Living A Fulfilled Life: Physical Activity

[Octavius]

I think that despite who you are everyone should have certain activities in their life to really feel complete or happy. Physical activity is one of them. Staying fit is crucial both for your physical and mental health. It helps you fight off sickness and viruses.

When I was young I'd get the stomach flu usually about once or twice a year and I'd get like 4 or 5 colds. I ate junk food constantly and never exercised. For the past 4 or so years I've been engaging in rigorous workouts and it's rare for me to even get a cold once a year. Last fall there was a huge epidemic of flu at my law school and almost 90% of students were sick to some degree. I was one of the few who didn't get sick. I didn't avoid the virus going around. I was getting coughed on all the time. Any of you who go to a gym now how filthy the equipment is. Just take a wipe and run it along a barbell and you'll see all the germs that are on it. Yet people at the gym aren't getting sick left and right. Their bodies are fit and thus their immune system is at max efficiency.

In addition to protecting you from short-term immediate issues, physical activity also helps you live longer and reduces your chances of developing chronic or even life-threatening diseases including but not limited to Cancer, heart failure, Diabetes, and even STI's(you still better be practicing safe sex though because it only reduces, not eliminates the chance). And thus physical activity can extend your life.

People argue that physical activity isn't good for those with very poor health such as the old or people with physical impairments. The thing with physical activity is that there are SOOO many different activities that require different levels of effort. Physical activity can be as intense as running triathlons to simply going for a walk in the park or going for a hike. Most people have some form of interest in at least one physical activity. It can be people who want to hike, people who want to jog, people who like to go camping or scuba diving. It can be as simple as ice skating or bowling. People that take part in martial arts or a combat sport. There's a physical activity out there for everyone.

Having a physical activity as a hobby can give you a goal to achieve. The goal can be lifting a specific amount of weight in the gym. Being able to run a specific number of miles in a limited time. Camping at some forest you've always wanted to camp. Perhaps you climbed Yosemite but now you want to climb K2. Winning at a competitive sport. Whatever the activity is, the activity allows you to have a goal to work towards. We need goals in life to feel fulfilled. It gives you ambition and drives you to be better than you currently are. Physical activity is crucial for personal growth and maturity. Physical Activity helps you build self-esteem and confidence. You can see the progress you've made. Maybe you couldn't break 100 points when you first started bowling now you're scoring close to 200 every game. It's hard not to feel good when you can see positive results in your physical capabilities.

Finally, physical activity allows you to broaden your horizons both in learning about yourself and learning about other people. Regardless of the physical activity, if it's walking/jogging/running, biking, scuba diving, mountain climbing, surfing, skiing, bowling, or football. There is a community out there that do these activities. Whatever physical activity you do, you can find a group of people who do the activity together. Physical activity opens the door for you to meet a diverse group of people. Individuals who share your interest in the activity. They can range in all kinds of personalities who are all brought together because of their desire for that activity. Humans are social creatures by nature. If you've seen the Shining you know what happens to those that lock themselves up from society. You should at least try and find other people who share your passion for the activity you want to do. You can find people who are experts at it that are more than glad to help you develop in that activity or perhaps you one day are the expert and you can help others. But with a physical activity for a hobby, it's easy to find a new group of friends. Meeting and learning about people is also crucial to your own personal growth and your understanding of how people interact and live. Physical activity is possibly the easiest way to accomplish this.

If you feel like it's too hard to get into an activity or that you're just not physically capable. Just start small. The issue so many people have is that they dive headfirst into an activity and go all out and the rigors of the activity may be too much for them at the start. You're trying to run before you've mastered the crawl.

Don't Run Before You Know How to Crawl

Start easy. Only push yourself enough to just be slightly out of your comfort zone until you learn to conquer that level of intensity. Once you have, you can push yourself a little harder. If you join a martial art, don't be going 7 days a week right from the start. You'll burn out and give up before you really got into the art. Start with like 2 sessions a week for a few months until you're comfortable with it and then increase when you're ready for a greater challenge. Allow your body to build itself up to the level required to go all out. Don't sprint for an hour straight when you should just be going at a brisk jog. Learn to be comfortable going at a crawling pace. Then work your way into a walking pace and then after you conquer that you can start sprinting. (It's an analogy, I'm not asking you to crawl around on a track field).

Regardless of how busy you are in your life, you should be able to find time to incorporate at least one physical activity into your routine. The amount of benefits that physical activity brings is too great to pass up for anyone.

[Arivor]

I enjoyed reading your myTakes. You have very good points made and well justified. I love the comparison between Yosemite (El Capitan) and K2 (The Suicidal Magic Line Route) since both will require serious rock climbing experience.