The Come Alive Project

Tag: senior fitness

  • Energy Bite 342 – Your Physiology and Your Energy

    Tony Robbins, the Personal Development Guru says, “Your Physiology determines your ‘state’”. He’s right for the most part. Your physiology can indeed determine the way you feel and contributes mightily to your attitude abut life. A depressed stance is bent over, shuffling along, head down. An upbeat attitude occurs when you are standing straight with good posture, head, neck and shoulders up, and looking like the world is yours.

    “It’s difficult to feel down when you’re looking up.” — Me.

    Physiology is your posture, breathing pattern, facial expression, the way you move, etc. You have complete control over your physiology.

    It’s true. Try it. When you are feeling down, deliberately straighten your posture, hold your head high, pull in your stomach, and put a smile — better yet a grin — on your face. It’s hard to feel bad when you do that. You’ll find your mood improves immediately. It won’t last forever, but it’s a start.

    You can’t maintain that physiology for long without physical energy. Your body will revert to it’s original slump if you don’t have the energy to maintain your posture and bearing. And as a senior, it isn’t always easy to do anyway.

    The better physical condition you are in, the easier it is to change to a positive physiology. If your core is weak, you can’t hold your posture. If you don’t breathe deeply and move, your circulation won’t rush the blood and oxygen to your cells to provide you with the physical energy you need.

    And the exercise it takes to get into that kind of condition releases all those endorphins and “feel good chemicals” into your body and you can’t help but improve your overall attitude toward life. Your physical movement, how you breathe, what you eat, and how you stand, all affect your view of the outside world. It also affects the way the outside world views you.

    People can transform themselves through a change in physiology. A change in fundamental physiology will do wonders to help discover the Fountain of Youth within each of us. Some will do it. Some won’t. Stand up straight and move your body. Your world will be better for it. So will ours.

    Thank you for reading. 

  • Energy Bite 341 – Be Like Water, Redux

    I was going back through some old blog posts the other day and came up with an article I had written three years ago. As I read back through it, I realized that many of the things I wrote about as being in the future, twenty years from then — are already beginning to happen. So, I am repeating that article below:

    BE LIKE WATER

    What will life be like if we live another 20 years.  What must we do to adapt to the major changes coming. We must learn to “be like water”.

    As I was drifting  into sleep the other night, I started thinking about clarity of purpose, identity and how they are affected by exponential change. I am 77 years old [remember this was three years ago]. Let’s assume I will live to 97 years old. What will life be like at the end of those 20 years? I jumped up and wrote some notes; some are incorporated below.

    The world will change greatly during that time. Some suggest that the World will undergo some major environmental, social and political changes during that period, many of which will go against existing values and attitudes. Some suggest that our lives will become far more institutionally managed and our personal lives will be subject to more institutional regulation. Others say we will have more individual freedom and less regulation. How does one adapt to either? By adapting to it; by “being like water”. Sounds simple. So, what does it all involve?

    Technology will advance exponentially. We will probably reach a couple of technology plateaus, but it will still continue forward. Driverless cars. Pilotless airplanes. Space travel. Telepathic communication (”Beam me up, Scotty:). Lots of Star Trek and Star Wars style changes. What other changes will we get to see during our lifetime?. Look at what has happened in the last 20 years. Major communications changes. Major social changes, some good, some not so good. Some really pushing the envelope. Greater World Community and cooperation is probable. It’s all brand new to a 20 year old, but somewhat disruptive to a 77 year old, or even a 50 year old.

    Trying to project the future is nearly impossible. Being ready to adapt to the future is critical. How to adapt? Learn. Pay attention to trends – social and business. Continue to think entrepreneurially, and be prepared to shift your thinking quickly. Don’t get boxed into one thing. Be open to new things. Be healthy and physically fit. Learn and adapt to new technology. I think we can adapt just fine. We may not like all of it but we’ll learn to live with all the changes that are taking us into the future.

    HAVE FUN WITH LIFE. COME ALIVE, FEEL ALIVE, BE ALIVE! Don’t let the world take you down. Get into the FLOW OF LIFE and let it carry you.  IT COULD BE ONE HELL OF A RIDE! As BRUCE LEE said: “BE LIKE WATER!” Learn to adjust to the ebb and flow of life. Flow into the nooks and crannies of life. Water flows. Water adapts to the environment it is in. Water can destroy a town, or lie dormant as a stagnant pond. Bruce Lee said:

    “Water is the softest substance in the world, yet it can penetrate the hardest. Water is so fine that it is impossible to grasp a handful of it; strike it, yet it does not suffer hurt; stab it, and it is not wounded; sever it, yet it is not divided. It has no shape of its own, but molds itself to the receptacle that contains it. Be like water.”

    Whatever the world will look like in 20 years, we must be physically, mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually prepared for it. We will be if we just: BE LIKE WATER.

    Thank you for reading.

  • Energy Bite 340 – What’s it REALLY all about?

    Not long ago I read a 1987 book called, Body Worry by an overweight, overfed and under exercised writer named Remar Sutton. He took off from his job to spend a year getting in shape, and to become a “hunk” with bulging muscles, and writing about it as he went along. He wrote a series of articles published in the Washington Post among other publications examining his experiences and commenting on them. Some of you will remember those articles.

    He said he was totally focused on his looks and overall appearance and health was not his major concern. He wanted muscles.

    So, he packed up and ran off to the Bahamas for a year in the sun and a year of exercise, working with a team of high powered medical and fitness experts to reshape his body into a muscular Adonis.

    But, sometime during his journey, he realized that he was not going to become the super muscled hunk he wanted to be. Instead, he found that with exercise, he would realize his goal of becoming a good looking “hunk”, but rather than having the huge, bulging muscles he started out wanting, he developed a lean, toned body and was filled with an energy and vitality he never experienced before.

    Why is all that relevant? Well, it simply emphasizes what this blog and The Come Alive Project is all about.

    So, What Is It All About?

    These articles are not about having big, bulging muscles or running an ultra-marathon, or being “SuperSenior” or anything close to that. Instead, they are about you having a toned, fit and healthy body along with the energy and vitality that will help keep your mind and body functioning at a high level — longer than normal. It’s about you having the physical ability to do the things you want to do, and remaining independent for as long as you live. It’s about you enjoying feeling alive.

    It’s about being as strong and fit at 70 as you were at 50. It’s about keeping your old body young and healthy, and keeping your mind active and alert.

    It’s about being able to get out of a chair or getting up from the floor easily and gracefully.

    It’s about being able to keep your balance and avoid falling.

    It’s about being able to look in the mirror and saying: “I like what I see”.

    It’s about coming alive and enjoying your senior life with the energy and vitality to enjoy the experience. It’s about being able to say to yourself today and ten years from today, “I look and feel alive!”

    That’s what it’s all about.

    I hope you get something from these short articles and I thank you for taking the time to read them.

    And as you read these articles, always remember to:

    Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”    — Bruce Lee

    Thank you for reading.