Monday, November 30, 2009

Cool, but you're missing the point

Beautiful, but that's not the point.

No posts last week since it was Thanksgiving. I figured the last thing people wanted to do was sit on a computer and read here.

Speaking of last week, I had a paper due on Monday. I chose my topic as "Tibetan Buddhism in Central Asia."

As I scoured three textbooks, I found some interesting information.

One was that of mandalas.

To make a long book short - since I didn't read it myself - the author was explaining how mandalas are viewed as pieces of art. Contrary to that belief, he says they're not meant to be viewed as art.

The mandalas have religious and spiritual significance.

Similarly, the same can be said about exercise. Chiseled muscles and no "cottage cheese" (flab) is what many of us exercise to attain.

While that's all fine and dandy, exercise wasn't always about that.

It was about getting stronger, faster, increasing athleticism, improving health, and to simply put it, improving all physical domains of your self.

So, don't look as exercise as a means to change your body. Yes, that's what a lot of us are after, but, we're losing sight of exercise's true purpose.

Improvement.

Are you making any?

2 comments:

  1. Great viewpoint! I try and steer clear of the "aesthetic" motivators, since any satisfaction to that end is likely fleeting. There's always someone more chiseled and lean anyway. I try to think about how good it feels to do good things for myself: eating right, sleeping enough, sweating enough and resting enough, and these improvements can also be enjoyed right away.

    Nice post Niel!

    Georgie
    www.askgeorgie.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Georgie. It's understandable if a person wants to look good, but after a while of training, it becomes more enjoyable to concentrate on performance instead.

    Someone who's really working hard and smart about their diet & exercise, they'll probably have a decent figure in the end anyways.

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