Energize Your Body

ENERGIZE YOUR BODY
Three Realistic Practices for Health and Vitality
Your body is the only thing you are guaranteed to keep for a lifetime. It forms the foundation of your earthly existence. Energizing your body enriches your life by enhancing every human capacity . If you lack vitality, nothing else really matters; if you have your health anything is possible. If you don't take care of your body, where will you live?
A Foundation for Life
If you haven't yet achieved optimal energy, vitality, and health, it is not because you haven't read or heard good advice on the topic,. Consider these words from Dr. Kenzo Futagil, M.D., who reached the century mark: "Eat less and chew well; ride less and walk often; have fewer clothes and launder often; worry less and work harder; waste less time and continue to learn; speak less and listen more; frown less and laugh more; complain less and appreciate more; take less and give more."
Few of us would disagree with such advice, but how many of us can remember it much less incorporate all that into our lives?
Good advice isn't enough. Because it's not about what we know, but about what we actually do (nearly) every day.
Here's an example: Take one slow, deep breath -- as slowly and deeply as you can, without strain, first expanding your belly, and then your chest, and feel yourself relax as you slowly exhale. In the same manner, take two more deep breaths before proceeding. And from now on, for the rest of your life, take at least one deep, deliberate breath every hour. Take a nice deep breath right now and you've begun -- you've hardly stepped into the key and you have already learned an energizing practice for life.
Back to the Body
Many of us have a love-hate relationship with our bodies; we indulge them, deprive them, stuff them or starve them, overwork and underwork them, spoil them, punish them, enjoy them, suffer them, and, at times, feel betrayed by them. How many of us wish to fly free of our physical mortality, to travel out of our bodies before we've fully gotten into them .
Energize Your Body begins by making peace with and coming to love and admire the body you've been given. In fact, your body is the only thing you are guaranteed to keep for an entire lifetime. You can't say that about your spouse, children, home, car, money, or beliefs -- only your body. It is your only real possession, so it pays to treat it well. If you do so, many other things fall into place. No matter where our flights of fancy take us, we return to a fundamental truth: The human journey begins and ends with the body.
Reflections on Your Body: The following questions are intended to stimulate reflection on health, priorities, and energy in everyday life.

• Are you completely satisfied with your own body?
• If not, what would you rather change, your appearance or energy level?
• On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your average energy level? 
• Does your body function as well as you would like?
• How much time, out of each twenty-four hours, do you spend on the health and fitness of your body?
• How much time do you spend maintaining or improving your physical strength, your stamina, and your flexibility?
• Consider your priorities: How much time, energy, and attention you spend on health, fitness, and energy compared to your primary relationship, your children, your education, recreation and entertainment, and sleep?
• Do you listen to your body?
• Do you treat your body with care and kindness?
• What can you change, and what can you learn to accept and appreciate?

• There are no right or wrong answers, but considering these questions opens you to make the best use of this key.

Managing Your Energy
Energy is the most abundant substance in the universe; in fact it is the universe. You are made of energy; you take it in at the gross levels from the food you eat, and on more refined levels, from the air you breathe and from the people and natural world around you.
Why, then, do we feel so little energy at times? The two most common reasons are physical (related to exercise, diet, and rest) and psychological (a lack of excitement or sense of purpose).
The key to managing your physical energy is actually three-fold:

• how much (and how efficiently) you assimilate energy through the food you eat and the air you breathe; 
• how much (and how efficiently) you maintain and channel energy through your body through exercise, stretching, relaxation, and massage;
• how much (and how efficiently) you use or spend energy in the world.
  
  
  Energy leaks can stem from two primary causes: Tension and interrupted breathing. (Notice I did not say "stress" which is a mental concept, referring to a state some people perceive as unpleasant and others as exciting.) Stress is an inevitable part of life but tension is not. Rather than worry about stress, if you focus on relaxing and breathing, you increase available energy by repairing the two major leaks.
  The Trinity of Health
  When people visit me for a personal consultation, they describe different goals, and present various problems -- often emotional or spiritual -- they wish to address. I ask every client the following three questions, which together form the trinity of health and energy:
  1. Do you exercise regularly?
  2. Do you eat a balanced diet?
  3. Do you get enough rest?
  Lord Chesterfield once observed, "A light supper and a good night's sleep have often made a hero out of the same person who, by indigestion and a restless night would have proved a coward."
  It is not enough to know about or appreciate the trinity of health. For you to benefit from them, these three elements -- diet, exercise, rest -- must become priorities for you -- more important than your work, your money, or entertainment. Whatever else you do
  in your day, make sure to get regular exercise, eat a balanced diet, and get enough rest.
  Each day you choose whether to make a nutritious meal at home or buy fast food; whether to get up early to exercise, or sleep in because you stayed up late watching television or browsing the web. When you stand naked in front of a full-length mirror, you see your living habits reflected back at you. So don't wait until you have time -- make time.
  It's not that everyone has to look like a clothing model or athlete -- we have different body types, metabolism, and genetic predispositions. Some heavier people who exercise are more healthy (and have more energy) than slim but inactive people. The point is to optimize our genetic inheritance.
  Regular, Moderate, Energizing Exercise
  True fitness -- and physical talent -- depend on four primary areas:
  Four S's of Physical Fitness: Note four primary physical areas that contribute not only to total fitness, but also to what we commonly refer to as physical talent. You can achieve complete and balanced fitness as well as increase your physical talent by conditioning all four of the following:
• Strength: muscular power and control.
• Suppleness;: flexibility, elasticity, range of motion.
• Stamina: endurance; the ability to persist over time.
• Sensitivity: includes balance, rhythm, timing, reflex speed, coordination.
• As you develop the four S's of talent, you create a happier, more energized and balanced body. You do this through conscious exercise.
  Conscious Exercise: You are exercising every time you move in the field of gravity -- walking, sitting down and standing up, lifting and carrying groceries, climbing stairs, cleaning the house, gardening. You are working your muscles (including your heart), moving your limbs.
  Taking the stairs instead of the escalator, parking your car a little farther from the shopping mall, you develop an energizing lifestyle. Many sports and games (like golf or tennis or soccer) also provide healthful exercise. But best of all is conscious exercise specifically designed to improve the overall balance and development of the body. Conscious exercise --
• develops a balance of all four S's of physical talent;
• combines movement, mind, and breath;
• makes ease and relaxation a priority;
• energizes rather than fatigues;
• creates symmetry (balances both sides of the body);
• includes specific elements of deliberate tension followed by relaxation (in order to release chronic tension).
• Conscious exercise forms include: yoga, certain health-oriented martial arts (such as Chi gong or Taiji); Pilates and other modern forms syntheses of dance, calisthenics, martial arts, and yoga elements.
  Done regularly, and in moderation, conscious exercise can balance, rejuvenate, and energize your life. Such conscious exercise is not only good for the body, but all modern research supports psychological benefits as well. As Geoffrey Norman observed, "A lot of what passes for depression these days is nothing more than a body saying that it needs work."
  Breathing for Energy and Longevity
  Perhaps the shortest simplest advice anyone could give for energy and health is: Remember to breathe and relax.
  EXERCISE:
  (1) If you are sitting down right now, please stand up, stretch for a moment, and then sit back down. Please do this now. And only AFTER you have done so, continue reading.
  (2) Consider: As you were standing up, rising to your feet -- were you breathing? Or were you momentarily suspending (holding) your breath? (Most likely you were holding your breath as you rose). And how about when you were sitting down? Are you aware whether you were breathing, or holding the breath?
  (3) Please stand up, then sit down, again. But this time:
• Inhale your way up to your feet.
• Exhale your way back down to a sitting position.
• Do this for the rest of your life -- and pay more and more attention to your breathing in the midst of everyday life.
• Dynamic Relaxation: We normally associate relaxation with the stillness of sleep, trance, or meditation. But life is movement, so relaxation-in-motion is the highest form. The ancient sword masters of China and Japan, living and moving in the moment of truth, had to relax or die, since tension slowed their reflexes. As Aldous Huxley wrote, "The secret of efficiency lies in the ability to combine a state of maximum activity with a state of maximum relaxation."
  
  Solid Principles for Energized Eating:
  There is no lack of dietary information, systems, and theories about what to eat, where to eat, how to eat. The key is exploring what works best for you. One way to sort out dietary principles that apply to most people is by studying long-lived, vigorous cultures.
  While diet is only variable among many studied (such as overall activity levels, humor, spiritual foundations, stability, and other factors), it is an important one. And from the diets of such exemplary peoples, we can draw the following general principles (but not formulas or rigid rules):
• Eat Fewer Calories (from Nutritious Food): Eat more of what is nutritious and less of empty calories (still allowing for treats on special occasions).
• Eat lighter protein: Long-lived peoples consume about half the amount of overall protein as the average Westerner, and far less animal-based protein.
• Eat a variety of fresh foods: Anyone who eats a varied diet of different, seasonal fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes is guaranteed sufficient protein, vitamins, and minerals.
• Experiment: Trust your instincts: Add or subtract kinds (and amounts) of foods from your diet; pay attention to how you feel an hour after. Trust your body over any theories or systems. (Do not impose a philosophy on the body.)
• Practice periodic fasting: We all fast every day, from bedtime until "break-fast." Try fasting a little longer -- from dinner to dinner or lunch to lunch the next day. Read a book on the subject if you want to do longer fasts. Fasting is not for growing children, or pregnant or lactating women. Eating only raw fruits and vegetables for a period of time has much the same cleansing effect as a fast.
• Eat more raw vegetables and fruits: The best source of vitamins and minerals, these water-laden foods along with regular hydration, are an important link in regularity, lightness and vitality.
• Notice how you eat and drink: How you eat is nearly as important as what you eat. Chew well, breathe deeply. Put down your fork or spoon between each bite as you chew. (I'm still working on this one.)
• Stay hydrated (drink mostly fresh water): Perhaps one of the most important practices you can do for your health, energy and well-being is to begin replacing all other liquids you drink, more and more, with filtered or spring water.
• Author Michael Pollan, in his book Food Rules, sums up all dietary guidelines as: Eat food; not too much; mostly plants. He goes on to define and explain what all that involves: real food, smaller amounts, primarily a plant-based diet -- and cites research to support his advice. 
  Daily Life Assignment:
  Pay special attention this week to:
• Breathing (whenever you remember during the day).
• Relaxation -- shake loose at every opportunity. Notice when you tense, and let it go. (Your body will thank you!)
• Do just a little more conscious exercise (if you could use a little more).
• Remember these energizing basics:
• Regular, moderate (conscious) exercise
• A balanced diet
• Sufficient rest
• A little bit of something is better than a lot of nothing. Start small, and connect the dots. Begin new habits in simple ways. Start today!
  
  Nearly everyone holds their breath at numerous times during the day -- when pouring a liquid into a glass, posing for a photo, getting up out of a chair, or sitting down to the table, and many, many other occasions. So by remembering to breathe in a rhythmic, relaxed manner is key to energizing your body.
  Walking and Rhythmic Breathing -- Nature's Best Exercise: Walking is one of nature's best exercises and has myriad benefits. It is low impact, you can do it everyday for your entire life, and you already have all the skills and equipment needed. As George Trevelyan once said,"I have two doctors -- my left leg and my right leg."
  Relaxation: Excellence with Ease
  Along with conscious breathing, relaxation is a key to energy -- and one of the most important life skills you can learn. Relaxing enhances your strength, stamina, grace, coordination, reflex speed, sensitivity, sensuality, awareness, balance, peripheral blood circulation, breathing, and overall sense of well-being.