Hans Selye’s – Prescription for enjoying a full life

Posted on August 27, 2009 by Josh

Here’s Hans Selye’s “prescription for enjoying a full life,” from his book “Stress Without Distress,” pp. 134-135

“We have seen that the stress of frustration is particularly harmful. Man, with his highly developed central nervous system, is especially vulnerable to psychic insults, and there are various little tricks to minimize these. Here are a few that I have found useful:

Even if you systematically want to hoard love, don’t waste your time trying to befriend a mad dog.

Admit that there is no perfection, but in each category of achievement something is tops; be satisfied to strive for that.

Do not underestimate the delight of real simplicity in your life style. Avoidance of all affectations and unnecessary complications earns as much goodwill and love as pompous artificiality earns dislike.

Whatever situation you meet in life, consider first whether it is really worth fighting for. Do not forget what Nature has taught us about the importance of carefully adjusting syntoxic and catatoxic attitudes to any problems of a cell, a man, or even a society.

Try to keep your mind constantly on the pleasant aspects of life and on actions which can improve your situation. Try to forget everything that is irrevocably ugly or painful. This is perhaps the most efficient way of minimizing stress by what I have called voluntary mental diversion. As a wise German proverb says, ‘Imitate the sundial’s ways/Count only the pleasant days.’

Nothing paralyzes your efficiency more than frustration: nothing helps it more than success. Even after the greatest defeats the depressing thought of being a failure is best combatted by taking stock of all your past achievements which no one can deny you. Such conscious stock-taking is most effective in re-establishing the self-confidence necessary for future success. There is something even in the most modest career that we are proud to recall – you would be surprised to see how much this can help when everything seems hopeless.

When faced with a task which is very painful yet indispensable to achieve your aim, don’t procrastinate; cut right into an abscess to eliminate the pain, instead of prolonging it by gently rubbing the surface.

Realize that men are not created equal, though they should, of course, have a birthright to equal opportunities. After birth, in a free society, their performance should determine their progress. There will always be leaders and followers, but the leaders are worth keeping only as long as they can serve the followers by acquiring their love, respect, and gratitude.

Finally, do not forget that there is no ready-made success formula which would suit everybody. We are all different and so are our problems. The only thing we have in common is our subordination to those fundamental biological laws which govern all living beings, including man. Hence, I think a natural code of behavior based on nonspecific mechanisms of adaptation comes closest to what can be offered as a general guideline for conduct.”

OCD-land

Posted on August 27, 2009 by Josh

I’m convinced that one of, if not the, defining element of current American (US) culture is OCD/ADHD.

It’s everywhere. People want to count calories, count repetitions, count weight, count volume, count miles run, count times, compare times, compare weights, compare reps, compare sets, count cancer cases, count bees, count count count count.

And it doesn’t change anything. In fact, I’m not sure it does much at all, other than to perpetuate the counting.

Let’s take exercise as an example, since that’s what this blog is purportedly about.

Do you burn more calories when playing a game on a playground than you do on a treadmill [most likely]? What is the optimal work/rest interval to burn the most calories (on the playground or on the treadmill) [no such thing exists]? Exactly how many pitches can little Johnny (or Beth) sustain before he (or she) suffers overuse injuries in the rotator cuff [one too many for him/her]? How high must one be able to jump in order to be a pro basketball star [vertical leap is poorly correlated with basketball performance]? When is the best time to start lifting weights [whenever you feel ready]? How frequently should I workout every week [whenever you feel up to it]? How much cardio should I do [as much as you feel like doing]? What type of weight training should I do – bodybuilding, Olympic lifting, powerlifting, corrective exercise, fitness training, Crossfit type stuff [whatever floats your boat]?

I’m still trying to come up with a single answer to all of these questions. I know it’s out there. It’s something like this – “Do whatever you feel like doing.”

Now, there is a problem, in that many people will attempt to do things they have no experience with and get injured. It’s like wanting to do some underwater welding, going out and buying the equipment, and jumping into the lake with it.

“What the heck?! It can’t be that hard to figure out!”

So I’ll give you that one. It is hard to figure out. Especially when you have no experience.

But the solution to that part is simple – find someone who knows, and ask them.

Then you have to do something. You either have to take their advice, and do what they’re telling you (for better or worse), or look for another opinion (for instance, find someone who says you CAN get washboard abs sitting on your couch!!!!), or do nothing at all.

I think what bothers me is that no one teaches THE BASICS.

Here are THE BASICS as I see them:

Understanding your body
Learning to listen to and hear your body
Doing things that are agreeable to your body

That’s it. At any level, you can go as deeply as you choose, getting a PhD in each, if you wish. But you must engage in those three steps in order to succeed – and success here, is being a healthy human being. Beyond that, you don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to count calories, or miles jogged. You don’t have to have a workout log, or go to a class every week. You don’t have to do anything in particular. But you must do something.

Yes, Josh, but what does that have to do with OCD? Well, once you practice those three things, you don’t have to count anything anymore. You don’t have to obsess. You don’t have to be distracted. In fact, once you do those three things, you don’t even have to do those three things anymore!

Note – This post brought to you by the mother at Jackson Playground this morning who told her maniacal kids “If you don’t calm down, I won’t let you watch TV when we get home.”

Dear playground-mom, the solution to our shared misery is simple – you didn’t run them enough at the playground that you were then rushing to leave, only to sit their unexhausted minds down in front of the boob tube…

Pitchers, Injuries, Medicine, Madness

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Josh

My friend Jenn Schwartz at Impact Fitness DC posted an article from the New York Times recently about baseball injuries in little leaguers. ()I was once a little Leeger myself, but that’s beside the point…har har har).

I just wanted to post about this, because it dismays me. I immediately recalled an article I read in the Washington Post TEN YEARS AGO about this same topic.

I’m just unclear as to what’s happening out there. Can anyone tell me? Why do parents and coaches think it’s okay to push their kids past the point of injury, into (sometimes lifelong) debilitation.

What exactly is gained by anyone involved when the little league team wins their division? Is it worth it?

How does this message go unheard for over ten years? Not just the specific message – don’t make/let your kids play while injured or through injuries; but the general message – listen to your body.

The issue comes from a place that is so foreign to me, I really could use help understanding this.

HDAD ADD ADHD 01101101 !!! %$%#^!!!

Posted on August 19, 2009 by Josh

A maddening blog title, I know.

Reminds me of something else.

Pills. Prescriptions. Advertisements. Marketing. Products.

Science isn’t bad. I love science. Science is WONDER. That is the basis of all science. Science is playful. It has to be.

What happens before and after science, though, is something else.

In exercise, a lot of emphasis is placed on counting. How many repetitions? How much weight? How often? What kind of posture? To what degree?

For the most part, these measurements are completely meaningless.

Sorry to break it to you. You’d have the same if not better results if you just focused on how you were feeling while you were doing things. Granted, you need to exercise some caution when throwing heavy things around. You need to have a general idea of how your body works (though that can be entirely intuitive, and still be just as effective). But once you have those things, you can just go for it.

It’s better if you do.

For one thing, you’ll be more likely to stick with it for a while. You’ll also develop something called “somatic awareness” – an understanding of your body on an intuitive level…something you absolutely cannot develop when another person is constantly telling you what to pay attention to.

In diet, the counting goes to calories. Equally as meaningless effort. Follow a basic rule – eat plenty of food that comes out of the ground or eats something that comes out of the ground, in the purest form possible (i.e., organic, grass-fed, non-abused, unpackaged, not overcooked, etc.), and you can throw away your calorie counter.

Do the opposite, and you’ll develop a habit of being obsessive compulsive. That’s how things work. You do a behavior often enough, and it becomes habit. Period.

I think that’s something that happens to cultures. Part of the reason that cultures disintegrate eventually. They begin to feed upon themselves, by definition. They establish rules, and, at first, the rules are followed. But eventually, the rules have been focused on for so long that they become the hangman’s noose of the culture.

I wrote about this in a different sense in a previous post. I guess it’s just crystallizing a bit more.

Watch out for your noose!!! If you feel like you’re too obsessed, you probably are. Our culture wants you to be. That’s how it sells you things you don’t need.

Good night!

Neoteny

Posted on August 19, 2009 by Josh

What the hell?! Is this a post about “The Matrix, Part 4?”

No…but that’d be cool!

“Neoteny” means “the retention of childish characteristics,” and it’s one of the hallmarks of human beings, according to several “pro’s.”

I was first exposed to the term by Frank Forencich at the first Exuberant Animal seminar last year. In EA terms, neoteny is the ability to continue to play even though you’ve reached “adulthood.”

I discussed the arbitrariness of the distinctions between “adult” and “child” in a previous post, but I’d like to revisit that post here.

What does it mean that we’re neotenous? First, it means that human animals remain undeveloped longer than almost all other animals. Ashley Montagu calls the process of development that continues after birth “exterogestation” (Montagu, pg. 91). Montagu wrote a book called “Growing Young,” all about the neoteny of humans, back in 1983.

We continue to mature practically for as long as we decide to do so. We can continue to learn new things until we die. We can continue to do things that children do, as long as we continue to do them, that is.

McDougall points this out in his book “Born to Run.” He says at one point that the reason the Tarahumara are such great runners is that no one ever told them to slow down, or that running was not “adult.” They start running as children, playing running games, and continue to develop their abilities deep into “old age.”

What strikes me most about the neoteny of the human race is that it is a recognized fact, yet conspicuously hidden from us. We can’t see it, because it’s right under our nose. I just saw a commercial for “Dave & Buster’s,” an adult playground, for fat lazy kids. But the commercial shows a couple of guys and their “fun” – miniature versions of themselves. They go to D&B’s to let their fun play.

Which leads me to one of the problems of being a neotenous creature, especially when all survival needs are satisfied beyond reason. That is, they’re capable of remaining “retarded” forever. I don’t mean “mentally disabled.” I mean, undeveloped. Child-men/-women rule the world, instead of man-/woman-children.

Seem like an arbitrary difference?

Born to Run

Posted on August 18, 2009 by Josh

First off, sorry it’s been a while. If you’ve been reading for a while, you know my grandmother passed away about a month ago. Between that and “life,” I’ve struggled to keep up recently.

However, “here I’m is,” as they say.

I just finished reading “Born to Run.” Christopher McDougall’s excellent book is a combination of a historical treatise on the history of endurance (especially ultra-endurance) running and the Tarahumara Indians, barefoot running overview, and personal experience with running.

As with most books on exercise, the science bits of this book left me very unconvinced. These scientists say that humans gained bigger brains because we ran. But wait, they said we gained bigger brains because we ate more meat. But wait, they said we should eat vegetarian diets if we’re going to be long-distance athletes…

Let’s skip the “science.”

The best part of the book is the narrative McDougall weaves, and the lessons he interjects, seemingly casually, throughout that narrative.

His accounts of the Tarahumara Indians, and other great runners, not only smiling, but laughing, as they ran 100 miles, really resonated with me. Also, the stories of the great distance runners who were great because of the extreme joy they found in running – not because of macronutrient balance, heart rate workouts, or anything else.

It’s a joyful book, and a testament to finding joy in what you do, and looking for things that bring you joy. I highly recommend this book to anyone out there who wants to be happier!