Optimizing Your Carnal Foundations 2
As a child, New York City was part of the area of the US East Coast hit by Hurricane Gloria. It was the first serious storm that I remember, mostly because the trees in my neighborhood were bent, broken, and in some cases completely uprooted. Since these trees had never been exposed to so high a level of wind they simply had no capacity to withstand it. They were too stiff to compensate and so they shattered. In contrast, palm trees, which tend to grown naturally in areas with high storm rates, can bend and adapt to almost anything due to the stress they are exposed to. High winds lead to deeper root growth, and the pressure on the turn keeps it nimble and adaptable to extremes.
Our carnal selves function in much the same way. If exposed to proper levels of effort and stress they will grow and adapt to be able to face more and more complicated challenges. If left unchallenged they will become stiff, brittle and easily broken. In addition, a well-stressed and compensated body will create the space internally for healthy emotions and cognitive capacities. This is part of our evolutionary heritage, as our ancestors’ ancestors expended considerable efforts as part of their life ways. Our bodies are made to move. Senses like balance and proprioception reply upon movement in order to maintain your sense of orientation to the outer world and within your own body respectively. Even in moments where you feel completely stillness, there are still micro-movements aimed and keeping these senses provided with data.
As mentioned previously our musculoskeletal system requires movement under stress in order to maintain itself. Even the central nervous system requires the experience of directing and responding the effects of effort in order to maintain its function and not slip into depression. Before starting a new movement related set of activities consider contacting your doctor or other qualified medical professional to ensure that you are capable of doing it and that it will help rather than harm you.
The foundation of movement skills is in mobility. Working to move the body fully on a regular basis and ensuring that the joints go through their full range of motion will provide needed nutrients to joints, breakdown stuck points of contact between tissues, and reduce residual tensions in the muscles. While there are a number of options in this area, if it is new to you Scott Sonnon's IntuFlow system is an excellent way to get started, both as a beginner's exercise on its own and as a mobility system for those who do additional training. This form of training will have positive impacts upon your posture, though you may find putting special focus on this area. The current culture of sitting especially at desks have a strongly negative upon the body, so compensation for this will be necessary.
Once mobility is restored to the body focusing upon compensating for past activities and bound tensions become important. The stretching modalities used in gymnastics or in forms derived from hathayoga are both excellent in this regard. Just remember on focusing bringing your body to the edge of tension, where it begins to have an impact on your breathing, rather than try to push through it. 10 to 15 minutes of this kind of stretching on a regular basis can undo years of activity and maladaptation rather rapidly. This can be thought of as Low-Intensity training.
Once mobility is restored and past and present tensions compensated for you can begin to focus upon on moderate and high-intensity exercises aimed at effecting heart rate. The classic measurement of Heart Rate Maximum (HRmax) is 220 - (your present age). Any exercise done above the resulting number will be of no recuperative use by your body and efforts above that number should be avoided. For moderate intensity activities that help build the muscles aim for a heart rate of 60%-80% of HRmax. For High-Intensity exercises aim for 80% to 100% HRmax. The specifics of these activities matter less than their duration of 20 to 30 minutes. While Moderate intensity activities can be done on a daily basis High Intensity is best done no more that once every four days to allow for sufficient recovery. When trained along with No and Low-Intensity modes these modes become means of actively recovering from your High-Intensity efforts.
While it helps if the skills in these areas are built early in life, one can start them at any time. Once you are capable of doing Moderate and High-Intensity exercise on a regular cycle you will find that in a relatively short span of time, on average six months, you will have effectively turned back the physiological clock nearly a decade. Which this is by no means easy, once it is made an inevitable part of your experience it will be simple to do.
As you experiment in these areas it is beneficial to also focus on learning to use breathing as a means of altering mood and controlling the effects of stress. The simplest place to start is to learn how to breathe from the diaphragm, which will cause your belly not your chest to do much of the breathing. Taking time to do 4 or 5 breaths in this manner when you are feeling tense will help to restore your focus. More advanced methods of coping with stress can be found in the writing of Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, particularly his _On Combat_.
For many people having classes or formal activities that keep them accountable is beneficial. For the sake of movement learning, I often recommend two skills be trained in class environments at roughly the same time for at least six months: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Partnered Dancing. Together they will help you overcome nearly any anxiety you have in interacting with other people, will provide healthy skills at movement and grace, and are both a good deal of fun. If you can only do one, go against your type. If you are typically masculinely identified, seek out that dance class. If you are typically femininely identified find that Jiu-Jitsu class. Learn to move, breath and play, and you will have a powerhouse of energy for your Initiation like no other.