This post arises in part from Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM ENCOURAGES CREATIVE THINKING. PART I, when I express: “The therapy of psychoanalysis, described in a simplistic way, is to try to become aware of the repressed desires (repressed impulses, which are repressed by the consciousness and are not conscious), through communication to the therapist, lying (accommodated) the patient on a couch, relaxed and in a state of immobility, to come to understand by recognizing them -those repressed contents- as the fundamental cause of the psychological illness he suffers from; after having extroverted those repressed impulses, he feels comforted, and to a certain degree, by using this therapy, the patient is cured. The catharsis can be improved by applying the WALK-RWD system by provoking that when walking and performing the other structured activities, the brain constantly seeks to preserve and restore the equilibrium -during the period of the walk- to rebalance itself mechanically, psychically and neurologically with the usual propagation of nervous-neuronal impulses towards its other functional areas (dormant or asleep) of the brain itself (stunned cerebral convolutions and neuro-mechanisms) and other organs, systems and glands of the whole organism. A therapy similar to the one expressed, but walking, always walking – is what gives the greatest effectiveness to the treatment of emotions”.
In my novel, GOD GOES TO PSYCHIATRIST (*), published in 2016 (2009 Spanish version), I already expressed something about this subject of performing catharsis while walking; in one of the scenes it is exposed: Ernesto used to walk long distances -when he was a child- with his little dog Troter, and somehow he realized that this improved him in many of his psychic functions. As an adult, when he was already a psychiatrist, he would give his patients his consultation by walking them through some of the parks near his office. He knew that sitting them on a couch was not very cathartic.
On the other hand, the meaning of Lacerate or Perforated or Swollen Feet that the Greek appellation of OEDIPUS has in Greek must at some point have meant to Dr. Freud a coherence with walking. However, in none of Freud’s writings is there any reference to this natural practice of the human being. Already in Post OEDIPUS, THE ONE WITH SWOLLEN AND LACERATED FEET I have explained that this is what his adoptive father named him when he was given to him, since he was found hanging from a tree where the baby had been abandoned and that he had completely swollen feet, which presented sores and lacerations. The myth describes that Oedipus, after having removed his eyes -himself- for having had sexual relations with his mother and having killed his father, started walking on eternal paths that would keep him walking during the last stage of his life. This mythical information did not provoke in Freud any idea or relationship that could have indicated to him that he should have considered walking within his theory; that is, to make his patients walk, while they performed their catharsis.
In future Post BRAIN GYMNASTICS BUT WALKING, I mention the following: “However, we should also mention that to perform these exercises of Brain Gymnastics without walking, is like going to the psychiatrist and doing the catharsis sitting or lying down”.
1199-HARMONIC INTROVERSION
The WALK-RWD System works as a psychoanalytic catharsis when we propose it and we resort to it, to eliminate some of the negative emotions that make us sick. With the passage of time I have been recommending this WALK-RWD System and presenting -in various Posts- its concrete application in specific emotional and psychological cases, namely:
Published Posts:
EMOTIONS AND THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM
THE POWER OF EMOTIONS
AUTOLIBERATION OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS THROUGH SELF-SUGGESTIBILITY
WALKING AND READING ALOUD
COMBATING NEGATIVE EMOTIONS WITH THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM, SOLUTION TO PROCRASTINATION.
In the future I will expose other cases of importance, in which the WALK-RWD system is applied:
Future Posts:
METHOD OF RELEASED EMOTIONS.
PARADOXICAL EMOTIONAL PROGRAMMING
WALKING READING POETRY OUT LOUD
I have to emphasize again, that its application -in all cases- is directly effective through the 3 activities structured within the System itself, reading, writing and drawing. Practice and results that are obtained effectively and whose procedure I expose in each of the posts I have published (Post UPDATED DYNAMIC INDEX OF POSTS 1-120, where you can observe and choose their titles and also link directly to each of the selected ones).
This part of the System is the most comprehensive and effective because walking rests on the conjunction of these 3 activities that make it universal and generates outstanding impacts in all spheres of human activity, as well as tangible and immediate benefits throughout the body, both physical, mental and spiritual.
Returning to our central theme of showing the WALK-RWD system in an analogical way to Psychoanalysis, but walking, I will allow myself to point out below a slight procedure for its cathartic practice, without any concrete expression of any psychological or emotional ailment, but simply, its regular application, for any case.
STEP 1.
Decide to practice the WALK-RWD System.
STEP 2.
Choose one of the 3 structured activities: reading, writing or drawing. One or several.
STEP 3.
Accompany us with the necessary implements to carry out the selected structured activity: pencil, recorder, notebook, sheets, notepad, etc.
STEP 4.
Start walking.
STEP 5.
Whichever of the 3 activities we have selected, we will have to say out loud what we are doing: reading, writing or drawing. This part together with the walking, always walking, provokes that the unconscious presses the consciousness to bring up the stimuli and unwanted impulses that our consciousness repressed (Future Post THE UNCONSCIOUS AND THE CONSCIOUS IN THE APPLICATION OF THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM).
STEP 6.
Continue like this for 15 minutes. Rest for 10 minutes, dedicating yourself to meditation and contemplation.
STEP 7.
Restart the application of the System, with the same structured activity or with some other, for 15 minutes. It is recommended to perform this dynamic for 4 periods of 25 minutes, equivalent to 100 minutes.
END of the procedure.
1159-Onirodinia
The System works. All we have to do is decide to walk and follow these 7 steps. It is only 100 minutes that we need to take away from our commitments and our “lack of time”. Our unconscious will start working immediately when we start walking, supporting us in the other 3 activities, and talking out loud. Let it act and we will be able to observe its effective results in our emotions.
(*) Loya Lopategui, Carlos, God Goes to Psychiatrist, EMULISA, Mexico, 2021, Distributed by Amazon, available in Kindle Edition: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HVCWDNT.
In this Post I seek to emphasize the care we should take with our feet. For this, I will use the Greek myth of Oedipus that we have very present because Sigmund Freud used it to support an integral part of his psychoanalytic theory. Of course, there is no direct relationship between the care we should take with our feet and this myth, but I do intend to keep in mind that the feet -like any other part of the body- should be cared for with care and attention.
There are several versions of the Oedipus myth. I will describe some of them, extracting the most relevant of each story, which will lead us to the objective of this Post, the care of our feet.
1086-TROPISMS
Laius upon learning the oracle that his son would kill him and marry his own mother, let his wife Yocasta know that they would have no children, but Yocasta managed to beget one and so the baby was born, which Laius immediately ordered to be taken away. However, Yocasta’s plea made Laius allow one of his employees to take him away and hang him by his feet, so that he would not have to be killed, in one of the trees on the slopes of Mount Cytheron, until he died. Another version tells that Laius asked one of his henchmen to take him to Mount Cytheron and to lacerate the soles of the baby’s feet so that the bleeding would attract the beasts and devour him, so that he would not be killed by the envoy.
In all the versions of the myth, the baby was abandoned on Mount Cytheron. In one of them -as I already mentioned- it is narrated that by orders of his father Laius, the soles of his two feet are pierced as a sign that he should not walk and therefore should die devoured by the animals; in another version, the baby was hung by his two lower limbs, to die dehydrated. However, in all of them the baby did not lose his life because he was rescued and was able to survive to fulfill the oracle.
Mount Cytheron was crisscrossed by hundreds of paths that generally formed an immense labyrinth. It was said that whoever entered any of the paths that led to its slopes and entered it, would never be able to get out. Daedalus was inspired by this inextricable mountain to design the Labyrinth that King Minos asked him to build on the island of Crete.
Two days after the baby had been abandoned on the slopes of that mountain, a shepherd who was taking his sheep to graze nearby noticed something hanging from a tree in the distance and was able to unmoor and unhook the baby, who was quite dehydrated and with swollen feet. This man knew that King Polybius could not beget children and took him to his royal palace, which adopted him as a son. He named him Oedipus, which means the one with swollen feet.
It is well known the following part of the story that continued to fulfill the oracle.
Oedipus, as an adult, receives the oracle at Delphi, which specifies that he would kill his father and have sexual relations with his mother. This prophecy alters him emotionally and he flees from his adoptive father and mother to avoid realizing these horrendous premonitions. From these omens he wanders and walks for a long time and due to certain circumstances, Oedipus meets Laius, his biological father, and because of a quarrel he kills him. He continues walking for some time, and following his destiny, Oedipus discovers the enigma of the Sphinx and is rewarded for it by marrying Yocasta, which was the prize offered in Thebes for such a discovery, also naming him King of Thebes. With Yocasta, his mother, he had 2 daughters and a son. Thus, Oedipus fulfills the oracle also in that part.
Some time later, Oedipus discovers that he killed his father and that Yocasta was his mother. As self-punishment he cuts out his eyes, becoming totally blind, and takes to walking in this part of his life, returning to Mount Cytheron, which he enters, losing himself in its labyrinthine paths. After this foray of Oedipus into Mount Cytheroon, he is never heard from again.
An outstanding aspect regarding the subject at hand, is that when Oedipus receives the oracle at Delphi, that he would kill his father and have sexual relations with his mother, he flees from his adoptive father and mother to avoid realizing those horrendous premonitions, wandering and walking for many months, that his feet became swollen and lacerated.
After realizing that his oracle had been fulfilled, Oedipus punished himself by gouging out his eyes, resigned his office as King of Thebes and retired forever, setting out to walk on infinite paths, thus fulfilling what WILHELM STEKEL calls the compulsion of the name, and which may well have been some other oracle, which would keep him walking during the last stage of his life.
Oedipus’ life is tragic enough. No doubt about it. A punishment from the gods?
The myth places Oedipus blind and walking at the end of his days. It would seem that the myth communicates to us that walking was part of his deliverance; but why does he remove himself, his eyes?
Would walking in the dark have any meaning, would wandering without seeing and without meaning be the answer to it?
Cytheron was the Mount consecrated to Dionysus. The Greek god Dionysus represented pleasure, optimism and the joy of living; he endowed humans with strength and happiness.
Most probably Oedipus decided to walk for the rest of his life through the infinite paths of Mount Cytheron, to seek during those walks the strength and joy he had lost, trying to find the comfort and shelter of Dionysus, and get away from sadness and unhappiness.
If with this post I manage to attract a minimum of attention to the care of our feet, I will have achieved my goal: Oedipus, Dionysus, feet, walking?
Let us keep in mind the image of Dionysus. Let us walk every day looking for him, and once we have located him, let us not let go of his hand.
He was always a person I admired, for different reasons, which I will explain on another occasion.
Having him suspended for not having accepted to go to fight in Vietnam, caused him to interrupt his career; just like me, surely many other people stopped watching him box and listening to his ideas in general, his way of being and feeling.
Now, during the month of August 2022, by synchronicity, I meet him again. A case that I will expose in part II or III of the posts that I will publish in the future on Synchronicity.
I learned that he had already died in 2016 and that he had suffered from Parkinson’s disease. What a shame with an athlete like Muhammad Ali. Tri-heavyweight champion. I believe him to be the greatest boxer of all time.
So much for my reunion. I found out that I could watch his fights on my cell phone.
I started watching them one by one and remembered two or three of the ones I had already watched.
This post is about Ali’s trotting in the ring.
It is a very special trot that he does it backward and to his left side. If he were left-handed, perhaps he would do it in the opposite direction (this would have to be investigated in the future).
He performs it by jumping, dancing, frolicking, as any other fighter would do. However, not all of them do it from the 1st round to the last, as Ali can do it, alternating it in different rounds. In fact, not many boxers fight with this tactic.
Sometimes a whole round is spent trotting, but most of the time it is during intervals that take only 15-20 seconds.
Ali performs this style always jumping on his two lower limbs, to his left side and with slight steps (small and short) backward. He performs it by circling around his opponent, always spinning around him, and at a constant distance, which anyone could say is defined by the reach of his fists. And it is true.
He also does that “jogging” to the right side but it is not his natural way and surely does not achieve the same results and looks clumsy and insubstantial. I recommend that he be observed more closely.
To emphasize that he does it backward could sound false, because he would lose the distance of reach; however, if we observe him carefully we will see that in each small step backward -of marginal size- the opponent advances that same distance as if Ali consciously practiced it and intuitively knew that his opponent would follow him in his trotting. This, too, I recommend that it be studied thoroughly.
I will point out about this re-encounter.
There are 4 important dates that I should point out from what I was thinking and planning about the Blog, which are related to this Post.
On September 26, 2019, it occurred to me to develop a Post about walking backward, which allowed me to investigate the benefits that could be achieved with that way of walking (Future Post WALKING BACKWARD). This practice is carried out by Ali with his special trotting during his boxing matches. Surely he also performed it during his rehearsals, drills and exercises that he used to do in the gym.
On February 20, 2020, I had the idea of writing another Post about the Kaaba, because it was a millenary walking practice where they communicated with divinity by circling around a divine center (Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE KAABA CENTER). Ali also performs this type of circling around his opponent, and something else, his gaze is focused on a single point (Many would say that he performs it this way to hit his opponent and stay alert of his attacker). Future posts THE YANTRA AND THE WALK; and THE MANDALA AND OUR WALK.
On June 15, 2020, it occurs to me to combine some exercises that I was practicing on my own person, in addition to walking backward, that would force my brain, and I was able to experience between 10-12 exercises of this type (Future Post BRAIN GYMNASTICS WHILE WALKING-EXERCISES).
In this period I gained good experiences in addition to the ones I have always had, as I was able to force my mind to deploy new efforts to keep me walking in conditions out of normality. In the near future, I will publish this Post. It details 2 exercises involved in Ali’s trotting.
Finally, on September 21, 2020, I decided to expand the research and analysis of the practice of spinning to a central point because it has more implications, of the physical, mental and spiritual types, and of greater importance (Future Post WALKING AND CIRCUMAMBULATION). Ali is a practitioner of circumambulation, as he fights in the ring with his way of trotting backward and circling around his opponent. He renews himself physically and spiritually. And I’m pretty sure his trainer and handler Angelo Dundee should have known that (About circumambulation).
All this has led me to read some of what is written about his spiritual strength and religious creed.
I would like to say very briefly that I am not a supporter of any religion, nor do I like politics; I only believe in art, engineering and economics, which are my “professional de-formations“.
As it is known, Ali converted to Islam in 1964 and probably already had in his genetics this practice of circumambulation (*); hence with greater conscious force he carried it out in the ring.
Besides these relationships that I have described, the most relevant thing is that I observe in all Ali’s fights, I repeat: in all his fights, two things: one, that every time he feels attacked or harassed, he resorts to that walk to keep away from his opponent and anyone would say that it is to escape from that harassment; and two, he also resorts to that walk when he feels tired. It seems that this walk replenishes him spiritually: trotting backward, circling around a point.
Surely there is a 3rd reason why he resorts to this circumambulatory tactic: to knock out his opponent; but I cannot say for sure.
To describe this trotting is not easy, it is necessary to observe him in practice above the ring. Briefly, it is: Walking -Alí trots- slowly backward and to the left side. Circling slowly without stopping and keeping a distance of one center.
Always like this.
This has induced me to analyze the distance of all circumambulation, because it surely has implications of the physical and mental type, but above all spiritual. That is to say, this reinforcement of Ali’s spirit to perform this practice with a certain distance in his jogging around his opponent, surely had a determining implication to have a greater strength, both physical and spiritual.
As we can see, this practice is not natural in the walk of the human being; it is a way to force our body and mind to reach other energetic forms to better develop our functions and also to generate that the mind has other brain areas that have been dormant.
I have decided to make the 2nd part on this subject of Muhammad Ali’s trotting because of the data that I have been able to observe in my research, it is possible that I can establish and verify an important correspondence between the following parameters (besides others that I will be noticing): Ali’s age, the strength of Ali and his opponents, the reach of both adversaries, the round or rounds where we observe him carrying out this jogging in order to “recharge” spiritually, psychologically and physically, which in turn would lead me to prove my thesis.
In this second part, I will be able to analyze if there is a “high” correlation between the number of times Ali uses this tactic in a fight and the greater or lesser difficulty he suffers against his opponent.
The fundamental element that will give channel to my following analyses and evaluations of the collected data, will be this spiritual “recharge” of Ali.
For the time being, here are some of the fights where Ali trots in some of the rounds, although I repeat: in all his fights since 1960 he does it.
As I was saying, the post is about Ali’s trotting in the ring that many commentators call DANCING, and this leads me to take more into account my appreciation for dancing, specifically dancing backward. This modulation in the dance can be observed in many types of dance and I myself perform it in the Tap Tap dance [Video where this sequence is appreciated].
(*)Why walk around a sacred center? These configurations that are generated around a Center and that are all arranged concentrically in a radial and symmetrical way, make up the totality of the mandala, which should be the subject of deep analysis for the people who generate them. Their function and knowledge, in this case of the KAABA, can serve us as a representation of these unconscious images that during the 7 turns that are made around the Sacred Center has its interpretation within Islam as a meditation (inner search and inquiry of the divinity that we all have inside), a contemplation (to perceive our mystical inclinations to seek contact with the divinity, and likewise, to seek reconciliation of our contradictions in the self – as mentioned by C. G. Jung -, and to have contact with the divinity. G. Jung-, and to have contact with our archaic origins) and a transformation (the mandala itself is the symbol that results from the practice that during millennia periodic and habitual actions were carried out and recorded in the unconscious and that make contact with the archetypes, for the transformation of the personality of the individual who evokes them).
As something unusual, tomorrow when we go for a walk, let’s take a few steps backward, very carefully so as not to fall, and let’s observe all our reactions and experiences that we have. To trot like Ali is very difficult, you need to be an athlete and gymnast.
Some of them can be observed combined (mixed) in some way, that is to say, that the only interest of looking for company, could be sponsored by a psychological factor, or the other way around, and so the rest of the scenarios.
Some of these conditions are generated because the human being needs to transmit his feelings, impulses and appetites, in general terms, and has no other being to whom to transfer them.
The full binomial of this “mascotarian” relationship is give and take.
In addition to the exercise factor, which practically all pets generate, some more and others less, there is a great quantity of benefits and services that they provide us, being very diverse, which we relate in the following table, in a generic way. However, these benefits that can be obtained from certain pets should not be confused with other services that they provide in a commercial, mercantile or economic sense.
Dogs and cats are the ideal and perfect pets because they live inside our homes, we take care of them and feed them as if they were members of the family, and the affection we feel for them is reciprocal.
Those benefits and services that we receive from our pets depend a lot on the customs of the human group we are referring to, however, in general, in the following table we present the benefits and services that we enjoy from the great diversity of them.
Of course, we cannot find all these benefits in a single pet; however, this long list guides us to think about why we can always choose to have a pet, depending on the need we have at a certain time of our lives. All the functions that are attributed to pets are benevolent. However, physical exercise is one of the most important, as well as companionship and catharsis.
PHYSICAL EXERCISE. WALKING WITH THE PET.
I do not have enough information about the rest of the animals, apart from dogs and cats, to illustrate in this respect. The percentage of the relationship of the human being with the dog and the cat, is very high, and fundamentally on that statistic we will concentrate in this subject, and not for it we will stop giving some data on other pets that have accompanied the man and the woman.
Of these two, the dog as a pet has given us an invaluable benefit as “physical exercise”, forced or not, in different stages of life [men, women, elderly and children] being a very great benefit, and that exercise is also almost 100% in walking next to the pet. Likewise, we must be aware that in a high percentage the individual does not seek exercise when adopting a pet, but other benefits, however he/she obtains it without seeking it.
COMPANY
Another of the benefits that we find in pets, which is practically generalized in all of them, is their companionship. The value “Company” is one of the most important factors for pet owners. This is an immediate and regular response in all pets, although it varies in degree according to the type, and invariably solves several problems such as lack of communication (isolation), loneliness, self-imposed isolation, confinement, social withdrawal, separation from partners, orphanhood, melancholy, sadness, nostalgia, etc.
Loneliness is one of the great problems that afflict a high percentage of the elderly population, although we also find it in big cities and in adults, and we try to solve it with the company of a pet.
THE CATHARSIS
The catharsis -in the broadest sense of the word- that is achieved with pets is very effective. Studies that have been developed in this respect allow us to assure that a great variety of psychological discomforts (ailments, disturbances, alterations, disorders, disorders) are improved when having contact with animals and better with pets. Many people who have experienced it comment: “my pet serves me as therapy”. This can be understood if we observe that “your” pet keeps you company, reinforces your security, gives you love, and you feel useful. Of course, pets eliminate -in part- boredom, loneliness, annoyance, tedium, discouragement, psychic withdrawal, monologues, melancholy, discouragement, pessimism, despair, nostalgia, sadness, we could even say, they also help in depression, anxiety and psychic anguish (Future Pot CATARSIS MASCOTIAN AND THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM-PART II).
In this line, the list of effective benefits is quite large: attention, love, affection, caresses, affection, attachment, tenderness, friendship, interest, sympathy, appreciation, pampering, cuddling, physical care, etc. In a single phrase is sought and achieved: “the substitution of human companionship”.
LONELINESS.
I would like to say a few words about the concept of loneliness. I am referring to that loneliness that is the result of living alone, of feeling alone, perceiving oneself alone, regretting being alone, regretting being alone, because one longs to be in company, in a desperate way, and being afflicted by not being accompanied. In posts WALKING AND THE ELECTION OF LONELINESS. PART I and WALK IN SOLITUDE, AN ANALOGY OF LIFE, we have mentioned that solitude is required and sought voluntarily, at certain times of the day, to dialogue with oneself, to meditate, or simply to be in silence during a period of thoughtless contemplation; however, now I am referring to that state of mind of being afflicted by feeling alone, fundamentally due to being alone, a state of psychic solitude.
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS.
This is a very broad and difficult aspect to validate. Pets can replace the friend, the husband or wife, the son or daughter, the priest, the psychologist, the teacher, the boss,… And from the psychological point of view, one unconsciously seeks not to have negative answers, claims, denials, rejections, oppositions, obstinations, or to be able to say anything, an insult, scolding, shout, insult, insolence, irreverence, provocation, knowing that there will not be any censure or protest. From the psychological approach of the difficulty that human beings have in their relationship with beings of their own species, in contemporary times -and since always-, the pet can be a compensatory mechanism in the face of this type of communication problems. Does this have a relevant relation with the responsibility that pet owners feel? That is to say, they discard and discharge any kind of responsibility for being irrational animals, as they have been called.
It is hardly possible to achieve a dialogue with any pet, although some parrot owners claim otherwise. It is more difficult to achieve an effective confession or confidence, but we try.
Perhaps monologue and soliloquy can be channeled in a better way. Practically 100% of people [male, female, elderly and children] who have a pet talk to it. We can also say that it is the “owner” who talks with them the most and not the rest of the family members.
Pets, in general, require a lot of constant attention, however, they are also useful for those creators who cannot concentrate on creative work. This may seem contradictory, but it is not so. I believe that this aspect that helps in creative concentration should be investigated in greater depth. Perhaps something has to do with the type of responsibility that one has with pets.
Together with the lack of responsibility, there is the wielding of power (with authority and hierarchy) that human beings, almost in general and according to their own levels of emotional imbalance, try to exercise and impose on the rest of their fellow beings; pets are of great help in this unhealthy channeling, since they exercise it knowing that there will be no response or retaliation (hostility), and it will always be immediately forgotten (?) by the pet.
TRANSMISSION OF AFFECTION AND LOVE
There is no doubt that the contact we have with our pets is a reciprocal transmission of love, affection, tenderness, friendship, empathy, and that it places us in a healthy situation of harmony with ourselves because of the emotional support we receive from them. We seek to receive affection and interest because we need it, because perhaps we have no one to transmit it to us or it is insufficient for us. We seek to give affection (love, affection, etc.) because we have too much of that feeling or we have no one to transmit it to. In one sentence: give and receive.
WALKING WITH OUR DOG.
It is also possible that our dog forces us to walk every day, and this gives us an extra state of health, both physically and emotionally.
For some, this is the mechanism they use to initiate a walk, 2 or 3 times a day.
Before continuing this great benefit we get from walking and thus cover the basics of this first part of the post, I would like to comment on certain aspects regarding dogs.
The relationship with them is to receive and give them affection. To feel company and to make them feel it.
Personally, since I was a kid I always had pets, a dog, a hybrid (mongrel) of collie and German, and cats, several cats -like 5-, from the age of 4 to 10 years old. Having declared this true inclination that I had and still have, towards cats and dogs, I would like to comment on what I think now about our affection (attachment) as a human species, towards dogs.
The dog is one of the pets that we have always “educated” to keep us company, and for this we have managed to subtract part of their instincts, with greater intensity [more brutally (intensely)] than with other types of pets. Their docility is correlated with their training. The better they behave and obey, the less instincts they will have.
So, if they do not bother, it is because we have destroyed their instincts.
If we have them trapped (imprisoned) in a room, their organs and other functions will atrophy; just as it happens to human beings.
So, if we have a dog, let’s take it for a walk, let’s walk with it every day.
I have already mentioned something about the aspects of lack of time and free time (Posts THE WALK AND THE LACK OF TIME. PART I and WALKING AND FREE TIME. PART II) and I have expressed the following: “It is important to point out the aspect that some people feel that they are wasting time walking; that they are not getting anything in return. In those cases it will be necessary to indicate to those people that if they have that feeling, they should think that they are taking advantage of it by reading that text or document that they had not had the opportunity (or desire) to do so, or to write that poem, and walking the pet, is it a time lost or fully enjoyed?
If you have a private garden where you can always have it available for your pet to exercise – playing, walking or running – ignore it; use that space for your pet to relieve itself. It is best for your pet if you take him out for a walk and accompany him in his play and mischief, and not necessarily in that yard.
It goes without saying that you will also benefit from this, since you will be able to WALK, 2 or 3 times a day.
I will share with you some statistics that can make us aware of what is happening regarding the relationship of human beings (men, women, children, old men and women) with dogs (exclusively) and their daily outing to exercise the pet.
Putting your dog on a leash is the most advisable thing to do, because although your own pet might be well trained and educated, we can’t assure anything about other people’s pets, and with the leash you will at least be able to control your own dog.
Certainly there is the possibility of being able to read certain types of documents while walking with our dog, the eternal friend.
Walking is an exercise that allows us to have freedom in our arms and hands, so with one hand you could keep your dog on a leash, and with the other you could read any document, whether it is a book or through a Mobile or Tablet. You could even attach the leash to your belt, to have both hands free, and you could even write.
We must take into account the type of pet we have in order to organize our walks, choosing the place, the timetable, etc.
Pets also get tired from walking, jogging or running, like “Cindy” shown below, who is somewhat exhausted.
She is usually taken out for a walk and to play with her other peers, but she likes to graze (pasture), i.e., eat grass.
Not all pets have the benefit of forcing their owner to walk every day. For example, taking a rooster for a walk is not the same as taking an elephant for a walk, or an elephant for a walk.
an elephant, or a deer, or a snake.
By the way, this Crotalus Dirissus Terrificus is the species that the ancient Mayas used to represent it as one of their main symbols, which we can appreciate in their banners, clothing, buildings, rugs, mats, murals, in almost all their cultural legacies, which have been able to reach us. The same that we see today descending from the pyramid of Kukulkan twice a year, the time dedicated to the God Topilzin-Ce-Acatl who took the name of Kukulkan (Quetzalcoatl) when he led the Toltecs who invaded the Maya by sea, in the tenth century. A spectacular descent observed at the spring and summer equinoxes, in this pyramid in Chichen Itza, Mexico.
Some time ago we had a Papillon dog at home, and later a Maltese crossbreed.
It is impossible to “walk” a fish, nor an eagle or an owl, nor a lion or a Bengal tiger.
Notwithstanding the above, we should also be aware, if we decide to adopt a dog -to support our walks- about the care and responsibilities to which we will be obliged with him, and not to think that we can delegate those commitments to other people, because then we will put to walk -far from us- that pair of companions -our personality and character- that always try to accompany us, and then they will do it by another path, different from ours, far from us, and they will do it at totally different speeds, so we will lose them in the distance (Post THE WALK AND THE INSTINCT TO LEAVE THE PLACE OF ORIGIN; Future Post THE PERSONALITY DEFINED BY THE PACE OF WALKING-BODY).
When we decide to go for a walk with our dog and cat, let’s do it but walking, and all 3 of us upright.
When cats and dogs became aware that human beings began to have higher intelligence indexes when they stood on their 2 legs and feet, they also decided to stand on their 2 lower extremities.
Now, what is true is that “As an example of the survival in our human nature, of that spiritual totemic need, the dog and the cat are those animals that we try or wish to imitate, that is why we have retained them as pets. The dog, perhaps the easiest to domesticate, or perhaps he allowed it because he himself needed that almathic exchange and chose to coexist with the human being; faithful and inseparable from his master. We have needed his ‘totemic’ presence since we wish to imitate him because of his imperishable and imperious need to be in movement, circulating, but above all wandering, as an instinct still firm in him” (Text extracted from Post TOTEM AND WALKING. PART I. ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASPECTS).
The domestic cat, still with its semi-wild instinct that still persists in its essential feline nature, of being free and of not allowing itself to be enclosed or domesticated; its “totemic” attribute is unconsciously observed by its owner, to imitate it in its free roaming (Post THE WALK AND THE INSTINCT TO LEAVE THE PLACE OF ORIGIN).
Both pets are the faithful reflection of our lost ancestral nomadism.
Finally, I would like to emphasize that pets are used unconsciously to express our own ways of being, which we humans do not dare to say, from the affection and love we feel to our aversions to the rest of the entities and things that surround us, that give us joy, pleasure, anger, animosity, but that we cannot or do not dare to say it directly and openly. A true “mascotian catharsis”. But we will deal with this in the second part, in a few months (Future Post MASCOTIAN CATARSIS AND THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM-PART II).
P.S. Now at this time of COVID19 I can’t recognize my neighbors for bringing all of them facemasks, what helps me is that I can identify them by their pets, but sometimes they don’t take them out for a walk.
Now, I would like to say a few words to refer to certain psychological aspects of human beings in reference to their inclination towards animals. That is to say, there has always existed a part of the human population that has been inclined to the protection of animals in general, and another part of the same, that does not manifest any inclination towards their care, and we could say that even tends to be cruel.
In my novel GOD GOES TO PSYCHIATRIST, Doctor Wood -the second most important character- when he was selecting his specialty in the Faculty of Psychology, argued that he wanted to aspire to a doctorate with the firm purpose of knowing for sure what were the causes of these two worlds in the human being. I quote some paragraphs from this novel:
“After some time, and being about to finish his degree, Ernesto had the opportunity to enter the Institute of Psychology in the area of Research on the mistreatment of animals, as a research assistant.
For five more years he studied at the Division of Higher Studies of the same Faculty at the University, which kept him away from his family. After finishing his doctorate in Psychology, he was soon promoted to full researcher in the aforementioned area of the Institute, and, due to the clarity he showed in his objectives, he was soon appointed Project Leader.
The three lines of research that Ernesto had planned to carry out since he wrote his bachelor’s thesis were outlined in his doctoral dissertation and would form part of his new research program.
In addition to thoroughly investigating the reason for the differences between human beings with respect to their inclination or rejection towards animals, when they are not aggressive, harmful or poisonous, over and above the traumatizing or fearful attitudes taught and learned in childhood, he would delve into finding out why some do introject them and others do not.
In parallel, and as a second way of analysis and corroboration, I would investigate if it was a case of genetics, that is, if it had to do with the genes by which the love for animals and the need to coexist with them during childhood was inherited, since the instincts were not yet repressed or lacerated; and within this line, to verify if the culture and the family environment had more weight. In addition, if by education or genetics, the inclination or repudiation towards animals was also determined by gender difference.
Finally, and as a third way of his psychological research, he would study whether children who need and love their pets are just as healthy psychologically as those who are not interested in them or do not need them, either because they ignore or reject them.
The above would lead him to elucidate if those children who love them as company, already show some feeling of emptiness or loneliness that inclines them to accept the animals and protect them; that is, if those children already suffer from some predisposition or emotional weakness that makes them require that presence, which can later become dependence. It would also be necessary to discern whether or not children with an absence of love, or mistreated children, with diminished instincts, require animals; and if they protect them, or mistreat them?“
Is it possible to find an answer to this differentiation?
While we meditate on this great human dilemma, let’s take our canine pet and invite it for a walk.
Loya Lopategui, Carlos, God Goes to Psychiatrist, EMULISA, Mexico, 2021. Distributed by Amazon, available in Kindle Edition: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HVCWDNT.
In Post COMBATING BAD HABITS WITH THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM, SOLUTION TO PROCRASTINATION, we presented a 3-phase process to combat cases of procrastination and a concrete case that serves as a general model to solve practically all procrastination situations that are generated as a habit. The WALK-RWD System makes it easier for us to meet that Inner Need that generates the habit of procrastination, which in turn allows us to break the Vicious Circle of Negative Habits, and specifically the psycho-dependent one of Procrastination.
Now, in this post we will use a method to deal with procrastination as an effect generated by problems of the emotional type; we have called this method Emotional Self-Liberation by Autosuggestibility (Post AUTOLIBERATION OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS THROUGH SELF-SUGGESTIBILITY).
We have already pointed out that procrastination is not simply postponing an action or activity to the next day, but postponing it with pain. That is, if we postpone a commitment with someone or with ourselves for another occasion and it does not cause us any pain, it is because we know that we are postponing it in a natural way and that later we will carry it out. Procrastination is putting things off at the cost of pain because we are emotionally unable to do them, even though we know and want to carry them out. That pain is emotional.
We have also pointed out that in essence, procrastination is not a matter of inefficiency, unproductivity or performance. In other words, in order to solve it, it is not necessary to apply some time management and administration program or project, or to apply new strategies to control or supervise productive activities. The essence of the problem of procrastination is the proper control and management of our emotions.
In essence, procrastination is an emotional pain for not doing the things we should do.
We have also mentioned that procrastination is related to bad habits (negative habits) and addictions, and fundamentally with the activities that we do not do because we postpone them indefinitely due to the fact that it represents a lot of effort to do them.
I am not going to repeat what I have mentioned in previous posts on this topic, however, I will specifically underline that it is essential to keep in mind that regardless of the area in which we place it for attention, we will invariably have to channel considerable efforts to identify the harmful (detrimental) emotion(s) that are negatively influencing the individual to postpone their activities.
Quickly, I would like to record the definitions given on this word to have a complete clarity on this emotional problem.
Procrastination, from the Latin procrastinare, which comes from pro, ahead (from gr. pro: ahead, before, instead of, anteriority or primacy in space or time), and crastinus, referring to the future time, from cras: tomorrow). It is the postponement or postponement of an action or activity; it is the habit of delaying the performance of activities or circumstances that should be attended to in a certain place and at a certain time, and which are deferred by substituting pretexts or procrastination; it is to stop performing an activity in order to perform it at another time or under different circumstances.
Procrastination: Action and result of delaying or postponing the performance of an activity, action or thing.
Procrastinate: To stop performing an activity by postponing it for later or another day, week, month or year.
As we have already mentioned, procrastination can be a symptom of bad habits or negative emotions. In this post we will propose concrete solutions to procrastination using the WALK-RWD system to eliminate procrastination generated by negative emotions.
We have already commented (Post EMOTIONS AND THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM) that emotions are reactions of the body, physical and mental, to stimuli coming from the external environment that disturb its balance, being able to be pleasant or unpleasant. Without exception, when they manifest themselves, they have repercussions in all parts of the being, to a greater or lesser extent; but something very significant (important) about them is that they can become the cause of various diseases.
The emotions are generated by a flow of force of the nervous type, out of the normal. The soul stability of the being is exceeded by this overflowing flow.
Both the physical and mental parts of the organism are disturbed (altered) and the whole organism begins to try to re-establish its lost nervous equilibrium. Up to here, the above mentioned applies to the emotions in general, to those of any type; but, as we said before, the emotions can be pleasant, with the qualifier of positive, and unpleasant or negative.
Any of these can be the origin of procrastination.
The different meanings of the word – calling procrastination by different names – define what we will have to face, so I will allow myself to delve a little deeper into the psychological aspects that provoke this behavior in human beings, which is called in different ways: disinterest, laziness, idleness, indolence, indolence, laziness, discouragement, inactivity, tediousness, idleness, indifference, discouragement, negligence, irresponsibility, idleness, laziness, apathy, listlessness, abulia, discouragement, indecision, pusillanimity, tiredness, idleness, mollicism, somnolence, idleness, laziness, annoyance, inability, prostration, decay, depression, overwhelm, hopelessness, neurosis, sadness, etc. All these manifestations – with emotional origins – lead the respective person to procrastination. Unfortunately, all these forms, to a greater or lesser degree, fall into procrastination; but we do not have in most cases to fight against all of them, maybe one or two. Some of them are attitudes of postponement or delaying that have a pathological cause, also obsessive, anxiety or emotional disturbance.
We have already mentioned some of the ways used to point out and designate procrastination: “They are temporary states of mind”; “They are negative emotional states that restrict positive attitudes”; “Procrastination is the sum of states of mind of insecurity, laziness, inability, frustration and boredom”; “Procrastination is a state of depression and anxiety”; “Procrastination is synonymous with aversion to perform a task”; “Procrastination is the result of stress”.
Notwithstanding this multitude of variants in human behavior, which are unavoidable truths, they all stem from an emotional problem.
Let’s assume that the individual who procrastinates must lead himself to a better management of negative emotions. And as we have pointed out on several occasions, the biggest problem that arises in the phenomenon of Procrastination is to identify the emotional cause for which one has the attitude of postponing all activities, all the time, as much as possible. But once identified that causality, the application of the procedure that we have pointed out, is more comfortable and effective (Post AUTOLIBERATION OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS THROUGH SELF-SUGGESTIBILITY).
Now, procrastination is a clear symptom of an emotional disorder, it is not the disorder itself, but the manifestation that something does not work well and that makes us feel bad, so we respond in that way, that is, doing nothing.
We must work intensely to locate that unsatisfied need or that discomfort that we bring inside.
When we procrastinate eventually, we must understand that the human condition can, as a healthy or normal response, postpone the attention of any activity for a peremptory time, without being qualified as abnormal. However, when we do it repeatedly (chronic manifestation) it probably means the presence of a symptom of some emotional or psychological disorder.
Regardless of the negative emotion that manifests itself, it is possible that the psychological disorder is personality, depression, self-doubt, trauma, loss of a loved one, irrational behaviors, irrational psychopathies, psychosis, anguish, neurosis, panic and phobias, fear of failure, anxiety, catastrophic sensations, stress, fear of ridicule, etc.
The following is the method of emotional self-liberation through auto-suggestion.
STEP 1. DETERMINATION OF THE NEGATIVE EMOTION.
Let us keep in mind that the knowledge of the emotion is the psychological element that allows us to initiate our own liberation.
STEP 2.-CONSTRUCTION OF LIBERATING PHRASES.
The construction of a positive sentence is the most powerful rational verbal resource of the method.
STEP 3.-WALKING. APPLICATION OF THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM.
Walking is the most effective and direct structural mechanism to send to the unconscious the verbal message to achieve self-control and free ourselves from the negative emotion.
STEP 4.-PARTICIPATION OF THE UNCONSCIOUS.
The unconscious is the agent to perform the healing sublimation.
With this process let us set out to work on our own procrastination, and observe that the method works effectively; always keeping in mind that walking is a resource that the genie of the lamp, our individual unconscious, uses as “obedience (attention) in the fulfillment of a desire” to eliminate all our ills (Future Post THERE IS NOT ANYTHING THAT A GOOD WALK WILL NOT CORRECT).
