It’s all the same

         Every so often our instructors will talk about silo training vs training broadly.  Now I’m going to take it in a different direction here, but it’s all the same.

        I’m on a perpetual health journey.  I try to better my health through different facets and for various reasons.  Admittedly, most of these endeavours start from a place of vanity and then that turns into wanting to live a longer, healthier life.  What starts off as individual reasons tends to come back and converge into one main goal.  What I’ve learned, or noticed, is that it’s all the same.  Whether it’s better skin, better sleep, less aches or pains, it’s all the same building blocks.  Sure there are individual components that lend themselves to whatever ailment, but it all lends itself back to the whole.  When it comes to health those things are: nutrition, sleep, stress management, exercise, and I’ll add in spirituality/community.

        Nutrition is a very broad term, but it would entail getting all the micro and macro nutrients your body needs to function at an OPTIMAL level.  Sleep not only entails length, but quality, having a routine, and having a rhythm.  Stress management which includes not only knowing techniques to utilize when you’re going through times of mental/emotional stress, but also techniques to relax and recover from physical stress or stressors.  That also includes eustress or good stress, which is different from destress, but still affects your nervous system.  Exercise, which has many different forms, but the goal is always mindful movement and expression of the body.  Lastly, but certainly not least, spirituality or a sense of community.  I’m pairing these two together because there isn’t much separation.  Often our community is born out of a sense of spirituality/religion.  Basically having healthy relationships to sustain us and give us a sense of belonging and purpose.

         I mentioned before that it’s all the same, and it really is.  Whether it was the youthful appearance of my skin and hair, quality of my sleep, move better; whatever the reason, they all had the same components for success.  I see my Kung Fu training the same.  Every lesson we learn, though it can be seen as individualized for a specific purpose, can translate to everything else that we’re doing.  All the same building blocks are there, and like our health there may be certain components that seem compartmentalized, but really are just to help us break through a specific barrier that can then open us back-up into the whole.  It really is all the same, you just need to have the awareness to see that.  There’s no secret ingredient, other than awareness.  Once you see that, the battle is then keeping that in front of you, because inevitably we’ll put our horse blinders back on and have tunnel vision again until we remind ourselves that that is not the true reality.