In this Part II of the post The walk and the election of the solitude, we will expose the different states of mind that society generates in the psyche of the human being, at the present time, and the benefits that are obtained when introducing us to the threshold of the solitude, by means of the application of the WALK-RWD system.
In a concise way, we can point out several psychic effects that the current society (city, family, jobs and professions, lack of money and work, lack of physical exercises, sedentarism) provokes in the human psyche and in its physical-corporal response:
Some of these manifestations are signs of more serious problems, and that most likely, the periodic recourse to a “rest in solitude” can help you prevent and correct them to some degree.
ARTWORK # 1068-SAX-1-ANDANTE en MI-nueto
Returning to the first stage, the suggestion I make requires practice; only in this way can we enjoy that place, that rock, that landscape, the solitude, being alone, almost completely alone. Only in this way can we understand what it means to be in the 2 stages in which the human being can enjoy his 2 ways of feeling life, of enjoying his existence: accompanied and in solitude.
Besides, it is probable that in that state of solitude, only your eyes have appreciated that space, that landscape, that panoramic view, and that experience can be very valuable for the walker.
This search for solitude with ourselves is recommended, just like the walks, for a brief period of time, from 1 to 2 hours. We are not, by any means, suggesting that they be carried out as the recommendations of spiritual retreats for 1 week or more. The results that we obtain are much more reconstituent since we do not stop being in contact with the society that has propelled us to move away from their relationship. Coming into contact with loneliness in a recurrent, measured and constant way, allows us to obtain its benefits in a habitual and reiterative way, which makes it truly revivifying and healing.
Of course, what we are demonstrating and achieving with this recurrence with brief lapses, by walking in solitude, is that we are definitely not responding to a call from the conscious – or subconscious – to “run away”. A flight that is usually motivated by the absorbing and overwhelming mechanisms of society, work and family, among others. Of course, this need to “flee” is a process of emotional disorder, which is usually unconscious in our mind and apparently we wish to solve all the existential problems generated by that binomial “freedom-solitude” that we have briefly pointed out in the first part (WALKING AND THE ELECTION OF LONELINESS. PART I). We are sure that by letting this pressure escape periodically, through “recurrent solitudes” we can stop looking for an unconscious “escape” and reach full tranquility.
Let us not get absorbed by those confused states generated by the freedom-solitude binomial, which are well expressed by certain thinkers. Walking can dispel that state of confusion, since it can be a true “maker of solitude” to enjoy it and allow it to operate in a beneficial sense.
The Walk-RWD system can harmonize the two stages in which solitude manifests itself, since its intrinsic activities jointly create a mechanism of solitude, which installs itself in its own natural space and time.
We have a personal obligation to seek our virtuous circle of SOLITUDE in order to discover ourselves: What we are and what we wish to be. (Post WHO DO I WANT TO BE? WHO AM I?)
It is important to get away from this mechanism of loneliness, while we walk, because there are many benefits that are achieved by entering this threshold, which can effectively correct the various negative emotional states that we have pointed out, and that society generates in the human being, namely:
– It is a creator of ideas
– Encourages inspiration
– Drives reflection
– It is edifying and stimulating, because it is accompanied, if we wish, by silence
– It generates and stimulates dialogue with ourselves; and in that mechanism it allows us to be more authentic, since in our unconscious dwells the truth.
– It heals stress, anxiety, anguish, uncertainty, restlessness and impatience.
– Renews the energies of the body and mind
– It naturally stimulates catharsis, which allows us to eliminate emotional overload.
– It teaches us to be happy also in that same state of loneliness, so we become aware that we do not necessarily need to be surrounded by crowds to be happy.
– In the same way, it teaches us certain ways to allow us to understand, tolerate, digest and accept our sorrows and sadness, without needing to be surrounded by people, and it teaches us to be more tolerant and understanding of our afflictions.
– Our truths are nested in our unconscious, in that deep healthy interior, and we can extract and reveal them, calmly, silently and plainly in solitude, in a dialogue with ourselves.
All these effects achieve, in the human being who manages to subtract in solitude, correct the various states of mind in which we are immersed daily by the society that overwhelms and suffocates us.
An element attached to loneliness is leisure. This is an important factor that we can associate, as it has been analyzed by experts, to that stage that we achieve when obtaining the individual solitude and that sometimes we look for in and with freedom and we find to rest and to recover the lost energy, because it allows the human being the development of the personality, the satisfaction of the same one and the self-realization.
As I have pointed out in Post WALKING AND FREE TIME-PART II, the leisure is carried out inside the availability of the free time but that the human being carries it out with an absolute freedom to choose the activities that he prefers, that he likes, and that they are not inside those needs, obligations and conditionings, conscious or unconscious, that are given inside those environments of commitment and quite overwhelming. Leisure is a natural and vital behavior of the human being, in which he feels a freedom to do or even to do nothing, but it is not synonymous with laziness, negligence, indolence or disinterest, or wasting time.
Leisure is to be able to be fully conscious of both taste and enjoyment, and of freedom; it is a more qualitative than quantitative concept and each individual must realize it according to his or her own desires and tastes, and always according to his or her own sphere and intellectual foreshortening of freedom (Post WALKING THROUGH STREET FORESHORTENINGS).
We could point out that doing nothing and being in complete solitude could fall into the basket of leisure, since that is what that person wants to do, to be alone and do nothing.
The individual who can have leisure time and also knows -dominates- being alone and enjoys solitude, will have the emotional capacity to integrate himself or herself healthily into society; and on the other hand, the one who can and does enjoy solitude, will be able to get to know himself or herself and also understand the social environment in which he or she is immersed. Therefore, the person who feels good about himself, trusts his own feelings and seeks solitude occasionally, is fit to be formally included in society.
Let’s concentrate on those activities that we can develop in solitude in the sequence that we propose in the mentioned post, of organization, disposition and use of free time and leisure (Post WALKING AND FREE TIME-PART II). Which ones can be practiced in solitude? Some of our leisure activities are best developed when we are alone. How far do we look for solitude to carry them out, consciously or unconsciously?
Let’s go for a walk, let’s hold hands with solitude so we are not completely alone and let’s record all its sensations and benefits.
Or, let us prepare ourselves to experience that recollected reading, that which is done in a solitary way, while we are walking.
We have already described certain important aspects of procrastination in Post WALK, DO NOT PROCRASTINE, DO IT NOW, and in this post we will try to address this problem, which a significant percentage of the population suffers from.
PROCRASTINATION, according to its classic definition, is the result of delaying or postponing the performance of an action, or failing to perform an activity by postponing it for another day, week, month or year. Two characteristics are common to all procrastination and if they were not present, we would not find ourselves in a representative case. One of them is that it invariably provokes “feelings of guilt” in the procrastinating subject; the other is that a different activity is generally performed instead of the one that should be performed; in other words, we will find ourselves in a case of procrastination, if every time an activity should be performed it is postponed and gladly exchanged for another, and also provokes a “feeling bad” for not having performed it at the moment when we are aware of it. These 2 characteristics are fundamental to take into account when dealing with the problem of procrastination and its link with bad habits.
Many specialists use to point out the different types of procrastination according to the different ways in which the human being can procrastinate, and invariably they do it according to their knowledge, experience and criteria. These categories or classifications are carried out taking into account the different elements that intervene or are related to procrastination itself: according to the time of procrastination; the fear of incurring in faults for carrying out certain activities; personality problems. I am convinced that it is convenient to make a typology, but to do it from the point of view of facing the causes of its generation; that is to say, as we have commented, procrastination is a symptom that results from bad habits and also from negative emotions, or from a combination of these two sources (Post WALK, DO NOT PROCRASTINE, DO IT NOW). Using these 2 strands of causality, we will focus our efforts, using the WALK-RWD system, which we have already successfully tested, to eliminate both bad habits and negative emotions, and thus address the wide variety of cases of procrastination that are commonly incurred (Post COMBATING SOME ENEMIES WITH THE WALK-RWD: OBESITY).
Thus, procrastination can be a symptomatological behavior of one or several bad habits or negative emotions. In this post procrastination will be analyzed and addressed as a negative habit, so we will propose concrete solutions using the WALK-RWD system to eliminate procrastination generated by bad habits. The procedure to eliminate it as a causal manifestation coming from negative emotions will be presented in the future post PROCRASTINATION AND THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AGAINST NEGATIVE EMOTIONS. I have decided to present the procedures for both aspects independently because habits and emotions are treated differently.
Now, let us keep in mind that every habit is the result of an unsatisfied need; that is, within every habit in us there is an “inner need” (at least), which we must attend to. Generally, all of them – the needs – manifest themselves, directly or indirectly, in a symptom or external effect.
If we attend to the “inner need” that we manifest, we will be able to disappear the habit that has been formed. It is relatively difficult to identify that correlation between Need and Habit, or sometimes we do not even want to identify it. However, it is essential to find that link in order to meet that need and thus “break” the negative habit.
In other words, we must become aware that we have a problem with ourselves. This is the first step we must take.
Once we are already aware of it, through a conscious and sincere knowledge, that we have a negative habit or an addiction, the next step will be that we manifest openly and really that we want to change our attitude, in that sense of not postponing our commitments with ourselves or with other people, in that way we can move on to the application of the WALK-RWD system, which in this case will be as we proposed in the posts: THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE HABITS, NEGATIVE HABITS AND HOW TO COMBAT THEM-GENERAL CASES, and COMBATING SOME ENEMIES WITH THE WALK-RWD: OBESITY.
Procrastination is not a decision making problem, it is not a time management issue, it is not abulia, it is not laziness, it is not cowardice, it is not an inability, it is not a lack of interest; it is all this as an effect of a problem of bad habits. Therefore, we must focus on breaking bad habits (Post NEGATIVE HABITS AND HOW TO COMBAT THEM-GENERAL CASES).
Let’s start from the fact that the individual who procrastinates must lead himself to a better management of his bad habits.
The procedure to combat bad habits has been presented in a general way in the 3 posts mentioned above, however, I will proceed to describe briefly the most outstanding aspects that I have exposed in those posts to combat them.
There is no doubt that the will and discipline required to carry out this type of practices are difficult to achieve, because not all of us have that ability, and it is certainly more difficult than we can imagine. We will have to dedicate at least one hour a day to maintain a balanced state of health.
In any case of procrastination there is an endless circle of 1) Postponing the Activity (PA), 2) Performing another more Attractive Activity-Satisfaction (PAAS), 3) Feelings of Guilt and Frustration (FGF), and 4) Creating a Bad Habit (CBH); is a four-link chain that always leads to procrastination, and procrastination leads to depression and anxiety, which in turn leads to more neurosis; however, we can modify it if we introduce the “walking, reading, writing and drawing” link.
Indeed, this Vicious Circle is fed back by the neurosis itself, which provokes in the individual different neurotic states, which rest on the Inner Need, which takes different specific forms of behavior and attitude towards the apparent reality, Idea of Idealistic Perfectionism (IIP), being Superior to Others (SO), Egolatry (EL), having a Superior Power (SP), Egocentrism (EC), Dominating Others (DO), Narcissism (N), a number of neurotic states that invariably lead to depression and anxiety, which in turn translates into bad habits and permanent procrastination. As can be observed, this Inner Need is, in general, a mental-psychological need that has degenerated into neurosis, obsession, paranoia, psychosis, or any other mania or neuropathy.
That Inner Need -specific- that “seeks to satisfy” the individual suffering from neurosis -or any other neuropathy-, cannot be easily achieved in reality, and it is demonstrated that behind a condition of neurosis all those states are fed back by the same neurosis, which makes them unattainable and strengthens its own degrading force, a subconscious force that drives the individual -as a pretext- not to do anything, it is a pretext that allows him to deceive himself, and that places him outside of reality.
The Inner Need generates, by erroneously channeling the efforts, an apparent Idealistic Perfectionism (IIP), Superior to Others (SO), (EL), (SP), (EC), (DO), (N), ETC., which permanently “moves and paralyzes” the procrastinating individual.
These endless circles or Vicious Circles can be broken with an external stimulus, creating a new action or activity within the usual chain of events of the procrastination habit. In this way we can move, in a healthy way, the person away from the vicious circle of the procrastination habit.
Undoubtedly, this type of habits are complicated and quite confusing that deeply and daily disturb the individual who suffers from it; however, we can always define an activity that is a “switch” that prevents and disconnects the chaining, modifying it to redirect it towards tasks that benefit physically and mentally -psychologically- the individual. In our case, the “switch” is the integral system “walking, reading, writing and drawing” that we can use at any time to face procrastination, which is creating negative situations and attitudes -conscious or unconscious- in our being.
We must point out that, in general, the activities of the WALK-RWD system are not linkable with those that are procrastinated, i.e., the daily postponement of the activity of “keeping the kitchen area clean” has no practical linking relationship with walking, reading, writing or drawing.
Invariably we will have to analyze the specific chain to determine the “Inner Need”, which in turn will make it easier to identify the point in the chain on which we should implement the system as a “switch” to it.
It goes without saying that from the analysis of each case and its evaluation, will depend on the location of the point where we will have to place the “switch” to obtain the most immediate and positive results. With the certainty that if it is not the appropriate point, it will not cause any additional problem in the behavior of the person who is carrying it out and we will be able to remodel it more conveniently, looking for another node for the application of the WALK-RWD system.
In general the system works in such a way that the “Inner Need” is eradicated in an unconscious way, however, it is almost certain that the appearance of this need is recurrent and recovers its psychological dissatisfaction, so we will have to be attentive to apply the WALK-RWD system again, in the same point of the chain or perhaps it has modified its original structure with which we were applying the system, and again we have to analyze and evaluate the new psycho-dependent chain.
Let us keep in mind that by walking (WALK-RWD System) we can leave behind any type of Vicious Circle, and concretely the psycho-dependent one of Procrastination.
As we have already pointed out, there are innumerable negative emotional enemies and unpleasant habits that govern our existence on a daily basis.
The following process will guide us more specifically in combating procrastination, which I have conformed into 3 phases for its control and correction.
PHASES X, Y and Z to address bad habits and procrastination.
With the purpose of having clarity in the process that we must carry out to eradicate procrastination, next we expose the 3 phases of the procedure that the WALK-RWD system contemplates.
PHASE X.-IDENTIFICATION of bad habit (or several) and CORRELATION of the Inner Need with the Habit.
First of all we need to desire to change our attitude or desire to feel good about ourselves. Just coming to truly desire is a very important step in this process.
The WALK-RWD system allows us to combat all cases of bad habits through a general method. However, each habit has its special characteristics, so it is indispensable to identify and characterize it. For each one of the negative habits the WALK-RWD system leads us in a special way to present a specific front to combat them. To identify the bad habit it is necessary to first determine its correlation with the Inner Need that generates it. To get to correlate it we must resort to the procedure defined in Post NEGATIVE HABITS AND HOW TO COMBAT THEM-GENERAL CASES, where we review as an example the Vicious Circle in eating habits, and we recommend detecting that Inner Need in the area of insecurity, scarcity, deprivation, anxiety, dependence, emotional imbalance, hesitation in decision making, irresponsibility, self-doubt, etc.
Once we have completed this phase (identification and correlation) we can move on to the next phase.
PHASE Y.-CORRECTIVE PROCESS OF THE BAD HABIT (OR SEVERAL).
Once we carry out phase X, fulfilling the 2 steps indicated (identification and correlation), we will pass to phase Y which is the corrective process of the bad habit, applying the WALK-RWD system as we exposed it in the 3 posts previously indicated (posts: THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE HABITS, NEGATIVE HABITS AND HOW TO COMBAT THEM. GENERAL CASES, and COMBATING SOME ENEMIES WITH THE WALK-RWD: OBESITY).
PHASE Z.-AVOIDING AND CONFRONTING PROCRASTINATION.
In parallel to phase Y, we must apply phase Z, a positive attitude, which consists of subtracting ourselves from the apathy of not wanting to do anything or postpone everything, trying to perform certain small actions tending to banish the procrastinator being at 100 percent, that we bring inside. Let us perform any action (task or activity) that is inconsequential, but that has some relation -small at least- with the activity we have been procrastinating. This will work in two directions or courses of behavior. During the first course of behavior, the mind and the body will surely start sending messages against this positive attitude (signals of abulia, tiredness, listlessness, etc.), which will be nothing but more procrastination, which will have the function of keeping us delaying and postponing any kind of positive action we have undertaken to carry out our tasks. This negative state will try to boycott us from our interiority to prevent us from developing that minimal or insignificant action (task or activity). At this moment we will begin to realize the great variety of resources used by that SPECIMEN of procrastination nested within ourselves; let’s write down all those boycotts and analyze them one by one, in order to counteract them in an effective and conscious way. To do this, the best way is to always develop an insignificant action in parallel, keeping us active even minimally towards the achievement of our productive tasks that we have procrastinated. Let us keep in mind that this phase takes place in concordance and feedback with the Y phase. That is to say, even if we have detected and corrected the negative habit(s), when we are in this phase Z, we will have to feed back the previous phase Y.
The other behavioral sense in which this minimal action of ours will work is that we will have an extraordinary result. Besides starting to destroy the habit -or the addiction-, it is very probable that this corrective dynamic, taken to its happy conclusion, can provoke the disappearance of the primordial causes of our neurosis or of any other psychological ailment that we have and that is the cause of the habit (or addiction) that we are attending in this process, using phases Y and Z. I emphasize, this can be achieved if we fight the procrastinator that we bring inside, until eradicating it, when we may have also defeated in parallel its “neurotic brother”, which surely also nests in us.
The realization of all this process is facilitated by applying the WALK-RWD system because it is motivational by itself, it induces us to go ahead with optimism and immediately teaches us to carry out activities with enthusiasm.
Taking as a guideline this 3-phase process and the points on the eradication of vicious circles of bad habits, I present a concrete case of procrastination, of daily and generalized course, which will serve us as a model to solve practically all the situations of procrastination that arise.
Case to solve: KEEPING THE BEDROOM FIXED.
Once we have completed phase X, identification and characterization of the bad habit (Inner Need), we can continue with the correction of the bad habit.
Applying the WALK-RWD system as we exposed it in the case of obesity (Post COMBATING SOME ENEMIES WITH THE WALK-RWD: OBESITY), we can eliminate it by substituting it for any of the combinations of the structured activities within the system.
This case is divided into several parts according to the furniture that make up a bedroom, therefore, it should be analyzed according to those elements or lots:
1. Closets: rearrange and clean them.
2. Beds: change their sheets and remake them.
3. Chests of drawers: rearrange and shake them.
4. Lift and arrange the untidy clothes.
Let’s start the process by taking as a concrete example the last one, number 4, which we have designated as Specific Activity: “Lift and arrange the untidy clothes”, to place them in the appropriate drawers provided for this purpose, and hang some of them in the closets. The solution of this case will be equally usable for the other 3 previous to this one. In order to lift and arrange the clothes, we decide to start washing the dirty clothes and thus apparently we are satisfied because we are doing an activity (Substitute Activity) as important -supposedly- as lifting and arranging the clothes and we will also think that washing is prior to arranging; however, we are convinced that we do it because it is more attractive to us, we do it with pleasure, and therefore we can satisfactorily postpone the other one. The reality is that we do not want to do that activity number 4, for some emotional, neurotic, etc. cause, which we have already identified as an Inner Need. After having procrastinated the Specific Activity and washed the clothes (Substitute Activity), feelings of recrimination and frustration begin, simply because we have postponed the arrangement of clothes for many months and they are scattered all over the bedroom.
In the first scheme, we can see that nodes 2 and 3 feed back on each other (Vicious Circle of Procrastination), and always do so indefinitely, so the person never gets to perform the activity he/she procrastinates.
We must break this reluctant and eternal vicious circle.
The performance of a Substitute Activity becomes a “co-habit” that complements the procrastinating habit of the Specific Activity, either as a repetitive act with the same specific activity or with another one, which we will have to extirpate, by means of the WALK-RWD system (Phases Y and Z). When we are in the proximity of the exchange of the fundamental activity to be performed by the Substitute, let’s go for a walk and initiate the application of the WALK-RWD system as we indicated in Post COMBATING SOME ENEMIES WITH THE WALK-RWD: OBESITY, which will allow us to eradicate the Substitute Activity and likewise any type of habit, and later we can voluntarily and with pleasure, fix the bedroom.
Finally we will eliminate Procrastination.
The release of energy walking, which is transmitted to the brain, will provoke the procrastinator inner subject that we bring inside, a compulsion that will place us in the bedroom to start its arrangement, that we will have destined our energies to eliminate the negative habit.
In order to achieve this reaction of the unconscious in communication with the neurotic conscious it was necessary to identify and become aware of the negative habit (in this case a substitute) to eliminate it from our behavior, and with a positive attitude put into practice the WALK-RWD system in order to directly combat the procrastinator subject that nests within us, by eliminating its customary ally of the negative habit, a process that must be permanent and repetitive, until it is eradicated.
Any procrastinator attitude can be eradicated by following the steps and process outlined above.
Of all the mythologies, the Greek one is for the Western world the most extensive, differentiated, exciting and stimulating; so in this Western universe it is usually expressed: “We must resort to the Greeks”.
For every one of the gods, semi-gods and heroes that participate in it, two myths are described that are truly descriptive of human behavior. All the emotions, feelings, attitudes, anguish, enthusiasm, exaltations, passions, achievements, failures, victories, frustrations and revenge, are described by their writers, playwrights, essayists, poets, philosophers and historians, all of them Greeks, who over time transmitted it to us in their respective works, which in turn served to exemplify the human condition, in other fields such as psychoanalysis. A limitless source of inspiration and answers for writers, artists and preferably for researchers in the psychoanalytical sciences.
Of these myths, one of them we are interested in presenting, that of Prometheus, with the purpose of understanding as much as possible his capacities and skills that he used to support the human race in its development, during those mythical times, when he was just beginning to understand about its existence.
Prometheus is a symbol for the entire human race for the struggles he waged to overcome adversity and achieve progress toward his destiny, transmitting to humanity that it must above all assert itself as a species, dominating Nature. One question that we must ask ourselves at this precise moment is the following. This domination over Nature can be observed from two points of view: Is it by abusing, destroying, conquering, desecrating, or on the contrary by honoring, respecting, admiring, appreciating, sharing and restoring?
This mythological character was a source of knowledge and skill, which had been taught to him by Zeus himself, King of the Greek Olympus. He was extremely skilled in every art: Astronomy, Architecture, Medicine, Mathematics, Metallurgy, Navigation and, in general, everything necessary that he should know to fulfill his predestination and be able to convey it to human beings so that they, in their turn, may reach their own destiny.
Among the knowledge that he transmitted to humans and that is related to our fundamental activities, were about astronomy, astral data, cosmography, mathematics and certain important observations about the Sun: the measurement of time, astronomical guidance and orientation, and fire.
Regarding fire, Zeus forbade it to human beings because of a bad play -during a challenge- that Prometheus made to him; therefore, he asked Athena to help him go up to the Olympus to take the fire from the same Sun, and going down to Earth he gave it to men. Both actions were made by Prometheus without Zeus’ permission, so he did not forgive him and punished him by asking Hephaestus (God of Fire, Vulcan) to make unbreakable chains and to fasten him with them at the highest part of Elbruz Volcano, which was 16,400 feet high, and was constantly erupting, and from whose crater lava and fire emanated.
So Prometheus, chained on the summit of the Caucasus, waited for a vulture, which during the day attacked him and devoured his liver, and whose suffering was repeated, because at night he regenerated again, completely replacing all his entrails during the night, which made torture eternal. Fire and agony, daily.
Regarding time, its measurement was taught to humans, since he began to receive the first lessons directly from Zeus. He considered it important to convey to them that time could first be measured by the daily sunrise and sunset. He allowed them to count those daily cycles in order to calculate their journeys walking behind the herds of animals to hunt their food. In the same way he taught them the different phases of the Moon, for the same purposes but with longer cycles.
Likewise, he also transmitted to them the positions of the stars, the Sun, the Moon and added Venus as a morning star and as an afternoon star, to the constellations and sidereal compositions. The knowledge that the Sun always went out by the same orientation, the East, and permanently hiding itself by the same opposite point, the West. The same occurred with the Moon and Venus, with the knowledge that a wider period of time everything repeated and started again.
All this in order to be able to guide and orient oneself by day, and over all by night, to be able to reach places, without getting lost and not spending too much effort in their walks, and to locate points where the herds of animals went (Post WALKING AND THE ARCHETYPE “MAGIC”. PART I), season after season, and year after year. But above all, they could return to their places of origin, when they needed to.
Prometheus was recognized as very lucid and skillful in many disciplines, but never with the title of “Semi-God of the Walkers”, however, the teachings he gave to humans about all these arts, were essential for the entire human species could move over long distances to regions that were occupied over 2 million years (Post HOMO-ITER: MAN-WALKER. PART I , Post HOMO-ITER: MAN-WALKER. PART II , and future Post CHRONICLE OF A DISAPPEARANCE ANNOUNCED IN THE PLEISTOCENE). In addition to being the protector of the walkers, he was their guide and teacher.
11-PROMETHEUS-CONQUEST OF FREEDOM.
Advancing the times, in the time that goes from the 3,000 to the 2,000 years B. C., the Hellenes descendants of Prometheus’ grandson, Prometheus was worshipped by a celebration that took place every year, when Venus was presented brightly as the Morning Star. These celebrations consisted of walking competitions, whose name was “Promethean parties” and later they were simply called Ionics. They consisted of walks with torches, which represented the symbolism of the resistance of the Hellenic peoples and the permanence of the fire with the humans, since the contenders carried a torch fed with the direct fire of the Sun, and had to endure long walks until the torch went out. The winner was the competitor who had walked the longest distance. Legend has it that the greatest distance was walked by a descendant of Zeus, who walked for 7 days and 7 nights.
The winner was a member of the Ionians tribe or Ionians, who had always distinguished themselves as great walkers, a nomadic people par excellence, and considered themselves descendants of Ion (eponymous hero of the Ionians tribe), son of Juto and grandson of Heleno, whose name means walker. The legend also tells that the winner of the contest whose fire had lasted seven days and seven nights, his father Zeus, the highest god of Olympus, had sent him to Earth, to the region of Euboea (formerly Thessaly and part of the Peloponnese), where the Ionians inhabited, for this future contest. His name in Ionian language was Greiko (Greek).
From that time on, the Greeks started to call themselves children of Greiko (Greeko), belonging to the dominant tribe of the Greikoi (Greekoi: Greeks) or of the Grekaii (Greekaii: Greece) territory, and their language the Greika (Greeka: Greek). The people of permanent fire and resistance in walking; the race of eternal fire and indefatigable walking (Future Post WALKING IN THE HELLENIC PEOPLE-THE OLYMPIC).
Let us seek and reclaim that Promethean fire, but above all let us become aware that we must break those chains that bind us to sedentarism and accompany Greiko in his walks.
It seems that Prometheus’ message to the human being -once he broke the chains- was that his only unavoidable mission to be carried out indefinitely was: “To walk on the planet Earth”.
It is said that a pilgrimage will be effective only if it is done on foot, whatever its purpose.
I would like to start this post by mentioning what a pilgrimage is in itself and what are the motivations that people feel or have to join one of them.
Pilgrimage means a march or transfer of an individual -or a group of people- through a region using established paths and covering considerable distances. The pilgrimage represents a trip to a holy place, a Sanctuary, Mosque, Hermitage, Temple, Synagogue, or Church, round trip, of a person alone or integrated into a group. You arrive at the holy place and return to the place where you started your pilgrimage; and always walking, most of the way.
The word pilgrim comes from the Latin peregrinus, from per: through, and ager: field, countryside, region. It indicates to walk, to march, to move, to travel, to put in movement – concept of “movement” that we will explain later. It is the person who travels on foot, who leaves a geographical point to reach another, separated by great distances, and through roads that are not at all comfortable, known or unknown, for a considerable time (several days), which transforms that journey into an intense and exhausting one.
Those characteristics of intense and exhausting is what makes it a sacrifice, so from the beginning of the journey, the pilgrim is offering an oblation with his own body -obligating himself to travel through long journeys- to the divinity with whom he will have contact at the end of his journey and that is usually a Sanctuary.
The term “pilgrim” -and “pilgrimage”- is applied today essentially to people who move around for religious reasons, but in ancient times they also had other motivations and causes.
The pilgrimage is a joint action of several pilgrims who walk and at the same time make the oblations to the divinity with which they will have contact at the end of the journey, in the holy place. However, the route in modern times, has been having other ways to perform it, walking, horseback, donkey, camel, or other animal capable of making the journey, by motorcycle, bus or car.
The human being intuits that he has a spiritual foundation and that he must go towards it, perhaps for that reason he looks during his wandering for a place where he can find it . His pilgrim walk is that spiritual search, which keeps him strengthened and helps him to achieve the goal of reaching the holy place.
The pilgrimage is an activity in search of spiritual contact with a Divinity, with the Angels or with the Saints. This spiritual communication is what moves the pilgrim to make this effort of long walks; it brings it into effect in different ways: by praying, offering oblations, thanking, invoking, singing, adoring, asking, etc.
The object of pilgrimages is to obtain from the divinity certain miracles, in regard to relief of diseases, physical and mental degenerations, vices, and also to obtain certain gifts besides the expiation of sins. Saints joined to these experiences of worship (Dulia) because the believer needed, at certain time of Humanity, their help and intermediation to be able to communicate and have contact with divinities.
The pilgrimage contains 3 phases, 1) WALKING, 2) OBLATION or SACRIFICE, and 3) DIVINE CONTACT. The 3rd phase, is achieved through this pilgrimage through a mechanism “magic”, ie, the pilgrims get divinely energized by “magic virtues” (Post WALKING AND THE ARCHETYPE “MAGIC”), ancient magical paradigms, both of IMITATION and CONTACT, which allow them to have the power to communicate with the deity. The one of CONTACT is realized because the divinity -or the holiness-, with which the pilgrims will communicate, somehow transmitted and bequeathed their energy (things, remains, miracles, etc.) in the locus-sanctuary where they will arrive to receive that divine influence. Their physical transfer to the sanctuary is achieved by walking (phase 1), and when they arrive in this way they can make the physical-spiritual contact in the sanctuary, to achieve the spiritual link (phase 3), and also to reach the mystical communication, contemplative and revealed. The second phase, that of Oblation or Sacrifice, is carried out during the whole journey, from the place of departure to the Sanctuary; and it depends on the religious customs -of each religious belief- of the pilgrims, being able to vary, from the very walk, which is not allowed to travel on top of any animal or motor vehicle or pulled by animals, or doing it in some parts of the route on their knees, or others in fasting of one or two daily meals (but always drinking water), without pronouncing word, singing, in total silence, with sexual abstinence, and another ten commandments and prohibitions that represent a true sacrifice, which leads them in a full way to achieve the magic of imitation and/or contact.
How much does walking empower the pilgrim to achieve contact with his divinity? Just by fulfilling the sacrifice of reaching the holy place, the pilgrim was granted an enormous spiritual force to trust that he would achieve contact with the divinity, along with other spiritual benefits.
THE PRISTINE TELEOLOGICAL CAUSE OF THE PILGRIMAGE: Notwithstanding the above I must explain the primal element of pilgrimages which is indeed of the spiritual type, but as I have mentioned in Post TOTEM AND WALKING. PART I, ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASPECTS, and in future Post WALKING AND DANCE, where I express that WALKING is the NEED OF THE HUMAN BEING TO BE IN MOTION, a MOVEMENT both physical and mental and also of the spiritual type.
Let us see in an abbreviated form. In Post TOTEM AND WALKING. PART I, ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASPECTS, I express: ” Walking was preserved analogically as a spiritual practice within the Totemist system. This imperative need to walk in a wandering way, which started 2 million years ago, was spiritually satisfied by imitating the animals in their walk and with the dance; a rhythmic and cadenced dance, which communicates with a percussive beat to the body with the external natural environment, in a spiritual and somatic way: SPIRITUAL WALKING. The more sedentary we become, the greater the need to ask for help from the spirits, from our inner spirituality. The primitive man of those times, is inclined to invoke the spirits – his spirituality – because of his new sedentary state that reduces his capacity to have contact with his unconscious and with other mental functions.” So, from this time of transition from nomadism to sedentarism, early man tries to compensate this loss of walking in several ways; a human need that in a semi-conscious way is partly satisfied by pilgrimages. In a general way and in the same sense, we can say that the human being requires to be in movement, and as we have expressed in the future Post WALKING AND DANCE, dance is another of the forms that the human being has used to satisfy his imperious need to be in movement, generated by the observation and imitation of the instinctive dances of the animals, very especially -with much curiosity, attention and seduction- in his rituals of courtship and pre-appearance. The dance is a corporal movement but as a result of that spiritual necessity to walk (intrinsic activity), in a similar way to the peregrinations, transforming itself into a MOVEMENT OF THE SPIRIT, a MOVEMENT of SPIRITUAL type.
I could not affirm that the pilgrimage is an unconscious act in the human being, of that part that I have qualified of SPIRITUAL WALKING, nevertheless, something of that congenital necessity that has been acquired from very remote times, is managed to satisfy with the pilgrimage.
The divine contact sought in the third phase, by means of pilgrimages, is physically achieved by arriving at holy places or sanctuaries, which have been defined and erected, over centuries, because
– The divinity that is venerated had an apparition -or several- in
– A simple relic (thing or small body part) of the divine person or the saint being venerated was found.
– A distinguished relic (important part of the body) of the divine person or the saint being venerated was found.
– A miracle is attributed to the divinity or the saint being venerated
– It is a holy place that for some reason reveres that divinity or the saint.
– The Holiness passed by that place and they turned it into a sanctuary.
– It is attributed to him the realization of individual and collective healings for coming before his presence.
– That divinity appeared before several individuals (children, women, men) or only one.
The holy places, where the worship of divinities and holy persons have been performed, in addition to those indicated, also took place in caverns (antrum, antri: in Latin; antrón in Greek), caves and grottos (krúpte in Greek) sacred (Sacrum speluncas dissimiles veris).
3. TYPE OF PILGRIMAGES
The different forms, categories or types of pilgrimage have been shaped over time, attending to the great diversity of collective and individual needs; as they are:
– By Devotion
– By Vote
– By Exercise or Profession of Faith
– For Mercy
– By Collection
– By Worship or Reverence
– By Request
– By Prayer or Thanksgiving
– By Offering
– In gratitude
– By Promise or Command
– For Hope
– For Charity or Love
– By Duty or Oath
– To achieve Miracles
– For Atonement of Sins
– By Commitment or Obligation
– By promise or thanks
All these categories consciously represent the religious feeling of approaching, in a first phase – quite remote – the spirits, and in the next phase the divine; however, underneath all this, lies the teleological cause of walking.
4. SIDE EFFECTS OF PILGRIMAGES
Besides this primary effect (teleological cause or ultimate cause) that the pilgrimages have, which we have mentioned, that of SPIRITUAL WALKING AND SPIRITUAL TYPE MOVEMENT, there are other secondary effects.
Among the side effects of religious pilgrimages are:
– Contact with the sensitive and affective part of the pilgrim
– That some physical ailments are corrected by walking for long distances or long, repetitive periods.
– It generates in the pilgrim an atmosphere of gratitude and responsibility.
– It provokes in the pilgrim a space of community and collectivity
– It also provokes a state of benevolence and fraternal help.
5. THE MOST IMPORTANT IN ANTIQUITY
Perhaps the oldest pilgrimages were those developed by walking in the deserts, since in almost all religions there has been the idea that one can get in touch with divinities and gods in these lonely places, perhaps because of their isolation, quietness and silence. It was a true sacrifice to make in these environments, which almost led to lose one’s life because of long days, perhaps with some points fixed in advance, but always seeking contact with a divinity, and until this spiritual link was achieved, the sacrifice was suspended. In my novel JESUS GOES TO PSYCHIATRIST (*), God the Son is not very much in favor of long walks to seek communication with Him, although He did go on journeys through the desert to have contact with God the Father. He commented that He did not even need a temple to communicate with Him; however, He did make pilgrimages: His last walk as a pilgrim to the city of Jerusalem was made by joining the feasts of the Jewish Pesach (Passover festivities).
The most famous pilgrimages, which since the Antiquity have been made, are
ELEUSIS: A little mythology and a little reality. Let this serve as an example for the dozens of cases that have been forged in the mythical Antiquity. To Eleusis -Athenian city, 500 years b. C. -great crowds of people came to worship several Greek deities, among them Démeter. In the language of those days, they said they were looking for the mystery of the deity, and it was no other thing than to try to contact it, to request its protection and auguries, to ask for its gifts and to thank for the great harvests, for which they celebrated ceremonies of sacred worship, in their respective sanctuaries. In general terms, these were public rites where obligations and constraints were expressed for the whole community. They would come to Eleusis in procession to carry out these festivities since they began their marches with baths in the waters of the sea. These rites of Eleusis and others, had their origin in prehistory based on older festivals on agricultural fertility, to ensure large harvests, which in turn surely served to influence the organization and practice of pilgrimages and the same cults that developed in early Christianity.
ZEUS and other divinities: Another bit of mythology. Certain cults were carried out in sacred caves in pre-Hellenic times. Zeus in some sacred caves in Mount Dicte, in the island of Crete. Also in sacred caves the processions to venerate Cybele in Phrygia and Lydia, with bullfighting ceremonies, with fasts, baths and penances.
TAMMUZ or ADONIS: More of mythology. Great processions were held to worship the god Tammuz (god of the Semitic peoples of Babylon and Syria) or Adonis (adopted by the Greeks in the seventh century BC) in the cities of Byblos, Syria, and Paphos, Cyprus, to achieve good crops.
GANGES: Sacred river of India. This river has several holy places that have developed in the tributaries of the river, and to which pilgrimages are carried out at different times of the year.
THE MECCA. Holy place of Islam, where Muhammad was born. It consists of the Kaaba Mosque (Future Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE CENTER OF THE KAABA) and in its center the black stone.
The oldest Christian pilgrimages are those of Rome and the Holy Land:
THE VATICAN. Holy City in Rome, where the holy popes are located, is the Basilica of St. Peter, and the mortuary remains of the popes.
JERUSALEM. Holy city of the 3 religions: Christian, Muslim and Jewish.
TEOTIHUACAN, MEXICO, sacred city of the Mexicas. Since the 9th century.
6. MOST IMPORTANT PILGRIMAGES TODAY.
We can list, in a concise way, the most important pilgrimages at present:
THE VATICAN. Holy city in Rome, where the holy popes reside, is located the Basilica of St. Peter, and the mortuary remains of the popes. The high point was reaching St. Peter’s Basilica and the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul.
JERUSALEM. Holy city of the 3 religions: Christian, Muslim and Jewish.
SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA. In this place of Spain the remains of Santiago el Mayor, apostle of Jesus Christ, were found in the 9th century. And since that time, pilgrimages have been made to this place, where the tomb was found.
THE MECCA. Holy place of Islam, where Muhammad was born. It consists of the Kaaba Mosque (Future Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE CENTER OF THE KAABA) and in its center the black stone.
FRANCE, OUR LADY OF LOURDES: City of France. Pilgrimages for the apparition of the Virgin Mary.
FÁTIMA: In the town of Santarem, Portugal, the Virgin of Fatima (of the Rosary) appeared in 1917. Pilgrimages.
MEXICO, BASIC OF GUADALUPE, IN THE CITY OF MEXICO, since the 16th century, with the apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1531.
INDIA, SACRED RIVER OF THE GANGES, holy places in its tributaries
INDIA, HOLY CITIES OF INDIA: KUMBHAMELA, RISHIKESH, BENARÉS, and others
IRAQ, in BAGDAD, BAHA’U’LLAH HOUSE
IRAN, in the HOUSE OF BAB IN SHIRAZ
ENGLAND, CANTERBURY
ITALY, Francis of Assisi
ITALY; Santa Rita di Casia.
CANADA, Sanctuary Sainte Anne de Beaupre
And several dozen more.
7. DEVELOPMENT OF THE WALK AND THE PILGRIMAGE
What did walking mean during pilgrimages? Simply because it was the only way to make those spiritual journeys? No! From the point of view of consciousness and traditions, in ancient times it was the only way to make them, but walking, apart from representing a physical spiritual sacrifice, was the way to have contact with a path that supposedly had been traveled by one or several of the saints, whose relics were kept in the Sanctuary. Either they represent the transit through the places that the Saint visited or lived during his existence, or his place of birth. They are also the places where apparitions of the Divinity or the miracles performed by Her were made. A process of “Dulía Walker” that was granted to the saints during the pilgrimage.
From that moment, the contact with the Divinity, with the Saint and with the spiritual began. Rome was an example of it, since to reach the holy places there was the Main Way (Via Francigena) and other secondary ways that were also considered holy. Another important case about this, is the pilgrimage to Santiago Compostela with its holy route, the main one, the “French Way” that was traced so that pilgrims from different points could start, covering almost all Europe, and they were gathered in France. In these routes, many holy places are touched (Churches, Sanctuaries, Relics, etc.) which gives these routes their quality of “Holy Walks”.
A clear example of this was represented by Egeria, a Galician Abbess from the 4th century, who made several journeys through biblical roads and lands. During 1000 days she walked those roads through Constantinople, Sinai, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Jerusalem. A Christian pilgrim who, according to the Scriptures, travelled all those roads and places that the Bible has recorded as part of the history of the three religions (Christian, Jewish and Muslim).
There was another type of pilgrimage in the Buddhist current, apart from the fact that in his philosophical-religious conceptualization it was an inner journey, the Buddhist monk made a geographical tour through which he visited distant places with the purpose of making a discursive wandering, haranguing his exordiums and Buddhist principles for possible future initiates. The Mahayana (philosophy of Vacuity or emptiness) led Buddhism to a reflective and dissertationary pilgrimage (Post THE PATH OF VACUITY, Future Post DISCURSIVE AND POETICAL PILGRIMAGE).
However, from the congenital and unconscious point of view, walking during pilgrimages has represented a rescue of a loss that the human being started to suffer since 10,000 years ago, as we already pointed out at the beginning of this post, resorting to this practice and to others, looking for the contact with his spiritual need, because he has lost the communication with his unconscious and with other functions of the mental type, caused by his sedentary state.
8. THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE PILGRIMAGE
Now, what relationship do we find between the WALK-RWD system and the pilgrimage?
Undoubtedly, the walk, during these processions of the pilgrims, has a symbolism – of the spiritual type – that impels the being – physical, mental and spiritual – towards a point that shows him a sense of life, and that orients him for his location and transmits him that he will find it at the end of his journey.
The WALK-RWD system is a recurrent form of daily walking, -sometimes wandering and sometimes very defined- that combines that walking with 3 other activities (reading, writing and drawing) organized -consciously and unconsciously- and lead the walkers towards several concrete objectives: 1) Physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health, 2) Creativity and artistic creation, 3) Concentration, relaxation, meditation and contemplation, 4) Mind-body harmony, 5) Understanding and acceptance of oneself, 6) Perception and knowledge of reality. In an integral way, the following is achieved: the pleasure of and for living.
In its constant application it results in a conscious and voluntary walk towards the Sense of Life (Future Post WALKING AND ITS TELEOLOGICAL COMMITMENT).
Loya Lopategui, Carlos, Jesús va al Psiquiatra, EMULISA, México, 2011.
In this post I present an INTRODUCTION of how to do the walk together with any of the 3 structured activities (reading, writing and drawing), combining it with the game; exposition that I will do in detail, with specific games, in 3 future posts.
It is also an exordium to combine walking with the non-competitive game and to transmit that it is not necessary to make that conjunction with any of the 3 activities of reading, writing or drawing. In addition, I will allow myself to present some definitions, comments and revelations from thinkers who have manifested the importance of play in the life of the human being.
I have already exposed in Post PLAY AND WALK-PART I. NO TO COMPETITION, YES TO FUN, about the purpose we have of not using -within the WALK-RWD system- games that include competition (NO TO COMPETITION); of trying to eliminate the influence and the conditioning -manipulations- that we receive since we are born to develop games that even with ourselves we compete; and to try, with the games combined with the 3 structured activities, to have fun and to encourage us with freedom while we walk.
In itself, this post will be dedicated 1) to the understanding of what play is; 2) to specify and explain its primary, secondary and tertiary characteristics; and 3) for those people who do not wish to read, write and draw, we present several games that do not involve competition among human beings, nor with oneself.
Let’s move on to the concept of play.
In a general way, we can define the game as a need that the human being has to use certain accumulated energy, as much physical, as mental and emotional, by means of which it does not look for a productive nor utilitarian aim, but to amuse itself. It is a vital manifestation as much corporal as spiritual, that allows him to project those natural inclinations, from the simplest activities to the most complex. From the historical point of view, we can affirm that its manifestations have been reflected in sports, education, literature, and in a great diversity of human activities. The word game was used in antiquity as a title for public shows, hence certain literary events were named, such as school games, games of mockery, floral games, etc.
Johan Huizinga, in his book Homo Ludens, written in 1954, expresses us: “The game is a free action or occupation, which is developed within determined temporal and spatial limits, according to absolutely obligatory rules, although freely accepted, action that has its end in itself and is accompanied by a feeling of tension and joy and the consciousness of ‘being otherwise’ than in ordinary life […] This category, game, seems to be considered as one of the most fundamental spiritual elements of life”.
I would like to comment that this word of game or the verb to play, has been used in all cultures, and likewise in the different epochs and in the present, as a metaphor, simulation, paragon, analogy, allegory, image, translation, dissimulation, euphemism, within a figurative language; it has also been used by means of all its usual and constituted synonyms of ordinary use: amusement, recreation, trickery, caper, mischief, sport, entertainment, trick, joke, leisure, pastime, recreational exercise, game, sporting encounter, risk, bet; synonyms used in substitution of functioning, movement, mechanism, disposition, possibility, of exposing oneself, intervening, taking part, handling, and dozens of other semantic translations; which gives it a great capacity for use as a metaphor almost for everything, with the implicit understanding that nothing is “at stake” in itself, but quite the opposite, since it implies formality in its totality and not just one part, complete seriousness and nothing in jest, reality and nothing imaginary, the certain without any doubt. The use of the word GAME – its derivatives and disinformation – unfolds spreading to the generality of the powers (predominances) of human experience.
I believe that we must be more precise and cautious in the use of the word “game”.
Let’s go to the conception of the characteristics of the game.
The primary characteristics of the play activity are rules, order, movement (physical and mental), celebration, rites, principles, objective, customs, time of duration, techniques, competition, separation of daily and ordinary activities, a specific place, site or space, challenge, controversy, surprise the other players, uncertainty, fight, struggle, retribution, reward, rhythm, not looking for material utility – in past times (now yes) -, hobby; characteristics that coincide with many other human activities that contain them and that are also part of its essential constitution, nevertheless, the most determining ones of the game are the spontaneity and the unconcern that define it and essentially that it is carried out with freedom.
What is relevant about these characteristics -primary ones- is their permanence, their almost total invariability and their biunivocity between quality and activity; if they were not presented in this way, they would cease to have their qualification of primary ones.
The secondary characteristics are also called sensitive qualities, because of the effects that the primary characteristics generate on the human being when participating in these game activities, either as a direct participant or as a spectator. That is to say, they are the faculties that have to provoke sensorial impressions (perceptions?) when the human being has contact with his senses, both external and internal (Future Post WALKING AND THE EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL SENSES). Unlike the primary qualities, these are highly variable, that is, not very constant. As a relevant fact, according to some experts, these secondary qualities are presented “at a conscious level”. Each individual will receive in different ways and degrees the impressions of these characteristics. The secondary characteristics are: joy, optimism, deceit, lies, cheating, hobby, abstraction, ecstasy, tension (mental and physical).
The tertiary characteristics are the reactions or responses of human beings in their relationship to the primary and secondary qualities of the activity (or object). They are those qualities that are attributed mentally -consciously or unconsciously- to play. Perhaps these responses are a reflection of the individual participant’s own direct participation or as an observer. It is logical to think that each individual may have a different degree or way of reacting to the game activity, either by direct participation or as an observer.
The tertiary characteristics generally contain the 2 antagonistic poles of human behavior; for example: euphoria (prostration), failure (success), disillusionment (encouragement), courage (fear, serenity), confidence (mistrust), enthusiasm (apathy), passion (calmness), insecurity (firmness), joy (sadness), outburst (calm, tranquility).
In ancient times, the game was played for the enjoyment itself, but nowadays the reward is invariably sought which translates into money, fame, notoriety, reputation, success, renown or prestige.
Huizinga, respectfully, states: “This increase in the agonal sense [competition], by which the world is moved in the direction of play, has been fostered by another external factor, basically independent of the spirit of culture: the fact that, in all fields and by all means, communication among men has become so extraordinarily easy. Technique, advertising and propaganda incite competition. Commercial competition does not belong to the primitive and sacred games. It begins when commerce begins to create fields of activity in which one has to try to outdo and surprise others. Soon certain limiting rules become indispensable, which constitute the mercantile uses”.
It is true that in the most remote times the game hardly contained elements of competition, although there are plenty of examples where these elements are also inserted. The Potlach was, for some, like a game, although for others not; it was a party achieved by the delivery (the granting) of gifts allowing one of the players to put himself above his competitors (one or several) and demonstrate his superiority. The neurotic implication of superiority, expressed in the Potlach can be extended to tips, charity, handouts, donations, etc., an egocentric neurotic form disguised as gift giving to dominate and place oneself above others. A game, a competition, a party? Each particular case should be reviewed.
#1259, GAME IMPULSE
In the present times the disinterest in the search for material utility has been forgotten and there are very few games where they are not dominated and manipulated by competition and the search for that materialistic retribution, of the utilitarian and/or monetary type.
The important and outstanding thing would be that walking would be played avoiding competition. The other actions that in the modern epoch are associated to the game, as the bets, to win money, the lucrative thing, etc., could be eliminated and in exchange something useful and productive would be obtained, because with the alone fact of having played and walked it would be quite beneficial and valuable for the full development of the human being.
There are opinions that the game arises from culture as an intrinsic need of it, through which the human being looks for fun. On this, Huizinga expresses: “Competition and exhibition do not arise from culture as its diversions, but rather, they precede it”. What Huizinga wants to mean in this statement is that play is consubstantial in the human being and is not a product generated by any cultural process, but is already immersed in the essence of it; play creates culture.
In order to motivate us and not lose our enthusiasm, we should be aware of which ways or attitudes can deviate us in our purposes of encouraging and having fun; as an example of this we can comment that we should not play the same game always, because we would get bored; so look for the non Monotony in the game, it would be highly recommended (Future Post THE CORRECT MANAGEMENT OF THE FLOATING TIME IN THE DECISION TO WALK, in which I make the difference between ROUTINE and MONOTONY). Also, within this scheme, we will have to change the usual paths in our daily walk. How? By choosing new directions and new courses, constantly selecting varied books to read. Writing different literary genres such as poems, letters, etc., and of course, playing while we walk and, if we want and can, doing some of the structured activities within the WALK-RWD system.
Combining play with walking, reading, writing and drawing, sounds a little complicated, I think it works, but in advance I tell you, what I have repeated in several posts, that when one is passionate, the complicated is facilitated and now I can also express that when one is abstracted in the game, it is (transcends) the same way, because the difficulties in actions or thought are resolved satisfactorily, making the difficult easy, but above all it is fun and encourages us, allowing us to spend pleasant moments.
It should be noted that making a game while walking should be combined with only one of the 3 structured activities. And it is up to the walker-player to develop more than one additional activity. But of course it can be done! The games combined with the 3 structured activities in the WALK-RWD system will be presented in 3 future posts.
Let’s use a concept that in its core elements can clarify many things in relation to these activities that are related within the WALK-RWD system. The word is AUTOTHELIC, which comes from the Greek autos: the same, and telos: end. When we find it in some text it moves us to think about ACTIVITIES, and it transports us to feel that anyone can be in MOTION, but it is an essentially mental movement, and combined with the aesthetic and artistic, but not necessarily with a Master Artistic Work (Literary). Likewise, the conceptualization of Autothelic transmits us that this implicit activity, because of something that the writer has or is assigning to it, is PASSIONATE, ABSORBENT, and with it the author wants to communicate that the individual who is in the context of this literary work, is very fascinated, attracted and seduced in an excessive way, and that he is also interested in it. It is the transmission of a binomial of PLAY with ART, both creative concepts, which have a direct relationship with the expression emotional and mental of the person who experiences it, however, it is not related in a conscious way with the achievement of something productive and useful, but it is obtained in an unconscious way (*). It is part of the human instinct that seeks UNCONSCIOUS FUN, through the artistic impulse and also to play with oneself. The purpose (telos: end), the achievement, the sense or the satisfaction is in the activity itself, or as Huizinga himself said of the game: it is an “action that has its end in itself”.
(*) However, here we find the germ of all artistic creation or a large percentage of it, whose essential elements are precisely the game, the pleasure and the sense that arise from one’s unconscious.
1085, THE PAINTER QUIXOTE
In this attempt to move people to walk while playing, I am prolonging this Autothelic concept by extending it to the plastic, to painting, sculpture and drawing, and specifically to our theme of walking. Art for art’s sake, walking for walking’s sake, and so whatever activity we have to do, let’s look for that Autothelic solution.
Let’s extract the key elements of the concept AUTOTHELIC, as they are: ACTIVITIES, MOVEMENT, PASSION, ABSORBENT, PLAY, ART, UNCONSCIOUS FUN, and let’s review the concept “Game” with respect to those same elements, in its constitution and structure.
Having selected the primary characteristics of the game, we can extract: order, tension (mental and physical), movement (physical and mental), enthusiasm, passion, rules, celebration, competition, joy, separation from daily activities and currents, a specific place, site or space, abstraction, ecstasy, challenge, controversy, surprising other players, uncertainty, struggle, retribution, reward, insecurity, joy, rapture, enthusiasm and rhythm.
Let’s see their coincidence. Neither game, nor art, nor absorbing, nor fun, nor unconscious are located; however, game and art are the activities to be developed at the same time we walk; the absorbing, fun, and unconscious are equated to celebration, rejoicing, joy, abstraction, ecstasy, rapture.
In synthesis we can decide to walk always with the incentive that we will be able to combine it with the game and with the art (to read, to write and/or to draw) in a SELF-HARMONY (absorbent, amusing and exciting activity in itself): ACTIVITIES, MOVEMENT, PASSION, ABSORBENT, PLAY, ART, UNCONSCIOUS FUN.
On the other hand, we know that there is the kind of person who cannot perform their duties because they simply do not feel an obligation to do so, even though they know they have that moral or family duty or commitment (Post WALK, DO NOT PROCRASTINE, DO IT NOW; Future Post COMBATING BAD HABITS WITH THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM, SOLUTION TO PROCRASTINATION), however, I believe that if they would transform that obligation into some kind of game, they would not have that problem or at least they would lessen it: Obligations with SELF-CONTROLLED answers and solutions.
Finally, let’s look at some simple, non-competitive games, without having to read, write or draw.
When we find ourselves walking alone and do not wish to read, write or draw, we can transform contemplation into a diversity of games, which can encourage us not to fail, and continue walking, making it different. An autothelic playful contemplation.
For example, if we find ourselves walking in some place with trees, we can calculate the number of leaves that some low branch has and then count them to observe how much we were close to getting it right. If it is an open place, calculate the time that the sun would start to hide behind any cloud; or calculate the time that any cloud would start to cover it. Another game is that of cloud races: define which cloud of 2 or 3 will be the fastest; the cloud that is the furthest ahead in the sky wins or occupies the first place (competition?). Another game is to guess which animal, of those that exist in the field where we walk, mammals, birds or insects, we will meet first (again: competition?).
If the day is sunny, discover the shapes of animals that the clouds project over the barren lands that can be observed; when there are many clouds and they can be seen over the sky, discover the different figures of animals or other shapes that they mold with their own vaporous bodies.
Another game consists of discovering animal shapes that some large rocks projected with their shadows on sunny days. Even some rocks that stand out from the ground show extraordinary figures.
All these games can be played either in solitude or in the company of other people; but if we find ourselves walking in the company of a person we can invite him/her to play any of these games taking care that they do not become a competition, warning that they are played just because of their attractiveness and fun, in themselves. In this line of walking accompanied, we can suggest making some word games, but this will be presented in Future Posts PLAY, WHILE WE READ AND WALK, Post PLAY, WHILE WE WRITE AND WALK and Post PLAY, WHILE WE DRAW AND WALK, with the safeguard of not competing.
Walking together with playing we can transform them into autothelic activities. Everyone can invent the games that they like the most. But … without stopping walking.
