O Rose thou art sick.
The invisible worm
That flies in the night
In the howling storm,
Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy:
And his dark secret love
Does thy life destroy.
“The Sick Rose” by William Blake [w/ Audio]
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Category Archives: Health
PROMPT: Longevity
What are your thoughts on the concept of living a very long life?
As long as I’m of sound mind and capable body, I’m fine with it, but not at any cost. I’d rather shuffle off this mortal coil than drag out the suffering of immobility and / or dementia.
I think Atul Gawande’s “Being Mortal” is good required reading. Among other things, he talks about the smoke and mirrors of our species’s increased lifespan. (i.e. increased lifespan, yes, but too often at the cost of diminished quality of life through those additional years.)
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PROMPT: Physical Activity
I don’t have a favorite, but there are several that I could not maintain health and sanity without, including: hiking, yoga, calisthenics, taiji / qigong, free movement, and at least one cardio (I currently swim and run.) I’m currently struggling with juggling.
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PROMPT: Physical Exercise
What is your favorite form of physical exercise?
I play no favorites. I love calisthenics, yogasana, running, swimming, functional movement, movement drills (e.g. martial arts,) etc.
I do have least favorites though, and – collectively – those are exercises where I have to go somewhere in particular to have access to some specialized equipment. So, for example, I don’t care for weight lifting or using ellipticals or climbers, etc. (I still enjoy the exercise well enough, but it’s more hassle than it needs to be.)
My whole equipment inventory consists of a yoga mat, a pull-up / dip apparatus, and a few resistance bands, and I can make do without those quite nicely — e.g. when traveling.
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PROMPT: Lazy Days
Rested. Definitely. I believe one has to think of rest and recovery as part of the process of living. If one thinks of it as just wasting time between “doing things,” then one isn’t going to get the most out of body and mind.
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PROMPT: Walk or Run
How often do you walk or run?
Every day. And sometimes I crawl, and – if there are monkey bars – I swing.
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PROMPT: Well-Being
Daily writing prompt
What strategies do you use to maintain your health and well-being?
Diet: high fiber / low junk
Movement: frequent and varied (includes: yoga, calisthenics, running, swimming, and functional movement)
Mental: breathwork, yogic dispassionate witnessing, and gratitude awareness
Rest: Build in regular and redundant rest throughout the living process
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BOOK REVIEW: Mindfulness in Wild Swimming by Tessa Wardley
Mindfulness in Wild Swimming: Meditations on Nature & Flow by Tessa WardleyMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
Release Date: June 13, 2023
As the title suggests, this is a book about combining mindfulness and swimming in natural bodies of water. It’s part of a large series of “Mindfulness and …” books, and this particular volume is a re-release of a title that came out a couple years back.
While the book does provide an overview the basic methods and considerations for both mindfulness meditation and wild swimming, it’s largely a peptalk or enticement to take up wild swimming as a means to improve awareness (as well as to bolster physical health and mental well-being.) That said, some of this peptalk is artfully, almost poetically, written, and the book is a pleasure to read.
The book discusses solo swims versus those in a group, and it even explores using onshore experiences to bolster mindfulness — e.g. using the sensory experience of the water as a focal point for practicing awareness. The around- (v. in-) water discussions are probably in part because the book uses seasons as a secondary mode of organization, and long and leisurely winter swims in lakes and rivers aren’t an option for people in many parts of the world.
I picked up some interesting food-for-thought in the book, and — as I say — it made for enjoyable reading.
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The Cough [Free Verse]
Remember the days
when you dreaded
a scratch at the back
of your throat --
harbinger of a cough
that you thought
would get you rushed off
to quarantine.
Or, at least, get a footlong swab
shoved through your nasal cavity.
Best case, it would put all eyes upon you,
as the public wondered whether
you were their Typhoid Mary --
(Except Mary was asymptomatic,
and - clearly - you were not.)
We all learned that the one cough
that one can never suppress
is the one that you desperately
wish to.
That cough won't be silenced.
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BOOK REVIEW: Body Am I by Moheb Costandi
Body Am I: The New Science of Self-Consciousness by Moheb CostandiMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
In this book you’ll learn about: a man who wanted a perfectly healthy leg amputated, a fisherman who felt like his hands were crab claws, a woman who felt she wasn’t responsible for the actions of her hand, various people who’ve experienced “Alice in Wonderland Syndrome” [i.e. feeling one has shrunk or stretched,] and about many other issues stemming from the body’s sensory and motor integration with what we think of as the mind. For most of us, the most powerful take-away to be gained from this book is just how wonderful and awe-worthy it is that we have bodies that are so well integrated and coordinated that we can go about life engaging in all sorts of fascinating and productive activities.
While this isn’t the only book that addresses this subject, I think it’s a topic worth learning more about and reflecting upon in depth. We can get so out of touch with the fact that our body is integrated with our mental and sensory experiences that we take “brain in a vat” scenarios as a given for the near future, as if one is the sum of one’s neuronal connections. This book will disabuse one this notion. In fact, the final chapter (Ch. 10) questions the proposition that copying consciousness is a matter of mastering such neuronal mapping. It’s easy to miss how much of our emotional experience is rooted in what’s happening in our guts and heart, and how much all the non-central nervous system parts of the body play in our conscious experience of the world.
I learned a great deal from this book and would highly recommend it.
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Tiger Riding for Beginners 