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It is important to start by mentioning Paul Diel regarding his conception of the unconscious and the subconscious. In Post THE UNCONSCIOUS AND THE CONSCIOUS IN THE APPLICATION OF THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM, we said: “In order to make incursions into the configuration (conformation) of the mental (cerebral) functions, we will resort to a classification that Paul Diel makes (elaborates) in his book Psychoanalysis of Divinity, F.C.E., Mexico, 1974. Diel clearly points out the psychic functions of the conscious, unconscious and superconscious as the natural and healthy states of the psyche that every human being has; he also includes the subconscious as the damaged function of the mind, freeing the unconscious from that attribution that is regularly made to it. In his essay Diel shows the unconscious as the vital and vigorous function of the psyche where all the desires, appetites and instincts rejected (repressed) by the consciousness accumulate; defining the subconscious as the pathological and unhealthy state of the human psyche (Jung calls it psychological shadow), which has desires that are irreconcilable with reality, that which our consciousness assures us -most of the time- is the authentic one”. We will use and adhere strictly to this definition as I consider it to be the most accurate.

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Furthermore, we need to underline that the subconscious is not part of the unconscious; that is, the unconscious does not contain any damaged element or part.

Now, let us see what the EROS and THANATOS instincts are.

In the science of psychology these two instincts have been defined to signify the inclinations that the human being has towards life (Eros instinct) and towards death (Thanatos instinct). Both instincts are innate and natural in all human beings, since they are born, live and until they die; and both can be developed, increased or decreased, depending on the individual being and his environment and social surroundings.

THANATOS INSTINCT

The Thanatos instinct is an impulse or inclination to death and destruction, a concept that sounds aggressive, but in our field it indicates that generalized dissatisfaction -in a high percentage of human beings- that we feel and that overwhelms us, because we do not feel happy in an appreciable and constant way.

Resorting to some definitions, we find the following meanings and scopes of the concept Thanatos. Freud incorporated this concept in his psychoanalytic theory, as the opposite of the Eros instinct.

It is considered to be a force of discord and rupture, contrary to the meaning of EROS, being this instinctive of union.

Thanatos is a vigorous energy towards death in general, manifesting itself also in a particular way as an impulse towards self-destruction, in which the individual is not conscious of it; in other less crude (rougher or softer) words, in those cases that are not reduced, it is a propensity (predisposition, disposition, tendency) towards the negation of the self.

In Post WALKING AS PHYSICAL PRACTICE AND AS ALEGORY, I expressed: “No one should be afraid of death if one has lived genuinely and vitally in the light of one’s own spirit, under the guidance of the force of the particular reason, the feeling of personal emotions and under the WAY of knowledge indicated by the instincts [EROS instinct] and the individual unconscious”. Of course I was referring to the EROS instinct.

EROS INSTINCT

Let us now devote a few words to its counterbalancing companion, the Eros impulse.

This instinct is a determining inclination to life, to the desire to live, to the yearning to live.

Resorting to dictionary definitions, we find the following meanings and scopes of the concept Eros: 1) Desire for possession or love, almost always erotic. 2) In Platonic philosophy, the driving force of life that tends towards the absolute God; hence, the motive that explains education, the arts and philosophy. In Plato’s use of the term, he insists on the character of fascination, impersonality and intense desire. 3) This is why Eros must be distinguished from the Indian Bhakti (altruistic surrender), from the Buddhist Metta (disinterested benevolence), from the Confucian Jen (humanity, charity) and Ai (personal love), and from the Christian Agapao (sacrificial, protective, fraternal love) and Phileo (personal affection or fondness). Source: Dictionary of Philosophy, Dagobert D. Runes, Grijalbo, Mexico, 1981 (Original title: Dictionary of Philosophy).

In these scopes we can observe that in the different languages each one gives it a different meaning and this leads us to multiply the content of the word. Of course, we have made incursions into the understanding of the concept, and now we will do so in what instinct represents in itself in the human condition.

According to Freud both instincts, Eros and Thanatos, are complementary and both are indispensable for the survival of the individual being.

The unconscious is EROS.

The subconscious is Thanatos.

To walk is to advance. To advance is EROS.

THANATOS is not to advance, is not to walk.

For my own reasons to promote walking, I will dedicate more effort to elucidate the behavioral and directive manifestations of the Thanatos instinct, in human behavior, more than of Eros (Of this instinct EROS, sheltered by the individual unconscious, I already spoke in Post THE EMOTIONS AND THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM), although I did not mention it with that name. Aspects that I will try to show that this negative drive tries to dominate the Human Condition, since it is a “natural” reflex in the behavior of the human being.

I will try to list, as completely as possible, the equivocity (multivaloration, polyvalence) of Thanatos, an instinct that we locate its manifestations concealing itself in other attitudes and actions of the human being: punishment, war, aggression, overweight, damage, alcoholism, drug addiction, excommunication, revenge, torture, sadism, masochism, smashing, whipping, beating, stoning, lynching, expulsion and imprisonment; which I believe are the most representative manifestations, and that there will surely be some more that I have not included.

As we can observe in this list, some human actions are clearly seen to be a homologue to this instinct, but others are observed with different ranges (graduation, scale).

As is to be expected, the conscious is influenced in its actions by both instincts, and both seek to influence it to the greatest degree possible. Thus, the Thanatos instinct seeks the support of the conscious and achieves it in a relevant percentage (it would be important to know this percentage).

In general, we must also assume that the conscious is not always alert to the very different onslaughts of the Thanatos instinct, in order to reject it or at least not to support it.

Both instincts are a prefigured part of the self and each seeks its support to perform and discharge itself.

Thanatos uses, as we have already mentioned, dozens of masks so that it is not recognized and thus can perform freely, as “part of the self”.

Thus, in a high percentage of its actions it manages to incorporate itself to the will and the actions of the self, and sometimes it also manages to fuse itself to the character and personality of the individual, which in this way the individual self makes it its own and manages to deceive itself that this is its authentic way of thinking, feeling and acting, so that the conscious does not manage to identify it, behind its disguises. In Post AUTOLIBERATION OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS THROUGH SELF-SUGGESTIONABILITY, we express: “Therefore, the next step is that of tranquility and/or happiness that is achieved through having each one the ‘control’ of our emotions, but not the type of control that we have been taught to practice: repressing them or hiding them, so that others do not see them or do not notice them; and I am referring to the systematic learning to hide them from the eyes of others that ends with our own self-deception of not being able to recognize them in ourselves, or in getting to confuse them by not having them clear and thus unbalancing and preventing our development or emotional maturity, which is often transformed into a neurotic (or deceptive) state, being ourselves the victims of that self-deception”.

On the other hand, and because of that same acceptance and self-deception, there is also the possibility and risk that the conscious turns to the Thanatos instinct and seeks it more frequently, because the subconscious has been invaded by that malignant and destructive drive, and the need arises – at the level of the consciousness – to go through some of the masks that represent the Thanatos instinct completely (in its totality).

Of all the most representative manifestations of Thanatos that we have pointed out above, we will choose only one, punishment, to analyze this negative drive, but all that we will point out about punishing in the human being, will be valid and useful (profitable) to consider for the rest of the other manifestations, in terms of the relationship between Eros and Thanatos.

Punishment is a sensitive volition (predisposition, resolution, will) in the human being that anoints him with power. And it is in this aspect that the Thanatos instinct begins to function.

Every human being has a degree of interference of Thanatos in his interiority. Some more and others less.

The degree of dominance that Thanatos has in the being, is the level that defines how sick that individual is of the need for power. The more Thanatos, the less love he has for life, the less will to live. The less love he has for himself and therefore the less love he has for other human beings and for humanity.

This predisposition to punish works in two scenarios. One is self-punishment, which translates into an instinctive need to punish other people. The other scenario is the need for power that the self needs to level its frustrated personality. It is sick. The way to resolve this imbalance in its personality (an insufficiently developed and formed personality) translates into a need for power, and one of the ways the self uses is to punish – in various ways – other human beings. The diverse forms of punishment can be counted by the thousands, so it is not necessary to try to enumerate them. It is enough to know that all of them are representative and manifestations of the Thanatos instinct that nests in every human being. One of our voluntary actions should be: to permanently “fight culturally and intelligently” against Thanatos, our own and that of the rest of human beings.

I expressed in Post THE GAME AND THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM. PART II. NO TO COMPETITION, YES TO FUN: “The neurotic implication of superiority, expressed in the Potlach can be extended to tips, charity, alms, donations, etc., a neurotic egocentric form disguised as giving gifts to dominate and place oneself above others. A game, a competition, a party?”. This need to have power is found in conditions and attitudes that we do not even imagine. It is very subtle in this, the Thanatos instinct.

The more the human being needs to punish, the higher the level of the Thanatos instinct that dwells in him.

Punishment has always been recognized as part of human nature. In Greek mythology there were 3 deities, the Furies or the Erinias, who represented punishment – among other symbolisms (personifications) -, who lived in hell; these were Tisiphone, Megara and Alecto. In the Greek Furies are represented practically all the violent actions of the human being: assaulting, whipping, punishing, torturing, destroying, beating, warring, harassing, stoning, lynching, sadism, viciousness, cruelty, revenge, etc.

A question I am obliged to ask here is: To what extent can we associate the Thanatos instinct with affections of the emotional type? We might well extend it to mental illnesses, but that would be too much to attach importance to this instinctive solicitation. Of course, we cannot answer this question in this short space and time; however, I would like to comment on neurotic conditions.

I will comment on aspects of the collective unconscious in order to better grasp this emotional inclination. ABSENCE ARCHETYPE: From the Jungian point of view, like all archetypes, it is an absolute and universal concept. This is also a psychic projection or spiritual images (productions) generated in the collective unconscious and that emerge to the consciousness after long periods of time, generated by repeated experiences fundamentally from the most remote times by the observation with the naked eye of the behavior of the stars (the Sun, the Moon, Venus, etc.) following one another, appearing and disappearing, in a reiterative and infinite way in time and space, in such a way that they have been engraved in the collective unconscious. They manifest themselves and reveal themselves to the physical medium in various ways, among them plastic art. It is probable that in this archetype “absence” that I have been defining and studying, the renewal of God can or should be included as one of its forms of manifestation. Jung speaks of this renewal in Psychological Types, volume I, pp. 260 and 298: in the archaic mind it is inscribed that everything must “die” and be “reborn” (God, Jesus, the astral gods, etc. the resurrection); although the archetype “absence” should not be confused with the new, with the ritual of the new, with the restarting of the cycle, of the astrological periods, although they are related: the punishing God for the good, loving God. Also to make a distinction with the analysis of the “revival” of those who lost their lives: the resurrection (resuscitation) of the hero, of the guide, of the redeemer. The ortho of the sun is the new being born from the mother darkness, which defines the cycle of eternal rebirth or eternal return. According to Frazer in his book The Golden Bough, pp. 381 and 378-380, he mentions a mythological manifestation of this archetypal phenomenon, noting: “… whereas the decision of Zeus that Adonis [Tammuz, god of the Semitic peoples of Babylonia and Syria] should remain part of the year under the ground [with Persephone, queen of the nether world] and part above the ground [with Aphrodite, goddess of love], is only the Greek version of the annual disappearance and reappearance of Tammuz [as a religious projection of the movement of the stars, the Sun chiefly, in its daily appearance and disappearance; of the god who dies annually and returns to revive the eternal circle of birth-dying-rebirth]. The Greeks adopted Tammuz in the 7th century B.C., changing the name to Adonis: “The true name of the god was Tammuz, and the appellative Adonis is only the Semitic Adon, ‘Lord,’ an honorific title by which the worshippers addressed him. But the Greeks, by mistake, converted the honorific title into a proper name.” Tammuz is the husband of Istar, goddess of reproduction, the Mother Goddess. Tammuz died every year, a part was hidden and the reproduction on Earth ended. Prophet Ezekiel 8, 14. Tammuz is disputed between Aphrodite and Persephone, between the goddess of love and the goddess of death, so Zeus intervenes to resolve this dispute.

One of the most frequent and pitiful manifestations is that which – consciously or unconsciously – is used by some researchers who attribute negative actions (of those we are mentioning) to ethnic groups, copying or repeating what their minds project (Thanatos) for having read or heard that some other human group carried it out with that destructive instinct, with capital cruelty. I quote my own comments in this regard: “…in most of the plastic representations where the planet Venus appears, we find it symbolizing a warning -and not a punishment- about an event of aggression -warlike or not- that the Mayan people should keep in mind, and not as they have wanted to make it appear, in this type of symbolism, as an aggressive and hostile people”.(*)

Let us return to the center of the subject: Let us see some aspects that we have pointed out in previous posts and that will lead us in the subject. The neurotic uses diverse ways to communicate with the rest of the people, he uses camouflages just like the Thanatos instinct, and it is not only because of this that they identify themselves, but also because this instinctual character can enter into the interiority of the being to separate it from the Eros instinct, facilitating the work of that other that neurotically envelops the healthy part of the ego. “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 (IP), Being Superior to Others (BSO), Egolatry (EG), Having a Higher Power (HP), Egocentrism (EC), Dominating Others (DO), Narcissism (NA), a myriad of neurotic states that invariably lead to depression and anxiety” (Post COMBATING VARIOUS ENEMY HABITS WITH WALK-RWD, SOLUTION TO PROCRASTINATION). In direct words: negative emotions feed back to the Thanatos instinct. We said in Post THE POWER OF EMOTIONS: “We must be aware -know fully- that negative emotions by themselves will not want to allow us to free ourselves from their dominion, because that is precisely where they feed and self-generate, from our lacerated and dejected feelings. Let us break their powerful destructive chains by going for a walk”.

We can paraphrase Jung, when he spoke of emotions: Thanatos is the same that has always affected us, referring to primitive and modern man. Jung alluded to the emotions and not to the Thanatos instinct. Surely there are several psychic elements that relate these two characters: Thanatos and Emotions.

We said in Post THE EMOTIONS AND THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM: “How can we avoid diseases generated by uncontrolled emotions? The good functioning of the brain allows a better control and regulation of emotions, provides a better obstruction to the bad ones, to the disturbing ones and to the destructive ones. An individual who maintains a healthy sympathetic system, which is the core of the neurovegetative system, will have less disturbing emotions; in the same way, he/she will be able to face negative emotions more effectively (Vicious Circle), since he/she will be able to regulate them better and keep them under control, and therefore will be able to avoid diseases, since controlled emotions will no longer be able to generate them. In other words, people who do not have a healthy sympathetic system or a healthy brain, fatigued by stress, increase their predisposition to suffer strong emotions of anger, frustration, jealousy, hatred, or any other disturbing, by a slight irritation or by being presented with a slight stimulus of external discomfort”. Is it a coincidence that these states are the same as the covert manifestations of the Thanatos instinct? The practice of walking and the WALK-RWD System operates in two senses and levels: on the one hand, it allows us to recover the feeling of certain pleasant emotions that for various reasons we have come to stop feeling; that is, we will rediscover some of them as if it were the first time; on the other hand, it also helps us to eliminate negative emotions.

Negative emotions and unpleasant habits govern our existence on a daily basis.

I have also expressed: “All the harmful effects coming from negative emotions are generated within a functional imbalance of the brain, and their greater or lesser degree of manifestation is directly related to brain incapacity or fatigue; we know that a healthy state of the brain, freed from exhaustion (from stress, for example), allows, even in very unpleasant situations of emotional imbalance, that the person can recover quickly, because he can better self-control himself and restore his balance immediately. His nervous system will function better, giving him total control over his disturbing emotions.”

“The WALK-RWD system increases the blood irrigation and oxygenation of the brain, which causes a better work of it, and a healthier and healthier functioning, freeing it from fatigue and weakening, giving it strength to better face (discharge generation) destructive emotions.”

“The soul of the walker generates an (invisible) force that seeks to correct emotional, mental and physical aspects. He receives a complete encouragement to his being. That form of ‘physical, mental and emotional animation’ is received by each and every part of the walking person’s organism, which infuses it with an empowering effect.”

“When we are under the influence of a negative emotion, we cannot feel or think about anything else, other than that harmful emotion. However, we must make an effort and go for a walk, because it has been proven that the practice of walking restructures the nervous system, that which is formed by nerve cells, managing to potentiate that nervous reconfiguration and its nervous-emotional healing effect by complementing the walk with the other 3 structured activities within the WALK-RWD System. This allows us to face the two sides of emotions, both the negative side (unpleasant emotions) and the powerful side (powerful emotions). For both sides it is necessary to make immediate decisions.”

“The WALK-RWD System, applying it in an integral way, reading, writing and drawing, while we walk, balances, compensates and harmonizes us in our interiority in relation to negative emotions, and keeps us at a certain healthy distance from unpleasant worries and relationships of all kinds (social, family, school, work, etc.). The system is not only walking but is structured with 3 basic activities (they promote and develop the artistic impulse) that allow evolution and mental and emotional revolution, a permanent exercise that moves us positively and transcendentally towards the future, making us live our existence in the here and now”, inviting – by its own systemic and functional structure – to the effective participation of EROS.

“Writing, as we walk, is the ideal means to be able to know the different ‘vital vessels’ that we have under our emotional psychological domain, by allowing us, by this means, to extract some or several of the elements that make up each vital vessel.”

I have expressed in Post SELF-FREEDOM FROM NEGATIVE EMOTIONS THROUGH SELF-SUGGESTIONABILITY: “Keeping ourselves walking in a recurrent way, we arouse and impel that mental and emotional negations, such as can be, in general, insecurities, prejudices, distrust, hesitations, indecisions, negative ideas, fears, doubts, phobias, manias, hatreds, etc., in any degree of development [of all kinds (category, class) and depth (degree, level)], that have been stored (latent, underlying, hidden, concealed, disguised, potential, silent, furtive, dissimulated, treacherous) within our interiority (our inner being) begin to become positive affirmations, by the mere fact of physically and symbolically moving forward in space and time”; in a single word: let us walk!

To finish with this word Punish, I will quote what I expressed in Post HOMO SOCIABILIS OR SOCIALIS? HUMAN AGGRESSION WALKING IN CROWDED PLACES. PART IV of IX: “This natural attitude of aggressiveness in the human being is observed in diverse actions in social coexistence: How many times have we not been impeded in some action that we wish to perform, by other individuals? Each one of us has hundreds of occurrences (events and anecdotes) of this type. It is a fact that man is not sociable by essence (nature); this is evident in the course of life; as we get older, we become insensitive to our own weaknesses and fears; we no longer need the help of others, and to that extent, we move away from others (until we reach the 3rd age and this is another very different situation); as a natural process to recover our essence of being accompanied with ourselves. So do not panic if you are losing those friends who were dear to you, either because they move away from us or we move away from them. Here we must differentiate between bonds of sociability and bonds of love and reproduction. Sociability is lost, however, the need for love and the instinct of reproduction are maintained. In the latter two, the bonds are maintained almost until the last day of life. Regarding the degree of intensity between men and women, there is a differentiation: in women love persists longer, in men the instinct of reproduction lasts longer. This can be amplified when the confrontation between the instincts Eros and Thanatos is established. In all cases that we have the opposite aspect: good and bad, black and white, day and night, which is almost at all times of life, we can point out the same thing, in that the human being always seeks his natural or essential state, in this post is not to be sociable, although sometimes we get confused and do not know what we really are more: if Eros or Thanatos.”

At the age of 21 I wrote a poem consisting of 2 stanzas, which I would now title EROS VERSUS THANATOS, which goes like this:

LIFE

Life, I have it,

but as if I didn’t have it;

it is an impossibility to try to keep it alive;

Alive, like the desire to live,

like the desire to die

to see if I am really living.

&

In itself, what do I have?

Desire to live or desire to die?

I do not understand;

Why then the desire to die,

if I love the desire to go on living?

END

And another one, of 9 stanzas, at the age of 23:

LIFE AND ITS DEATH

Life: before it, the desire to be;

after it, to cease to be.

Two unreachable poles,

moments that cannot be postponed

inexorably join each other;

one is the day, the other the night.

&

One ends, the other begins.

Links in a chain

that ineluctably comes to break.

&

Pieces joined in different ways,

some are kept, others are forgotten;

true reason to live is to make them remain,

to forget them is to die, it is to end, it is to pass away.

&

To remember them is to persist; to recreate them in order to transcend

to exalt them in a quest for immortality.

To let them be lost is to die,

only death can unite them again.

&

Life: continuity of the work;

human effort invested that must not be abandoned;

work, part of life itself,

important or not for those, but for you;

pain and sweat poured that should not be disdained.

&

Death: end and beginning; beginning and end

that should not be overlooked.

To faint with its pain,

is not to transform it

in conscience, in courage and in strength.

&

And in this endless chain of links,

your being will continue to be present

in the unfathomable mystery of the night.

&

Mystery of life,

anguish of death,

unite the night to the day;

renew the spirit with astonishing fortitude.

do not think that the chain is broken,

only it begins.

&

Death: before it, the desire to be;

after it, not to cease to be!

END

I ask myself: What about my own chain, in those years, how would my Eros and Thanatos get along?

It has been commented at various times that tranquility is the anteroom of happiness; the satisfaction of human needs is the reasoned process by which we can presuppose and define the pleasant over the unpleasant, according to what is available, and hence the self-evaluation of our own happiness for decision making and selecting what is most convenient, valuable and profitable.

In other words, this allows us to become aware of what we are and what we can realize, of what we have, and that we do not know how to enjoy as we can and should, due to that spirit of nonconformity that is fed and governed (governed, administered, manipulated, directed, led, guided, nurtured, sustained) by the open – but unconscious – struggle that these 2 instinctive characters celebrate daily within our intimate being: eros and thanatos, which undoubtedly the impulse to “death” is always defeating and dominating the eros instinct.

The most extreme result would be -in this scenario of not knowing how to live life- from the confrontation between these two characters, as in some cases it happens, to point out ourselves as the character we would like to become.

For the time being, I believe that we must go for a walk to strengthen our self, so as not to allow Thanatos to have the upper hand. Let us strengthen our Eros instinct by going for a walk every morning.

Last minute note: Before I say goodbye, with all that is happening regarding Artificial Intelligence, I invite you to read the last book that I published on Amazon on February 20, entitled “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PROMPTS AS A SECOND LANGUAGE”,  Kindle Edition. I have been so amazed to discover this new technology that I would like everyone to get involved in it; for this reason, I decided to exercise and managed to find certain techniques and ways to develop questions to this type of tool, which I am sure will serve to obtain almost all the answers required in most areas of knowledge and activities of human beings, in a precise, fast and effective way.

The way you ask is the formula to get your answers. You have to experience it for yourself.

(*) Loya Lopategui, Carlos, Dintornism in Ancient Mayan Plastic Art, EMULISA, México, 2012.

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While in Post WALKING AND FREEDOM we talked about that path where we feel free to develop any activity or action, that is, the freedom of oneself, personal freedom, now we must analyze that other path where the other essential part of freedom of the human being is found, that other one where we must walk to reach it as an existential longing or as a metaphysical reality, that freedom that we know exists, but perhaps we do not understand it. And here will be the first step we take, answering the following question: Should we look for it and lead our steps to reach it, to be accompanied by it, or should we only try to feel free?

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The concept of freedom has been described and registered as “one of the highest human feelings”, but is freedom just a romantic feeling, or is it an instinctive need? Is it an unconsummated longing a failed and inaccessible hope? An emotional mirage, fickle in its versatility and fickle in its fragility or capriciousness, a sentimental obsession, a subjective daydream or an unobjectable reality? Is freedom an unattainable ideal, a chimera, a metaphysical reality? We know that it is a cause of life, that it gives meaning to our life; but that it is also a cause of division, discord and competition.

In general, we can speak of two SUMMITS, which, without being the only ones, could encompass most of the different types and qualities of freedom, and therefore our need for freedom: psychological freedom: of the spiritual, soul, mental and metaphysical type (inner freedom); and physical, civil, political, economic freedom, with all its rights, of worship, of association, of expression and others (outer freedom).

Depending on the field of action or thought or ideology of the human being, we can speak of different paths that lead us to freedom, although all of them, in essence, mean practically the same thing: to lead us to civil freedom or inalienable rights regarding the life of the individual, which implies political, religious, ideological, educational freedom; which in turn include a wide range of specific freedoms according to the fields of action or conceptual to which they refer; and also to lead us to the other freedom, the psychological, mental, spiritual.

In itself, we can imagine that we must climb two types of frank SUMMIT (frank paths), which can lead us, each with its essential characteristics, one physical and the other psychological, to reach freedom.

Before analyzing these two conceptual paths, let’s talk a little about what freedom itself is.

Understanding what the concept of freedom is, it is quite complex; knowing the different approaches that have been formulated over time to explain how we should discover, achieve, feel and exercise it is an arduous task. As a sample of these complexities (crossroads, difficulties), the 103 opinions and points of view that I collected and are shown in my book Freedom 103 (*), issued by an equal number of men and women who studied and wrote about this subject, are enough. For this reason, I have presented in this Post a path that can bring us closer to its understanding, bifurcating it into 2 broad functional branches (of action): the physical and the psychological.

Although these names allow us to distinguish them in two clear and constructive categories, they could be modified, depending on the intellectualized perspective used. That is to say, one could schematize less by increasing the number of paths that lead us to its conception, but truly, I could not assure that it would help us better in that path. It is a representation that has been formulated in my mind after many years of “ruminating” around this concept and consulting about 400 books (physical and digital) that I have in my library that talk about this difficult subject of freedom.

In each of these viable and perspicuous and intelligible categories l have to respond to the following aspects:

Simple or complex?

Plain or rugged?

Natural or artificial?

Broad or limited?

Extensive or diffuse?

Liberal or totalitarian?

Tolerant or intolerant?

Reactionary or anarchic?

Prodigal or insufficient?

True or fictitious?

Certain or uncertain?

Conditional or unconditional?

Fair or unfair?

Clear or twisted?

Open or closed?

Positive or negative?

Restrictive or …?

As can be seen, giving a precise answer to each of these questions is not an easy task either.

Let’s move forward and start our analysis.

It is one thing to approach the concept of freedom through certain complicated paths, and another to approach freedom itself, to discover it, to feel it and to exercise it. Perhaps this is more difficult.

The first scenario I have decided to carry out in the future Post THE WALK OF 20 THINKERS ON THE CONCEPT OF FREEDOM, which I have divided into 3 Parts, which I will present in due time.

The second scenario of How to approach freedom itself! Will be dealt with in this Post.

Anyone would say that first we should focus on analyzing the 1st scenario. Logically so: first understand the “thing” and then get to it.

The reason is very simple as to why I reverse the process of forging a personal and special inherence of freedom. The practice of walking is the ideal means to orient us towards it, and in this case our summons (instigation, induction) is not metaphorical. The walk is an analogical preamble to enter its threshold and this will facilitate us to go deeper into its conceptualization, which in turn, will guide us to choose which of its paths and bifurcations we are inclined to, according to our personalities and attitudes, and of course to our own social, economic and cultural positions.

PHYSICAL STAGE TOWARDS FREEDOM.

What are the aspects that give this scenario, the physical? It is fundamentally conditioned by social, civilizational, political, economic and commercial dispositions.

It is not possible to hierarchize the different environments and conditioning factors that make up this stage, so our task is to analyze them in an order that I consider convenient, but does not mean hierarchy, importance or subordination.

I consider in the conformation of this physical scenario 8 functional paths that lead us to freedom:

1. Civil path.

Belonging to society. Being a citizen.

Citizen rights and obligations.

Every person, as a member of society, is entitled to social security.

2. Social path.

Relationships that people acquire by belonging to a society.

Social contract. To have the social circumstances to develop the conditions of all kinds of a social group, guaranteeing the human being the natural development of all his physical and mental faculties.

To achieve social welfare.

All human beings have the right to social and economic security and education.

All individuals, men and women, have the right to have a job, as well as the guarantee to rest.

For all individuals there must be legal equality, political equality, freedom of association, freedom of expression and the right to universal suffrage.

3. Political path

Rights that individuals have or acquire to administer public affairs or participate in the government of a state and country.

The political path leads to the observance of the natural and imprescriptible rights of the human being. To achieve democracy in all countries of the world. To seek the application of democratic freedoms.

All individuals have political rights.

All people, men and women, have the right to participate in the government of their country.

For all individuals there is political equality and the right of universal suffrage.

4. Human Rights Path

Human Rights are those from which emanate the guiding principles that guarantee the freedom of the human being. Rights over life, existence and freedom itself.

Avoid injustice and discrimination.

Every individual is obliged to respect the human rights of others and fundamentally the right to live and freedom, as well as the legal precepts from which emanate the guiding principles that guarantee those human rights and individual guarantees, precepts on which are based the rest of the legal and administrative figures emptied in the various governing bodies of citizenship and other economic, political and social activities of the citizens of any country, as well as the rest of the laws and legal regulations that exist in the society of each nation.

Slavery is prohibited. The slave trade is prohibited in all its forms.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

5. Individual Guarantees Path

They are the legal precepts on which the governing bodies of citizenship, both social economic and political, are based for the provision of legal and administrative figures that are used in citizen regulation.

Guarantee of respect for human rights.

All human beings are born free.

All individuals have the right to move freely and to choose their residence. They also have the right to leave their country and to return to their country. They also have the right to a nationality, to private, individual and collective property, and no one may be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

6. Partnership Path

Seek a balance between duties and rights. It seeks respect and protection of human rights in general. Seek equality, right to life and avoid discrimination.

For all individuals there is freedom of association.

7. Religious Path

All human beings have the right to their freedom of belief.

All individuals have the right to religion.

Everyone has the right to freedom of religion, the freedom to change his religion or belief, as well as the freedom to manifest his religion or belief, individually and collectively, both in public and in private, by teaching, practice, worship and observance.

8. Path of Expression

For all individuals there exists the freedom and the right of expression and thought.

All persons, men and women, have the right to freedom of opinion and expression and also to disseminate them, regardless of frontiers, by any means of expression.

To assist in the full exercise of human rights, guaranteeing the development of human beings and their individual freedoms. To prevent the violation of human rights worldwide.

All individuals have the right to freedom of thought and conscience.

All individuals have the right to information.

All of these paths refer to an external freedom and all of them are interrelated, juxtaposed and contain a very important link when they are unveiled before the concept of freedom.

CULTURAL STAGE TOWARDS FREEDOM

On this scenario we can walk taking into account the cultural aspects (**), that is to say, with respect to taking into account, on the one hand, the cultural factors that intervene in this stage, we can point out that 1) culture is a formation of the spirit; 2) culture is the organization of the inner world (personal life) and 3) culture tends to satisfy the essential desire of the human being; a bifurcation that is intertwined with the unconscious, subconscious, psychic, emotional aspects.

I consider in the conformation of this cultural scenario 6 functional paths that lead us to freedom:

1. Psychological path

The psychic causes that explain human behavior, in search of individual freedom, both in a conscious and unconscious state.

2. Spiritual path

Study of the causes that guide the knowledge of people’s spiritual behavior, searching for freedom of the spiritual type (art and religion).

3. Soul path

The soul behavior of individuals, in relation to their position with respect to inner freedom.

4. Emotional path

Study of the emotional states of the being in an analysis of both external and internal freedom.

5. Mental path

State of mind and knowledge of the individual in relation to his social environment, in search of freedom.

6. Metaphysical path

This path is defined by the search for freedom without taking into account the causes that obstruct it. That is to say, it is sought within the natural aspects – not supernatural – but beyond ordinary analysis and transcending known and habitual thoughts.

As in the physical scenario, all of these paths are interrelated, juxtaposed and contain a very important linkage when they are unveiled before the concept of freedom, but they are referred to inner freedom.

The complexity of achieving freedom can be seen by the mere fact that it is necessary to consider the paths of both scenarios in order to reach it. That is to say, it implies the sum of these efforts and not the choice of one or the other. This is what objectively represents to feel it and its achievement: the complementarity of several efforts (work, struggles, battles), since it is indispensable to travel through all these paths for its unveiling and exercise.

Now, I am going to transmute the word “freedom” for that “liberation”, with the precise objective of evaluating how much -and how- the WALK-RWD System and walking can help us to reach it.

For it, simply on the one hand, I will summarize what I have tried to transmit -in the hundred posts that I have published in the Blog- about the multiple aspects that the WALK-RWD System helps us to free ourselves considerably:

– Fatigue

– Boredom

– Negative emotions

– Blockage in artistic creation

– Harmful habits

– Aches and pains

– Discouragement

– Monotony

– Discouragement

– Obesity

– Procrastination

– Sedentariness

– Bad mood

– Illnesses

– Physical dysfunctions

– Irregularity at work

– Negative performance at work

– Indifference and disinterest

– Pessimism

– Pain

– Inner restlessness

– Abnormal loneliness (psychic)

This series allows us to know in how many ways we could free ourselves from all these aspects that restrict and condition us in our daily behavior.

There is also, on the other hand, a similar number of physical, mental, cultural, artistic, etc., aspects that provide us, directly and efficiently, the knowledge of how to achieve personal freedom, which of course are behavioral guidelines:

– Better govern Abstraction

– Improved concentration

– Propitiate Contemplation

– Improve Creativity

– Increase Efficiency and Productivity

– Performing Physical Exercises

– Promoting Positive Emotions

– Substantial Improvement in Enthusiasm

– Writing

– Encouragement of Positive Habits

– Playing

– Reading

– Facilitating and encouraging Meditation

– Increasing Motivation

– Use of free time

– Availability and use of leisure time

– Increased passion in accomplishing things

– Expansion of creative thinking

– Facilitating and improving personal fulfillment

– Encouraging physical, mental, emotional and sentimental Relaxation

– Increased resilience

– Improved sexuality

– Increased production of organic substances

– Improved availability of time

– Positive and beneficial solitude

In these two meanings of the concept of liberation, we observe that one of them means the elimination of “behaviors and afflictions” that trap (reach, apprehend, imprison) the human being, independently of his social or economic position, which could well lead us to think of a negative freedom, under the concepts of liberation from negative aspects, of freeing ourselves from something; the other meaning means the improvement -in quantity and quality- of his diverse actions in his daily proceeding (acting, production), which could well guide us to think of positive freedom since it places us in freedom to perform positive actions.

Let us walk these 2 routes that are impregnable summits with the objective of glimpsing in some way to feel free, the recommendation is to start climbing them and the best way is to experience Freedom by walking, applying the WALK-RWD System in an integral way. I have no doubt that when I start walking I begin -immediately- to feel parts of that” lady Freedom” that begins to touch me with its miraculous influences.

Walking means that we can express ourselves by ourselves, seeking liberation from negativities and pursuing the freedom to satisfy our needs.

I invite you to give it a try. Let’s reverse the process of forging an inherent freedom of our own; let’s go meet that lady, feel her, and then inquire into her conceptualization. Let us first feel its content and leave for later the knowledge of what is said about it. Let us perceive her first and perhaps then we will understand her better. All that is needed is a small personal effort -walking is free and liberating- and to place ourselves on the path; a situation that we can affirm will be magical. Let us walk and seek to hold on to his hand.

Let us pursue and reach for freedom as we walk. Let us seek to walk in order to be free.

In “walking” we generate an essentially human freedom.

Who perseveres in walking becomes free.

(*) Loya Lopategui, Carlos, Libertad 103, EMULISA, Mexico, 2009.

(**)DEFINITION OF CULTURE: In order to clarify the concept of culture, we will resort to what Paul Diel expresses: “Civilization is an intellectual formation; culture is a formation of the spirit. Civilization is the organization of the external world (social life); culture is the organization of the internal world (personal life). Civilization tends to satisfy multiple desires; culture tends to satisfy the essential desire, in Diel, Paul, Psychoanalysis of divinity, F.C.E., Mexico, 1974, pp. 71-72.

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Human cells have a self-regeneration process. In what period of time is it estimated that the cells produce the equivalent of the human body?

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Indeed, a human characteristic is that cellular replenishment is self-generated in a given time, taking 7 months to replenish the equivalent of a human body.

I will try to be synthetic in order to present objectively how the WALK-RWD System can collaborate incisively in this process of cellular regeneration.

The smallest functional and structural unit of the human body, which generates its own energy, is the cell.

All the cells of the human body produce their own energy by generating certain substances such as proteins, which are fundamental for the growth and development of the human body, as well as allowing them to rebuild and restore tissues and structures that have suffered deterioration and wear and tear. The general process of cellular functioning or metabolism allows the cell to manufacture its own nutritional substances or anabolism, and also to produce other substances or catabolism, which can be distributed in several stages, namely:

1             Introduction of the nutritive substances into the cell.

2.            Absorption of oxygen

3.            Use and assimilation of the nutritive substances inside the cells.

4.            Energy production

5.            Elimination of waste substances

6.            Cell division

Within this metabolic process, one of the fundamental elements used by cells is oxygen. Being able to absorb oxygen, the cell generates oxidation on some of its own constituent parts; when this oxidation is carried out, the cell releases energy and at the same time generates carbon dioxide, which will be discarded later.

This part of the metabolic process of oxygen absorption (cellular respiration) is the essential mechanism that all cells develop.

The stage of use and assimilation of nutritive substances produces a self-generation and growth in its protoplasm so that it is reconstituted – the protoplasm – and the cell grows. When the substances come into contact with oxygen, they undergo oxidation. This procedure takes place throughout the protoplasm (cell movement and circulation) and the flow of nutritive material with oxygen is constantly distributed. Waste substances are eliminated when they reach the outer surface of the cell.

The availability of the quantity and quality of oxygen is essential for the cells to fulfill their functions, in addition to its regularity and harmony in its supply.

Let us keep in mind that oxygen together with the cells are responsible for the rejuvenation (preservation, renovation, stability, repair, regeneration, reestablishment, permanence, restoration and recovery) and aging of our organism in general terms, from the cell itself, as the simplest unit, to the most complex organs of our body.

This is where the WALK-RWD System makes its appearance.

We have mentioned briefly in several previous posts the importance of oxygenation in our body. Now we will do it in greater detail and the determinant form that the WALK-RWD System sponsors it (Posts ALTERNATE VARIATIONS IN THE TYPES OF WALKING, EMOTIONS AND THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM, THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY: WALKING, HOMO-ITER: MAN-WALKER. PART I, ..HOMO-ITER: MAN-WALKER. PART II).

I repeat verbatim the following 4 paragraphs: We have related 22 different varieties of walking and all of them allow us to develop a favorable exercise for our health, of the aerobic type. That is to say, by performing and applying aerobic dynamisms we generate oxygenation of the whole body, including the brain, we improve blood circulation and collateral circulation, as well as memory function and benefiting determinantly the cardiac activity. The important thing is to walk, always walk, and do some of the activities inherent to the WALK-RWD System, whether it is reading, writing, or drawing, in a combined way.

Many of the physiological problems that we suffer and that we have mentioned in previous posts, related to the fundamental systems, such as the digestive, cardiovascular or circulatory, respiratory, bone system and the neuro vegetative, can be prevented and corrected and maintained healthy with walking and the execution of the WALK-RWD System; in the same way, the functions and tasks of the neurocerebral system can be kept healthy, as we have already mentioned, the WALK-RWD increases the blood irrigation and the oxygenation of the brain, which causes a better work and a healthier and healthier functioning, freeing it from fatigue and weakening, giving it strength to face (discharge generation) better the destructive emotions.

We know that the brain is oxygenated when we exercise, it is true, surely certain types of substances are produced that fully favor the functioning of some of the physical-organic systems of the body, as well as fundamental parts of the brain, which have remained dormant, favoring and stimulating their functions (physiological-mental).

It is not completely returning to the past, because modern man does not walk to hunt, not to gather fruits, not to graze, not to cut roots; he walks to exercise all his muscles (almost 100% of them) and his bone structure. The results (physical and mental effects) of walking are exactly the same since archaic times: exercise, blood circulation, oxygenation of the whole body and brain, and positive functional impact on all organs and body and physiological systems.

We must take into account that not every type of exercise generates good oxygenation of the cells. If we get very stressed or if we do extreme sports or if we run certain dangers, etc. we will see that our organism will not respond in the same way, since it will dedicate part of its energy to counteract the production of certain substances that are not favorable for the good performance of the cellular nutrition and to correct some negative emotions.

The WALK-RWD System is conceived so that the activity of walking and those of reading, writing, and drawing, are all of them safe and enjoyable means, where the practitioner does not run any risk inherent to the system and only performs what keeps him healthy, calm, and fully enjoyed.

The activity of walking in a natural way is in itself an appropriate mechanism to properly oxygenate the nutritional process of the cells. We do not have to set any limits or parameters for it, but simply to walk normally; the rest will be developed by our body on its own.

Now, lately there has been a lot of talk about FREE RADICALS. What are free radicals? They are molecules that have gone into disequilibrium because they have lost one or more electrons, so their need to restore their equilibrium causes a reposition-opposition circle that has repercussions on considerable groups of cells.

Each molecule that replaces its lost electron transforms the molecule that took its electron into a Free Radical, and so on. These switches cause molecular perturbations and cell damage, which in turn can lead to cell death.

Free radicals are necessary in the organism for the realization of several fundamental functions and also to maintain a healthy level of the organism, for example, our immune system generates its own free radicals which allows it to face harmful agents; however, it also happens that this process of circular reposition-opposition, which alters the balance of electrons in the cell membranes, generates a negative state in the organism.

How is this lethal circle resolved? It is clear that molecular stability is attempted to be resolved by localizing electrons in other molecules, but invariably results in an unstable circle. This circle is a process of oxidation (oxidative stress) generated by the imbalance between the unstable molecules and the organic capacity to neutralize the molecular perturbation produced.

However, stability is achieved by means of a natural mechanism that the organism itself manages to neutralize this lethal circle, through antioxidants, with a natural antioxidant process.

These antioxidants are molecules that manage to prevent the oxidation generated by Free Radicals, which have the capacity to yield a variable number of electrons without losing their stability.

How is the balance of electrons in molecules lost? The causes are diverse: nutrition, emotional imbalances, environmental pollution, chemical substances in processed foods (preservatives, sweeteners, colorants, etc.), oxygen in the air and the sun’s rays.

How can the balance be restored by external agents, with an external antioxidant process? Through a good diet, pharmaceutical substances and components, vitamins, and exercise.

Let us keep in mind that Free Radicals are responsible for the aging (decay, degeneration) of our organism in general terms, from the cell, as the simplest unit, to the most complex organs of our body.

Now, this seems to be a contradiction. We were saying that carrying out the metabolic process in the cell requires the absorption of oxygen, which is the fundamental element used by the cells for their production and growth. This with the assimilation of other nutritive substances generates growth and reconstitution of its protoplasm. In all this nutritional and self-recreation process, oxygen plays a central role.

We also mentioned that in order to produce and release energy, the cell generates oxidation on some of its own constituent parts and that this oxidation can provoke an imbalance between the unstable molecules and the organic capacity to neutralize the molecular perturbation produced.

The answer to this paradox is, as we have already mentioned, to have the quantity and quality of oxygen available for the cells to carry out their functions in a balanced way, without producing harmful oxidation.

Walking itself, I repeat, is a natural activity in the human being, an appropriate mechanism to properly oxygenate the nutritional process of the cells. We do not have to point out any limits or parameters for it, but simply to walk normally; the rest will be developed by our body by itself as it will take and process the necessary oxygen, with regularity and harmony.

Let us walk to rebuild and restore the tissues that have aged, suffered deterioration and wear and tear, and to balance, in this natural way, the molecules that have lost those electrons.

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One of the great problems that human beings have had in modern times is how to administer the management of time.

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The recommendations that I propose throughout this Post assume that we have “solved” the 18 aspects that I mention below and that complicate our relationship with time management:

1.            Procrastination

2.            Unnecessary chatter

3.            Inopportune visitors

4.            Talking on the cell phone for long periods of time and continuously

5.            Unproductive meetings

6.            Unnecessary chats

7.            Lack of punctuality and delays

8.            Bad decisions and indecision

9.            Low productivity in daily activities

10.          Mental programming in a negative way

11.          Low control in fundamental actions

12.          Proceeding with a Negative Attitude

13.          Low self-esteem

14.          Not knowing what you want to do

15.          Behaving with discouragement and dejection.

16.          Remaining (Existence) with high degrees of stress.

17.          Existence of Unforeseen Events

18.          Allowing excuses of any kind.

Note that the resolution of these 18 aspects -which are generally of the daily type- does not imply that we should try to be “perfect beings” in our daily life, but simply that the activities we develop are congruent with what we want to do in any given day. In other words, time management implies being attentive to a number of complex situations, but our existence is thus harassed every day.

Although it is not our objective to present a model to elaborate and manage a program by day of task execution, nor by week, month or any other period, it is not superfluous to mentally elaborate a hierarchical, simple list of the priority and important activities, as well as those that should be carried out without postponing them. The ones classified as urgent should also be included in this list, since they have become priority and important because they have been delayed, postponed or procrastinated for some reason. Likewise, the secondary and non-important ones will be included in this list mentally and/or in writing, since all of them are activities that must be carried out on that day.

Keeping all these categories in mind is important because in each of them we will be able to apply the “use of slack” resource.

Let’s see how to use that total time we have to develop our daily commitments by using slack to improve our efficiency in achieving walking.

Because our fundamental theme is the walking of the human being, in this Post I present the way to manage time, within the sphere of activities that may be related to disposition or indetermination, decision or indecision, mood or discouragement, enthusiasm or indifference, fervor or apathy, conviction or doubt, which are presented in the practice of walking; that is to say, in the scope of those activities that in some way can hinder or delay its practice and that through the use of the time of slack, we can have time to develop walks, favoring the personal control over our management and availability of time.

There are several factors that must be taken into account in order to properly manage time in relation to walking. In the line of the difficulties in general, that are presented to walk (negative branch) we find disorder, indecision, fear, pessimism, discouragement, uneasiness; in the line of the facilities in general (positive branch), we find vocation, encouragement, strong will, tranquility, desire, ability, taste, optimism, self-determination; and in another segment of the inclinations that we will analyze in another Post, we find the economic and social situation and the physical – and mental – faculties, which in certain cases make it impossible to try to manage time, under any method or system, such as physical incapacity, limitations and unacceptable deteriorated psychological states (strongly unbalancing), such as anguish, sadness, depression, etc.

The secret -in part- to have enough time in the trinomial “walking-time-activities” is in managing adequately the concept of slack time.

This concept of “slack” is not very easy to analyze and even less to put it into practice; that is, to make it inherent to ourselves.

The slack time, floating or float time, or simply slack, whatever we call it, is the time we have available to perform any activity without interrupting any other activity that we have scheduled in sequence within the complex of our commitments in the office, and other productive sectors or leisure or recreation. However, there are several functional factors that we will consider and that have an intimate relationship with it, for the administration of time, in the realization of the different activities that the human being carries out, giving priority to the exercise of walking, namely:

Efficiency

Hierarchy (Priority of activities)

Divagation

Freedom (without social conditioning)

Ordering

Organization

Will

These functional factors must be associated with the need to try to avoid anarchy, inefficiency, disorder, digression, bad habits, etc., in short, negative aspects for the achievement of our goals, associated with the trinomial “walking-time-activities”, although the mere satisfaction of those positive elements is, in part, sufficient to overcome the negative ones.

We should not think about PROLONGATIONS, POSTPONEMENTS, or DELAYS. The cases we face on a daily basis in which we can use the “slack” are not very different; that is, in general there are activities that we can postpone and nothing happens, but there are others that we can’t. However, we will have to learn to use “slack”. However, we will have to learn to use the slack in the various behavioral strata of the human being. These are varied for each individual and in all of them we can apply them; so each individual must analyze his or her personal case. In the future post WALKING AND ENJOYING PROPORTIONS AND OTHER NUMBERS I allow myself to approach these categories: “The three elements mentioned, time, space and number, fall in the field of rationalism, however, the number is the element that gives support to time and space, for its interpretation of dimensionality and proportionality. We must take ‘Slack Time’ very much into account for these numerical relations, since it is an inherent characteristic of time and space, considering its own dimensional essences, so we will have to use: slack or conjuncture in the temporal opportunity; slack or profitability (physical opportunity in the right choice) of the material resources; slack or the three-dimensional perspective; slack or term in the application of the financial and economic resources; slack or right timing of artistic realization; slack or leeway in terms of spatial displacement; slack in the timeliness or precision (accuracy) of right thinking; slack or advantage embodied in decision making; slack or speculation on actions of the inner self; slack in the blunder or impertinence of healing of disease; slack in spiritual anachronisms, etc. ” Categories that we will explain in part II, of this Post, in relation to the concept of Slack Time.

Now then: What is slack and how is it managed (handled)? This is what this Post will deal with and specifically its utilization and management while walking. In general, we can say that walking allows us to perform other types of activities, which we do not perform on a daily basis when we walk; but now we can perform them, which will provide us with extra time during the hours of our daily workday.

The secret to have greater availability of -although not necessarily enough- is to manage adequately, and in an acceptable way, the different moments of Slack.

First of all, let’s see what is Slack? What does the concept of Slack mean?

We can resort to the Project Scheduling technique, in which the concept of Float Time or Slack Time is used, which is defined as the time where an activity can be delayed without affecting the total duration of a project. In our case, we will define it as the time we can use to carry out activities without affecting the course of our commitments, since we can use it for whatever we wish, because we are obliged to wait for a time T (Floating Time) for an activity to be carried out (or finished) while we wait. This waiting time can always be used to develop any activity without affecting our commitments and itinerary of realization, and specifically we can use it to walk.

In posts THE WALK AND THE LACK OF TIME-PART I and WALKING AND FREE TIME. PART II was not an essential purpose to comment on making more efficient or increasing the time available for certain activities and tasks, which by our social, family and work obligations, we are committed to performing, willingly or not; however, now we will comment and propose some guidelines within the WALK-RWD System, to increase its availability, of the total time we strictly have.

I believe that it is crucial to consider the meaning of the word WAIT, which is related to what we daily qualify as: “to make time, to wait in line, to wait sitting or standing, to give time to time, to make an anteroom, to take a certain time, to wait for a better moment, to postpone, to delay, to linger, to despair”. In a few words, WAITING for an activity to be developed or to be finished, means -many times- that it causes us despair, anguish, anxiety, discouragement, hopelessness, demoralization, impotence, uneasiness, irritation, displeasure, either because we are forced to do so, or because we are persevering in the achievement of some goal, and therefore we must remain waiting for something or wait for certain actions or results to be carried out. However, we can transform this WAITING, almost in the generality of the cases, in a “usable” time since we can take advantage of it meditating, reading, examining, reflecting, writing, contemplating, etc., and other dozens of appropriate actions to use this time of slack, according to the place where we are doing this WAITING. In our case it will be to take advantage of that waiting time to start walking.

All this sounds a bit illusory and chimerical, because in reality we do not have time for anything, let alone trying to use what I am calling “slack”, “waiting”. Someone would say: “…and now, besides, I have to take care of managing slack, less time will I have!

I would like to transmit from this moment on that this concept of slack is real, legitimate, tangible, certain and effective. Let’s move on.

A relevant part of this Post is to convey that all important activities, routine, daily or day-to-day, and also the eventual ones in life, should be planned and executed with slack. It is very easy the theoretical solution, but somewhat difficult to put it into practice. The result of obtaining the satisfactory achievement in it, is that our effectiveness will be greater in the attainment of our goals, but in addition we will realize it avoiding the anguish, the uncertainty and the anxiety that we are always carrying precisely because we do not have enough time. And this series of worries are usually every day and quite stressful.

The behavior of human beings in certain social strata has been studied with respect to the use of time during the performance of their most important activities and where it is most concentrated. One of the results was that 78% of our activities fall into the basket of NOT HAVING an exact date and time to perform them, i.e., those “commitments” can be advanced or postponed without causing us a major problem. The study does not provide information on how much time we can postpone or advance these activities. Nor does it mention whether any indication was made -within the study-survey- between the different degrees or levels of importance of the activities, and it was only investigated by indicating the activities in general. However, the most outstanding aspect of the results is that the activities that cannot be deferred represent only 1/5 of all the activities that we carry out on a daily basis. This means that we should be aware that we have a great margin to organize ourselves and schedule our time more efficiently with respect to those activities that do not have an exact date and time.

Schematically, out of 10 activities that we carry out in a period of time, for example in a day of 14 hours of effectiveness, 2 of them we will have to develop them in a fixed time and moment, but the remaining 8, we will be able to advance or defer them, so that our time can be used more efficiently.

With this image, I want to convey that we are always stressed about the time limit to perform an activity. What is proposed is to schedule activities in time so that we are not always on the edge of a precipice in the realization of our commitments (work, family, etc.). That is to say, to be able to carry out the actions with ease and thus avoid being anguished, for not having enough time to carry them out. This distance (in minutes or hours or days) of SLACK should always be taken into account so that we never find ourselves on the edge of the abyss.

According to the data of the aforementioned study, only 2 activities are those that should keep us in a state of alertness, and the rest we can organize with slack and greater ease to schedule and carry them out. Only 2 we will have to watch out -according to the analysis- in order not to fall into the precipice.

After this remark about scheduling activities in general but specifically the punctual ones (fixed date and time), I would like to point out 2 additional concepts that we must take into account for this: 1) the routine, which is recommended and essential and 2) systematization, which is mandatory and must be a commitment; of course, in this scenario we must be aware of how to use the available “work” slack, which we may not always be aware of its existence.

The Routine itself is the effective solution for any activity that we have programmed to perform during the day, since it only requires us to get going to face its execution. The rest of its execution will be carried out “as we have always done”.

I will dedicate a few more words to these two concepts, and then focus on the management of slack.

Routine is a normal mechanism that human beings use throughout their productive life. (Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND HABITS, Post ADDITIONAL BENEFITS IN THE CONDITIONING OF THE BODY AND THE MIND, Post WALKING, AN EXISTENTIAL METAPHOR. PART 2 OF 4.) Routine is frequently mentioned in a pejorative sense, however, it should not necessarily always be considered as such, unless it is placed in monotony; Bachelard expresses that routine is a repetition of oneself, because we appreciate ourselves and we show it that way. Of course, the routines that we incorporate in our behavior, in the different periods of our existence, have several benefits, but the most important -apart from the one expressed by Bachelard-, considering the subject we are analyzing, is the saving of time.

I point out and use the concept of routine as a voluntary and conscious activity or behavior that self-affirms us in our behavior in the development of tasks, since it allows us to be authentic creators of ourselves and in the achievement of satisfactions for ourselves, leaving aside the physical and social limitations and influences of our surrounding environment, if the latter could be achieved to any significant degree. I would like to differentiate it from the concept of Monotony which is also a repetition of activities, actions or movements that reach boredom and weariness of the individual who practices it, so this would be the word that wears the golden crown of all that is pejoratively assigned to Routine. Of course, this is a personal designation, and the only purpose of being able to express myself in these contexts of communication, with greater clarity and not to confuse with meanings that have been imputed (attributed) to the routine (habit), sometimes with reason and sometimes without reason.

What happens in routines? In each of our routines we do not “waste” time thinking or planning an activity (simple or complex action) about how we will start it, nor how we will finish it – apart from the other questions (WH’s), nor about the time we will spend on it or if we will be satisfied. When we develop our activities in a routine way, we already know in advance their performance and efficiency parameters, which represents a considerable saving of time.

Besides, in this process of formation of routines, perhaps we find ourselves before the creation of a positive habit (Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE HABITS), and that is very important for personal development.

However, we must be aware that the routine is not (very) convenient in some situations that are presented to us, nor in certain human activities, as for example in the development of games (Future Post THE GAME AND THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM. PART II. NO TO COMPETITION, YES TO FUN); however, on the process of doing, by means of the use of slack, it could be combined with games; a binomial that optimizes and excites those who are inclined to play always and in everything.

Regarding systematization, I would simply like to mention that its very definition demonstrates the saving of time, but only when it is an inherent part of our actions: systematize a process of action, in the realization of activities to achieve a goal or an objective, is the action according to an efficient model, be it a program, a plan or a method, which allows saving time, money and effort; it is a sequence of activities, which is carried out through a methodical itinerary; it is the chaining of actions and movements that are planned to be performed in an optimal way and that its performance allows reaching the defined objective, in a more efficient and effective way.

One aspect, among others, that should be considered and that shows what this optimization of time and effort (time and effort) represents, is the orderly and safe use of the elements that participate and are used in each activity; this aspect is – for example – not changing the place or position (location and orientation) of the “things” that we are using in our daily or periodic activities.

The way of putting systematization into practice, as well as the routine, and the coordination of the activities that compose them, depends on the temperament and personality of each person.

There is also another factor that is implicit in the optimal administration of time, which must be consciously taken into account: the opportunity to get things done (Future Post WALKING WITH TIME AND OPPORTUNITY, HAND IN HAND). It should be emphasized because all our actions should tend to be carried out punctually (on time), that is, without delay or procrastination. We must always be timely in the beginnings of each of the activities to be carried out, otherwise, we will provoke a concomitant delay in the following ones that are concatenated. This should not be considered as a position of neurosis before the operation and development of activities against time, it is a normal organization of the actions for the achievement of a goal. Let us not be anxious.

Let us analyze the concept of Opportunity. If we are very strict, we could say that any action (activity, thought, idea, reflection, inspiration, movement, sensation, emotion, etc.) that is performed at a moment T1, for example, deep breathing, and the same action of deep breathing that is performed at moment T2, with a difference of seconds, are not identical. If an activity, such as, for example, walking on day 1 and walking on day 2, it will clearly be said that they are different actions.

If walking on day 1 we postpone it to day 2, clearly we know that it was a loss in exercise performance, that we cannot recover it since we did not do it. We cannot make up for certain types of actions that we canceled. We cannot recover that walk and what it represented for our organism on day 1, even if we think we did it on day 2. We will definitely have lost it. The same thing happens with sleeping. However, there are other categories of actions that we can “theoretically recover” if we do not perform them in To time, such as the activities of painting a wall, sweeping the porch, etc. A special case that we must mention are the artistic creations that contain certain core angles that I must point out. Although every artistic work, of any type, is developed over a long and indefinite period of time, there is always a moment of inspiration, specific instants in which those inspirational instants appear, and which are characteristic moments that appear in our mind the images that sting us with ardor our creative mind, and throw us those artistic inspirations. Essay “Acronism” (*).

Efficacy is to time and opportunity, as efficiency is to quality and perfection.

I said earlier that it is very easy to solve it theoretically: the only thing we have to do is to plan all the activities with their appropriate beginnings, with a “previous T time”, which allows us not to start with the right time, pressing. For example, if the arrival time at the office or school is at 8 am and the transportation time is 30 minutes, then add the T time of 15 minutes, which would make leaving home at 7:15. The commute will be done calmly and quietly, knowing that you have enough time to get to the location. You will have defeated anxiety and uncertainty because you know that even if there is a traffic problem, you will be able to arrive on time. In this way you will also be defeating and inactivating the adrenaline, a hormone secreted by the adrenal glands (Future Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE SUPRARENAL GLANDS). The more slack time we actually have, the less stressed we will be in carrying out our activities.

What is required is to plan our activities in advance with a little slack, that is to say, with a sufficient amplitude of time so that we do not suffer unnecessary anxieties.

For the correct achievement of this practice, we must take into account – apart from the fact that we do not have enough time – that our commitments often overtake us. It is clear that even if we plan our activities in the aforementioned way, if we commit to a program where activities overlap, and worse, if they are obstructed, it will be impossible to achieve it. For this type of problem, simple planning and scheduling tools are adequate: we only have to accommodate our unavoidable commitments as a priority, and the activities that are not completely indispensable, only as a complement to the priority ones. But, whenever we commit to them, we must use the slack, defining it as a programmatic reality, i.e. put in our executive calendars – mentally or in writing – the “previous T-times”.

An additional achievement in the use of slack is that we can use it in cases where our activities do not require our direct participation, so that those activities that are not concomitant, we can use them at those times. Acting with slack is synonymous to performing activities in parallel, 2, 3 or more at the same time. The typical case is that when we ride the bus or the subway, we do not drive, and we can use that time to read the documents of work, friends, children, that book we are passionate about, write a letter or a poem, or continue writing our novel. This type of cases where we can use these slacks, are repeated dozens of times in our weekly development; let’s take advantage of it. The WALK-RWD System, in itself, achieves the utilization of floating times, when practiced including its 3 structured activities.

My own “professional deformation” as an engineer led me to point out the above described by means of the project scheduling technique; an aspect that I will put at the end of the Post because it is not necessary to read it.

To illustrate these theoretical graphs of project scheduling, we can consider the following simple example. The father takes his daughter to the theater course or workshop, whose duration is 2 hours, in that time he can do any other activity within that time, instead of being totally passive waiting for her to finish the class. That time of 2 hours is the time he can have to do another activity of another task or a set of activities.

The other way of conceiving and realizing the slack is to plan and schedule the development of the sets of activities, so that we can better identify the slack that may arise throughout the process of carrying out each of them.

A global and routine sequence of an individual, man or woman, several days a week, could be:

1.            Awakening

2.            Getting up

3.            Getting dressed

4.            Walking

5.            Bathing

6.            Dressing again

7.            Eat breakfast

8.            Transportation

9.            Working in the office

These 9 Activities are daily activities, so if we could find some slack, we could use them to develop other activities, so it would be great because they would multiply enormously. Where could you locate some slack in these 9 aggregated activities?

It would seem that they are all sequential activities and must be completely finished to start the next one.

However, we could each internally analyze activities 3 through 8, and this would shed some light on the development of other tasks or obligations.

For example,

When dressing any person could listen to music or the news.

When walking we can read, write or draw, as we have already explained in many ways and conditions.

When taking a bath we can always listen to the radio or talk to the wife or husband.

When having breakfast we can do any of the other activities mentioned in the previous points.

When transporting to the office or any other work or professional center, we can listen to the radio and some other means of communication. If we use public transportation, we will also be able to carry out some of the indicated activities, except walking; although we will be able to walk all -or in part- the route from the house to the office or the factory, and to carry out some of the 3 activities structured within the WALK-RWD System.

I could almost assure that we can always find the use of some slack between the activities that make up a set of responsibilities or obligations of a social, family, personal or work type.

In the labor aspects, it is a proposal to optimize productivity, while having some mandatory work and production schedules. Either with the WALK-RWD System or independently (Posts EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTIVITY IN OTHER FIELDS; THE SYSTEM CAN BE INCORPORATED TO COMPANIES). But I have no doubt that it could be highly profitable to apply the WALK-RWD System in an integral way, since time could be better used.

Finally, let us keep in mind that these 4 specific concepts (Routine, Systematization, Opportunity and Slack), briefly explained, are affordable to achieve greater efficiency and increase the time we have for certain activities and tasks, but above all to incorporate daily, half an hour of walking.

Project Programming Theory.

Now, let’s see and analyze the above by means of some technicalities -part of the post that we can skip reading-, but I think it is necessary to leave it in writing, because what happens to us daily can be solved by numbers, which is not very pleasant, but it is demonstrated reliably in the technique of Project Scheduling (Engineering in general and Economic Engineering). In the Project Scheduling technique, the Slack Time or Float Time is the time where an activity can be delayed without affecting the total duration of a project. In our case, we will define it as the time we can use to carry out activities without affecting the course of our commitments, since we can use it for whatever we wish, because we are obliged to wait for a time T (Floating Time) for an activity to be carried out while we wait. This waiting time can always be used to develop any activity without affecting our commitments and itinerary of realization.

The core aspect of slack is centered on its use, which manifests itself in two ways. One, that it normally occurs while we are performing various tasks or sets of activities; and two, that we can configure it in our own way:

C₁, C₂, C₃, …, C_n

Note: Activities consume time, work and resources. For now we will only be interested in time.

As for their conceptualizations:

Slack is the period of time available to carry out one or more activities without affecting the development of the Task in time, quality and quantity, and without increasing the use of resources in general for its achievement.

The concept of Slack is made up of the following elements:

– COMMITMENT: GROUP OF ACTIVITIES OR TASKS

– ACTIVITY: GROUP OF ACTIONS AND MOVEMENTS

– ACTION: MINIMUM CONVENIENT DIVISION OF ACTION

– NODE: STARTING POINT OR TERMINATION POINT OF AN ACTIVITY

– ARROW: DIRECTION OF THE SEQUENCE OF AN ACTIVITY

– DURATION: TIME LIMIT OF AN ACTIVITY FOR ITS REALIZATION.

COMMITMENT

COMMITMENT is the objective or goal to be achieved in a defined commitment or purpose.

It is made up of a determined number of activities or tasks.

The set of COMMITMENTS make up the structure of a commitment or purpose.

SYMBOL OF REPRESENTATION:

ACTIVITY

ACTIVITY is the concrete work required for the satisfaction of any need.

It is made up of a determined number of actions and movements.

Several activities make up a COMMITMENT.

REPRESENTATION SYMBOL:

ACTION

ACTION is the minimum division into which human efforts can be divided, in order to be able to organize their personal and collective development.

Being the minimum required unit of concrete work to be able to evaluate its importance in the conformation of the achievement of an activity.

Several actions make up an Activity.

SYMBOL OF REPRESENTATION:

NODE

NODE is the point of intersection of two or more activities that make up a Task.

It is also the starting and ending point of a Task.

REPRESENTATION SYMBOL:

ARROW

ARROW is the direction that an activity has for its development within the network that makes up a Task.

REPRESENTATION SYMBOL:

DURATION

DURATION is the period of time in which an activity is carried out within the task.

REPRESENTATION SYMBOL:

                                                                              t

Its linear and concatenated sequence of them, avoids us any use of slack that can be glimpsed or conjectured.

A classifiable and usable Slack is: While the Set Ci is being carried out, the activity “INCRUSTED”, of the Set Ci+1, can be carried out, and thus all our Daily Sets of activities could be analyzed.

Now the other scheme is that for new sets of activities we plan their sequences of priorities and look for those slacks that we can use in a timely manner and with a certain degree of security.

However, within each task or set Ci we can perform some extra activities in slack times that we can always be detecting.

Let the task or set Ci consist of several activities: A₀, A₁, A₂, A₃, A₄, A₅, A_F, from the start activity A₀ to the end activity A_F.

For the achievement of the final objective, it is required to complete our work until the completion of the A_F activity (Final Activity), it is always possible to perform some external activity of any other set, which does not interfere with the development and sequence of these activities of the Ci Task.

This is the end of all the technical aspects, which help the concept of slack from the point of view of Project Scheduling. As already mentioned, we can avoid all this theory.

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It has been variously named: Epiphysis, cerebral epiphysis, pineal body, conarium.

Like all the other glands of the body, the Pineal Gland is an organic system that has the fundamental function of producing substances indispensable for the correct functioning of the body, both physical and mental. Even today we still do not have absolute knowledge of all its functions, in a complete way.

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The main substance it produces is the hormone Melatonin. What is it used for? We will explain it later.

The glands, in general, are divided into endocrine and exocrine. Endocrine glands are those that release the substances they produce directly into the bloodstream or interstitial fluid. The exocrine glands release their substances into various ducts or cavities to be transported to various points, but they are not discharged into the blood.

The Pinal gland is endocrine, that is, the substances it produces are discharged into the bloodstream (gr. endon: within, inside, internal, interior; krino: to judge, to discern, to separate).

An important part of the glandular subsystem is intimately related to the Limbic system since it supplies it with diverse substances and mainly with hormones. This Limbic system is a set of cellular structures located in the brain that develops functions of regulation of emotions, both positive and negative (Future Post THE LIMBIC SYSTEM AND THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM).

We have already mentioned that when we keep walking in a recurrent way, by the only fact of doing this activity -without incorporating any other-, we promote that our body, generates by itself, certain substances in our organism that are essential for its optimal functioning. Physical exercise (WALKING) and mental exercise (READING, WRITING AND DRAWING), which integrally promotes the WALK-RWD System, stimulate the brain in an intense way that in turn produces positive impulses toward other parts of the brain itself and towards other systems, organs and glands of the body, among the latter, is the Pineal, which produces the hormone Melatonin. However, we know that the Pineal gland decreases in its function as we age, so we must stimulate it by walking, just as we stimulate the generality of the other glands and organs of the body.

It has also been known for a long time that this gland can also be stimulated by darkness, so it invites us to take -also- our walks where the luminosity is minimal, just enough so as not to trip or fall; and consequently, it hormonal productivity decreases with light.

Let us see succinctly this process generated by the intensity of light. The eyes, through their sensitive cells located in the retina (photo-receptor cells of the eye), receive the light and generate stimuli that inhibit the Pineal Gland, so it begins to stop producing Melatonin.

The indication of luminosity begins in the eyes, which through their optic nerves send signals to the brain, within the complete 24-hour circadian cycle (Post THE WALK AND CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS. PART I), and this sends its own waves through the Sympathetic system, up to the spinal cord, and through the superior cervical ganglion, reaches the Pineal Gland, inhibiting it.

The flashes and light signals are a relevant part in the establishment and modulation of circadian rhythms (24-hour circadian cycle) as the optic nerves in turn resend signals through the system composed of the retina and the hypothalamus impacting the Pineal Gland.

Why is the Pineal Gland stimulated by darkness to produce Melatonin?

Melatonin is the hormone that modulates sleep, and is intimately related to circadian rhythms.

Let’s take it one step at a time.

I have already mentioned in several occasions that using the WALK-RWD System the intellectual capacity, the imagination, the memory and the creativity are increased, besides that the potentialities to learn and process the data and the information that we read and write are increased. The answer is that the brain produces substances in greater proportions when performing these 4 activities, either simultaneously or separately, but always walking. In our case, the Pineal Gland increases its production of Melatonin if we walk at night, with low illumination.

The Pineal gland reaches its maximum production of Melatonin in the dark, and with it we can facilitate our inclination to sleep, we will know better which is the time to go to bed, that is to say, our circadian rhythms will be in normal conditions, and this will allow us to reach the best and deepest phases of sleep (Delta Phase, Post WALKING AND SONMBULISM). We express in this Post:

Sleep has several levels of intensity; it can be deep, medium or light.

The Delta phase is when the human being truly rests since it is when the generation of delta waves predominates, hence its name. When we are sleeping in this phase it is very difficult to wake up and if we do we feel confused and disoriented, we do not know where we are. Also some vital signs drop in level, such as heart rate and respiratory rate.

Likewise, in this deep or delta sleep phase, certain anomalies and irregularities are also generated, which have been called “sleep disorders” and sleepwalking is one of them. Within this group it is located in the subgroup of Parasomnias, being these disorders in which the dreamer wakes up during brief periods, without being able to wake up completely, that is to say, the dream is interrupted but the person does not wake up.

WHAT IS THE MELATONIN HORMONE USED FOR?

To what extent is it the imbalance of the hormone Melatonin that generates, in part, these sleep disorders?

What is regularly mentioned about the benefits and scope of this hormone Melatonin is the following: “Melatonin is a very important hormone, it decreases with age; its beneficial effects on the body: it protects against cancer, against radiation and herbicides, prevents certain tumors, improves immunity. It circulates throughout the body and is an antioxidant. It decreases the risk of osteoporosis. NO to melatonin supplements. It must be produced by the body itself”.

All of them are true, there is no doubt about it.

Indeed, we must know that if the Melatonin Hormone is consumed as a pharmaceutical product, in high doses, it is dangerous, since it can alter the circadian rhythms and thus cause sleep problems, with consequences in wakefulness. Even if our organism produces high levels of Melatonin, it is also dangerous.

We must ensure that it is generated by our own body, at acceptable levels. How? The most important thing is to walk in near darkness – without effort – and on a regular basis, but not necessarily every day. Darkness is the basis of Melatonin generation. An acceptable way is to walk in a natural way, on paths with few lights.

It is very important to know that the Melatonin Hormone also acts in organs and other glands of the human body, such as in the ocular system (light-darkness), sexual system (ovaries and testicles), hypothalamus, pituitary, hippocampus, veins, large and small intestine, and others, so its function is quite impacting on mental and bodily functions, for better thinking, proper digestion, good sexual performance, favorable work performance, etc. It is a regulating, balancing, harmonizing, leveling, and stabilizing hormone.

There are several ways to effectively increase Melatonin, without taking drugs:

-Do not take caffeine.

-Do not drink alcoholic beverages.

-No smoking.

-Do not watch television at night.

-Avoiding or decreasing stress.

-Reduce cell phone use at night

Doing:

-Exercise by walking.

It is worth explaining this recommendation.

No strenuous exercise should be performed at the beginning of the night, and less late at night (Future Post WALKING OR RUNNING, THERE IS A DILEMMA). However, we have already commented in previous posts that walking is a natural exercise and can be done in the evenings without being practiced intensely. You can and should walk at night -as we have already mentioned- to increase the production of the hormone Melatonin (Future Post WALKING AT NIGHT. CIRCADIAN EFFECTS); this will give us better sleep and a balance of our circadian rhythms (Post THE WALK AND CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS-PART I).

CIRCADIAN EFFECTS: For thousands of years Homo Sapiens got used (nomadic) to walk day and night (wanderers), so walking should be programmed to be done day and night (Future Post WALKING AT NIGHT. CIRCADIAN EFFECTS).

The hormone Melatonin also favors the strengthening of the Immune System, mainly because a good level of this hormone satisfies the organism making it rest at night.

Perhaps we could say that the Immune System is favored to a greater or lesser degree if the individual is an early riser, a night owl, or any of the different levels between these two demarcations of being able to get a good night’s sleep, every day.

Which “nicteotype” are you? To whatever degree you are, your type is being conditioned and regulated by your Melatonin.

The hormone Melatonin is synthesized from the amino acid tryptophan, which undergoes a transformation to become Serotonin. And during the night, this Serotonin is transformed into Melatonin.

Observing and using other analytical fields, I have to comment on aspects of the collective unconscious and the “Absence Archetype” in order to answer with another foreshortening, of the intellectual type, the generation of Melatonin by stimulating the Pineal Gland. The archetype “Absence”, like all archetypes, is an absolute and universal concept. It is also a psychic projection or spiritual image generated in the collective unconscious and that emerge to the consciousness after long periods of time, produced by repeated experiences fundamentally from the most remote times by the observation with the naked eye of the behavior of the stars (the Sun, the Moon, Venus, etc.) following one another, appearing and disappearing, in a reiterative and infinite way in time and space, in such a way that they have been engraved in the collective unconscious. They manifest and reveal themselves to the physical medium in various ways, among them plastic art. It was shaped by the concealment of the stars that were observed with the naked eye. Jung speaks of this renewal by pointing out that since the archaic mind it has been inscribed that everything must “die” and be “reborn” although I consider that it should not be confused with the new, with the ritual of the new, with the restart of the cycle, of the astrological periods although they are related; that is, it is not coincident with the “revival” of those who lacked life, the resurrection of the hero, of the guide, of the redeemer. The ortho of the sun has always been the new being born from the mother darkness, which defines the cycle of eternal rebirth or eternal return. Frazer in his book The Golden Bough, mentions a mythological manifestation of this archetype, pointing out: “… whereas Zeus’ decision that Adonis [Tammuz, god of the Semitic peoples of Babylonia and Syria] should remain part of the year under the ground [with Persephone, queen of the nether world], in darkness, and part above the ground [with Aphrodite, goddess of love], is only the Greek version of the annual disappearance and reappearance of Tammuz [as a projection of the movement of the stars, of the Sun mainly, in his daily appearance and disappearance; of the god who dies annually and returns to revive the eternal circle of birth-dying-rebirth]”. Dintornism. A plastic-philosophical theory of reality (*).

And continuing with the subject of divinities, we can comment that there is also a relationship with what Rick Strassman (specialist in clinical psychiatry) exposed in the 90’s of the last century. In his book The Spirit Molecule he expressed that the Pineal Gland appears in the fetus 49 days after conception, which caused some Buddhist currents to associate this with their belief that the spirit (the soul) incarnates in the human being in that same period of 49 days.

Some other spiritual-philosophical currents point out that this gland is intimately related to the spirit, with what they point out as the “Third eye”, which has associated it with “awakening” (Post THE PATH OF VACUITY). Reaching Nirvana and Awakening.

Yoga, is an oriental discipline that seeks the body to express itself in rest, in all its varieties and manifestations. It is recursively said that “The body prays in silence”. People who practice this system of Yoga seek to Awaken, communicate and confess with their own Spirit (Loya-Lopategui, Carlos, The Holy Spirit confesses [The Holy Spirit is confessed], 2022 **). De Mello considers that being awake is requisite to be able to reach freedom, but also to be able to exercise and transmit it, asserting that the only experience that is truly worthwhile in life is that of achieving awakening.

The body, besides praying in silence, also prays out loud with the mantras. It does it out loud when it vibrates in the practice of Yoga, with the Sanskrit syllable A-U-M. The mantras are the thoughts that are emitted out loud -although they are also performed in Sotto Voce– which are conjugated in invocations and prayers, which are repeated in some of the paths of yoga, to achieve liberation, awakening, and ecstasy (Post LISTENING TO OUR BODY WHILE WALKING).

To conclude, I would like to raise a couple of questions that I will try to answer in future Posts:

We know at what average age we start walking; we also know at what age women and at what age men -here appears the word Gender in the title of this Post-; but: Why do women start walking earlier than men? Why do human beings not start walking immediately when they are born, like all other mammalian animals?

I will explain the answers in future posts, within the wide subject of Hormonal Glands. Of course, all of them have an important relationship with the human being’s walking: in a high degree of importance the Thymus, Thyroid, Pituitary or Hypophysis, Suprarenal, and also relevant Sebaceous, Meibomian, Salivary, Cowper’s, Sweat, Bartholin’s, Skene’s, etc. glands.

Let’s go for a walk and also enjoy walking at night. Our senses will sharpen, become more sensitive and work in a more perceptive way, and of course, all our organs, systems and glands will gladly start working to the rhythm of our feet.

(*) Loya Lopategui, Carlos, Dintornismo. Una teoría plástico-filosófica de la realidad, EMULISA, México, 2012. Available on Amazon, Kindle Edition: https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0D6C18SS9

(**) Loya Lopategui, Carlos, The Holy Spirit confesses, EMULISA, México, 2022. Available on Amazon, Kindle Edition: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFFQ5P7D

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