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Fadi

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If you think this is the strangest question you've heard so far in 2016 (or ever), I ask you to think. If you answered yes of course I have a body, then what you've ended up doing is to make a separation between the I and the body. If on the other hand you've answered what do you mean do I have a body, I am my body! In this instance, you would have made a connection rather than a separation with your body. And just by having this simple subtle (yet profound difference) in attitude, you would have demonstrated or revealed many deeper answers to yourself, and to the way you actually deal with the messages your body is constantly sending you.

I'll give an example that would relate to us as sport people. What do you do when you're training and you suddenly feel a twinge somewhere in your muscle? Do you pay close attention, listen and follow what your body is actually trying to tell you, or do you listen to the guy (or two or three) standing next to you saying: "hey come on mate, three more three more, push it!!!!?

Sometimes we completely ignore the conversation our body is trying hard to have with us, yet if you ask that same person, do you have a body? They'd be the one replying by saying no mate, I am my body, or my body and I are one and the same. With that kind of behaviour (as given in the training example above), it would have been more appropriate for that person to have replied, yes I do have a body, when asked the question, at least he would have been closer to his hidden or subconscious truth, in creating a distinct separation between the I and the body.
 
This is one of my favorite concepts for quality of life discussions. There is absolutely a separation between the person and the body. There is also constant tension between the two. The person wants quality of life and the body wants to sit on the couch. Which one you allow to run the show determines when you finally become trapped in a worn out body.
 
This is one of my favorite concepts for quality of life discussions. There is absolutely a separation between the person and the body. There is also constant tension between the two. The person wants quality of life and the body wants to sit on the couch. Which one you allow to run the show determines when you finally become trapped in a worn out body.

Thats quite a good analysis
 
I absolutely listen to my body.

The older you get, the harder it screams at you and the more it punishes you for making bad decisions.

I think its payback for all the abuse it suffered in late teens/early twenties.
 
The person wants quality of life and the body wants to sit on the couch. Which one you allow to run the show determines when you finally become trapped in a worn out body.

Yeah I totes agree with this man, like if I 'listen' to my body whinging at me I'd be stopping at 5 reps instead of 10 at squats. I find to push the limits and break plateaus in training I got to ignore what it tells me momentarily and turn the conversation upside down by embracing the pain instead.

Obviously there's a difference between that burn kinda pain and injury pain, so if something twinged at me mid rep I'd be dropping the weight faster than a nobull protein shake.
 
i absolutely listen to my body.

The older you get, the harder it screams at you and the more it punishes you for making bad decisions.

I think its payback for all the abuse it suffered in late teens/early twenties.
Gold!
 
This is one of my favorite concepts for quality of life discussions. There is absolutely a separation between the person and the body. There is also constant tension between the two. The person wants quality of life and the body wants to sit on the couch. Which one you allow to run the show determines when you finally become trapped in a worn out body.
The question is, why does the body want to sit on the couch? It must have a reason for wanting so. Only you know that reason. Yes for sure you can choose to ignore it, or you can perhaps do bit of investigation and find out why your body is no mood to get off that couch. Is it suffering from a low blood sugar problem, causing its energy to be robbed from under its feet.

The tension you speak of is more of the self rather than the body in my opinion. Tension between the self, the self (or ego if you like) that wants to do its thing, whilst you trying to control its sometimes irrational wishes. That's a totally different subject matter. I could be wrong, you may be still referring to the body (your body), having tension with you, I don't know.
 
Fadi, my point was that the body is simply a machine. A wonderful, adaptive machine that has incredible capacity but it will do nothing on it's own. All machines will sit at rest unless they are driven. Our modern world has removed almost all need to exert yourself and as a result those who let the body call the shots get fat and die. We need to choose exertion these days, it is no longer forced upon us.

I think I probably failed to explain myself properly and you misunderstood. I have made my choice, I refuse to neglect myself to death, but many do. That was the tension I referred to, the disconnect between what people want and the reality that they make for themselves.
 
Fadi, my point was that the body is simply a machine. A wonderful, adaptive machine that has incredible capacity but it will do nothing on it's own. All machines will sit at rest unless they are driven. Our modern world has removed almost all need to exert yourself and as a result those who let the body call the shots get fat and die. We need to choose exertion these days, it is no longer forced upon us.

I think I probably failed to explain myself properly and you misunderstood. I have made my choice, I refuse to neglect myself to death, but many do. That was the tension I referred to, the disconnect between what people want and the reality that they make for themselves.
I've got a strong feeling that we're actually in agreement here, perhaps juts on a different level. By that I mean the following: when I say that I am one with my body (no separation), I was not really thinking about some lazy body that wishes to sit and do nothing (because it's a machine...in the physical sense as you've rightly alluded to). What I was thinking (as an example) was of a heart that beats, and you and I (so in tune with our body) can sense the minute details of a heart that flutters, heart arrhythmia etc. Speaking of the heart, were you aware that a heart that flutters or miss a beat is a healthier heart that wishes to be a team player with the rest of the body? A fluttering heart is doing so for a reason. If the heart could speak (and in a way it is speaking), it would be telling us that it's not some independent organ that sees itself as a separate entity from the rest of the body no, it's saying that it's an organ that is inclusive with and is part of the whole, and not separate or independent from it. Hence, when something is wrong somewhere in our body, be it something as subtle (yet potentially fatal) as an electrolyte imbalance or something more major, our heart lets us know by the best way it knows how; its beats, the speed of its beats, and the missing bits of those beats.

So if the heart has chosen to be a team player rather than some independent or separate entity from the rest of the body, who am I to say that I am!

PS: re the body doing things on its own, it does nearly everything that is so vital to life on its own. A heart that beats a kidney that filters a liver that detoxifies and lungs that..... even muscles that react in a blink of an eye-lid if and when they need to (without you and I even being aware of the imposing danger). More evidence that you and I are actually in agreement, yet on a slightly different level.
 
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Yep, you're thinking on a different level. My thoughts on the body/self thing have only ever sought to explain why people neglect their bodies until they become trapped inside them.
 
I try and listen to my body at every turn. There's no other way to achieve maximum physical and mental performance without trying to understand how what you do affects your body's output.
 
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