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In a past more recent than you know, society was vastly different to what it is today. It was utterly unrecognisable, barely formulating what we would now constitute a society. Ancient man had a far more difficult and brutal lifestyle than we have today. He would be in constant danger, from both other animals and other humans, and this constant danger would manifest itself in his psyche. To be constantly on the edge of death, surrounded by sprawling forests or endless deserts, his foe either a hidden big cat stalking him or the scorching sun beating down on him from above, man’s earliest memories were ones of unapologetic struggle, real struggle.
Compare that environment to the one we inhabit today, well, you can’t. They are practically incomparable. Modern man inhabits a relatively comfortable world where we do not have to worry about whether we will be blessed by the gods with a good harvest or if we have the physical skill and mental fortitude to hunt and successfully kill a bear to survive. Our consciousness is almost completely detached from that mindset and reattached to modernity. I say nearly, because of course we are still those people, it’s not that we have changed very much, but that everything surrounding us has.
We are extremely adaptable creatures, and although we no longer have to worry about a multitude of physically present problems, we still have the potential to successfully move ourselves through the primordial space and time if we wish, for recreational purposes or, in more extreme cases, if our wellbeing or life is threatened somehow.
However, many contemporaries believe we no longer need to concern ourselves with such childish things, and that you can still be healthy even if you are overweight. Self-proclaimed ‘fat doctor’, Dr. Natasha Larmie claims that: “dieting ‘is not good for you’, the word obesity should be banned and that you CAN be overweight and healthy”. Not only that, but the doctor from Hertfordshire insisted: “going on a diet can ‘pretty much guarantee’ you will gain weight in the coming years, and that being healthy is largely down to whether you are born ‘white, male, able-bodied, cisgender and heterosexual’“.
In recent years, such strange beliefs have begun to permeate Britain and other nations at a far more frequent basis, masquerading as social justice underneath the banner of ‘fat-acceptance’. It would be easy to break down exactly what is wrong in such arguments – one need only look at the effect obesity or obesity-related problems (such as diabetes) can have on your heart, your lifespan or the impact diseases like Covid-19 can have on your health to understand the utter nonsense of such arguments. Not only that, but the blatantly problematic statement that suggests only ‘white, male, able-bodied, cisgender and heterosexual’ individuals are inherently predisposed to being healthy is concerning at best and evidence of the ever-progressing delusional attitudes of many liberals at worst.
Luckily, most sane individuals see this for what it is, the ravings of delusional individuals. Nevertheless, a bulwark must still be procured in order to mitigate such insane rhetoric, which brings us to the heart of this article; the importance of physical training for modern man.
The primordial man lived as nature intended. Regular exposure to the cold, hunting across country, putting oneself into nature and trying his best, for the survival of not only himself and his family, but the entire species as a whole. To some of these contemporary voices, the idea of attempting to reflect such adversity, be that through something as relatively safe as hiking or mountaineering or something more physical, be that boxing or rock climbing. To these contemporaries and even regular people, such physical activity is seen as unimportant, and thus when anything as arduous and similarly physical is proposed, it is cast in the shadows as being the concern of our past selves, not our current ones. This is totally wrong, though, and I will explain why.
There is real, tangible importance to be found in becoming the caretakers of our physical – and thus, metaphysical – bodies. The two are intrinsically linked, if one is out of line and lagging it will drag the other back with it. To move our bodies and our minds through the space around us- be it through any extremity of exercise or physical exertion -.is important to our physical and mental wellbeing.
If your body is frail and weak, do you really believe it will not have, at the bare minimum, a subconscious effect on your mind? Does the prey within nature not understand its fragility and vulnerability and thus carry itself accordingly? When the wildebeest or gazelle with its eyes at the side of its head constantly scanning its environment, does it not feel weak? And when the powerful jaguar or panther silently moves through its owned space, its eyes up front and indomitable; does it not feel powerful? Does it not feel the environment around itself to be under his or her ownership? We are to look forward with our front facing eyes and not bother about that which is behind us, because if we were to care for such circumstances would our vision not be set to do so? We are predators, not prey, and we must act accordingly if we wish to realise our fullest potential. If you can look down at yourself and see a body made for war, would you not feel like you could accomplish far more than if you were to look down and see a weak, powerless outer shell? There must be a balance and that balance can be found through the tempering of not only our bodies with the extrinsic physical reality, but also through submitting our minds to the metaphysical reality.
This can and must be done through two primary methods: the exposure of our body and mind to the natural world. The first is as follows: We must forge bodies of power and endurance through physical exercise, be that running, hiking, swimming, strength training, rowing, cycling, climbing etc. On this great isle, we are lucky to have areas of natural beauty, such as the Lake District and Peak District – areas that we should celebrate and protect at all costs – and areas that are perfect for the expansion of our minds and bodies. Anything and everything that builds the muscle and destroys the fat is to be celebrated, that which creates a mind muscle connection and allows us to temper both our bodies and our minds into a version that is stronger than the previous one. In submitting our bodies to physical exertion, we train the mind to handle the same, and the benefits are endless.
The second is literally placing ourselves within the natural world. Walk through unowned space – as in, that which belongs to no one but nature itself – and contemplate its majesty. Forests, mountains, plains, and grassland; anything and everything that allows you to inhabit an area of the physical world untampered and uncontrolled by humans. The assembled infrastructure of the man-made world around us is not to be viewed as a negative, for we enjoy many benefits from it, however you must understand the importance of regularly placing yourself in the natural world and away from man-made comforts.
To do all this, the treatment of exertion to the body or the beauty of nature to the mind; to breathe deeply within the forest is to treat our minds and bodies to such an earthly pleasure that will pay dividends to our mental and physical fortitude, that which is utterly connected and compatible with one another. We did not rise from nothing to everything through the idealisation or celebration of an existent comfort, instead it is the very act of climbing through the struggle and hardship natural to life that we managed, over thousands of years, to mold our surroundings into the comfort we enjoy now. However, like a pet cat or dog that spends more time eating and lounging around than hunting or exploring its landscape, we have grown fat on the thrones once built through the blood, sweat and tears shed by the hardened bodies and minds of those that came before us.
What is it then that we can do to change this? To trim the fat and the mediocrity and grow the muscle and the mind? There are a few things you can do to emulate the struggle necessary for self-improvement:
Expose yourself to the cold, run for miles and miles, lift heavy weights, practice a martial art or climb a rock face. Walk through and revel in the majesty and beauty of the natural world, the home and birthplace of all ascended life we must strive to emulate.
All of this showcases the importance of physical training and the exposure of ourselves to the natural world around us. Comfort is no longer the reward, it is the norm, and thus we must flip the script. Discomfort is the ultimate reward we can give ourselves in order to facilitate the desired development that are an absolute necessity for the functioning and growth of higher life.
Do not live ordinarily, do not allow your body to fall into such disrepair as is so common in modern society now. Reject the mediocrity that plagues our society and fashion yourself into a living, breathing work of art that challenges the hostile world it was born into.