Isn’t
my body already my slave?
Nope. In fact, your body
probably has you tied up right now, or perhaps even in a cage. The
body craves things. Sometimes they are healthy, sometimes not. With
it's powerful primordial signals the body nags, shakes and pokes at
your willpower menacing it to give in. The thing is most of the time
we don't realize this is occurring. There is a mind/body separation
going on in our modern culture that has reached such heights it's
actually killing us. “People have become separated from their
bodies. They are no longer whole. I see them move from their offices
to their cars and on to their suburban homes. They stress out
constantly, they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly.
Their egos run wild; they become motivated by that which will
eventually give them a massive stroke. They need the
Iron Mind.” – Henry
Rollins.
Why
should I make my body my slave?
Ok
so what? Who cares if I follow my low instincts? It's society's fault
that I am the way I am. Everyone else is the same so why should I
even bother?
Well
for one it's not healthy and without our health we have no quality of
life.
“When
health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot become
manifest, strength cannot be exerted, wealth is useless, and reason
is powerless.” – Herophiles
We
all know the best way to stay healthy is through diet and exercise.
What is so amazing is that we have control over our input (food) and
our output (energy expended through exercise). But there is still
that negative self-talk to deal with.
How do I
make my body my slave?
The simplest quotes are
usually the most motivating. Like Nike's “Just do it”. We've
understood this quote on many levels but by adding the words
“convince yourself to” just do it, we take it to the next level.
And there is the problem – privately, inwardly convincing
ourselves. Enter in Discipline.
“The
fight is won or lost far away from witnesses, behind the lines, in
the gym, and out there on the road, long before I dance under those
lights.” – Muhammad Ali
Convince
your mind to become disciplined and your body will follow. Thinking
that you'll just do one crunch less today or maybe drive the car
instead of walk that extra 15 min, that procrastination can easily
become defeatism and that is what you must discipline against. The
simplest way to stay on the proverbial treadmill is to be organized
and create routine. Don't accept any excuse your mind might conjure
up not to.
Discipline
requires patience and a will to succeed. You've got to want it. How
do you want it? Try making yourself
your ongoing project. It requires focus, patience, motivation and a
craving for excellence. Discipline is a vision of excellence and a
submission to excellence.
Will
this make me happy?
Yes.
And if you think you were ever happy in your life, baby you ain’t
seen nothing yet. Here is a short excerpt from an article in The New
Yorker entitled “A
Better Kind of Happiness”:
In
his Nicomachean Ethics, [Aristotle] described the idea of eudaemonic
happiness, which said, essentially, that happiness was not merely a
feeling, or a golden promise, but a practice. “It’s living in a
way that fulfills our purpose,” Helen Morales, a classicist at the
University of California, Santa Barbara, told me. “It’s
flourishing. Aristotle was saying, ‘Stop hoping for happiness
tomorrow. Happiness is being engaged in the process.” And
reflecting again on Islamic knowledge, the concept of Ihsan came to
light. Excellence in faith as
Professor Yusuf al-Qaradawi has mentioned:
Allah
loves when one of you is given a task, that he or she does it in the
most excellent manner.
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