The human body withers when it does not search and does not find the way or path to WALK, in the same way it happens to waters that have no outlet and does not move, they become a swamp.
The main characteristic that a body of water has to be considered a swamp is that it has no exit, and therefore its waters are stagnant and do not move. The fact that its waters remain static generates a state of decomposition that, as time goes by, makes it more difficult to rescue it and clean it from the deterioration it has reached.
In itself, the swamp is the highest state of degradation that a body of water can reach.
1145.-TRANSCENDENTAL SUBJECTION
Daily walking by an individual is synonymous with opening a new channel to a body of water so that it can drain, cleanse its waters and free itself from suspended sludge. In each walk the human body is revitalized just as when we free the stagnant waters of a swamp; it is supplied with oxygen, its lungs are strengthened, the blood circulates better through the veins, toxic substances are discarded and new energy (impetus and strength) is injected for the next experiential launch.
Let’s start walking and avoid all those ailments that come with time as the swamps are born with quicksand that turn them into damaged and dangerous bodies.
It is essential to have a better knowledge of the composition and structure of our body, that is, of the arrangement throughout it, of the different parts, elements and systems that make it up.
There are 206 bones that give structure to the human body (Future Post WALKING AND THE 206 BONES OF OUR BODY) and 660 muscles that compose it (Future Post WALKING AND THE 660 MUSCLES OF OUR BODY). This bone and muscle constitution must be taken into account to know how our body responds, both physically and mentally, to the functional aspects of its symmetry.
Undoubtedly, the human body has a functional symmetry. The better we understand how the body moves and the functions performed by joints, muscles, bones and ligaments when performing certain movements and actions, the easier it will be to improve the execution of the mobilities (physical displacements) necessary for the practice of a given exercise or sport, always looking for its structural balance.
Thus, balance and symmetry are two fundamental aspects that must be taken into account for any type of body exercise.
A) The human body keeps a balance when walking, not only because of the symmetry of the body -defined by volume, mass and weight-, but that balance that is achieved and maintained by the existence of a centroid line, which is a dynamic line that divides the body longitudinally into two volumetric parts with equal weight, as it moves.
B) Every exercise should be performed taking into account the symmetry of the body, that is to say, to perform it for the two symmetrical sides of the body and according to that dynamic line. (Future Post THE PRACTICE OF THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM USING THE TWO SYMMETRIC PARTS OF THE BODY)
VERTICAL AXIS OF SYMMETRY
The human body is constructed with parts symmetrical with respect to a vertical axis of symmetry, as we see in the previous figure and in the following one.
VERTICAL AXIS OF SYMMETRY
We have limbs, lower and upper, in pairs; and even almost all the external senses and organs are housed symmetrically in both parts of the body, except for some which are not in pairs.
All the external senses exist in pairs, except taste, which must have a physiological reason to be unitary and individual.
That is to say, we could assure that the left part is equivalent to the right, the human body being divided by a vertical line passing through its middle part.
Thus, we have 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 feet, 2 heels, 2 ankles, 2 knees, 2 buttocks, 2 hands, 2 wrists, 2 elbows, 2 shoulders, 2 ears, 2 nostrils, 2 eyes, 2 cerebral lobes, 2 testicles, 2 ovaries; all of them equidistant to a central, longitudinal axis, which separates them vertically and symmetrically, in a single plane and equidistantly. There is no other axis that divides the human body symmetrically.
The sense of sight can clearly illustrate this symmetry and give us some valuable information as to why we have a paired constitution. Binocular vision allows us to focus on objects at variable distances, through the phenomenon of convergence. This is a coordination that is done with binocular vision, that is with the 2 eyes, to place the images in an exact point of the retina and send the message to the brain. In this way we can calculate -approximately- how far –or near- an object is from us. If we cover one of our eyes, we will realize that this calculation becomes more difficult.
Bipedalism -walking on two legs and feet- is an activity that should continue to be deeply analyzed in the future to better understand its functionality and the benefits it generates on the entire human body, physical and mental.
Now, the LINE OF GRAVITY and the POINT OF GRAVITY, are 2 parameters functionally equivalent to the concept of centroid that we use in engineering to calculate the moments (Force x Distance) of the different elements that are used to study the loads and efforts of the materials and the metallic, concrete, wood and other structures. In planar figures (geometric or any other configuration) it is not advisable to talk about the force of gravity, since they are figures that are only “ideally” defined in 2 dimensions. In the analysis of our subject, being the human body the main object to be exercised, we must consider for its observation and treatment, the 3 dimensions since it is a volume and has a weight, so it is essential to use the concept of gravitational force, since among other technical and functional aspects, it is required to place it under analysis and observation (exams and laboratory tests) of its operation with respect to the gravitational phenomenon (Future Post A SMALL STEP FOR A MAN, A GREAT LEAP FOR MANKIND).
In itself, gravitation is one of the important phenomena that we must take into account for the observation and examination of the functioning of the human body.
There is no doubt for us, at present, that the human body is practically symmetrical physically with respect to that vertical axis; but surely it is also symmetrical with respect to the cerebral-spiritual functions (Keep in mind what was expressed in Post TOTEM AND WALKING-PART I, ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASPECTS, about what I consider spiritual [*]). That is to say, the activities we develop also have a symmetrical effect on the brain functions and the aspects of creation and creativity generated by our mental-spiritual part. All the exercises that we perform -as we have already mentioned- must be based on the 1st fundamental principle of the WALK-RWD system so that they are carried out in a harmonious way with respect to the vertical axis or alternating the 2 respective symmetrical members.
[*] We said in that Post: “I would like from this moment, at this level of the Blog, to mention that when I use the word “spiritual” I am not referring exclusively to the religious concept; of course they are intimately related, but they are not equivalent. Religion is an evolved phase of Magic and Totemism, as James George Frazer rightly mentions, and spirituality is the sensitive and dynamic force (energy), which escapes the rational and the senses for its quantification, dimensions and power, through which, the human being develops certain forms and religious aspects, but also dozens of other functions and soul operations, which only with this ethereal energy, constitutive of being, we can achieve”.
We should always keep in mind this dimension of the bodily, mental and spiritual symmetry of the human being, because effectively, only by maintaining the body in a correct symmetry of weights and volumes, including areas (Future Post THE MAN OF VITRUVIUM AND THE PROPORTIONATE WALKING OF THE HUMAN BEING) we will be able to keep a corporal balance, and therefore, to facilitate all the other activities that we develop while we walk.
About the mental aspects, I expressed in Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM ENCOURAGES CREATIVE THINKING: “So much has been experimented that walking promotes the harmonious functioning of the cerebral hemispheres, that there is no doubt about it. Walking is an exercise that causes effects on the 2 symmetrical parts of the human body, so any exercise that generates it, will have similar effects (Future Post THE SYMMETRY OF THE BODY, ITS BALANCE AND WALKING), as long as they are not gymnastics or sports too strenuous, exhausting or violent”.
On the other hand, perhaps we could differentiate the physical-anatomical axes from the almathic or hermetic ones, such as those we observe in the conceptualization of the CHAKRAS. The latter irrigate the spiritual body along an axis that is also vertical, but of the almathic, not somatic, type.
The CHAKRAS remain on the same symmetrical anatomical-physiological axis. The axis of the CHAKRAS is of the hermetic-almathic type (Future Post WALKING ALONG WITH OUR CHAKRAS).
# 940 y 405 SEVEN CHACRAS
Thus, each of the symmetrical and proportionate parts that make up the human body can capture the reality of the world in a specific and different way from its corresponding symmetrical one, and the joint work of the pair, by the simultaneous harmonic perception and its dynamic-energetic assimilation, allows us to have a better complete and unique representation of the external reality -as we explained in the case of the sense of sight). It is a known fact that the very functioning of these symmetrical pairs and their respective perception, being different in realization and perception, is due to their direct or crossed connections with the 2 cerebral hemispheres; these being the ones that contain dissimilar mental neurological functions, and that by receiving the information of the symmetrical pairs, they retransmit compositive images to the other double parts of the human body and to the rest of their own constituent elements and to other systems, organs and glands.
Walking is beneficial for the development of all these functional actions, communications and transfers. The reason for this, from the mechanical point of view for bodily locomotion, is that the body keeps its balance better supported by two elements than by only one. And in relation to the external senses it is probably because they work better in pairs to distinguish and better perceive the motive, object or external stimulus, since they must be located in time and distance. In other words, two vectors of the same sense are required to better locate and distinguish the respective stimulus, both in its distance and in its temporal disposition. These functions of the human body is where we can appreciate them more objectively the dimensions of time, distance and number (periods of exercise, speed, acceleration, even limbs and organs, etc.).
Walking benefits, drives and stimulates: a) physical equilibrium, b) mental-cerebral equilibrium and c) instinctive-spiritual equilibrium. The first one moves us bodily and harmoniously through all external physical environments; the second one allows us to develop mentally, intellectually and emotionally, in the social environment that surrounds us; and the third one guides us in a prudent way, through the path of intuition, imagination & creativity.
Therefore, all exercise activities that we develop, and mostly in our own walks, we must take into account this constructive structure -of symmetry, pairs and dynamic balance- to maintain the stability of the body, physical, mental and spiritual. In this regard, we must keep in mind that the human body – I repeat- has only one axis of symmetry: the vertical axis. There is no other. And that will be the axis on which we will have to program and project the exercises.
In general terms, we can affirm that due to the symmetry of the human body itself, the physical exercises, whatever they may be, should be carried out considering it, even if in a simultaneous way, using the two symmetrical limbs (arms, legs, etc.), or alternating one and the other, if not immediately, then with small inter-phases.
In my own experience, when I am walking, I perceive that my two cerebral hemispheres begin to work together. I realize this because the responses I get during my walks are different from when I am static, abstaining from my daily walking. Type of ideas are different, they are less in quantity and of course, the best ideas come to me when I am walking. (Future Post WALKING VERSUS SITTING, STANDING, LYING DOWN).
Of course, as I have already mentioned, this symmetrical structure of our whole body, acts on that healing and creative potentiality, which emerges from within us, when we are walking.
In future Post LISTENING TO OUR BODY WHILE WE WALK, we present a whole series of mechanisms that we must use to become aware that our body is permanently communicating with us, and how to understand it in its symbolic language.
I do the same in some future posts:
In the future Post THE MAN OF VITRUVIUM AND THE PROPORTIONATE WALKING OF THE HUMAN BEING, the proportionality of the areas, volumes and weights that must be considered to perform any walk is explained.
In the future Post BODY PARTS FOR WALKING- CARE OF THE BODY we explained in a general way the care we should take with our body, and observe the aspects of balance and symmetry, which are essential to developing our walks, in an adequate and healthy way.
The body should definitely not be put to work while we walk, subjecting it to excessive loads or overloading it asymmetrically:
INCORRECT CONDITION POSITION FOR WALKING
As shown in the figure above, we should not cause a displacement of the verticality (vertical axis) during the activity of walking, so we must be very careful with the objects we carry, especially with those that are heavy to move comfortably.
Even if they are marginal, these displacements generate physical disarrangements in the body that can have medium or long term consequences, important deviations in the spine or simply reductions in the ease of walking or speed.
The correct position for a walk is to maintain a strict perpendicular to the plane of the ground where we are walking, both frontal and lateral. In the following 2 figures we can observe this required perpendicularity:
Maintain a perpendicular with respect to the ground plane
Any exercise should always be performed taking into account the symmetry axis, either simultaneously or alternating. For example, lifting both arms at the same time or first one and then the other. The alternation does not necessarily have to be immediate, we can -depending on the exercise- perform it 3, 6 or 10 times a symmetrical part (arm, hand, leg, foot, etc.) and then the other symmetrical part, the same number of times we exercised the first of them. The latter is imperative and irrefutable, since both parts must be exercised the same number of times and with the same speed, intensity, effort and periodic duration.
Finally, it is worth asking ourselves the question, if this awareness of the symmetry that we must take care of when putting into practice the WALK-RWD system, will also help us to improve our body and our mind? Of course it will, with the commitment that the exercises we perform are carried out for both symmetrical parts of the body.
An illustrative example is that of the skateboard, although this is only for the mechanical device and not for the electric one. Clearly it is observed that the exercise that is developed is of dissimilar effects for the symmetrical parts of the organism. This is not a typically healthy exercise for the human being. However, if we were to perform it alternately, it could be considered healthy; that is, 10 exercises with the left leg and 10 with the right leg, and so on indefinitely. The body always responds to the rhythms, to the measures and cadences to which we submit it, as long as they tend to a mechanical symphony that considers its symmetrical parts, its proportions and its natural inclinations to its mobility, to keep its balance and correct development.
In this exercise of the mechanical skateboard it is clearly observed that the person’s body is positioned in an eccentric way, in addition to the fact that the exercises performed, for the whole body, are carried out in an asymmetric and unbalanced way.
The solution is to alternate in its mechanical practice; for example, to propel oneself with the left leg 10 times and to alternate immediately with the right leg with 10 impulses, and so on without limit.
The case of the rowing boat clearly illustrates what happens, both in the efforts and in the advance.
When you push the boat by rowing with only one arm, you are moving forward but in circles. It is the same when we exercise with only one part of the body, we develop the exercise but only for one part of the body, in an unbalanced way.
In the practice of rowing in the boat, what should be done, to really move forward, is to alternate rowing with both arms. Exercises should also be performed alternating both parts of the body to achieve a symmetrical and balanced exercise.
If we row alternately, we will observe that the boat will advance correctly and thus the assimilation of the exercises, on our body, both physically and mentally.
The same scheme could be done with the skateboard.
From all the exposed, we can deduce the following principle of the WALK-RWD system, as
1st fundamental principle or Principle of Symmetry:
“All the exercises to be performed must be carried out with respect to the vertical axis of anatomical symmetry of the human body, either simultaneously or alternating the 2 respective symmetrical limbs, always in a harmonic way, in both options”.
Walking is an example of the application of this principle, with respect to the second option of alternating the respective symmetrical limbs, in this case, the legs, knees, ankles, and feet.
However, the 2nd fundamental principle of the WALK-RWD system, generated in Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM ENCOURAGES CREATIVE THINKING-PART I, implicit but not expressed, should also be taken into account. Its definition is expressed in the second part, in the future Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM STIMULATES CREATIVE THINKING. PART II, precisely to abound in what are the unbalanced postures (Future Posts THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND KUNDALINI YOGA and WALKING IN THE YOGAKARA) and the “unbalanced” states in movement, such as walking, which generate very important effects in our brain and body (stable unbalanced movement):
2nd fundamental principle or Principle of Dynamic Equilibrium:
“Keeping the body in physical movement through walking, generates by itself a vibration of the brain, which causes it to enter into an imbalance and normal functions are carried out and effects are generated, of the dynamic type, on the different systems, organs and glands of the body”.
Let’s revive our limbs, muscles and joints of the body with walking, taking into account these 2 principles of the WALK-RWD System.
The purpose of this post is to make known the advantages and disadvantages, benefits and impacts that our body can experience when we load it with artificial light weights, while walking; to know if it generates greater strengthening in the physical and mental aspects, or on the contrary, causes some kind of damage or a demerit in their performance.
The classic is to place weights in any of the upper or lower extremities.
We will focus on weights on the lower extremities, but this does not mean that we should omit the possibility of the others, since weights can also be placed on the wrists or arms, or around the waist with special belts.
The weights, as devices, are placed on the lower extremities, commonly on the ankles or legs, being the most common on the former.
In any of these body parts where it is decided to place them, will allow us to perform greater efforts with and in the limbs and sections of the body where we fix them.
Regarding the characteristics of each type of weights we can resort to specialized companies for it.
The important thing is to be aware that we will be adding weight to our body in those parts where we place them.
There is no doubt that weights, in general, will strengthen our limbs and the sections of the body where we place them, but, and here is the big question that we have: Is it better, healthier, to walk with an overweight, with a lower weight or without extra weights? Let’s imagine that we could walk with a slight decrease in our own body weight, would that invite us to walk with greater pleasure? And if so, how much would it be advisable, for example, to decrease the force of gravity?
Let us keep in mind that walking, as we have always done it, has been carried out with the same gravitational force, although we know that it varies slightly from one geographical point to another, since it is not the same at the equator as at the poles (Post ONE SMALL STEP FOR A MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND), and we know that the physical, emotional and mental benefits that it generates, without variation in that force, are innumerable. This means that normal walking has always developed under the influences of our own weight and without variation of it. Obesity could be a case that should be analyzed taking into account this type of effects: gravity, body weight and mass, significance in health (physical and mental), etc.
Let’s leave for the near future, to investigate and analyze what the force of gravity means in conjunction with our body weight and mass, in the practice of walking, as I have programmed it associated with the WALK-RWD system.
BENEFITS THROUGH THE USE OF EXTRA WEIGHTS ON THE BODY, WHILE WALKING:
Weights make it difficult for us to move while walking, but they strengthen our muscles and other mechanical and functional parts of our body.
In general, the benefits that are generated with extra weights, are:
1. Decrease in body weight, by increasing the consumption of calories (For obesity cases).
2. Improvement in cardiovascular disease
3. Strengthening of the lower limbs, with respect to joints, muscles, bones and tendons.
4. Improvement in the elasticity of the lower limbs, which avoids the vicissitude and incidence of falls.
5. Obtaining greater firmness in walking, which gives the individual, in turn, greater security to perform the other 3 structured activities within the WALK-RWD System.
It is very easy to define the sequence of cause-effect that generates an overweight in the lower limbs: With an overweight is achieved an extra work for our body, because the bones, muscles, tendons, joints, legs, feet and ankles, will work harder. With the ankles (or calves) loaded, it will take more effort to cover the same distances in the walks; which generates that more calories are burned in the same period of time. The latter will translate into greater weight loss per unit of time.
In addition, there is no doubt that the use of weights on legs and ankles achieves its strengthening and therefore improves the development of the walk itself, as well as its safety in the displacement.
It has also been demonstrated that loading the legs or ankles with weights (1/2 pound), the weight of the body can be reduced between 1 pound to 3 pounds, with walks of 1 hour daily, during 45 days. This can be achieved, as we have explained in the post COMBATING SOME ENEMIES WITH THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM: OBESITY, without the need to overload the body. Of course, this type of walking modality does not have the fundamental objective of losing weight, but to improve the health -both physical and mental- of the individual who practices it.
ASPECTS TO BE TAKEN INTO ACCOUNT TO IMPROVE MUSCLES:
The following actions should be taken into very careful consideration in order to realize the various desired effects on a muscle, when the body is loaded with extra weight:
1. Frequency in exercising the muscle o Repetition of the exercise. Regularity in the practice of the exercise.
2. Duration of time of the exercise in which the muscle is maintained in alternating tension.
3. Magnitude of the tension or effort to which the muscle is subjected. (The loads to which the muscle is subjected).
4. Rhythm and cadence in the exercise of the muscle. Slow or fast speed.
5. Symmetry or asymmetry of the efforts to which the muscle will be subjected (Future Post THE BODY’S SYMMETRY, ITS BALANCE AND ITS WALK).
The combination of these 5 parameters is the basis of the methodology of the systematic use of weights on the lower extremities during the practice of walking.
RISKS OF CARRYING EXTRA WEIGHTS WITH THE BODY
It is necessary to keep in mind that walking with weights on the ankles can cause wounds, injuries or dislocations in the lower sections of the legs, knees, ankles and feet, in their joints, muscles and tendons due to the efforts deployed. Normal walking may be affected in terms of average performance rates as well as walking techniques, i.e., placing extra weights on the lower extremities disturbs normal walking, and the heavier the extra weight, the more our natural average walking will be affected.
PENDING ASPECTS TO BE RESOLVED IN THE FUTURE
However, there are still some unknowns to be resolved in the future when using these weights on the lower extremities. Does increasing the weight of the loads on the lower extremities improve their effects? We do not know for sure the limits that can be reached.
Regarding the average walking speed: Does it generate a break or an improvement in it, and what are the direct and indirect effects of its alteration?
On heart rate, it has been shown that carrying extra weight on the legs or ankles (1/4-1/2 pound) will increase by 5 beats per minute; likewise, placing that extra weight on the arms, wrists or hands, the heart rate is increased by 6 to 9 beats per minute. Both possibilities are achieved in a period of ½ hour of walking.
GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS.
The following indications (observations, tips) should be taken into account in order to avoid the greatest number of problems when carrying extra weights on the body:
1. Be aware that additional weight is being added to the body, which will generate difficulties in the movement.
2. The weights, as devices, should not be excessive.
3. This type of practice should not be performed if you suffer from any joint problem, no matter how small it may be.
4. You should start with very light weights and gradually increase their weight.
5. Warm-up exercises should be performed before starting to walk with the overweight.
6. Weights should be held gently on the ankles.
7. Avoid carrying extra weights on the lower extremities if you suffer from any severe pain in the muscles, legs, bones, feet or ankles, as well as feeling unusually fatigued, or any unusual symptomatology.
With or without extra weights, let’s get walking. Let’s let our two legs carry us. Let’s thank the left and the right, which have carried us all the days of our lives.
I am subtracting myself from some of my many paths that I use to move from here to there -a body in mobility-, towards the conjunction of the totality, towards plurality -also in movement, always in movement-.
I am generally satisfied with the uniqueness of this body and I conjugate myself in a whole universe of my equals. It is my own uniqueness, of body and mind.
I go through emotional and psychic places that regularly make me reconsider my functional separation (dissociation) from reason, which accelerates or delays my displacement.
The paths that I somehow observed as passable, are transformed -from time to time- into absolute obscurities and therefore my achievements are transferred to certain failed misencounters; however, some of these misencounters are trials perpetrated and consummated, which I have undertaken to transform them into victories, in the presence of the conscience, which procures a reinitiation towards the return, towards starting points, for a possible hope of finding greater illumination in the different paths chosen, to rescue what has been lost by the obstinacy of it, of reason. Several are the crucial moments in which I question myself if I should refuse the calls of some “extra-natural” help.
But the task is not at all easy, because the thresholds of return become indefinite and I no longer wish to return to the everyday world of reasoning.
Therefore, I am constantly trying to complement it, that disoriented reason, or to replace it, since it has failed to achieve the human ideals: tranquility, happiness and freedom. Now it is my turn.
A Hill or elevation of the terrain would be a representation of the different behavioral scenarios of the two of us, two mental functions, which can serve as a figurative analogy of the behaviors and movements, subtle forms of human behavior.
The Hill is the highest point that is observed in the whole horizon dominated by the spirit. By different paths of existence, it can descend from that point and go up again, going through the most extreme aspects from tragedy to comedy.
I like to climb a hill… but… climb a mountain?
Hill …upwards and Hill …downwards, are manifestations of being, which unfold in the same mythical, archetypal theme.
Hill down is a representation of that part of the being that in its experience has assimilated those events that in some way have formed or deformed it. Tragedy is the artistic manifestation associated with this mythological theme, plucked as a revelation from the unconscious. Thus, tragedy, as the fragmentation and the return to the configuration (the union) of archaic (archaizing) forms, is a downhill path where suffering allows the reconstruction of archetypal images.
In the comedy, represented in Colina hacia arriba, the unconscious seeks balance and manifests its exultation (joy) and leaves sadness behind for other moments, where the lord of time gloats.
Through these two fragmentations, the obscure paths through which “some” parts of the mind travel and through the tragic or pleasant (pleasurable, pleasing) experience that is aroused in each of them, the spirit tries, in its own way, to prevent them from dispersing, since it is certain that if it continues along the rational path, quite rough, it will only lead the being to become more disunited, more fragmented, and therefore to the disintegration of the inner self. The unconscious is no longer willing to allow reason one more chance; in its special way of participating (acting), it tries to show the emotions, from those elementary to the most complex, as an integral part of the higher capacities of the psyche: the aesthetic, intellectual and religious faculties.
In the manner of a shot that moves these higher capacities as a result of the “real” struggle that arises with the conscious part. This struggle of the spirit is what allows human evolution towards higher forms of being, such as art; but it also involves it when its results are not positive for the being.
Just as the confrontation between these two entities (the conscious and the unconscious) generates difficulties and pathological states of the mind, by blocking (impeding) the flow of evolution (favorable development) being trapped and repressed in the subconscious, so they give rise to higher mental states, either in an intellectualized way (the sciences) or sublimated (the arts).
Staying alert all the time is exhausting. A short pause (respite, rest) in the middle of the road would be enough to recover my lost energies.
Calmness allows the lethargic body to wake up to the overwhelming reality and encounter its own suffering and return to the threshold of my unconscious world, finding itself in the passage of time, with its unreality and recreating itself in a fleeting instant.
The alteration in that moment generates ascents and descents through different paths, which connect some and others, but which do not manage to make reason coincide with me, in those fleeting moments (times).
One is dominated by tragedy and the other seeks compensation for the circumstance, and everything develops in a sleeping conscience, which in its wandering, the unconscious wants to manifest itself to excite it.
The hormonal systems are the best helpers that both the consciousness and the unconscious have to strengthen and defend both the physiological and the mental part of the being.
Perhaps the hormones that have a close and direct link with the psychic functions, are the ones we should be more attentive to and take greater care of their functioning. Thanks to this type of hormones, it is possible to disguise and hide almost all the appetites by which that subtle muscular part that enriches the soul, comes to wear out the spirit and offers us a demoralizing suffering. That is to say, the hormonal participation allows the human being to cope in a less aggressive way with the psychological aspects that are constantly affecting him, either by the stimuli of the physical and social environment, or by the own psychic structure of each individual.
As the various hormonal systems cease to function properly, the stimulating vectors become more direct and harmful (and inciting) to individual behavior.
This great “metapsychic” hormonal system is the main helper (assistant, collaborator) of the individual unconscious, and by extension, also of the collective unconscious; so named in this post, because it cannot yet be scientifically demonstrated. It is in this metapsychic system where the individual unconscious extracts the information to define the traces and routes (routes, paths) to “walk” through the different psychic paths of the being.
Which and in what do these paths consist?
Invariably and individually I walk permanently, without resting, through different places, spaces, forms, to understand if there is or should be that uniqueness in the spirit, uniqueness in the mind of the being, but above all its participation -of its “movement”- in a universal way.
I am not a sub-function or appendix of the consciousness.
# 609.- THE TURN IS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL UNCONSCIOUS
Let us keep in mind that the individual unconscious adjusts to its own trajectories, but sometimes it leaves them, abandoning them and is guided by other instinctive constructions, moving and orienting itself according to the process of the healing machination. Sometimes we also find it dazed and it leads itself to points where reason points it out as “wrong”.
They may be stimulated by the repressed consciousness and the damaged subconscious; the former frightened; the latter, daring, unbridled.
The great secret is that the unconscious helps itself in many ways, both in individual and collective practice. The hormonal systems -the psychic killer fundamentally- are a small part of what the physiological supports it, and the collective unconscious guides it towards universal strata, where the human being can fully develop.
Physical walking is an analogy of the unconscious, it is a reality. The WALK-RWD system is a mental and functional process that supports it realistically and subliminally.
We must recognize that the individual unconscious is not a sub-function or appendix of the conscious part of the being (Future posts THE CONSCIOUS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS IN THE APPLICATION OF THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM, WALKING THE 4 PATHS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS, THE CONSCIOUS AND THE UNCONSCIOUS IN UNITY, FOR THE ACHIEVEMENT OF OBJECTIVES, THROUGH THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM).
Surely all our senses, both external and internal, act and deploy their functions with different degrees of participation in relation to the decisions we make to choose a direction and a sense when we start walking. (Future posts WALKING AND THE EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL SENSES; THE SENSES OF SIGHT AND THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM; THE INTERNAL SENSES AND THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM).
Of the 5 external senses, I consider that 3 are the ones that make the most effort on these occasions to direct and give meaning to our walks: sight, hearing and smell; however, touch and taste should not be completely discarded.
Likewise, the internal senses, also called spiritual or intellectual are an important part in these activities when we start walking; these have been noticing, discerning, understanding and defining over time, although they have always been with us, and we can make a list of them without having a precise specification of all, namely: Orientation, Spatial, Common Sense, Intuition, Memory, Perception, Cognitive, Imagination, Fantasy, Muscular, Movement, Temporal, Proportions, Aesthetic (Future Post WALKING AND THE EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL SENSES).
There will be enough objections to discard several of them, however, they serve as a guide for our purposes in this post.
Ortega y Gasset considers the existence of 11 senses, expressing: there are 11 senses that psychologists have taught us to differentiate. Among them … visible, audible, tangible … are differentiated by the very objects they perceive (“objects of the senses”), … generating in us sensations, by which we notice and perceive the presence and existence of those objects.
For this subject of the cardinal points and orientation, we could consider including some instincts, such as the instinct of preservation and survival of the human species, since this generally leads us towards less aggressive (offensive) points for the care, conservation and development of the species. Again, it could be objected to this as an internal sense, since it is an instinct and not a sense, but I consider that it should be taken into account when discussing and reflecting on the spatial and temporal orientation of the human being.
It is clear to anyone that the direction and sense we take when we start walking are influenced by both our conscious and unconscious parts. In this regard I would like to express some aspects related to this confabulation of our senses with reason. Some years ago I defined a character, I called him GOVOT, who was intrinsically designed to listen and attend only to his senses in order to be able to face his rational part. From this idea arose 2 books where this character always discourses with soliloquies, with brief monologues -GOVOT. HIS SILENCE DECONSTRUCTING HIS SHADOW (1)-, where I try to transmit that we must become aware (to be conscious ?) -or should I say unconscious- of the struggle to which we are always exposed between our conscience and our unconscious, and generally we do not realize it; and the other, a theatrical play GOVOT. THE SPEECH OF THE SENSES (2), which are also succinct monologues but I considered that, presented as a theatrical work, could communicate this issue of the permanent struggle between these two functions of the human being. Both texts are GOVOT’s speeches where he tries to detach himself from all reasoning, and achieves a long self-absorption with himself, that is to say, with his own senses that procure him a quasi-isolation from reason.
I believe that GOVOT could be a guide on this need to move away from reasoning and help us in this choice of direction and sense that we must take every day of the year, regarding the walks, but also in terms of our work and social activities, and likewise, we could transmit to him that he must accompany us in our walks.
GOVOT
2.-SENSE OF ORIENTATION
For the development of the present post, perhaps the most relevant is the sense of orientation, which obviously will have a close relationship with others, both external and internal. What degree of participation does it have? Apart from this fundamental one, which of the 3 external physical ones will be the one that most participates, so that we incline with some direction and sense, while we walk? The smell of the vegetation, of the wind, of the absence of humidity, … the sound of the song of the birds, of the wind crossing the branches of the trees or bushes, … the color of the grass, of the plants, of the sky, of the flowers, … In what percentage do all of them participate to place us in a certain direction and in a certain sense?
We could affirm that we hardly become aware of these senses when we walk, and surely, the one we are least aware of is that of orientation; however, we do consider its participation when we feel lost somewhere.
This internal sense of orientation is fundamental to direct and give meaning to our walking (Future Post LABYRINTHINE WALKING EXERCISES ON THE SENSE OF ORIENTATION).
We can assure that all cultures that have developed on Earth, have formed a system related to the cardinal points: North, South, East and West; and some like the Mayan Culture were more conscious of this phenomenon; and as an example of this astronomical and physiological-mental inclination, we will expose the system that represents the plastic work of the Chac Mol -one of the most prominent sculptures of the Mayan Culture and that has been located in several archaeological sites-, that the faithful practitioners used, adjusting to the orientation of this venerated divinity: Towards the sun, to the East, which is where it rose with its first rays (Future Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND A SOLAR RAY BATH). The Chac Mol is one of so many plastic works, besides the architectural and astronomical ones, that this people used in their orientation on the terrestrial surface, in their astrological daily life and for the cosmic observations and their respective mathematical calculations used in the construction and operation of their calendars.
CHAC MOL AND THE COSMIC LINES
It is very probable that this millenary people in all its fundamental and glorious three-dimensional sculpture had incorporated the cosmic coordinates and the cardinal points, as we can appreciate in the Chac Mol.
On spatial orientation, Cassirer expressed: “The primary intuition of space and the primary articulation of time merge into one and the same basic concrete intuition, namely, the alternation of light and darkness, of day and night. Likewise, the same scheme of orientation, that is, the same distinction of the zones and directions of the sky, which is at first purely emotive, governs both the decision of space and that of time at certain periods.” (Filosofía de las Formas Simbólicas [Philosophy of Symbolic Forms], Volume II, F.C.E., Mexico, 2003, pp. 143-144).
Of course, it is the three dimensions of space together with time, which in an accurate way, mathematically and precisely, the Mayan people were able to develop great advances, to unravel the astronomical orientations, which in the last century have been able to confirm their great advances in this field.
3.-THE SEASONS OF THE YEAR.
We have already commented on other occasions on the symbolism that the seasons of the year have represented in the cosmology of some ancient peoples. Besides being aware that the cardinal points have a different effect on our being, it is also essential to take into account the impact we suffer throughout the calendar year; that is, that is, during the changing months in the weather and sidereal-astronomical position, and according to our actions and activities, we receive different degrees and types of influences on our bodies, both physical (body) and mental and spiritual.
In the future Post IMPACT OF THE SEASONS OF THE YEAR ON WALKING we will present – as in fact we have already commented and written – on the determining effect that each of the climatic seasons exerts on sexual relations and others. There are many factors that influence, in this aspect of the seasons of the year, on human behavior: heat, cold, rain, humidity, snow, sweat, -the temperature of the environment in general-, but also the place where we are geographically -both locally and globally- affects us differently, either by the sun’s rays falling directly and perpendicularly, or not (Future Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND A SOLAR RAY BATH), by the winds, the cold, rainy, hot or temperate, desert or cool, extreme or balanced environment.
Thus, we can affirm that in addition to the placement, direction and orientation (sense) that we have when we walk, we must consider the impact that these seasonal forces exert on our organism.
Specifically, we can say that it is not the same to walk towards the north in spring than in winter; and thus, for any decision we have to make to take a walk, it will be necessary to be aware of the time of the year.
4.-CARDINAL POINTS AND THEIR SYMBOLIC MEANING IN THE ANCIENT PEOPLES. ASTRONOMICAL ASPECTS.
As we were saying, practically, in all the cosmologies of the ancient peoples existed the essential conception of the orientation towards the 4 cardinal points. The Sun always rising in the East has transferred and defined this point as the giver of life, and the opposite, the West as the bearer of death. The Sun as messenger of life or death. A generalized antithesis fundamentally due to the origin of the light coming from the solar star, which has formed part of all mythologies, giving rise to the antagonisms of light and darkness, birth and death, day and night, and to the simplest human spatial manifestations of up and down, right and left, forward and backward, which we could affirm that all of them are generated under the conception of the line that is traced between these two cardinal points, and following the solar star in its East-West direction.
In the ancient Maya these 4 cardinal points plus a central one governed. The structure of the Cosmos (heaven, earth and underworld), conceiving it always conformed by 4 sectors that corresponded to the 4 cardinal points, which were represented with trees (ceibas) plus a central one, which was the “Great Mother Ceiba”. The sustaining, ordering and reconstruction of the Cosmos and Heaven were carried out by 4 gods (Bacabes), which were placed in the four cardinal points.
On this cosmological conception, Cassirer explained that “the cardinal points in the mythological space are not, therefore, conceptual or intuitive relations but entities endowed with demonic powers. One must immerse oneself in the plastic representation of the gods and demons of the cardinal points, as found in ancient Mexican cultures, for example, to fully feel that expressive sense, that ‘physiognomic’ character that all spatial determinations possess for the mythological consciousness.” (Filosofía de las formas simbólicas, [Philosophy of symbolic forms], volume III, F.C.E., Mexico, 2003, pp. 181-182).
Regarding Maya architecture, astronomy had a determining influence in its definition: the orientation of its plazas, temples and buildings, their relative location, was made according to the positions and movements of the stars. We can also comment that the distribution of the rooms and certain important architectural elements was made attending to an orientation towards the cardinal points, and also towards the position of appearance or concealment of certain stars, fundamentally of the Sun and the planet Venus (Future Post WALKING WITH VENUS-MORNING STAR): the bedrooms, the entrance doors, stairways and small windows of the dwelling houses as well as of the temples, altars and tabernacles.
The cardinal points -in the Mayan culture- were associated with the numerals four and five. The numeral four was assigned to the goddess Alom, the progenitor, the giver of life, the one who gives birth to her children. Her progeny were oriented towards the four cardinal points. Her ideogram was the flower and the square. Four was her spiritual and sacred number.
Mayan signs of four
The numeral five was also linked to the 4 cardinal points by the “Great Mother Ceiba”, who was placed in the center of the Cosmos, Heaven and the Underworld.
Cajalom is the divinity assigned the five; he is the Progenitor God, the father who gives life. His pictographic sign is the cross and this is formed by the Sun King by the vertical line that traces its rays from its maximum position in the firmament (celestial zenith) to the central point of the Earth and the horizontal line that is the cosmic path that traces the Sun since it rises in the east and hides in the west, that is, the cardinal points East and West.
Mayan signs of five
In Maya architecture these two numerals associated with the cardinal points were used, as well as others. In “El Castillo” or “Pyramid of Kukulkan”, in Chichen Itza, you can see the “use of the number 4, which is the number of sides of the pyramid as well as 4 are the doors that the temple has oriented to each cardinal point. The pyramid consists of 9 superimposed platforms and the stairways are composed of 91 steps” […] “The following question could be asked: To what extent or to what degree are the Maya Ceremonial Centers sanctuaries that reproduce images or models of the universe (Imago Mundi)? Archaeoastronomical research has made progress in this area and has given us a very clear and accurate answer. It has been demonstrated that the location of some sacred buildings, their arrangement and alignment give an answer to the Imago Mundi; even the architectural configuration of some temples, together with their orientation, distribution and pyramidal base, represent celestial models”. (3)
In general, each altar that was located in this type of buildings with 4 sides, conforming their temples, were located in the upper part of the pyramids, representing the 5 cardinal points with which the Mayas were oriented towards their divinities: the east (in Maya likin) or the rising of the sun; the west (in Maya chikin) or the setting of the sun; the north (in Maya xaman); the south (in Maya nohol) and the center (in Maya lamay) or the position of the sun at the zenith.
Now, we can ask ourselves after these brief texts, which show us the importance of the cosmic and geographical aspects in our cultures over the millennia, if we should incorporate in our routines and rituals of walking, to be aware of the impact of the cardinal points.
I am sure that they have the greatest relevance in our physical and spiritual body when we decide to walk following the procedures that we have expressed in the WALK-RWD System.
Every time we walk, let us become aware of which cardinal point we are walking to, for how long we do it and let us evaluate the effects that this may have on our organism, body and mind.
(1) Loya Lopategui, Carlos, GOVOT. Su silencio deconstruyendo su sombra, EMULISA, México, 2017.
(2)Loya Lopategui, Carlos, GOVOT. El discurso de los sentidos. Obra teatral, EMULISA, México, 2018.
(3) Loya Lopategui, Carlos, El Dintornismo en la Plástica de los Antiguos Mayas, EMULISA, México, 2015.
