with others who comment and build your personal network
- Engage well with me and others and put in effort
And you may be rewarded.