A Connection to Reality

 For unfortunately many people today, what they want to believe, is good enough for them -- because they only live in their virtual reality rather than the actual reality.  The actual reality is what is verifiable and confirmable to others as their actual reality also -- while the virtual one is everyone's private fantasy -- apparent and real only to themselves.

Most probably, they were taught by their teachers that reality was anything they wanted to believe -- about themselves, and then about everything else in the world -- and it was not necessary, or even counterproductive for them to test whether such beliefs and explanations made any difference in the results they were experiencing -- and if not, they simply had to believe and try harder -- even infinitely harder to make it work.

In such a worldview, there is no limit to time, energy and resources, and that any amount, was the same as none or all -- as long as the belief was infinite.  Fortunately, the world does not work that way -- and it is important not just to have the right stuff, but also the right amount of that stuff -- at the appropriate moment and circumstances, and all those ingredients coming together at the right moment, resulted in the perfect outcome.

Therein lies the importance of "exercise" -- which is to find out the truth of the matter.  That means putting the belief to the test -- that it actually works, and beyond that, produced the best outcome -- as far as one can tell and imagine possible.  Of course that also results in failure and disaster more often than not -- but that is also a necessary part of the exercise and experience.

Another term for exercise is experiment -- which is to find out if an idea works, and whether that outcome is evident to others as well.  If it only works for one individual but no one else, then it is not scientific -- which means simply verifiable by anybody else.  It does not, and preferably should not be verified only by those with the same education and experience, by those already convinced of the same conclusions -- or true believers of that same cult.

But when even the most skeptical experience the same things, then it is quite possible that notion has validity across the broad spectrum of populations and experience.  It doesn't have to be the ultimate truth of the matter -- and it seldom is, but it is the best there is until a better idea and explanations comes along -- and one should remain open to such possibilities and revelations.

One seldom knows it at the time as such but in the moment, is likely to regard it as a revolution for the abrupt change in thinking, which over greater time, seems that inevitable evolution -- or development over time.  But it didn't get there without many years and centuries of testing and refinement -- even if they weren't aware that that was what they were doing.  They may have had very little consciousness of what they were doing at the time.  Most likely, they were just following the program -- as everyone of that culture was convinced was the only one -- passed down through the ages from the original Creator Himself.  Ever since, followers and disciples along that same thought have sought to make it the only Way.

Great truths evolve to even greater truths over time, while the many faulty explanations hang around surprisingly long after they have been debunked and discredited.  That notion for these times is that exercise must be hard and long to be any good -- which makes that practice prohibitive for all but the most faithful.  Meanwhile, the obvious truth of the experience is that if movements are made simple and possible for anyone, the barriers for participation are removed -- but it requires that right understanding, and not more effort with the wrong understanding.  One has to be able to discriminate that critical difference -- and not that it works as well as anything else.

Obviously, that is not what one experiences in real life.  Some things matter more than others -- and not just that anything goes -- so you choose your own poison with everybody else's approval, approbation, and encouragement.  Clearly, those are the problems of the day -- and not sustainable long-term productive lives.

People learn to make life difficult for themselves -- as though that makes perfectly good sense.  That is their indoctrination and conditioning -- which naturally creates more difficulties in their lives than is necessary or desirable.  Many are convinced that is the way of life -- rather than constantly seeking a better way.

People are taught to get up off the floor in the most difficult way possible -- rather than the easiest, which creates great problems for many of the older people -- particularly when they fall -- AND DON"T KNOW HOW TO GET UP from that unfamiliar position.  Well meaning exercise instructors will teach them exercises to do faithfully so that in a year, they can easily lift themselves off the floor -- but not immediately -- as needed.

To such "instructors" time is not of essence and urgency -- because their idea exists in a vacuum of reality.  It never has to meet the test of reality and urgency.  It is just one more bit of knowledge to forget in their seniority.  The useful information is never forgotten but always reinforced by the practical application.  That is the real meaning of it -- and of anything else -- that it makes a real difference, when you need it to.

Otherwise, one may starve to death waiting for that year to pass while one continues to lie helplessly on the floor -- because one can't do what is momentarily impossible.  That is the significance of proper exercise -- to find out what is momentarily possible -- even if it is "failure," because that is the feedback needed to improve their next attempt -- and not keep on repeating the same thing expecting a different result.  That is idiocy -- that deservingly becomes extinct.

Fortunately in the animal kingdom, they don't observe such rules by will try everything and anything -- until they succeed or perish.  But no one tells them they must rise from the floor without using their hands -- if that is what makes it possible.  Or any other advantage -- even if it makes it easy, and effortless.  That is preferable to the alternative -- extinction.  That is the meaning of fitness.