Equality...

Leibniz – “I am indifferent to that which constitutes a German or a Frenchman because I will only the good of all mankind.”

Need I say more... except to possibly say that we should not curtail this thought to European nationalities?

Is Guilt a Useless Emotion?

Today I wish to question the use of guilt as an emotion. Guilt is typically defined as feeling culpable and responsible for things past or possibly for things still to come. However isn’t this a little odd as why should we worry about things we have no control over? If you got angry at your good friend the other day then why feel guilty today? Please don’t get me wrong, realising that what you did was perhaps uncalled for or wrong is perfectly fine, but there is no need to then place a burden upon yourself which will make your life all the worse, this will only add to the damage the initial anger caused. Having an appreciation of how mistakes can be improved is fine, but don’t view it in a negative way.

Guilt is a negative emotion and as such can be very destructive. I know that I personally have a problem with being too hard on myself. I beat myself up about small things and drive myself into the ground for any mistakes made. This problem is also probably linked to the fact that I’m a bit of a perfectionist. Thus my standards are too high, and I can never meet them. Not meeting my expectations leads me to feeling guilty and aggravated which causes a negative cycle and then its all downhill from there.

An interesting example of this would have to be when I played competition tennis at age 15 or so. Coincidentally the tennis has been broadcasting on Australian TV recently as the Australian open is going on in Melbourne. Or perhaps I should say it is concluding in Melbourne as today is also the day of the finals. Anyway, I started playing tennis at around 12 and by the time I was 15 I was, trying not to sound to vain here, quite competent really. However when at 15 I started doing competition tennis I found to my dismay that I would lose pretty much all of my matches, even when my opponents had terrible technique and were obviously far worse than me (technically). Why was this? Ultimately I believe it was due to the stress and guilt I placed upon myself and how I would play badly due to putting myself in a negative state of mind, by beating myself up internally. Basically I’d make one bad shot, give myself a difficult time about it and then never manage to psychologically pick up my game again. Hence I would make a huge amount of unforced errors.

What I’m getting at is that tennis is a very psychological game. I always like to compare it to a fight. When talking singles its just you and the opponent. Hence if they win a point there’s only one person to blame, and that’s yourself. I’d come back each Saturday feeling despondent and being unhappy as well as angry with myself for having yet again lost, normally to an inferior opponent.

Guilt is an overrated emotion. Often people feel guilt for things they did years ago, and while it is good that they wish not to repeat that it is not good that they live in anxiety and fear of that past. Accepting responsibility is immensely important and I encourage it 100%, but it need not lead to guilt. Guilt is a waste of our time. If you do something wrong you accept it, you take responsibility for it, but you do not beat yourself up about it. Where does beating yourself up get you? Nowhere fast would be an appropriate answer, or perhaps the answer should be backwards.

Try watching a game of tennis some time, you’ll understand just how psychological it is. Not that any other sport isn’t of course, but I suppose as I used to play it I understand it particularly well. Its interesting to see that someone who was playing badly can turn their game around or vice-versa, all as a result of mood. Its obvious that being in a good mood can improve not only your actual performance but how you perceive that performance. Allow me to explain:

Imagine yourself playing a game of tennis, and you’re in a really good, positive frame of mind. Typically that means that the positive frame of mind will fuel you and make you play all the better. But even if you still lose (which isn’t to say that the positive thinking isn’t making you play better), you can still think “wow that was a great game of tennis and despite losing I played a good game.” Unfortunately I was never mature enough to think this back when I played tennis, but somewhat ironically it can’t just be thought but sincerely believed, otherwise the thought is like someone else saying it and you saying “bollocks, I played terribly and got beaten as a result.” Personally I find the first, more positive outlook much better and I think it also helps people to perform better too, not to mention just living a more enjoyable life generally.

So where does guilt come into all this? Well, as I mentioned earlier, guilt is a negative emotion and negative thoughts lead to negative results, at least such has always been my personal experience. Taking responsibility for your actions is all well and good, but dwelling on past and potential future failings is psychologically harmful. Indeed the Buddhist philosophy of “Living in the Now…:” coincides with the idea that we should not live in the past or the future, but rather in the ever evolving period of now. Guilt is an escape from the present, inserting worries over which we don’t have control, over what is done, or not yet even the case.

Maybe I’m naïve and foolish to believe that guilt is overrated, but I honestly feel that so much could be gained and that people could move on and better themselves so much more if guilt were at very least toned down, if not eliminated. As the science daily website http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070516081014.htm argues, self-compassion (the ability to treat ourselves kindly) is extremely important. As it puts it: “Life’s tough enough with little things that happen. Self-compassion helps to eliminate a lot of the anger, depression and pain we experience when things go badly for us”. Surely self compassion would be not putting yourself through unneeded pains and anger in the form of guilt.

Remember that getting ride of guilt and hence being more compassionate to ourselves need not remove responsibility. As the science daily site explains: “Self-compassion allowed people to accept responsibility for a negative experience, but to counteract bad feelings about it.” The website also explains how “researchers found that: People with higher self-compassion had less negative emotional reactions to real, remembered and imagined bad events.” It certainly seems that eradicating guilt and with it needless negative tensions yields more positive results. As though in proof of my hypothesis Djokovic just won the Australian Open, despite losing the first set. He kept his cool though and didn’t beat himself up, and it ended up earning him a fancy trophy. I imagine professional sportsmen must have to have be psychologically strong to, else they could not win. The minute a sportsmen starts blaming himself for what he did wrong, it all goes down hill.

So I feel that we as a society or as a species perhaps, must learn to reduce our susceptibility to unneeded guilt. For the third or so time I will stress that taking responsibility is not what I have a problem with, it is doing this by psychologically crippling yourself which I have a problem with. Worrying about all the bad things you have done in life won’t help fix them, only truly accepting responsibility for your actions and by trying to work to improve on how you act can. Guilt is useless, its role is destructive not constructive and as such it should be avoided.

Positive Thinking:

Positive thinking is essentially just thinking in an optimistic manner, in contrast to thinking in a pessimistic way. How we perceive the world and let external influences effect us is in large part a subjective process and we can see it either negatively or positively, the essential argument I wish to make is why not view life positively? Positive thinking may certainly sound like a wanky concept, and trust me once upon a time I would have laughed it off as superstitious shite, but today I am all the wiser for coming to terms with it.

I have an uncle who is, as all my uncles, are a good fellow. However whenever I talk to him on the phone I swear he sounds depressed. I told him once to not be so pessimistic and instead be more optimistic. In reply he stated simply that he was being realistic. Well and good, but what I think he was not understanding is that we in large part define what is real. We choose how we react to a situation. Sure influences themselves may be caused outside our sphere of influence, but we still ultimately have a large amount of control in regards to how we react to a given situation.

Let me give you a bizarre example that sticks in my mind. Let us say you go for a stroll around the block, just to stretch your legs, and in doing so you fall and unfortunately break one of your legs. Your instinct is of course to get very angry at the fact that you’ve broken one of your legs and that you can’t ride your bike anymore or whatever other negative thoughts seem to seep into your mind. However a positive thinker might say “right well, I’ve broken my leg that is a bit unfortunate but I suppose things could have been worse, after all I still have the other leg to get home on, and at least its not hailing.” Odd I know, hence why it seems ridiculous. But out of the two responses to the situation which would you rather be? Neither is right or wrong for in the world of the subjective such concepts are intangible. Given that both responses accept what has happened and are as such not denying reality I would much rather be the optimist. Sure there’d be distress at the broken leg, but on the bright side it would soon heal and at least the unfortunate victim in our scenario would be able to gain back his ability to walk on two legs.

So here is where my uncle was wrong. You can indeed be both a realist and an optimist, much as you can be a realist and a pessimist. Admittedly there is a lot wrong in our world and the media serves largely to make us feel bad about it, but this still doesn’t mean we can’t accept the reality and approach it positively. To say that being negative is being realistic simply isn’t so, one can be negatively realistic or optimistically realistic, the way we approach something needn’t change how real it is. However as I addressed in “TPOH – The Media…:”, the negative image painted to us constantly by our ever loyal media really doesn’t help.

The benefits of thinking positively are well known, firstly you’ll increase your chances of enjoying life and secondly you’ll be more likely to, as a result, do better in many ways in life. So let us all be realistically positive, as why would anyone want to do otherwise and be unhappy and depressed?

Changing your thinking is however, not an easy task. Its easy to consciously say, “right I’ll start thinking more positive now”, in practice however the subconscious does not implement this so easily. The idea of “Living in the Now…:” and appreciating things in their current state I find helps one to think positively. Take the process of change slowly, simply try to see the good things in life over and instead of the bad. Try to shift your focus. If it’s raining as your walking home at least think “I’ve got a place with a roof to go to, somewhere to get dry, and for that I’m thankful.” Give it a go, shift negative thoughts to positive ones. Think “I can” instead of “I can’t”, these little psychological changes can create a huge difference to how you live your life. The tricky part is that its not only a matter of saying “life is good”, but also believing it, or else you will simply feel like you are lying to yourself. I don’t promise that this change will happen over night, but it will certainly happen if you put your mind to it, and in turn will make life all the more enjoyable. So think positively and “Carpe Diem”.

The Middle Way:

Recently I have begun to learn about Buddhism, purely out of self interest. I personally am atheist, but Buddhism definitely has some interesting ideas to offer. One idea it offers in the notion of living ““In the Now:”” which I have already written an article on. The other great idea that Buddhism promotes is the ideal of “the middle way”.

Essentially “the middle way” is a theory of moderation and balance. It is also known as the Buddhist practice of non-extremism. It preaches that one can have too much or to little of something and that happiness and a good life is always found somewhere between the extremes. From the limited lectures I have heard on Buddhism I understand that the great Buddha himself starved himself for some time when he wanted to reach enlightenment. Thus there are pictures of him deathly thin during this stage that survive in artworks today. Needless to say the Buddha realised that starvation was one extreme and was therefore something that in actual fact, due to its extreme nature, inhibited him from reaching nirvana and all the connotations of happiness that go with it. “The middle way” thus became seen as a path taken by the Buddha to avoid the extremes of rigour on one side and sensual indulgence on the other. Thus the notion of “the middle way’, stressing the importance of balance in all things, came into being.

However the idea of “the middle way” is not complex and need not necessarily involve any true appreciation of the Buddhist religion. As I have said I myself am atheist but the idea of leading a balanced life makes perfect sense to me. I think most people would agree that balance is important in all things. I mean, I can not think of one single thing were balance is not required. Even take something as seemingly harmless as water, if you don’t get enough you die of dehydration, yet if you get too much, you drown!

The question should not really be whether balance is appropriate or not, but rather how one finds this balance and where on a spectrum it should be. Still, the importance of balance it seems, still needs to be advocated as it seems that many people still haven’t really gotten the idea into their heads. Its important to realise that this notion of “the middle way” is not confined to the material and what is done, but also how things are done and how people think.

The idea of balance as conveyed in “the middle way” has also been known as the Buddhist practice of non-extremism, and this I think, conveys its origins very well. Extremes are never good, they are unhealthy, they are damaging. Obsessions, addictions and other extremist tendencies ruin peoples lives, hence they should be avoided. The principles behind “the middle way” are simple yet effective, as balance seems to be the one key to life.

Where exactly balance lies, is not an easy question and in many ways I suppose it could be subjective and hence depend on the individual. The problem here is that many individuals stuck with some obsession are often in denial. This fact makes it rather hard for them to really have an understanding of balance and their lack of it.

Allow me to use some examples from an interesting nutritional perspective that support this principle of balance. Nutrition seems to be an area I know a fair bit more about that I really probably need to, probably as I got obsessively interested in it in a rather “unbalanced” sort of way during my last year of school. Needless to say the obsession has caused some nasty habits, but thankfully I’m at least no longer in denial about it and that’s the first step to reaching moderation! Now, onto the information:

A few years ago I essentially came across the simple facts that for example, non-alcohol drinkers live longer than alcohol drinkers and that vegetarians live longer than meat eaters. At first this all made sense as it saw an obvious link between meat and alcohol with various health risks which decreased average lifespan. However, later results revealed something interesting. While for example non-alcohol drinkers lived longer than alcohol drinkers at large, the group that lived the longest were in fact those that drank small amounts. Amounts which could be described as “balanced”, and “in moderation”. As http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/HealthIssues/1106591095.html states:

“Research extending back as far as 1926 has demonstrated that drinking in moderation is associated with greater longevity than is either abstaining or abusing alcohol. The medical research evidence is now unquestionable and demonstrates that the effect is not the result of health-compromised alcoholics who abstain. When studies restrict abstainers to lifelong teetotalers the result is the same. Nor is it the result of moderate drinkers having better overall health habits. When lifestyle factors are taken into consideration, the result remains. And the effect occurs not only for red wine but also for white wine, beer, and liquor or distilled spirits.”

Similarly it was found that while vegetarians lived longer than meat-eaters, it was those people who ate meat only infrequently in moderated amounts that lived the longest of all. The obvious conclusion I have come to from this evidence is that it is not so much exactly what they are doing, but what it represents that is important here. Those who eat no-meat for example are most likely extreme to some degree, as are those who pig out on hamburgers all day. In contrast, those that live a happy, balanced life and as such one which isn’t extreme, don’t deny themselves things which may be a little bad for them (in this case seen as alcohol and meat) but simply make sure to enjoy small amounts of it in moderation. Thus they live a happy unrestrictive lifestyle in which they get enjoyment and through moderation good healthy, both physically and psychologically.

So I personally believe it is the fact that those who can moderate what they eat and drink and do etc, live longer as they are probably happier with who they are and more content in there day to day lives than the others who either over-indulge, or refuse to indulge at all. So here we come full-circle to Buddha’s personal experiences which led him to, as I said earlier, “avoid the extremes of rigour on one side and sensual indulgence on the other.”

The importance of balance in life cannot be understated, and it is important to remember that all things are ultimately in balance. Extremes are primitive, try your hardest to avoid them. Remember too that the state of mind is greatly important here to. If you forced yourself to only eat limited amounts of meat and drink limited amounts of alcohol you’d probably find that you wouldn’t live as long as those who do it without being forced, simply because again you are being extreme by forcing yourself to do something constantly. What you need is a combination of discipline and desire.

So go find balance in life. Find “the middle path”. I hope you do, and that it brings you contentment ““In the Now:”” and a happier, less stressful life. Happiness seems to come with moderation and balance, at least, that’s certainly what I’ve found to be the case.

The Philosophy of Happiness – Accepting Yourself

If you don’t like who you are you’re not going to be happy now are you? There is a fundamental need to accept oneself before one can be happy. Most of us who are in some way unhappy dislike something about ourselves and hence envision our happier counterpart as someone with very different characteristics. This subconsciously drills into our mind the notion that we cannot be happy simply as we are and therefore puts a condition upon happiness. If this condition is reached all well and good, but if its not (which most often it isn’t) then if you do not change your thinking you are doomed to a life of unhappiness. Not a pretty thing really. What I’m suggesting is that there is some link between being content with who and what you are and being happy. Indeed the words happy and contented are synonyms.

Who cares if your fat, short and poor, why does that mean you can’t be happy? Why do we let the media do this to us? We’ll we don’t really, at least I know that I too am affected by the same stereotypes and I certainly don’t give them my consent to tap into my subconscious as they do, particularly in such a negative way. The irony is that consciously we know that the media’s ideal is bollocks, rubbish, fake and unrealistic, we're not stupid, yet subconsciously we still absorb and believe the ideas we are feed. This is simply because the mindless repetition of the media's ideals become ingrained in our very thought processes. This is essentially how the subconscious mind operates.

The Subconscious mind stores far more than the conscious mind yet the conscious mind’s information is more direct and controlling. The idea of affirmations are that we should affirm things we wish to be the case, as it will in turn allow us to accept them and allow our subconscious mind to act upon them. It’s a rather strange idea which if you haven’t heard before might confuse you for a while. What’s more the whole thing is mood controlled.

Allow me to use a simple demonstration. If you need to do something difficult and you think “I can’t do it”, its quite likely you won’t manage to do it, for one reason or another. If on the other hand the same difficult situation had been approached with a more positive “I can do it” sort of attitude, then suddenly your chances of succeeding are much higher. It’s funny how the subconscious mind works. Having faith in yourself is unfortunately not an easy thing to do.

Unfortunately we live in a rather negatively tuned environment. I’ve already noted that the media tend to not only be unrealistic and so forth but tend to focus on negative qualities and events. See “The Philosophy of Happiness – The Media & Unrealistic Expectations:” for further details. By focusing on negative qualities it becomes far to easy for us to blame ourselves and to beat ourselves up internally. We don’t accept or like who we are and thus we think negatively. Thus we wish to change to be something we do like and in doing so place a condition upon happiness in assuming that one must become or do that thing to be happy. A fantastic example is of course the media’s emphasise on people being thin. So many of us strive for this ideal yet the whole time you aren’t at the stage you want to be and are still unhappy and as such are highly unlikely to get to the stage you want to, in turn making you unhappier. This leads to a negative cycle of blame, guilt and unhappiness. Life is spent striving for an ideal to make you happy and in doing so you are not content "in the now" and remain unhappy. (The idea of being happy "in the now" is discussed further in:“Living in the Now –The Philosophy of Happiness with a Twist of Zen:”)

What we should of course do is simply enjoy and love ourselves simply for being what and who we are. To view life through a realistic yet positive lens and be content with where we are. That way if we never get anywhere at least we can be happy. The true irony however, is that often being content with who you are makes it easier for you to follow your own desire to do something. The example of losing body fat is again pertinent here. If we are happy with where we were we’ll paradoxically be more able to follow through on our own wishes and change ourselves, funny that. At the very worst you accept yourself for being fatter and simply live life happy and not worrying and stressing yourself over your weight.

Think about it, you may never lose the weight but at least you can be happy. Only you know how hard you may have tried to lose weight and how it failed each time. Indeed it’s statistically proven and has been said by the famous Tom Venuto in his Burn The Fat Feed The Muscle, that 95% of conventional diets fail. Why is this? More often than not it’s a psychological issue as I commented in “Why Diets Don’t Work”.

America has been dieting for years, and with it the average weight has gone up. As the ideal media weight goes further and further down so too does the average weight rise. Why you ask? A large part is no doubt environmental. There is a problem with America and food being so cheap and plentiful. However there is also another side to the problem and that is simply that people are never happy with how they are, so they try drastic things to change like going on ridiculous diets. They are unhappy the whole time, as they are not happy with themselves. They see little progress as goals and expectations are far to high and they ultimately fail. Then they get depressed and eat. This leads them to get more upset, often angry and frustrated and creates a negative cycle that endlessly fulfils itself all while spiralling further downwards. The evidence seems obvious in how fat countries are getting with the same rise in dieting.

Now as I said, don’t get me wrong, environmental issues clearly play a large role, but psychologically there is something here too. People just aren’t happy with how they are, they just aren’t accepting of their own selfs. I want you to look into the mirror and see that what stares back at you however fat, however tall, however lopsided and ugly is the vessel that you find yourself in. That thing gives you life, it gives you experience, it gives you both pleasure and pain. It is god in a sense. Get rid of it and you get rid of yourself. That’s not to say you can’t alter its exterior, but remember, its simply an exterior. The real you is more so what’s inside it, what makes the vessel do what it does.

To be healthy and well requires not only physically doing the right thing but psychologically feeling that you are doing the right thing. Accepting yourself is an important piece in the vast jigsaw puzzle of total-wellbeing that will help to make life a more enjoyable ride and probably bring greater results as a paradoxical added bonus. Indeed Studies have shown that people who are happier live longer:
http://www.health-and-happiness.info/happiness/happiness-increases-longevitywhere-do-we-find-this-gift-of-life.html, so there’s got to be something to it.

Essentially being happy will make life worth living and quite possibly make it not only of better quality, but of longer duration. Happier people are also more likely to create positive change, help the world and generally get more done. So whats the secret to being happy? Well there is no one clear cut simple answer, but the first step to anyone being truly happy involves accepting yourself. You cannot truly love others and the world you find yourself in and thus be happy, until you love yourself. You have to come to terms with yourself, its always the way. So how can you go about it? My suggestion would be to go and do something nice and simple, not something hedonistic, but rather something seemingly spiritual. Go and sit in a nice garden and simply sit and watch the plants, and give yourself time to relax and accept yourself. Never force yourself against your will, work with yourself, cooperation can yield even greater benefits than competition, particularly when it is of an internal nature.

So go now, and be at one with yourself. I mean why the hell not? We only live once, we deserve to love ourselves, at very least. So even if all you’ve got time for is a quick sit down on your floor and a gentle five minute pause where you simply focus on how wonderfully intricate life is, than so be it. But trust me, do at least this, the dividends you will reap by accepting and coming to terms with yourself are worth far more than anything else we can fathom.

No Pants Day:

Today is a Monday, and that means I have little in the way oftime, as typically seems to be the case on a Monday. So I decided I’d quickly mention the annual “No Pants Day”! The idea of no pants day is, I find, rather intriguing. I’ve always been interested in humour and obscure humour often has something going for it. Indeed just recently I rather quickly devoured Terry Pratchett's “Making Money”, a very entertaining piece of humour fiction. As some of you may well know his humour could be considered quite bizzare at times. I've also always been a big fan of Douglas Adams' works, which again are a little out of the ordinary.

Anyway, “No Pants Day” doesn't seem to have a set date, partly as there seem to in essence be several of them. One website http://www.nopantsday.com/wp/ puts it on the first Friday of every may, whereas http://www.improveverywhere.com/2008/01/16/no-pants-2k8/ who have for a few years now done a hilarious stint involving people hopping onto train with only boxers on put this years no pants day on the 12th of January. Unfortunately it seems I’ve missed it!

Still theres nothing stopping you from starting your own "No Pants Day" within your own region with your own friends. You could go on a picnic or something and make the date a regular thing each year. Also for a fancy poster simply clicky here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nopantsday/420656188/

The idea is really quite funny, and while some would be offended I think most would find it a right laugh and something to keep life interesting. Obviously I can’t take credit for this crazy yet wonderful idea, however the links above may well try to. If you find yourself attracted to rather strange comedic routines which potentially involve removing clothing please feel free to check out the above links.

Sorry if this post may seem out of line to some, but it’s a Monday, and its late, and I've been working all day, and I have to get up early tommorow for work... come on give me a break!

Nature vs. Nurture – The Unending Debate Part 2:

Genetics definitely play a large role in how we turn out in life, this is quite obvious. If you’ve ever seen identical twins or even just similar brothers and sisters you can often see similar features such as face shape or eye and hair colour, this is largely genetically based. However the evident problem here is that these siblings share quite similar environments, which makes it hard to really say that its all genetically based. However it is certain that some traits are far more genetically based than others and some are more within our control than others.

Often people seem to use genetics as an excuse. For instance someone may believe they have genetics which make them rather slow at thinking, and therefore decide to avoid an academic life as they don’t think they could possibly compete. Maybe they’re right, but there is also a large chance that even if they are right they could still be an academic through determination and vigorous application to studying. What seems to happen here is that genetics determine how well someone reacts to a certain environment, but obviously that isn’t the whole picture, because then it comes down to how often the genetics get the chance to interact with the environment. Allow me to try and explain with an example. Person A may have a good ability to gain muscle, whereas person B may have a below average ability to build muscle. However, if person A were to not exercise regularly and lead a rather lazy life whereas Person B kept quite fit and exercised regularly as well as eating well then Person B would most likely be quite well muscled. Most people would in comparing them think “ahh Person B has a unique ability to gain muscle”, but in fact this is simply not so, Person B in fact has a disadvantage in our comparison yet he still comes out on top due to simple persistence and determination.

Similarly you may have a genetic tendency to get diabetes or high cholesterol, but that in itself does not doom you to either. Rather it means that it is easier for you to get these medical problems and that therefore you may have to try a little harder to avoid them then people who are not so genetically prone. A healthy balanced lifestyle should keep you from ever developing the problems as while the genetic potential is there it is never being realised (and in this case it is a good thing that the potential isn’t being realised)! At the same time it is important that we realise the genetic limitations that are unique to each person. You certainly can gain more muscle than another person with identical genes by training, but maybe you will never be a professional Olympic-lifter as you simply lack the muscle and joint strength. Its not to say you couldn’t do Olympic-lifting and have fun and keep fit all while improving your strength, it is however to say that you must realise that if you have certain genetics you may not be able to go pro. Realising these limits need not be pessimistic, it is simply trying to put a realistic perspective on life. As http://www.maxwellsfitnessprograms.com/pdf/GENETICS%20OF%20A%20TRIATHLETE.pdf states:
“Accepting your genetics is by no means negative or limiting. It is quite the opposite. It is taking control of all the things you can to be the best you can be.”

It is important not to think of Genes as dominating the environment in a causal way. As http://genealogy.about.com/cs/geneticgenealogy/a/nature_nurture_2.htm argues: “Researchers on all sides of the nature vs nurture debate agree that the link between a gene and a behaviour is not the same as cause and effect. While a gene may increase the likelihood that you'll behave in a particular way, it does not make people do things. Which means that we still get to choose who we'll be when we grow up.”
Genes are dependant on the environment to be expressed, and the environment is dependant on genes to have a basis for expression. The two work together, they are mutually inclusive and intertwined, in reality the nature vs. nurture debate is a little silly as the two categories should never really be split as they are. Another article (http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-2820222/Blinded-by-Science-Nature-via.html), put this nicely in saying:
“We are indeed controlled by our genes, but they in turn are influenced by our experiences. Ridley says that the mapping of the genome "has indeed changed everything, not by closing the argument or winning the [nature versus nurture] battle for one side or the other, but by enriching it from both ends till they meet in the middle.”

In my opinion some things are simply more determined by environment or as the case may be genetics. If you’re fat you may be predisposed to gaining fat but you can most likely lose it through exercising and eating healthy. In contrast changing your eye colour could be rather more difficult! What’s more there also needs to be a distinction made between simple genes (genotype) and genes which have then also been set to a certain degree by early environmental influences (phenotypes). That is to say that everyone has a fat storing gene (although if your unlucky you may have a few more), but there tendency to store fat can be greatly effected by the diet of the mother while the baby is still prenatal. I remember reading a study about it in identical (presumably cloned) mice. Unfortunately I can’t seem to find it again. All I remember was that these mice were genetically identical and while they were all in their genetically identical mothers they were split into two groups. The control group ate a typical western diet high in saturated fat and sugar while the other group ate a much more healthy diet. Once both groups had given birth to the technically genetically identical groups of babies they put them all on the control group diet (the crappy American style diet) and they noticed that the original control group gained far more weight and had a far greater likelihood of developing diabetes and other problems on the rather unhealthy diet. The irony is that the other group didn’t even though they were genetically identical. This shows that the initial interaction with the environment sets the genes at differing levels (phenotype), and this is ultimately nearly as important as the genes themselves.

Regardless of all this essentially what I wanted to get around to saying was that we can’t change our genes, or how they are set. At least not at this stage, and the prospect of changing them certainly brings up odd ethical questions. But, we can at very least control our environment to a degree and make it as best we can to help how our genes express themselves in the future. If you unfit then you can exercise regularly and eat well and improve your fitness, regardless of your genes. Maybe your neighbour can get fit quicker than you but who really cares? The point is you’re doing something good for yourself, and that’s all that matters in the end.

I think this whole article about genetics brings up a really important issue relating to competition which essentially argues that we should only really compete with ourselves. Its often far to unfair to compete with other people as they may often not be on a similar level whether it be genetically or from environmental exposure. Thus instead of racing against the Olympic marathon runners times simply race against your own best time. Who cares if its ten times as long, if you improve your time only a little bit you are still improving, and in the end that’s all that matters. I suppose a nice way to conclude on genetics is to say that not everyone can be a professional athlete within a certain field, otherwise there amazing performances wouldn’t be seen as nearly as amazing as they are. But even so that is not to say that every singly one of us can work with what we’ve got and improve.

Breaking an addiction:

Anything can be an addiction in a psychological sense, and this can in turn manifest itself physically as well. Addictions are generally understood to be an interplay between genes and the environment, so obviously some people are more genetically predisposed to addictions just as others are to illness or depression. Despite all that is outside of our direct control it is imperative not to lose faith if you wish to break an addiction. The most important thing to breaking the addiction is having the motivation to do just that. Deciding to break the addiction is after all the first step and as such literally half the battle.

Of course it is important that you understand why you have the addiction as well, that is to say you must have an understanding of the causes behind your particular addiction. Not having an understanding of what the addiction is a symptom of can be detrimental to breaking it. Allow me to explain through an example:

Let us say that you become an alcoholic due to feelings of isolation, and general social insecurity. Simply trying to force yourself off alcohol isn’t the solution to your alcoholism, as you will simply go back to abusing it or some other substance because you have not psychologically satisfied what it is that you crave. In this case the situation could be much more effectively solved if you gave yourself the social contact you desire, and once this had been granted getting rid of the addiction would become much more manageable, as what motivated you to develop the addiction is no longer there to reinforce it.

Thus the main part of breaking an addiction is actually figuring out what the addiction represents and why it is that it exists. Of course it may seem at first that someone is addicted to something simply because they like it, and to a degree this is true, but if it is a serious obsessive addiction there is typically more emotionally involved with the addiction. In the case of the alcoholic he may well say that he just likes alcohol but the real reason for the addiction could be more to do with the fact that he may be in denial of his emotional distress and cannot come to terms with his social insecurity.

Ultimately the causes for addiction are as unique and varied as there are individuals with addictions (that is to say virtually all of us!). Sometimes addictions are not really that bad, of course it is all relative any obsessive and extreme addictions then typically inhibit ones normal ability to do day to day activities. The reason we now that addictions often represent deeper emotional problems is because people often wish they didn’t have the addiction, yet keep doing it and find it extremely hard to stop doing it.

For instance one of the reasons that dieting doesn’t work is to do with psychological pressure. While not a typical sort of addiction it is an dieting and bodyimage are also a good example as people often develop eating disorders as a consequence. For some reason or another people feel the need to look a certain way and therefore put themselves under a lot of pressure to get there. This pressure typically drives them to binge as it is stressful and anxiety provoking. The binging is then followed by guilt and or anger, which then leads to renewed pressure to eat well. Thus the cycle comes round full circle, round and round in a downward spiral. The interesting thing is if you tell a binge eater to simply stop eating it normally won’t work. Here is were it gets emotionally complex. Don’t you think the binge eater has told themselves to stop thousands of times? But it didn’t work then, so why will you telling them the same thing they’ve been pressuring themselves with work?

These issues are complex, and there are no set answers. Often simply telling people that they are only human, that you care about them as a friend/peer/relative or whatever and that life is really not such a bad place will cheer them up a little bit. I never said it would stop the binging, but at least it will make them a little happier and feel more accepted of by others and also accept themselves more. Feeling loved is a powerful motivator. After a binge cycle it is also important to try and get the binge eater not to give themselves a hard time for their so called “failure” and simply tell them it really is not the end of the world and help them take their mind of their inability to stop the addiction. The frustration will only drive the cycle onwards otherwise.

Addiction is a largely psychological phenomena and this makes solving the problem difficult. Despite this there are physiological things that can be done to help. Many friends of mine who have successfully quite smoking did things like go for a stroll around the block or do a set of weights every time they felt a nicotine craving. Doing this would take their mind of their want for nicotine as well as making them feel like they did something productive and often it release endorphins which can help make people feel better, in turn helping them avoid future cravings.

Doing regular exercise, eating in a healthy balanced manner and getting adequate amounts of sleep will also help people to fight all sorts of things, including addictions. If you are well rested for instance you are much less likely to crave a coffee, or some chocolate or even a cigarette to wake you up with. Another really important aspect to beating an addiction is to get help from your peers. You need to branch out and get social support from your friends as you need not fight the deadly addiction alone. You can have many potential allies who can help you. Of course if all your friends are alcoholics maybe you should make a few new ones to hang with at times so you not always drinking. But if they are all alcoholics you could also all make a social pact to stop (or if you wish to be more reasonable, cut down, together). You could even place bets so that there is a money incentive for those who stick to it! Also remember to take up activities that distract you from your addiction. Learn a new sport or skill, maybe take up a language or learn a musical instrument as both of those have been shown to be the most effective ways to increase the brains Neuro plasticity. See “The Power of Music – The Link Between Musical Ability and Intelligence” if your curious for more info.

But most importantly we come back to our main idea of motivation and willpower. To have the courage to break the addiction you must have the motivation. YOU must want to break the addiction. If your cousin wants you to and you really don’t want to then I doubt its going to happen. If however you really do want to break the addiction then as cliché as it sounds “you can do it”. Of course there will be set backs, there will be obstacles as life is always challenging which at least keeps things interesting, but in the long run that motivation will mean you keep on fighting and eventually you will triumph. You cannot lose hope, as then you succumb and simply accept the addiction again. As they say only YOU can change yourself. I don’t care what it takes for you to do something you need to have the motivation, that desire, that encouragement to do it. It need not even be in relation to an addiction.
I for instance like social motivation so if I wanted to get into a good habit like exercise the best way for me to do it would be to do it with friends or get social encouragement, or a coach, someone to connect with and share the experience with. Others are motivated by money. If you want to stop smoking there are hundreds of things you can think of as motivators. Financially you save money, health wise you live longer and are healthier, also your colleagues don’t inhale as much smoke, you don’t remain dependant on a drug like nicotine, sport wise it will improve your aerobic capacity and probably help in other areas too. You get the idea. Another example is the bike ridding I do. While I do this alone I am greatly motivated to travel around without causing pollution that I, others and our environment would otherwise have to deal with. This for me is probably the biggest reason I do it. I feel that I am doing my little bit to make a cleaner, greener and generally better world.

So the main key is really finding the key formula for you individually, which will help you to overcome any addiction. After you’ve found it its simply a matter of implementing it. Results won’t be immediate, they seldom are, but they will be much quicker than if you don’t really ask yourself why you have the problem and how you can best solve it. If you don’t ask those questions then you are simply trying to break the addiction through trial and error, and generally our emotions get in the way and cause us to get stuck in vicious addiction cycles. So do some thinking, try not to be critical, rather we want constructive analysis. These brief tips will make a world of difference in overcoming an addiction, at very least the problem will be properly identified and a solution established, then comes simply a slog to try and implement it. Good luck, expect to encounter obstacles and simply treat it as life throwing you a curve ball to keep things interesting.

The Meaning of life (and other trivial concerns!)– An Existentialist Approach:

Probably man’s most asked questions would have to be something along the lines of “why are we here”, in essence “what is our purpose” or as it is often phrased “what is the meaning of life”. This question is of course closely rivalled by “where do all my socks go and why is it that despite how many socks I buy I never have a matching pair?” which is yet another of life’s many great mysteries. Personally I always liked Douglas Adams’ simple answer to the meaning of life in his: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The answer was of course the now rather infamous number “Forty-Two”. In many ways his comical answer to one of life’s greatest problems highlights how insufficient any clear cut answer would be. How can you go about answering a question as mind boggling as what is the meaning of life?

The meaning of life certainly does seem to be a rather subjective question, and thus one which embraces relativism. Yet this doesn’t really help us much and we now start to wonder if there is no concrete answer. Existentialist theory addresses the issue of not knowing a concrete answer to this ultimate question in stating that it leads to anxiety. If on the other hand there were a clear-cut and set answer to life such as “To eat spaghetti”, then everyone could take comfort in knowing that they fulfil life’s purpose by regularly eat spaghetti and so on. But while the answer remains unknown so to remains a feeling of insecurity in not knowing whether we are in fact doing the right thing. This uncertainty is seen to lead to the aforementioned anxiety.

However fear not, for existentialists and Buddhists alike argue that we need not live a life of anxiety. They admit that there are no fixed values in the world, no things which are simply right or wrong but therefore argue that this places the moral onus on us to create our own values and build society upon these values. They argue that this provides humanity with a fresh slate on which to carve its own values, as shaped by its individuals. Instead of feeling anxious at the lack of values this optimistic way of looking at life stresses felling empowered by our ability to create our own values and to support what we believe in. Thus, while the existentialist view is sometimes associated with a period of angst in which people don’t know what exactly they should be doing, it is seen as able to be overcome when people take on responsibility by defining their own morals, thus empowering themselves. Hence, existential theory is not really nihilistic at all, but rather positive in how it expresses that we are in a position of creative freedom. This creative freedom provides us with a means to mould the pillars of society as we see fit.

Typically existentialism by its nature denounces God as it denounces pure objective truth, yet there is also a stream known as Christian existentialism which still accepts Gods existence. Christian existentialism however must settle be content with the idea that god exists but in no way interferes with human development and hence leaves values open to us to decide upon. The atheist view obviously thinks the same thing, but without there ever being a god. So whether you are religious or not must not necessarily stop you from accepting the primary ideas behind existentialist theory.

I suppose the hard part comes in accepting that life has no true meaning before we create one. While it seems easy to accept I think subconsciously this scares us greatly. I think instinctively we want values to exist of their own accord, much as a physical object would? We want to think that certain virtues, such as helping old ladies to cross the street, exist independently of our minds. Otherwise those virtues become nothing but tentative beliefs. When I say unfounded I mean that they don’t have something concrete to back them up.

Here’s a good example to illustrate what I’m trying to get at. I recently mentioned that I got Terry Pratchett's lattest book Making Money (Discworld). Fear not for it is not a self-help book about making money, rather it is a brilliantly entertaining and comical masterpiece as most of his works are (in my humble opinion of course – but then I always had a taste for the bizarre and humourous). In not giving the plot line away I will simply say that the protagonist who is trying to help the bank out of financial difficulty wants to implement paper money as a currency and in turn get rid of all the gold in the bank’s vaults. The people of the city Ankh-Morpork of course enquire as to what exactly the paper money is other than just paper if there is no gold being held by the bank to give concrete worth to the currency. The protagonist argues that the money is given value by us anyway, and that the whole notion of the city (Ankh-Morpork) itself and all within it should give the paper value as a currency, and therefore that the gold is not required to give it its value.

Okay, if you’re still with me, the equivalence to my article on the meaning of life is that it is simply the way that our minds work that we think better in concrete terms. We can more easily accept and understand values being “right”, “true” or “worthy” if they are concretely supported. That is to say if some figure who can’t be wrong like god says hitting old ladies is bad, then hitting old laddies is bad. We take comfort in knowing that we don’t really have to understand why these things are, or take any responsibility for why they are, they just are. However existentliasts argue that nothing gives value to a concept like “hitting old ladies is bad” other than us ourselves supporting such values.

Essentially the difficulty here is in the individual taking responsibility for being a bastion of human values, or values that he would see as being of best use to humanity. Accepting this does require some open-mindedness, and open-mindedness typically leaves people open, funny that. The thing is when people are open they are also vulnerable. An analogy would be accepting someone else’s blood into your own veins, certainly it might help, but equally if that blood is somehow tainted it could hinder, such are the uncertainties anyone faces when they let their guard down. This quote from Tool sums the idea up nicely:
“To think for yourself you must question authority and learn to put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open mindedness, chaotic, confused vulnerability, to inform yourself.”
- Intro speech to “Third Eye Live” by Tool

It seems that all this theorising has lead us to conclude that the meaning of life is only given meaning by living, which seems rather self-evident, as how could we have any meaning without conscious life? What we do through living and what we support and believe gives life meaning. Meaning doesn’t give life, rather life gives meaning!

Excuse me if that was rather a leap of faith, I don’ think I made that journey of understanding as pleasant as I probably could have, but the words sort of just typed themselves out. So it seems that those who run around life looking for meaning are like the people who run around looking for their glasses when they are in fact wearing them on their head. No, they’re not stupid, or blind, that wasn’t the point I was trying to make. Rather, meaning is always there, it is not something which can be sought in a physical sense, rather it is found through doing. In the odd analogy of the person with glasses on their head the glasses are found when the person instinctively pulls them down to read something. So too does man instinctively reach out and use meaning, when he requires it to see life with clearer vision.

Therefore to find meaning in life we must take full responsibility for our own lives and thus through living life we create meaning. If you believe in stopping poverty then take responsibility. Firstly you must realise that the problem exists and the you must take action. Donate to a charity. Volunteer to do charity work, raise money for a worthy cause. Why not? Why not you? Why wait for someone else to do it? You are the one who holds the values you believe in, therefore you should be the one to try and spread the sense behind those values and to in turn place the foundation for meaning through life.

Cycling and Your Wellbeing:

For about the last ten months I have used cycling as my primary form of transport. It’s a great thing to do for a whole heap of reasons. If I recall correctly I one day remembered that I’d been given a bicycle for my birthday and thought “I may as well use it!” At the time I only had a vague understanding of what I was really getting into. Now, after ten months, I have turned into a cycling advocate and feel the need to spread the word as everyone should know of the benefits of cycling. There are huge advantages, particularly when cycling is used as a form of transport. Allow me to clarify my claims…

We shall start with one of the most obvious benefits of cycling, exercise! Cycling is great for your health and fitness, both physically and mentally. If you commute by bike to work (or any regularly attended place) you in turn exercise on a regular basis. Exercise becomes easily intertwined with your day to day routine. Indeed for me personally cycling is more a form of transport than exercise. Many a day I have hoped onto my bike of a morning only to think: “Shit, I’m late for work, better pedal hard”. In comparison if I were to go for a run for the sole purpose of exercised I’d much more likely think: “Damn, I really don’t want to go for a run. Why can’t I do it later? It’s so hot… etc”. Clearly the commuting thought is much more productive as there is no direct quarrel in the mind with the act of cycling itself.

If exercise and transport are rolled into one you are much more likely to stick to your exercise routine, as it becomes so much more than just exercise, it becomes something with much more purpose behind it. Your motivation for cycling is to get to work, and with it you get the added bonus of staying fit! After you’ve gotten used to the initial changes of cycling to work it will seem far less an imposition. Indeed if anything you’ll most likely come to view it as a privilege, I know I do. By commuting to and from the city centre I now look forward to my cycling. I believe this may well be because of the added purpose given to the activity.

Essentially being fit and healthy is of immense importance to our overall wellbeing, so cycling helps this as a viable form of exercise. As the world is so preoccupied with weight and the obesity epidemic I should also note that if cycling becomes regular exercise and part of your routine (which will automatically happen if you become committed to commuting) it will also serve to manage your weight and keep your hormones and energy balance in check. I could go into mind numbingly complex detail as to why exercise is fantastic and has many benefits, but I’d get lost as there’s just so much to say. However feel free to have a look at “The Many Benefits of Exercise, Part 1:” for a general introduction to some of the many benefits of exercise.

One of the reasons cycling is so attractive and that I call it a “viable” form of exercise, is that it can easily be implemented into a busy schedule if is used for commuting. Almost all of us could do with a bit more exercise, and those of us fortunate enough to live and work in a small proximity (say within 10 kilometres or so) could quite feasibly ride to work and back each day. Indeed cycling is often faster than taking public transport or using a car (within the city this is)! I have written another article entitled: “How to Gain an Extra Week This Year:” which illustrates the time I would save over the course of a year if I cycled to and from work and uni, when compared to taking a car. Economic matters also come into play concerning how much extra someone would have to work per year to pay off a car rather than a bike, so check it out if you’re interested.

On the old economic front, cycling is obviously much cheaper than other forms of transport; particularly in the long term and it could greatly reduce your financial expenses. In another article "Pedalling Money – How to Save Money by Cycling:” I have demonstrated exactly how much cheaper cycling is. You may be rather surprised to see the difference, especially if you take into account ever rising petrol costs!

If you catch public transport you may be familiar (particular if you live in Sydney like me, where our public transport is poorly invested in) with crowded, dirty buses and old jam-packed trains. This too can be avoided by cycling. What’s worst however is late and unreliable public transport. I used to regularly wait for up to nearly half an hour for a bus or train (this is when going into the city or back home from it). In that same amount of time I could have quite literally ridden home! But these days I wait no longer! I only waited during my naïve younger years when I hadn’t even considered the possibility of riding a bicycle for transport reasons… I am convinced I must have been terribly sick back then to not have realised the benefits I could have gained by cycling. :P

Do you have to walk along way from your bus stop to home? You wouldn’t if you cycled. If you live far away from your work place, but there are trains, you might even consider mixing them. Particularly if you’re a few kilometres from the train station that takes you to and from work. The great thing about trains is that you can take bikes on them.

Cycling as a form of transport is also what is now often referred to as “green”. And “green” is now in. What once was hippy and rather borderline is now mainstream…well sort of anyway. Cycling doesn’t cause pollution (other than maybe the pollution in the making of a bicycle, but realise that this same process exists for all things produced in factories). The bicycle is also “The Most Efficient Form of Transport in the World:”! So cycling is clearly a good way to reduce damaging carbon emissions and create a sustainable future. Cycling would also use fewer resources (such as coal and metals etc) than other forms of transport. If everyone cycled we could even do with less infrastructure (smaller roads etc), which would again save on resources.

Lastly, and possibly most importantly, cycling will no doubt improve your general wellbeing. Yes, endorphins and feelings of wellbeing are a result of exercise, but it proves to be more than just this. Sydney University is providing a course in philosophy next year called “The philosophy of happiness” and in a sort of sneak preview my old philosophy lecturer told our class that for this course a large number of studies have been done. It’s explained further in "Cycling and the Philosophy of Happiness:” if you wish to know more, but for now you’ll have to be content to know that the studies suggested that commuting time is linked with long term happiness, and that as bike riding provides the double whammy of exercise with a typically short commuting time, it would seem to follow that it would promote long term happiness.

Let’s quickly summarise why cycling is the ultimate form of transport:
1) It will help to keep you healthy, keep your fitness levels up (and for those of us who are shallow, think about how it might help you manage your weight)
2) It is much cheaper than other forms of transport – It also allows you to avoid cramped, late, crappy and unreliable public transport (of course depending on where you are your public transport might be bearable so this wouldn’t count as much)
3) It is a time saver, in that you do your daily exercise (we’ll doctors keep saying we should be doing it daily, but most of us don’t!) at the same time as travelling, and overall end up gaining a bit more time each day than if you didn’t commute with a bike and still did the exercise. Sometimes (particularly in the city) it’s even quicker just to cycle than ride by car, regardless of exercise time even if the driver weren’t to compensate for the exercise the cyclist has done.
4) It is a sustainable form of transport that has little negative impact upon the world and is also a highly efficient form of transport.
5) Exercise has also been shown to be important for emotional wellbeing and happiness, and using your travel time more effectively could well also make you happier.

Some people will understandably voice concerns about the safety of commuting by bicycle. This is a valid argument, but one that is often blow out of proportion. The fact is that as cycling increases in popularity due to the move towards green transport and so on, and as numbers increase so too does bicycle infrastructure, bicycle safety equipment and awareness of cyclists by pedestrians and motor vehicles. The Sydney morning herald gives the example of a 50% increase in cyclists in Sydney over the last three years, with an almost non existent increase in injuries, which is pretty darned impressive. If you wish to see the link, clicky here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/bike-riders-on-the-increase-but-road-deaths-stable/2007/10/07/1191695739443.html

Like everything in life, just be sure to use your common sense when riding a bike. Always be sure to indicate, wear a helmet, gloves, sunglasses, a reflective vest and use reflector lights. When its dark also be sure to have proper electric lights. If you do all these simple things you greatly reduce your chance of being involved in an accident, and as the number of cyclists continue to increase, the percentage of overall accidents should continue to drop with the developments that follow the increased demand for cyclist infrastructure, equipment and awareness. So hop on your bike!

Living In the Now – The Philosophy of Happiness with a Twist of Zen

There are certain ideas within the Buddhist tradition which are of great interest to me. One of these is the idea of living “in the now”. So how does this concept work? Well, it’s not easy to explain but I’ll try. I want you to think about this next point carefully. What is life? What is life comprised of? A simplified answer could be that we are born, we go and do a whole bunch of things in the middle and then to end it off we die. Maybe a better question would then be to ask: But how is it that we actually experience life? By life I of course mean that bit in between being conceived and passing on.

So far as I see it and as the Buddhist notion of “living in the now” seems to dictate that Life is really just made up of whatever is happening right now. That’s right, right now, this very instance. Ultimately, life’s entirety is really just a compilation of all the little bits of “now” you experience. Think about it, even memories are distorted by how you feel “now”. Therefore how you live life and whether you feel you have enjoyed it or not (which of course is completely subjective) is dictated by what is happening “now”.

Life is now. As you read this page, you live, you are “living in the now”. I suppose a nice way to look at it would be to say that we cannot change the past, nor can we foresee the future, therefore it is not worth troubling over what we can’t control and simply take joy in what we can do “in the now”. You choose “now” whether you wish to be happy at this point in time or otherwise if you want to be sad. Thus what you do at least have control over (that is to say what happens in slots of “now”) is I suppose the perspective you choose to take on life. If you wish to be optimistic you can be, alternatively if you wish to be pessimistic the choice is equally yours. That is all done right “now”.

I see the theory of “living in the now” as closely related to how contentedly we live life. For if life is made up of little bits of now, then its sum (whether you lead a happy life or not) is simply determined by how you choose to feel during the many “nows”. Unfortunately I think many people interpret this wrongly. Still, it is not at first a simple concept to grasp. Many people’s instinct would probably be to say “but what does this mean Sam? Does it mean we should always do things that we enjoy and therefore become hedonistic?

Simply put, no. We should not by this theory become hedonistic in a material sense and indeed the Buddhists also have a theory of balance known as ““The Middle Way:”” which also suggests one avoid extremes. Its important to realise that hedonism (as we know it) is almost always a symptom of various psychological feelings which somehow make the individual feel inadequate, unfulfilled or somehow in need of a emotional support. These emotional problems encourage the sufferer to find solace in some sort of substance, whether it be food, alcohol or whatever. In comparison, “living in the now” encourages accepting yourself NOW, for who you are, not what you were or what you might be. Through accepting yourself now you are also coming to terms with who you are, you avoid a life of denial and you fulfil your own emotional needs as best you can from within your own mind.

The true power of “living in the now” is that it is not progress driven, thus it is anti-materialistic and does not place constraints on happiness. If you can’t love yourself now then you have placed some sort of limitation on your happiness by subconsciously believing something like: “I will be happy when I am X” or “I will be happy when I have X”.

This sort of thinking places a constraint upon happiness. Thus an external demand inhibits your own ability to be happy. But why do this? Why not love yourself for who you are at this very instance in life? As a person with perfectionistic tendencies I also found this concept very useful, as it allowed me simply to enjoy life and stop feeling as though everything had to be done as perfectly as possible for it to be a success. We all deserve to enjoy life, but unless we love our own being this cannot be accomplished. Hence the need for the whole philosophy of “living in the now”

Some other sources also stressed the importance of the “now” nicely, so here are a couple of quotes:
“http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/new_age_perspectives/59787”
“Most of us are so intent on looking either forward or backward at life that we go through much of it as if in a dream, with a limited awareness of present reality.”

“http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/05/the-power-of-now/”
“The past and the future are illusions. They only exist to the degree we focus our attention on them right now. We create the past and the future by imagining them in the present. But we don’t even exist outside the Now.”

Many people will falsely assume that they will never accomplish anything if I they are content as they are, and that something to strive for is needed. However having goals and striving towards things is compatible with living in the now. True, when living “in the now” you will feel more fulfilled regardless of the external situation, but the fact is that if you are happy and content you are in fact more likely to succeed at what you do, because you approach it with an innately positive attitude. You will also feel more inclined to do what it is you enjoy, and not waste life going in the wrong direction after a false hope like earning large sums of money in an attempt to gain happiness.

“Living in the now” is an interesting and complex concept, one that I shall hopefully investigate further. But for now we must realise that we only live once, and inevitably each of us will eventually die, but is this not all the more reason to cherish our time alive and love ourselves? Why go through life hating yourself or not being content with who you are? The simple fact is you don’t have to. Learn to love yourself, change your ways if you wish it, but it is often not even so much what you do that matters but rather how you see yourself. So embrace yourself, smile and go and enjoy the little bits of now which are the sum of our lives.

Christmas & Goats: a Time for Giving

This Christmas my father suggested we do something different. Instead of spending large amount of money on Christmas presents for each other we decided to buy some goats. “Goats!” you cry, “are you insane?” No, as far as I can tell my mental faculties are still completely intact. Allow me to explain:

These goats weren’t bought for us, they were bought for a couple of families in Southern Sudan. We bought the goats from World Vision. You can see the results they accomplished in Australia alone here:

http://www.worldvision.com.au/Smiles/SmilesUpdate.aspx

I certainly feel proud to have supported the purchasing of two of those 12,464 goats. Maybe my role alone isn’t much, but it’s the individual actions that add up. Just imagine the difference those goats are hopefully making in helping a large number of families to live with just a little more nourishment.

I keep hearing how Christmas is a time of giving, and indeed it seems much more valuable to give a family in Southern Sudan a means of getting some goats milk and a goat which will live off almost anything, rather than simply spending the same amount of money buying more stuff we (as a society at large) don’t really need.

Now I must admit my family and I were not completely altruistic this Christmas. Everyone got a small present and together the family purchased two goats. But the individual presents would have cost only a small amount of money. I for instance got Terry Pratchets “Making Money”, his latest book. Speaking of Terry Pratchet I hear this book may well be his last book as his been diagnosed with dementia, poor guy. He’s a fabulously witty writer and wherever he may be I salute him for at very least adding entertainment and joy into my life, let alone the lives of countless others.

Back to goats and Christmas. What I wish to purpose is that everyone adopt the true spirit of giving at Christmas by giving to the less fortunate, what better way to celebrate Christmas than knowing you have done a little something to make the world that much better. Helping others is a great way to feel good, it’s been proven, (http://www.livescience.com/health/070503_doing_good.html) volunteering for work apparently increases our happiness, and similarly giving to the needy makes us realise our own importance in helping those around us.

I’m not saying you have to give up your Christmas presents, maybe just buy less, or maybe just by a goat as well. Heck it hardly has to be a goat either. You could sponsor a child or family in Africa or donate to reforestation schemes in barren areas. The possibilities are endless. I know Christmas has just passed, but consider it for next Christmas, and all the Christmases thereafter, make it a regular family thing! You could even do something similar for other important calender days of the year.

While some people will argue that money is lost through beurocratic processes when donated to charities this is hardly a reason not to donate. It may be that some money is not as well spent as it should be, but the proof is in the pudding that 12,464 goats are now in Southern Sudan probably thinking “How the fuck did I get here”. Even if some money is lost, donating is still a worthwhile cause. Find a charity you believe is honest and reputable, and start improving the world one little bit at a time. Simply imagine if everyone who read this blog entry donated to charity and also made a commitment to tell five people about the idea. Then imagine if they likewise took on this challenge! Indeed the individual can make a difference, go and do something like buying a goat, and encourage a few friends to do similarly. I know I am trying to do my bit by encouraging you to also adopt a positive view in relation to the change we can create. As next Christmas roles around I will not doubt also encourage other families in person to buy a goat, or something along those lines, and I hope you too will join me in doing our little bit to better the world we all share.

The Nature of Happiness:

Happiness, a little word with a big meaning. Can there be any greater virtue? I have been thinking of late of the nature of happiness. Happiness is a rather elusive quality, something rather hard to put ones finger on, like most psychological concepts, but in general it is assumed to be a positive mood or frame of mind (a bit vague isn’t it!). Thinking positively really does reap its own rewards as it typically means that the thinker does better at whatever he or she attempts to do, and regardless of the outcome enjoys a happier life.

So how important is happiness? Well I suppose this is subjective, but my opinion is that it would have to be one of the major pillars for the very reason of our existence, or at least our continued subsistence. I asked above if there could be any greater virtue? Essentially I’d argue “no”, but several people have brought to my attention the matter of liberty. The example of Soma from Huxley’s “Brave New World” is an interesting one, depicting happiness (in the form of a drug) at the expense of liberty. It is provided in such a way as to disgust our senses. Clearly Happiness without liberty cannot really be happiness? Or so one is inclined to believe.

My response would be to say that happiness is not a purely external phenomenon. A part of what it is to experience happiness must come from within. Like all things (at least in my humble opinion) it is a dialectical process between the physical and the psychological. I often wonder why these two categories were ever separated! The very notion of liberty has a strong connection within our minds. Biologically we are driven to seek as much liberty as possible, in the hopes of then fulfilling our desires and so on. But even then happiness seems to provide a foundation as to why we do things. Liberty may allow us to do them, but happiness is the motivator.

Like most things in life there is no doubt a need for balance between the two characteristics. A close friend of mine argued that liberty was far more important than happiness, yet personally I believe that they must be intrinsically linked. For if you had unlimited liberty but no happiness what would you do? You could do whatever you wanted, but would never have any motivation to actually begin something. Of course on the other extreme one could argue that if you had all the happiness in the world but no liberty you would equally never be able to do anything in that your lack of liberty made it impossible to do so, but on the bright side at least you’d be happy, happy just existing. Of course if you take away the liberty to exist (which theoretically would be the case if we took away ALL liberty) then you would just die, but even this seems preferable to a lacklustre, hapless life of uninhibited liberty.

An interesting question on which I have often thought, regards sadness and the nature of happiness. Firstly consider that all things in life are given meaning through comparison. For example, if everything in the universe was the same colour of orange (and always had been), how would we be able to even comprehend what blue was? In this example blue is defined, by its relationship to orange, and vice-versa. So by the same token how would we even identify the colour orange if everything was orange? Simply put I doubt we would. We’d simply assume unconsciously that all was the same colour. More than this, we would have no word for “orange” or even a conscious or unconscious understanding of it. If everything was orange, orange ceases to become something that can be compared to anything, and hence has no meaning or relevance.

Where exactly am I going with all this you might ask? Well in the case of happiness we must ask, can we be happy without sadness? The answer logically seems to be that if we had never known sadness or anything like it, then we would not distinguish happiness in the way we do. This seems self evident. From this however we draw a more important question. What is the nature of happiness, in so far as it relates to sadness?

This is a tricky one. If one person is happy in the world, does it theoretically mean that another has to be sad? Certainly studies of happiness seem to suggest that it most often is adaptive. For example, many people think making more money will make them happier. Maybe in the short term it will, but in the longer term they adapt to their changed circumstances and again they feel as they originally did. So again the hapless man might again increase the amount of money he earns, but this process of adjustment will simply keep happening. I suppose this is the purely material pursuit of happiness at its best.

There is only one variable I know of that is an exception to this adjustment cycle, and interestingly that is commuting time. The lower your commuting time is the higher your happiness will statistically be. Similarly, the longer your commuting time is the lower your happiness will statistically be. The idea is also touched on in “Cycling and the Philosophy of Happiness” for those of you who are interested in the idea.

In regards to the relationship between happiness and sadness I found a rather potent quote from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet which states:
“When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy. When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see in truth that you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”

The nature of happiness is a tricky question, and its relationship to sadness only serves to make things more confusing. Ultimately I don’t think the question can be properly answered, but it’s defiantly an interesting brain teaser. There is certainly something however to the idea that people can improve their wellbeing and happiness, and in turn help others, in fact giving an overall benefit in happiness. The big question is really, whether this is just a short term adjustment, and whether yet again happiness would become another thing to strive for.

The Buddhist religion has some interesting things to say against materialist thinking and this sort of thought process which stresses “Living in the Now...:”, which is essentially taking the time to love yourself right now, as you are. This along with their emphasise on ““The Middle Way:”” help to advocate their belief in balance and living a contented life.

Happiness is vital to a fulfilling existence. We live and then we die, we may as well do some stuff which is enjoyable in the middle. The problem here becomes drawing a line between hedonism and a life without happiness. As usual balance seems to be the key. It is difficult to take away anything concrete from such abstract thought, but we should remember that happiness is a source of motivation and pleasure in life. Try and pursue it and make sure not to deny yourself happiness, after all, were only human.

Cycling and the Philosophy of Happiness:

Sydney University is providing a new course in philosophy next year (2008) called “The philosophy of happiness”. My previous philosophy lecturer gave us a briefing about the new course citing some studies that have been done. Now I’m not really sure how they measure happiness (this itself could be seen as a large flaw in the study!), but essentially they tried to find variables that affected long term “happiness” (whatever that is!). For instance researchers discovered that if one bought a larger house they were actually more unhappy for the first 6 months (due to the stresses of moving and so on), but were then happier from 6 to 18 months later (as they enjoyed their newer, bigger house); But after 18 months they had seemingly adapted to their bigger house and were now identically happy (or unhappy as the case may be) as they had originally been in the old house. A similar thing happened when moving to a smaller house, except that the occupants were unhappy until 18 months after moving (as the house was smaller, more cramped etc). It seemed that regardless of what happened, after 18 months people had adjusted and happiness went back to a “normal” level.

Several such studies seemed to imply that happiness seems to be relative, and adjusts as such. Thus something can make you happy, but most likely it will only be short lived. However, one variable they found which made you happier long term, was commuting time. The shorter your commuting time (for this study I believe it was to and from work) the happier you are, presumably as it gives you more time in the day to do things, and maybe you live in a close nit community etc. So in the case of commuting time it was found that individuals were happier both immediately after reducing commuting times as well as much further down the track (that is to say 18 months later and beyond).

Now the lecturer who told us this (Professor David Bradon Mitchell, a fabulous lecturer) happens to be a cyclist. So as the class filtered out after the lecture I went down and approached him, with a question set in my mind. I essentially went up to him and asked “But what about cycling?”

“Cycling!” he said, “Well that’s a whole different kettle of fish.” (Please note that those weren’t the lecturer’s exact words, although the meaning was identical. I suppose I am taking my artistic license a little far here by paraphrasing adlib!) We then proceeded to both talk about how as cyclists we were happier to have both exercise and travel time rolled into one, thus saving time. This in turn enabled us to spend more time on other pursuits such as leisure, which helps to make for a happier life. Also we get the many health benefits of exercise and as we both lived in the inner west (although he is now in Newtown and so close that he doesn’t really ride, as he can simply walk) we could even cycle around the city faster than cars and public transport in peak hour and heavy traffic.

Thus from a time saving point of view commuting by bike (this is of course again within the context of the city and inner suburbs) can indeed help to increase your happiness. So cycling is good for your health, your pocket and your happiness is there anything more we can learn from this? Yes, there is one other important lesson! As our rather humourous lecturer said in concluding this lecture “If there’s one thing you can learn from this whole philosophy course its don’t move out to the suburbs to buy a bigger house!”

I suppose another way cycling makes me happy is that I know I’m doing something good for me and the environment and thus those around me. I like helping people, and by cycling I feel I help everyone, albeit it in the smallest way. One person can really only create so much change. If you’re a completely average person without great finances or great intelligence or great determination or great luck or some other such quality how can you possibly completely change the world? Well as far as I’m concerned you can, sort of, but only within reason. By cycling every day I keep myself fit and healthy so that I can help others. I also do not create pollution for others to have to inhale or the planet to have to absorb. Lastly, and in some ways most importantly, by riding as often as I do I might make an important impression on some people who see me riding. I tell my friends, co workers and family of the benefits of cycling. So far I’ve got one friend cycling around, and I hope to convert many more.

The more people that start cycling the more people will see people cycling and the more other people will begin to cycle. In turn the more demand for cycling products and cycling infrastructure will increase and hopefully this demand will lead to greater research and development into both these sectors. This really puts the moral impetus on an individual’s action, a good thing to, as all of societies greatest accomplishments have ultimately been a joint effort. It really does create a positive snowball effect which gains momentum. The Sydney morning herald mentioned in an article that the amount of cyclists in Sydney has increased by 50% in just three short years (the article was published on the 8^th of October 2007). That’s an amazing amount and clearly shows that some positive change is taking place in today’s society. If you wish to check it out (and some great reasons about how bike riding isn’t as dangerous as people think it is due to an increase in cyclists themselves) then see the following link:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/bike-riders-on-the-increase-but-road-deaths-stable/2007/10/07/1191695739443.html

Happiness is an interesting little topic, and a rather important one in my view. I will be sure to write more on the pursuit of happiness later in life, and if I do happen to study “The Philosophy of Happiness” as a course at Sydney Uni next year I’ll be sure to write more about the topic. So until then give yourself a piece of happy pie and savour the wait.

The Many benefits of Exercise, Part 3:

This is the final section of "The Many Benefits of Exercise" series, in which we explore the most fascinating aspects of physical activity, namely: How exercise affects us psychologically, and improves our minds!

As you may know exercise is good for us physically, but it’s important to realise that many of the physical benefits in turn benefit the mind. The age old adage “healthy body healthy mind” rings true. The increased ability for the blood to pump oxygen can for instance help send oxygen to the brain which increases its ability to work effectively. There has indeed been a link found between exercise and intelligence, although intelligence is of course a difficult thing to measure (generally IQ is used for intelligence tests in humans). There have been studies done on mice which show how one group with access to running wheels do better in what is known as the “Morris water maze” test than those without access to a running wheel. So it seems that by exercising (and thus being generally fitter and healthier) these mice are able to function better in how they think. Why does this always surprise us so much? After all our brains are still physical entities, and benefit, like the rest of the body, from physical activity.

Exercise strengthens the brain such that is increases cognitive processing speed and boosts memory. Thus it essentially builds the most useful muscle of all, the brain (I was of course speaking metaphorically there). There have also been studies that show that there is a strong relationship between academic achievement and fitness, clearly there is something here.

“Many studies have proven that people who exercise on a regular basis have better memory, reaction time and concentration than their sedentary counterparts. They also stand a much better chance of avoiding such diseases as Alzheimer’s and senility. And it doesn’t take much: walking for 45 minutes three times a week is enough to improve your degree of mental sharpness. Aerobic activity stimulates the middle-frontal and superior parietal regions of the brain, which are associated with attention and keeping goals in mind.” - http://ririanproject.com/2007/10/11/10-benefits-of-exercise-and-how-to-start-doing-it/

But wait it gets even better. Scientists once thought that quite early on in life the brain could no longer renew itself and that the neurons in our brains were fixed almost from birth. The theory was that as we aged these neurons died off and were not replaced causing mental decline. However the neuroscientist Fred H. Gage, through tests on mice, found that neurons do in fact keep renewing themselves up until we die. That’s lovely Sam you say, but what does it have to do with exercise? Well, while all the mice were producing new neurons up until death, those mice who were athletic were producing up to two to three times as many neurons that those that weren’t!

So what you’re saying here Sam is that exercise can increase my intelligence simply by exercising? Well I’m not exactly sure if I’d say it quite like that. Clearly genetics play a role, as do other factors like nutrition and so on, but, hypothetically I’d say that if we had two realities, one in which you made the commitment to exercise regularly and one in which you didn’t, that your brain would function better in the first case, plus it would degenerate less and would not only work better but longer. But let us be realistic, this does not mean you can increase your IQ by 20 points or anything like that. But if you could just feel a little more refreshed and think with greater ease all while curbing your chance of suffering from mental illness and depression by simply running around a few times a week, wouldn’t you take it? I know I would.

This brings me to the next part of this article which relates to hormonal changes caused by exercise that help our psychological wellbeing on a daily basis. Exercise releases hormones called endorphins which you may well have already heard of. Endorphins are natural pain killers and are related to hormones like dopamine and serotonin which increase happiness levels and thus general feelings of well being. So exercise can help alleviate depression, give us a psychological boost and sharpen our ability to think. I know I have brushed over these concepts quite quickly but I think the benefits here are rather self-evident. If your always feeling happy and sharp you will obviously succeed more in whatever manner you wish to in life, than if you were to drudge through life in a depressed negative state. Clearly exercise has many benefits for the mind, indeed the list is ever growing as scientists continue to reveal the benefits of exercise for our psychological wellbeing. Here is a little extract from http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro05/web2/mmcgovern.html which you may find interesting:

“Fortunately, it may be possible to exercise to happiness. It has been shown that physically active people recover from mild depression more quickly, and physical activity is strongly correlated with good mental health as people age (7). Depression is related to low levels of certain neurotransmitters like serotonin and norepinephrine. Exercise increases concentrations of these neurotransmitters by stimulating the sympathetic nervous system (12).

In fact, a combination of exercise and antidepressants (which increase BDNF via the serotonin-BDNF loop) has been particularly effective in treating depressive behaviors in rats.”

There is still one more aspect of exercise I wish to touch on, this time relating not so much to exercise itself, but rather the routine behind it.Making the commitment to exercise regularly requires some commitment and dedication. Simply by giving yourself a routine and sticking to it you are increasing your ability to set yourself goals and actively pursue them, exercise again helps in this area. Regular exercise can not only provide a sense of routine, security and structure but also allow the exerciser time to relax, as the conscious mind does not have to stress over the days troubles. Make sure you make exercise enjoyable, make sure you make it a way for your mind to unwind this will grant some of the greatest benefits by simply giving you a well deserved mental break while at the same time encouraging commitment to a regular activity.

I know that I often think a lot when exercising, although often this is not very consciously, and often people get good ideas while they are exercising. Think about Einstein, who got his theory of relativity while riding a bike. Coincidence? Quite possibly, but I guess we’ll never truly know. There is however some proof to the idea that we get our best ideas when we are in a relaxed state of mind, and exercising is just one way of being just that. Another place people often get good ideas is in the bathroom, but that’s a story for another article.