Category: Senior Fitness

How strong is the Life Force within you?  How powerful is the Vitality that keeps you burning with Personal Energy?

Vitality is number four in this series on the 12 Attributes of Human Functioning, from the book, The Future of the Body, by Michael Murphy, and The Life We Are Given by Michael Murphy and George Leonard.

Vitality – from Webster’s New World Dictionary:  Mental or physical vigor; energy.  Same as Vital Force,  a basic force or principle regarded as the source and cause of life.  Power to live or go on living.

Vitality is life.  Vitality is derived from the Latin, Vite which means life. Vitality refers to the deep, inner energy, drawn directly from Source, that provides you with life itself; the life force within you.

An often used word that means Vitality and Life Force, is “Chi” (Chinese) or “Ki” (Japanese).  Chi refers to Life Force and often is referred to as “the breath of life”.  Here’s the connection:  One of the synonyms for Vitality, found in my well worn Thesaurus, is “Steam”.  Interestingly the Chinese and Japanese ideogram for Chi represents steam coming from a teapot, reflecting the breath and vitality of life.

Vitality is manifested by action, inner strength, outward strength.  It is expressed in your bearing, your presence, how you carry yourself, and in the Energy and Enthusiasm that you exhibit.

Interestingly, one of the most noticeable manifestations of vitality is in your voice. And one of the first signs of aging is the loss of vocal power.  A public example of this was Ronald Reagan, former President of the United States, and a man with a body and voice filled with vitality and energy.  As he aged and his body and mind deteriorated from the effects of age and Alzheimer’s, his voice became noticeably weaker and less resonant.  Charles Fillmore, founder of the Unity Church, and one whom I quote often, wrote in his book, The 12 Powers of Man (another 12 somethings to read about), that “When one feels vital and energetic, the voice is strong and vibrant and brilliant.  When one is sorrowful, the body weakens, and the voice betrays its lack by its mournful intonation.”

Paul Harvey, the well loved radio commentator was active and vital right up until he died in 2009 at age 91.  He was still broadcasting until shortly before his death, speaking with a clear and resonant voice that was just barely beginning to weaken.  He often attributed his vitality to the power of exercise and how he would carry twenty pound dumbells with him when he traveled . . . and actually use them.

As we age, our physical strength and our voice are usually the first to go.  We can delay that loss of vitality through movement and exercise, good food choices, oxygen intake through proper breathing, and keeping our voice strong through breathing well and using  the muscles of our diaphragm and abdomen.   And active engagement and involvement in life vs. the passivity that often accompanies aging, is critical to maintaining the Life Force that keeps us alive and healthy until the end.

Thank you for reading.

What do you say when you talk to yourself in various situations?  How do you communicate “who you are” to others?

This is the third in a series of articles about the 12 Attributes of Human Functioning as proposed by Michael Murphy in his book The Future of the Human Body, and listed in his popular book, The Life We Are Given, which he co-authored with George Leonard.  It is about the Attribute of Communication.

Being able to speak and communicate with others necessary to coexist with people.  The words you use and how you say them are important.  Simply being able to give directions or answer questions, convey a message, or carry on a conversation with others is critical for basic interaction.  In fact your ability to communicate with your friends and peers is one of the aspects of longevity mentioned by Dan Buettner, in his book, Blue Zones.

But just as important, if not more so, is the way you answer these two questions. First, how do you communicate with yourself?  And, second, How do you communicate yourself to others?

When you “self-talk” or communicate with yourself, do you ask questions like:  “Am I too old to do this?” or tell yourself: “I’m don’t know how to do this, so I won’t bother with it.”  Or do you challenge yourself with, “I can do that, here’s what I have to do or learn” or do you say, “I may be old, but I can learn that.  No problem!”  Both the questions you ask yourself and the way you answer yourself, reflect the way you feel about yourself in general.  What you think and say to yourself determines the way you experience your life.

The other form of communication is about how you communicate yourself to others.  How do others see you?  How do they perceive who you are?  How you come across to others is communicated by:

Your posture – Your posture is one of the first things people see about you and it affects the way people perceive you.  As you age, good posture can become a challenge.  But poor posture can be corrected if caught early enough with conscious attention.  Your posture reflects not only your physical health, it also reflects your overall attitude toward yourself and your life.

Your facial expressions – your facial expressions reflect your internal energy as well as what and how you are thinking at any given moment.  Your facial expression when you speak to another person is often a mirror of your internal personal energy as well as communicating your belief in what you’re saying.

Your vocal tonality – this is far more important than most people think.  The way you use your voice expresses your inner feelings more than anything you do or say.  If you come across with a vital, strong voice, people are likely to perceive your strength and conviction.  If you whine, simper, or speak in a monotone, you convey a message of weakness, and often boredom.

Your overall enthusiasm expresses the personal energy you feel within, and communicates that energy to others around you.  Enthusiasm is derived from the Greek En Theos and means “The Spirit (or the Divinity) within”.

In fact all of the above are expressions of your personal energy and your personal convictions, and communicate “you” to others every bit as much, if not more, than the actual words you use.

As Roger Ailes, the founder of Fox News, and former political consultant says: “You are the Message”.  Do the messages you convey to yourself and to others, reflect a Celebration of Life, or are you perceived as a constant complainer.   Do you have a Positive or a Negative Outlook toward the future?    Are you an energizer, or do you drain your own energy or the energy of others by your self-communication and attitude.

Charles Fillmore, the co-founder of the Unity Church was reported as saying as he got out of bed one morning at age 94, “I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm, and I spring forth with a mighty faith to do the things that ought to be done by me.”  That’s pretty strong self-talk for someone just getting out of bed.   Eric Butterworth, a Unity minister who wrote a great deal about Charles Fillmore said that “this spirit was reflected in his (Fillmore’s) life, where he was too busy and too excited about growing onward to grow old.”

Thank you for reading.

Want to improve your golf swing?  Can you tell when you start to fall?  Today’s article will give you some insight about how you feel your body.

This is the second article in a series based on The Twelve Attributes of Human Functioning which Michael Murphy wrote about in his book, The Future of the Body, and as listed in the book The Life We are Given, which he co-authored with George Leonard.  Last week I wrote about the first attribute, The Perception of External Events.  Today I write about Attribute number two, Somatic/Kinesthetic Awareness.

Kinesthetic Awareness refers to the body’s ability to sense its own movement and relative position in space.  It is often used in conjunction with the term Proprioception which refers mostly to the body’s sense of its own parts and what they are doing.  The terms are often used interchangeably but there are differences.  Kinesthetic Awareness refers to the ability to coordinate motion to perform an activity.  An example would be a gymnast or a dancer.  Both  must know their position in space at all times, and what their bodies need to do to move around in that space to perform a movement.

Why is it important to older adults?  Because it is something we lose without practice, and without that awareness, we are subject to injury.  For example our inner ear’s ability to provide the brain with information about gravity, direction of movement, speeding up or slowing down of movement, prevents disorientation, loss of balance and loss of stability.  As we age, we lose this kinesthetic awareness if we don’t do something about it.  What do we do about it?  We practice moving our bodies through various positions, and do specific exercises to improve our balance.  Practicing standing on one leg with our eyes both open and closed is the granddaddy of balance exercises.

On a more pleasant note, Kinesthetic Awareness provides feedback to our brain so that we can improve our golf swing, throw a ball better, even put up groceries on shelves.  It takes practice.

It’s also important in the way we carry ourselves on a daily basis.  If our mind gets used to slouching, we will slouch.  We can correct that by reprogramming our mind and body, and making a determined mental and physical effort to improve our posture.  Physical disciplines such as the Feldenkrais Method or The Alexander Method of body movement training, will go a long way to improve our posture.  Both are based on the improvement of Kinesthetic Awareness and are easily performed by active older adults.  But being aware of our posture at all times and making corrections to improve it, will work for most of us.

Michael Murphy, in his 800 plus page book, The Future of the Body takes a more esoteric approach to Somatic/Kinesthetic Awareness.  He uses the term Somatic Awareness to refer to our ability to feel our body, perhaps better expressed as feeling the Experience of our Body.  Murphy writes that our bodies are always talking to us and suggests that we are all capable of some extraordinary bodily experiences when performing at our peak level.  He mentions that some runners, when performing at their maximum, have experienced seeing their own internal organs and being able to work with them.  He also claims that these “experiences” can be developed in normal people through fitness training, martial arts, meditation, biofeedback, and even prayer.  Really?  Hmm.

I do know that if we exercise, train our balance, and become aware of what is going on inside and outside our bodies, we can become more aware of what is going on around us in everyday life . . .  and can improve that everyday life for the better.  We can avoid falls, prevent injury and have more fun with our physical movement.  That’s all we really need to know.

Thank you for reading.