The Come Alive Project

Category: Energy Bites

  • Energy Bite 178 – A Less Than Final Word on Motivation

    Since I have  been writing about what motivates people, especially seniors, to exercise and take responsibility for their own health and wellness, I thought I’d go back to George Leonard’s book, The Ultimate Athlete for some good statistics and reasoning about health and fitness. I referred to Leonard’s books often when I first started this blog many moons ago. George Leonard was one of the early pioneers of the Human Potential Movement at the Esalen Institute in the 1970s through the 1990s. He was particularly focused on physical performance and the capabilities of the human body.

    In that book, originally written in 1974, updated in 1990, and again in 2001, he offered some interesting statistics based on a massive survey published in 1973 by the President’s Council on Physical Fitness And Sports. According to this survey,

     “Only 55 percent of all adults in America do any exercise at all. The majority of these reported “walking” as their means of conditioning. Relatively few devoted themselves wholeheartedly to any physical pursuit. When asked why they do exercise, the active 55 percent answered as follows (with some giving more than one reason):

    • 23% – FOR GOOD HEALTH: good for my heart; to keep in shape; to stay in good physical condition; I can breathe better.
    • 18% – GOOD FOR YOU IN GENERAL: make me feel better; good for me; I feel like it’s good for me.
    • 13% – TO LOSE WEIGHT: to keep slim; I like to keep in shape; I’m a little on the heavy side; to flatten my stomach
    • 12% – ENJOYMENT: I like doing it; for pleasure and relaxation; for recreation
    • 3% – MY DOCTOR TOLD ME TO.”

    — The Ultimate Athlete, George Leonard, p. 45

    Leonard goes on to say:

    “Never before in human history has so much information been so widely available about health; the human body; the unity of body, mind and spirit . . . and the profound influence of lifestyle on our health and well being , , , Best of all, more people than ever are engaging in vigorous physical activity mostly for the sheer joy of it.”

    That’s the intrinsic motivation I’ve been writing about the past two weeks.

    But now, the bad news. Leonard cites a U.S. Surgeon General’s report in 2000 that says: “more people now than in the 1970s are sedentary”. And a Tuft’s University study showed that 55 percent of women and 63 percent of men over age twenty-five are obese or overweight. At the time, that was the highest rate ever recorded. Statistics vary today but the the percentages of obesity and chronic illness are worse today than then.

    The fit get fitter and the weak get weaker.

    Leonard said, “What has happened is that the fitness movement has moved millions of people out of the middle toward increased physical activity and body-mind-spirit awareness while technological change and the fast food epidemic has moved other millions out of the middle into decreased physical activity and obesity.”

    I have often said that when I write or speak, I am “speaking to the choir”. Most people who read a blog like this one are already aware of the overall health and wellness benefits of exercise, proper eating and other habits, and are taking responsibility for their own health. Most of us in the 55% that exercise at all, do it “FOR GOOD HEALTH” or because we know it is “GOOD FOR US IN GENERAL”.

    The question is motivation. How can the other 45 percent be motivativated to move their bodies and eat right. Recall that I wrote two weeks ago that only one in seven who are told by their doctor that they will die much earlier if they don’t  exercise and change other habits, will do it. If losing independence, feeling terrible, being far more susceptible to long, lingering, preventable chronic illness, and dying an unpleasant early death isn’t enough to get people started, someone please tell me . . . what is?

    Thank you for reading.

     

     

  • Energy Bite 110 – Capacities to Manipulate the Environment Directly

    Do you live in your own home?  Do you buy your food at the grocery store?  Do you do the things that will make or keep you physically healthy?  If the answer is yes, then you have demonstrated your Capacity to Manipulate Your Environment Directly.

    That ability to “manipulate” your environment is the 6th Attribute in this series of 12 Attributes of Human Functioning that Michael Murphy wrote about in his book The Future of the Body, and discussed in the much more reader friendly book, The Life We are Given, by Michael Murphy and George Leonard.

    What does Murphy mean by Environment?  He defined it, in an early TV interview, as: “physical spaces and the way they influence the way we think, and interact with the world; how natural and man made environments influence human behavior, and how we can manipulate those natural and man made environments to adapt to our evolving wants and needs.

    He includes our own bodies and minds as part of the “environment”, and goes on to write about how we change our physical internal and external environment as a means to evolve.  He uses the term “exceptional functioning” to see into the future as to how we, as humans, will continue to evolve.

    In simple terms, how we manipulate our minds, bodies, activities and surroundings, will determine how we live now, and how we will evolve and live in the future.

    Murphy suggests that even lower animals can manipulate their internal and external environments.  Beavers build houses of sticks and mud.  Bears hibernate in caves in the winter.  Some animals will grow thicker fur in the winter to protect them from the cold.

    Humans control their own internal and external environments on a much higher plane.  We build mansions, automobiles, fly at 35,000 feet above the earth, and some even leave the earth’s atmosphere for a while.  Humans learned to use fire for cooking and for warmth, and now we use electricity and gas for the same functions.  That’s evolving by manipulating the environment according to Murphy.

    Physically, we learn to take care of our bodies , . . or not.  If we do, we feel good, stay slim, and live longer as a rule.  If we don’t . . . well, you know.  We have evolved from foraging for plants, nuts, berries and vegetables, to buying prepackaged food at the grocery stores.  Sometimes manipulating our environment is called “progress”.  Sometimes it’s not.

    As we age, we begin to lose some of the control over where we live and what we eat, and sometimes our ability to drive and stay mobile and independent.  But we can do things for ourselves, physical and mental, that will allow us to control where we live, how we eat and how we get around for much longer than just a few short decades ago.  We have the ability to “manipulate” our personal environment so we live longer, healthier, and happier lives than at any time in history.  It’s up to each of us to do the “manipulation” that will keep us around longer, and to get the most from The Life We are Given.

     Thank you for reading.

     

     

  • Energy Bite 25. Transformation!

    I’ve always liked Werner Erhard. Many of you reading this will remember Werner Erhard as the creator of e.s.t. (Erhard Training Seminars), one of the earliest and most successful of the Personal Development Programs that thrived in the 1970s. Over 750,000 people took the e.s.t. training. As with most people who have been massively successful, Werner Erhard took a lot of criticism for his program, and was pilloried by the press and harassed by the IRS. He was subsequently vindicated on all counts, both in the press and by the IRS. His thoughts rang true back then and still ring true today. Erhard is still around, consulting and speaking mostly.

    There are two quotes by Werner Erhard that particularly stand out in my thinking and I will make them the basis of this blog post. Both are about Transformation. The first is: (more…)