Now, I realize that, having taken a nice walk this morning
does not excuse me from thinking about exercise for the remainder of the day.
Walking, or any form of exercise that lasts for a certain amount of time and is
then over with—until the next round of repetitive, scripted motions—is not
enough movement to keep a person healthy. It is not the only thing I need to do
physically today in order to save my own life.
While exercising by taking a walk is great, the real trick
is to not then spend the rest of the day indulging in the deadly sin of
INACTIVITY.
It is the "sitting and doing nothing, physically"—
the "not moving a muscle"—for long periods of time, that has recently
been scientifically proven to be really, really bad for your health.
Once you have completed your vigorous exercise for the day,
continue to remain conscious of your body and its capacity for movement. Shift
around that stuff inside your skin: the muscles, the bones, the blood and all
that gooey, gushy stuff. Think in terms of the geophysical, three-dimensional
coordinates of the space your body is taking up, as you occupy the particular
area within the physical universe in which you find yourself sitting or
standing.
Every few minutes, make a slight effort, and push each inch
of your skin to occupy a different set of measurable coordinates in space.
Minute movement is all that is required. Working to maintain almost continuous
movement is likely to be most effective at maintaining a healthy body, as a
conscious attempt to keep the body in motion is least likely to result in the
body experiencing a long stretch of inactivity.
Keep moving, whenever you think of it, and keep in the habit
of thinking about how wonderful "constant motion" is for you.
Instead of thinking of your body as a hard (or mushy) solid,
think about all the stuff held together inside your skin as mostly being soft
and fluid. Keep it all flowing, and moving through space.
*
Now, let's make this fun, and go even further, and use our
imaginations to (theoretically) effect movement of our bodies at the subatomic level. We are talking about exploring
the quantum physics aspects of mass in motion, and using it to "exercise"
our bodies without actually using our
muscles, just our minds.
Think of performing exercise at the quantum level, of moving
your atoms, your protons, electrons, and even your tinier bits. After all,
those particles are indeed the stuff you are made of. Get to know them, just by
thinking about them. Work them with your mind; keep them moving, to your
advantage.
Think of your individual atoms as particles which are
swimming through the air, constantly. The human intellect, when it conceives of
the laws of physics and the construct of gravity, understands that the body is
held in place on the ground of the earth by forces designed to keep molecules
from floating away from one another and disintegrating into a chaotic, amorphic
suspension.
However, you are also consciously aware that the efforts of
your mind can change the location of your subatomic particles at will, at any
second, by your simply acting and making a conscious effort to move your
muscles. When you move a muscle, it pushes all of the other particles of your
body, which, in turn, move through space.
Now, think of all the stuff of your body as flexible,
independent parts which are only loosely connected. Each bit of substance at
the quantum level is independent from each other bit, and each moves depending
on how it is pushed by the other bits. On the larger scale, when you flex a
muscle, each bit of the material that makes up your body is pushed by the force
of the bump of the moving material connected to it. Everything moves in a specific
and predictable way. However, going back to thinking on a quantum level, you
see that each of the teeny quantum bits is a separate entity from the one next
to it. They are not connected in the same way that a bone is connected to the
adjoining muscle, and there is a lot of empty space in between them. When a
quantum bit is pushed with a bit of force coming from the quantum bit next to
it, it moves independently of those around it, just as when the first domino in
a series of standing dominos is pushed, it alone falls. Each domino next in
line falls when it is pushed down by the one just before it, though the dominos
are not connected to one another.
Use your mind, to remain active as much as possible. Use
your imagination. Don't limit the motions of your body to what is allowed by
gravity and the laws of physics. Using your mind, you can imagine that you can
push your own personal particles through the quantum universe, and make them
float wherever you would.
Remember, when you use your mind to think, it really does physically
produce a chemical reaction in the synapses of your brain that moves real
matter, tiny as it is. Explore your possibilities, in having your brain
activity cause a chemical reaction, which pushes against certain of your
subatomic particles, which will then flow over, through the quantum universe,
and affect the positioning of others of your subatomic particles. Consider
moving these particles of yours, one nano-nano-millimeter at a time, by the
force created by chemical reactions, just from the use of your mind. Think of
it as practically effortless exercise, as you are moving these tiniest of parts
merely the tiniest of distances, but you yourself are moving them, nonetheless,
by causing the chemical reactions which are created when you perform the act of
thinking your thoughts.
This nano-exercise activity may actually help to explain why
a person's body uses many more calories when they are actively engaged in mental
exercise, even when the rest of their body remains motionless.
Develop an awareness of your physical nature. Use your mind
to reach down into the intimate spaces between each of the atoms that make up
your own personal mass, and persuade them to visit other coordinates in space,
thereby avoiding "inactivity." Imagine that each of the molecules
that make up the apparent solid you call "you" is nothing more than a
loosely-configured conglomeration of protons and neutrons, hugging each other,
and each surrounded by a band of excited electrons, spinning in giddy circles
about that particular nucleus they call home. In the next instant, these teeny
charged bits change direction and attach themselves to an adjacent set of
subatomic particles, ones that might offer them a better perspective on their
quantum universe.
Consider now, that subatomic particles do not actually follow
the same patterns of motion as their larger counterparts. Subatomic particles
do not really move like dominos when they are pushed by other subatomic
particles.
Physicists have discovered subatomic particles that,
somehow, are inexplicably connected to each other even though they are not
physically adjacent. When one moves, the other, though far away, also moves.
Imagine that, using your thoughts, you might be able to
convince one of your own subatomic particles to move. And then imagine that you
discover that this act does indeed trigger its subatomic twin, somewhere at a
distance, to jump and jiggle and exercise.
(If you are not following me, please consult with your
friendly neighborhood physicist, for a more detailed explanation of the
concepts I am trying to describe, in laymen's terms. He will assure you that it
appears I have no idea what I'm talking about. A physicist will tell you in no
uncertain terms that, in order to stay physically fit, you must get up off the
couch and exercise.)
*
The basic message here is that one needs both to actively exercise
and to avoid inactivity. Thinking about how to keep your body in motion, to avoid
inactivity, can be fun if you use your imagination (and/or convoluted reasoning
and imperfect science).
*
Now, which is more fun, physical exercise on the scale of
the human body—held together with skin and fighting the forces of gravity—or on
the quantum scale, where the imagination can, at will, force the teeniest particles
of the body to float through the subatomic universe and stay active?
Have fun thinking about exercise, but please, use your brain
and get up off the couch and move your body in actual physical exercise.