So...what is excercise?
Well I’ll tell you what it isn’t. It isn’t eating, sleeping, talking, drinking, itching, bathing, yawning, typing, or picking your nose. It is, to say the least, simply torture.
According to Sir Webster, exercise is defined as regular or repeated use of a faculty or bodily organ. Why the hell would I want to do that? Good God, that seems dangerous. And 'repeatedly'??
Ok, so now back to reality. In reality, we all know that exercise is ‘good for you’. You know it, I know it, physicians across the globe have pondered upon this thing called 'exercise'. So I’m not going to devise a list of the top ten reasons to exercise or anything, because we all, as people, can identify exercise as healthful and stimulating to our mind, body, soul, whatever.
What I do want to discuss is how exercise relates to the mind in particular. I mean not just exercise in itself, but everything about exercise. I feel as though exercise can be linked to anything psychological, truly anything. Let’s use early 1500 philosophy, for example. Take the famous humanist scholar Thomas More, and his philosophies exhibited in the novel “Utopia”. More’s novel depicts what the narrator claims to be an ideal human society, the island of Utopia. Now let’s say this “Utopia” is like your own perception of the perfect body, maybe slender, toned thighs, or buns of steel. This Utopia may be a yearning, or perhaps a mere fantasy, but it ultimately cannot exist. It is in complete contrast with what is actual, and the thought of Utopia is so powerful that it obscures the perfection of Utopia itself. It proves that man cannot be perfect, and if he himself cannot be perfect, how can he have a perfect society? How can he have a perfect physique?
This is just one of an infinite amount of connections interlinking exercise and psychology.
Contrary to the opening paragraphs, I myself, love to exercise. Perhaps in future blogs I can make you—yes you!—learn to love or understand exercise and its unique link to the psychological world.
So there you have it….my first blog entry. Thanks for tuning in!
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2 comments:
Today in the modern world, the "perfect body" is usually defined as those bodies you see at the gym who look like they work out on a daily basis. I agree that there is no such thing as the perfect body because everyone has their own body preference. Also, I never really thought of the psychological aspect of exercising, but I'm willing to see how exercise can stimulate the mind as well as the body.
I think you're just caught up in the world of literary BS that high school English classes taught us to work at. You can make analogies about anything you want, but all that does is help illustrate your point, not show an actual connection. It most certainly doesn't "prove" anything about exercise.
Of course, that's just me hating English classes. I've been thoroughly involved with multiple martial arts for more than ten years now, so I really do get what you mean by exercise being as important for a healthy mind as it is for a healthy body.
For future reference, if you really want to link exercise and philosophy, try de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, written by Cicero in 45 BC. An opus about the intrinsic relationship between pleasure and pain, the book uses exercise as an example of pains we go through to achieve pleasure. I think section 1.10.32 very much validates your point about how despite the torturous nature of exercise, it's very rewarding for anyone who practices it regularly. here's part of that section, translated from Latin:
"No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?"
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