The three legs of human development and civilisation

Critical Thought, Emotional Awareness and Physical Strength

To be a great human being aka the best version of you, requires some effort in all three of the above. Luckily, each one reinforces the other two.
This blog covers critical thought and my books cover the development of self awareness. In developing physical strength the mind and body link is reinforced.
If you are not sure of the benefit of developing all three qualities, simply imagine someone with none of them.
I will give some guidance on easily developing physical strength later in this post. Assuming you have read my 90 days book.
The words to describe the synergy between the three qualities mentioned in the title are impossible to assemble as we have no common ground. We aren’t really taught to critically think. Unless you have undergone a high level Engineering degree or some such like. Emotional awareness is never discussed unless someone clearly has none. Developing emotional awareness is rarely considered. Those who have developed physical strength already know how beneficial this is. This does not simply mean body builders but gymnasts and ballerinas.
That said, our higher cognitive processes are developed by practising critical thought, by learning and attempting to communicate our thoughts. The more ancient systems of our body and brain is what I call our inner monkey and others our lizard brain. The very latest research do show that these two systems are linked. I then suggest that the mind muscle link ought to be developed too. No research has ever been done to link all three and advise why developing all three are incredibly beneficial.
Just me then. I have done it and feel the value in it. I started weight training at age eight and never achieved anything for three decades. I don’t mean winning competitions, I mean getting stronger or bigger. Critical thought has been important to me since before age eight. Much to the annoyance of everyone in any societal position of power. That would be parents, teachers, police and the rest. Emotional control has only been something I have worked on for the last half dozen years and I am getting better.
What really helped with emotional control / awareness was actually developing a decent mind muscle link aka strength development. Which I will discuss later on in this post. The link between muscle control and the inner monkey is not in forcefully contracting the muscle but in the recovery between muscle contractions. Simply said, contract and relax the chosen muscle a few times and then patiently wait for the pulse to fall to a more gentle level. A general focus on breathing, the sensations in the body and the pulse all seem to help.

Strength Training

For this to work, you need to follow the suggestions given in my 90 Days book. I am not rewriting that here.
I use Eugen Sandows light dumbbell exercises and use a pair of three kg dumbbells. That said, I only do three reps. The weight is gripped forcefully and each movement is done with great force and concentration. The muscle is contracted far harder than is necessary to simply move the light weight. You are not simply moving the weight as it doesn’t actually weigh much. The weight is something to help direct your thoughts. To focus your mind. Only eight to fifteen seconds are used during each exercise. Breathing smoothly. If it takes more than a minute or so for your pulse and breathing rate to fall to your chosen level, then train with a little less ‘force’.
Doing this properly will spike your heart rate. So, take it steady at first. Talking of heart rate, my resting heart rate is 60. After completing each exercise, I wait for my pulse to drop below100 beats per minute. Deliberately focussing on my breathing and other bodily sensations.
I exercise daily and if I take it at 80% effort, the 17 Eugen Sandow light dumbbell exercise takes twenty minutes. If I go flat out, then around forty to fifty minutes elapse before completion.
For 15 months, my tendons and ligaments would ache for days and so I would not workout daily. The pain, no doubt, forging a great link between my higher cognitive functions and body. Although, I don’t believe so much pain was really necessary. Some, perhaps but not a lot.
More recently, the last three months have seen my emotions become far more manageable and my musculature develop noticeably but not dramatically. I expect this is due to the lack of ongoing and annoying pain. You may wish to train ‘lighter’ and not endure the pain. Training lighter does not refer to the already light weights but in using far less muscular force.
I believe this all works synergistically. A sample size of one, me, is truly insignificant but it is a start. If others can confirm this, then research may well be undertaken to illuminate the physiological pathways that are strengthened and synchronised.

Conclusion

Strengthening and developing greater cohesion between our automatic systems, ancient legacy systems and higher cognitive functions means that we become very effective beings.



Not knowing what I was looking for. I found it anyway. How I managed this is was by sheer persistence of will for 45 years.



I suppose I should be delighted that I have achieved that which I have spent all but the first half dozen of my years searching for. I felt that something was wrong with society and our place in it. I take no pleasure at all in finding the curtain and peeking behind it. I feel robbed of 45 years. Mankind has been robbed of millennia.



The blame lies with us all. Each of us is individually responsible for ourselves. The mass of individuals is reflected in what we call our collective society.
We invest far too much time in making our lives easier and then waste that time with distractions. We are our own worst enemies. In not synchronising the three main systems within ourselves, we are far less than what we could, would, or should be.



That said, what am I to do next? I am interested in finding out. Will the new ‘improved’ me resist the forces of society / the collective impact of others? Will I give in to drugs and alcohol or some such like? Will I thrive and prosper?



I am not concerned, excited or fearful. Perhaps curious, perhaps not. It is what it is. A simple step change in perception or may be a delusion? I believe the former but many of societies biggest believers would be unable to see anything but delusion. That is the nature of our society. Fear and anger, society and individual. What a farce. What a pointless waste of energy. Society is not real life, it is a made up childish game of under developed adults.

We could develop ourselves and in doing so, remove fear from our society and create an actual civilisation.



Take care