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The Pleistocene era corresponds to the Quaternary period, and began approximately between 1.5 and 2 million years ago. Hominids such as Neanderthal man and Cro-Magnon man existed. The following chronicle is mainly focused on the latter.

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The Pleistocene has been divided into 3 parts, the Lower, which corresponds to the oldest, which began 1.5-2 million years ago, the Middle, which began 500,000 years ago, and the Upper, which began only 200,000 years ago.

I will divide this post in two sections, one to express what could have happened in that period of (our) history that has been called Pleistocene, with respect to one of the creatures that inhabited the earth; and the other section I will represent in a cartoon what happened to that specimen, through which I try to communicate what could happen to homo sapiens if it becomes an absolute sedentary.

Homo sapiens is a hominid that surely coexisted with Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon and some others, but above all it is placed in the Holocene epoch (10,000-15,000 years ago), with the title of Modern Homo sapiens, from 15,000 years ago to the present day.

I would like to complete the first part by commenting on the following graph that shows the historical development of man walking on planet Earth.

This same graph was presented in Post HOMO-ITER: MAN-WALKER. PART II.

The graphed period covers 1.5 million years, from the time when there were several hominids walking on Earth: Pithecanthropus erectus, Neanderthal man, Cro-Magnon man, Homo sapiens, and a dozen more of the homo species, with the essential characteristic that all of them were in an upright position and walked only on their 2 lower limbs, although there were some differences between all of them, regarding their feet, height, hands, skull, eyes and some more of organic and physiological type.

I will explain the most relevant aspects of the graph in a brief and concise way.

On the horizontal axis, time is recorded in a historical horizon of 1.5 million years.

On the vertical axis are recorded the averages that man has had the need to walk on the earth in feet/day.

From [-12,500] years ago, the different hominids walked an average of 11,500 feet daily, either to hunt and gather, or to move from one region to another to carry out these same activities but in new lands with better hunting and gathering potentials. They were one hundred percent nomadic.

From this point on, a sedentary lifestyle begins at a general level, as they begin to discover some activities that allow them to settle longer at each stop. Agriculture and cattle raising began to take place, although not as we know it today; nevertheless, this kept them in certain places and reduced their eagerness (need) for nomadism.

At this time, a true revolution in the history of mankind began, as the construction of the first semi-permanent settlements began, with the domestication of plants and animals. He began to sow the same seeds that he collected, to feed and breed certain animals for the use of their fur and meat.

In each period shown in the graph we can observe how the average walking, from this point on, decreases. We can perceive that towards the point [-2,500], 10,000 years after the beginning of sedentarism, the daily average of walking is reduced to half, to 5,750 feet/day. And by the beginning of our Christian era, the daily average becomes only 4,600 feet/day, that is, a reduction to 2/5. The most serious thing is that the slope is constant and in only 14,500 years we have reached an average of walking of only 500 feet/day, only in 1% of the time since we began to be sedentary with respect to the analyzed horizon, we have practically come to a standstill, to be completely stationary (static). It is clear that in the present time we practically DO NOT WALK at all.

As a technical fact, I would like to comment that in the “Holocene Calendar” the year zero is considered precisely when the human being stops being nomadic to become a sedentary being, stops collecting fruits, grains, roots, etc., and dedicates himself to cultivate and domesticate animals. This Calendar marks the year 1 as the beginning of the life of the Humanity. It is the period that begins 10,000 years ago, which is called the HOLOCENE GEOLOGICAL EPOCA, which coincides with the NEOLITHIC STONE AGE. However, our analysis has nothing to do with the calendrical-numerical aspect of the Holocene calendar, but with the coincidence that in this geological epoch the human being begins a transformation from nomadic to sedentary, 10,000 years ago.

In order to illustrate this process of sedentarism, we have a graph of PEOPLE AGED 60 to 85 YEARS, IN DIFFERENT EPOCHES OF HUMANITY:

The horizontal axis shows the years in that period of life, from 60 to 85 years of age.

On the vertical axis are recorded the walking averages in miles/year.

In the prehistoric period, at these ages, an annual average of 800 miles was walked. We note that in ancient it drops to less than half, to 300 miles per year, and throughout the Middle Ages it varies from 200 TO 50 MILES. In order to arrive in an asymptotic way to the modern era, the elderly do not walk at all, being that this segment of society should make an effort to walk, either by their own decisions or stimulated by the health institutions of each country.

The second section, as I mentioned, is a comics that will allow me to represent what happened to this Pleistocene specimen, due to his change of life.

The main character of our story and of the cartoons is the Cro-Magnon Man. This specimen was found in the Cro-Magnon cave, France, and hence its name. He lived in caves and was a nomadic hunter-gatherer.

Cro-Magnon man may have been a cross between Neanderthal and Homo sapiens, a possible hybridization, but this cannot be conclusively proven.

He had characteristics very similar to the rest of the other specimens of Homo Sapiens, however, he had 2 peculiarities that made him different: one, that the bone of the tibia was very flattened transversely, what we now call placticnemia; this disease –placticnemia– is a deformation of the tibia, of the congenital type, which presents transversal flattening in both faces of the bone, in a laminated form.

IMPACT THAT THE TIBIA RECEIVES WHEN WALKING AND RUNNING

The other peculiarity he had in his feet; he presented a shortage in his development since the big toe was still placed in a semi-opposite position to the rest of the other four toes, which gave him the prehensile function; and for the same reason, his walking capacity was reduced to cover long distances; it made him less dynamic in this activity and he surely tired more quickly, apart from the fact that he could not develop considerable speeds in running.

Let us analyze this characteristic from the physical observation of the feet themselves and from the point of view of their footprints.

Evolution of the feet of hominids. (A) monkey. (B) Cro-Magnon man. (C) Homo Sapiens

In its physical form we can observe the big toe. In the previous image we see it separated from the rest of the other 4 toes, both in monkeys and in Cro-Magnon man. The foot was evolving and shaping in hominids, from the monkey phase (A), through the foot of Cro-Magnon man (B) to the foot of today’s Homo sapiens (C). This transformation took place over thousands of years until reaching the development seen in image C. Most probably this transformation in the feet that we observe in the 3 previous images is what allowed Homo Sapiens to place itself in a superior position with respect to the rest of the animals, above mammals and their hominid brethren.

Observing the footprints left by these three, we can detect the difficulty in walking or running. In the following images we see that the footprint of the monkey (A) rests less on the ground, this allows us to infer that although it could represent greater speed, it is definitive that the fact that the foot does not settle completely the foot subtracts balance and support for walking or running, besides not exposing a complete erect position, which also represents a lack in the symmetry of walking and in the stability of the body when running or jogging (Future Post THE SYMMETRY OF THE BODY, ITS BALANCE AND WALKING).

Footprints of hominid feet. (A) monkey. (B) Cro-Magnon man. (C) Homo Sapiens

In the footprint of Cro-Magnon man (Footprint B) we observe a greater position on the ground, but even so, he did not manage to settle it completely, which gave him less stability and some difficulty in walking long distances and reaching speeds that Homo Sapiens (Footprint C) was able to achieve.

Gaston Bachelard tells us: “The organ is constructed through function” […]”For a long time now we have been astonished by the fact that the different animal species are coordinated both historically and functionally. The order of succession of species gives the order of coexisting organs in a given individual.” (THE INTUITION OF THE INSTANT, F.C.E. Gaston Bachelard). Limbs, organs, all of them become specialized according to their functions and therefore the order that is generated in the evolution of higher species responds to this functionality and in turn dictates their conformation.

Now we will move on to the story of Litos and Litas who were two hominids -of the Cro-Magnon species- who had a very difficult time in those pre-historic times.

It was said that because I belonged to the Cro-Magnon family, I got too tired during the long walks in search of food,” said Litos, “and for that reason I could not survive, and I disappeared. Some companions from other tribes told us that we did not like to hunt; that we were too lazy to chase the animals. We resisted and preferred the comfort of gathering fruits, vegetables and roots.

I would like to tell you about a daily passage of my life, when I returned exhausted to my cave to be with my wife. This happened about a million years ago. Every time Litas came to receive me, after two or three days of being absent to get food… listen to what we talked about; of course, I have allowed myself to transcribe the primitive language we used.

This is what was heard when entering the main part of the grotto:

I would like to point out that it was not all bad news, because one could surely say that this was the proto-historical occasion of the invention of shoes.

To be continued…

Learn in the next chapter how Litas invented, in those prehistoric times, the moccasins and tennis shoes…

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June 15, 2021July 3, 2021

HOMO-LECTOREM AND HOMO-SCRIPTOREM

Symbolic language has always coexisted with human beings since their first steps on earth. His need to communicate led him to create different languages. Undoubtedly, oral language, linguistic language, was the first language used to satisfy this intrinsic need. Art, mathematics, religion, are other languages that were incorporated into his development in all its physical, intellectual and spiritual aspects.

Each of them contains different levels of abstraction and also fulfill different purposes.

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The oral language developed in an ingenious way to the human being, on a par with others such as plastic art, whose manifestations and cave testimonies have been found developed since the Paleolithic era -development of several hominids-. Nevertheless, this great need for communication placed Homo Sapiens in a position that led him to develop writing after many millennia, in order to satisfy it.

Approximately 5,000 years ago, human beings began to expand their verbal language, creating symbols to represent oral sounds, spoken gutturally, associating signs and characters for each of the words, giving rise to written language by means of codes and writing spelling, in different regions of the planet.

It must be understood that writing has always been associated with reading, so they were born together and developed hand in hand.

The plastic, pictorial, relief, sculptural, etc., language was too abstract for certain tasks that human beings needed to express themselves and communicate in other manifestations of social-commercial type and with greater precision. It was necessary for these other spheres of communication to be met with another language: written language; a language with other symbolic specifications that would allow it to satisfy those other demands of communication, and not be exposed to confusions and communicative or expressive inaccuracies.

With these requirements, writing and reading were born, assimilating more concrete and precise specifications, which could allow a more concise and methodical communication, with a translation by means of special, concrete and differentiated signs.

It is known that the human being has an inner plastic artist, which allows him to communicate some emotions and feelings that he has loaded in his interiority; a language that cannot be substituted, although some experts comment that it can be replaced with the sum of 2 or 3 of other languages. Its conformation contains springs that can hardly be found in other symbolic languages. This inner being is born with Homo Sapiens and its manifestations almost immediately after its appearance on earth; to keep this being awake and acting is to help sustain and nourish it with strength and life.

Now, just as physical Nature has directly participated in our change from nomadic to sedentary, Homo Sapiens has also contributed to it, since it has been creating those artificial, extraordinary and effective “crutches”, both technological, economic and of human development, so that we avoid putting our feet on the ground. We have already shown in Post HOMO-ITER: MAN-WALKER. PART I and in Post ..HOMO-ITER: MAN-WALKER. PART II, how in the course of 1.5 million years Homo Sapiens became a being that practically does not walk anymore; I do not doubt that he himself will also manage to “discourage” his process of reading and writing; recent activities, as we have already noted, since they were forged only 5,000 years ago.

We expressed in Part I, of the posts mentioned above, how the human being has been abandoning the practice of walking throughout the last 10,000 years, having been, since the most remote times, a perfect walker in his erectus and nomadic characteristic.

He will surely create other “crutches” to stop reading and writing. One way to avoid reading is to create “chips” or complex integrated circuits, and place them in the human brain, which would store all the knowledge that Humanity has created up to the historical moment that this graft is given. On the other hand, the activity of writing could be developed by certain special robots built with powerful computers that would allow them to increase and perfect this human communicative and artistic creation. Both technological forms are close to being developed, they are just around the corner.

An example that we are currently experiencing, and that will prevent both activities of reading and writing, is the learning of other languages; in addition, this will prevent another fundamental aspect in the mental development that is achieved with the learning of another language in addition to the mother tongue, which we can call linguistic extension, related to the philological conceptualization (etymological and grammatical) that achieves a mental intensification of the brain. These devices are digital language translators.

Graphically we could venture to predict globally this futuristic process, as suggested below, that we would pass from phase A) Historical situation, to phase B) Probable future situation:

A) HISTORICAL SITUATION

B) PROBABLE FUTURE SITUATION

NOTE: For construction and clarity of the graph, the horizontal axis is disproportionate. The line below shows the points of the graph at the correct scale.

Is stopping walking an evolution or a regression?

It is very likely that some of the diseases that are affecting us, is because we have replaced walking, by using devices of transportation, for having stopped walking. The man of the future will perhaps be the HOMO-ITER, the one who will be more aware that he must now replace some equipment of transportation (Post THE ANCIENT MAYAS AND THEIR WHITE ROADS. PART I), to go back to walking, and other activities that he carries out standing he must start walking, and others that he carries out sitting, he must develop them standing and/or walking. (Post HOMO-ITER: MAN-WALKER. PART I and Post HOMO-ITER: MAN-WALKER. PART II).

Is stopping reading and writing an evolution or a regression?

In several posts I have already mentioned the great benefits we get from reading and writing, when we walk. It would be inopportune to repeat them again, however, we can add that we have already achieved the sedentary lifestyle of walking, but reaching the “sedentary lifestyle of reading and writing” would be one more step we would take to provoke a backward step in the human being, and it will surely generate in his physical and mental development, an absolute degeneration and difficult to escape from it.

I would like to emphasize the following: We read and store; we write and download information processed from our interiority. When we read and write, whether notes or texts, while we walk, our mind receives information through the senses and that information is not received in a passive way, but it processes -analyzes-, composes -makes up, shades- and recomposes -decomposes, accommodates, organizes, corrects, modifies, reforms, integrates-, in such a way that the external stimuli are transformed into images that each of us performs in a very particular and unrepeatable way. It moves our whole brain and mind, generating an appreciable number of messages to all the organs, systems and glands of the organism. A true Fountain of Youth. (Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM ENCOURAGES CREATIVE THINKING).

It would be very profitable to list, speculate and imagine the different and possible technological-digital innovations that in the very near future will prevent us from reading and writing. As I said, they are just around the corner, or are already in our midst acting unfortunately against these powerful processes of human mental development, as we have pointed out when using digital language translators. We could also imagine digital systems implanted in the human brain functioning as creative draftsmen or plastic artists, not to say painters, sculptors and graphic designers.

Now, I have been able to present a possible scenario by considering that in the future we could solve part of the repercussion that sedentarism has generated in the human being, by foreseeing that a new being could emerge, the HOMO-ITER, who would be a striving individual -man and woman- who has become aware that walking is the QUASI-FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH.

The stage that I am now describing could be limited and even disappear, if we become aware of what awaits us if we continue along this path of accelerated “technologism”, without analyzing the negative effects that it can cause in the human being.

In 2005 the short story “Apocalipsis Literas” was awarded in the Short Story Contest, which I would like to quote some of its parts that I consider outstanding, as a premonition of what may happen in the future. The author of this story, Edel C. Pinera, foresees a “linguaecide”, and expresses: “It seems that just as the minstrels, bards, scribes and amanuenses, lithographs and printing presses disappeared in the past, so did word processors, readers and writers. Apparently, the era of the users of the written word, and with it, of verbal communication, had come to an end. …] The written word was ostracized, especially after the promulgation of the “2nd Law 3.1416” concerning the worldwide prohibition of writings and writers on any subject that was not one hundred percent scientific-technological. This 2nd Prohibition Law ‘added severe punishments, including the death penalty for repeat offenders’, for any party detected making use of them in their conventional or literary form – oral and written – by uttering, dictating, writing, reading or hearing them. Any word joined to other word(s) that did not refer to some numerical, mathematical, accounting, financial or cybernetic content, would be considered as subversive. […] The invasion of digitized viruses attacking any type of text that was not mathematical, written on the net and by any other electronic means, ended up making any attempt to rescue language succumb; verses and prose bled together in symbiotic agonistic mutilation (agonist). […] The step to such levels of linguistic suppression was simple, considering that 70 percent of the world’s population was already illiterate since the beginning of the 21st century and that in those times it was suggested to the complaining population better “not to read” in order not to learn about the problems of the societies of that time.”

So, before we begin to be illiterate beings per se, by the analog-digital way, let us look for ways to become from this moment on Homo-Lectorem and Homo-Escriptorem and that with this conversion we can advance towards the future without decadence or degeneration by avoiding our brain activities that have served and may continue to serve as engines of food and energetic and nutritional propulsion, besides being the main sources to place us in this stage of unimaginable development.

We can further consider that we deserve to try to consciously “create” people with 2 or more functions in one and the same: Walker-Reader, Walker-Writer, or even Walker-Reader-Writer.

Is stopping drawing an evolution or a regression?

To defeat the plastic artist we have inside us is to act against nature.

Let us not doubt that we must participate in the creation of those types of creative and healthy human beings, through reading, writing and drawing, while we walk every day.

Also, I must not fail to mention that, although the human being has congenital an inner plastic artist, the time could come when that human nature of plastic creator atrophies, if we do not take actions in that sense to foster, nurture and self-reproduce those different HOMO that we have developed up to these moments.

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June 1, 2021March 18, 2022

THE 9TH GENERATION OF MODERN AGE CREATIVITY AND WALKING. PART I OF IX.

This post is the first of 9 that respond to a practical structure and that have the purpose of presenting a new functional paradigm, which humanity requires for FUTURE DEVELOPMENT IN ITS WALK.

This effort will allow the orientation of the investigations carried out in the near future so that they are directed towards a specific solution to the problem of the future walk of humanity.

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I am certain that there will be many thinkers and researchers worldwide, men and women, from their specialties, who could collaborate to shape (define) a new paradigm that the human being urgently requires to move willingly, comfortably and safely in their walk, transforming those physical elements and legal, nomothetic and nomological, natural, regulatory, non-regulated instruments, etc., that may give the current provisions a better perspective on the essential aspects and forms of walking and in the different functional and productive spheres, such as habitability, recreation, work, housing, urban planning, etc., which are related to this natural activity, which condition the human being forcing him to move in a different way from his normal gait, and modifying his nature of transporting by himself and that he has also disrupted his traditional and customary environments of his daily life, which he has treated to maintain forever, but that growth and industrial and technological development has been winning the battle.

The Industrial Revolution, whose beginning has been historically determined in the decade of 1770, has its roots in the incipient capitalist system that had already begun 100 years before, since it already existed in some regions of Europe, that inclination or entrepreneurial spirit long before this historical moment, which is identified with the invention of the steam engine. It can also be seen that its fertile fullness occurs towards the 50’s of the following century (1850). The appearance of the Industrial Revolution is a concomitant effect of the crisis that arose in Europe during that precarious and embryonic capitalism.

I consider that, at the beginning of this new process of development, it has been essentially affecting the human being – in his pristine (archaic, original) nature – with regard to his natural habits of walking to transport himself to places, near or far, in order to satisfy his needs in general. At this historical moment, parallel to the industrial development, an opening in their creativity, a first human generation began to see this mental function from other aspects, more formal and with other perspectives of personal and collective development.

Some experts consider that innovation, the result of human creativity, was not an essential cause for this period of industrial boom. However, personally, I believe that a new modern way of approaching and impacting human development was generated, in all aspects, as a process -also revolutionary- that began at that time with the first generation that proceeded with a nascent mentality of what creativity meant for the production models that began to take shape. A novel process of thinking, creating and producing that has been enriching this mental function up to the present day, when it has evolved to the 9th generation of creativity, which must have -I repeat- a revolutionary approach in itself. Perhaps it is the greatest challenge that it itself can imply, that it be a Revolutionary Creativity.

Both revolutionary events, that of creativity and that of industry, made it possible to replace the use of animal and human power with a new energy generated by steam – at its inception. The productive and transportation systems became more efficient and with much lower costs, which impacted all economic sectors that have been improving steadily since that innovative era.

Since that period, human beings have been gradually substituting their strength and physical work potential with the extraordinary help of substitute machines.

In the transport sector, he has amazingly transformed his own nature of transporting himself, that natural capacity to do it on his own feet.

We are now in the 9th generation of creativity of the modern era (*), a process that began – as we have already mentioned – in the Industrial Revolution. It is therefore necessary to reactivate that transforming form in human creativity to induce a new paradigm that places us, from this moment on, in the future, and that we should not reach it, without a clear idea of what we will have to define in that new scenario, which will give comfort and security to the expectant walker (Future Post A NEW WALKING PARADIGM).

Let us try in this period of creativity to place Humanity with a new thought of what it will represent to renew and rejuvenate its walk, moving with its own feet. In all this process let us become aware of the need to generate a combination of multidisciplinary contributions (Future Post THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AND THE INTERDISCIPLINARY FLOW OF IDEAS) that clearly define the investigations that will be channeled towards a hybridization, also disciplinary, (Future Post WALKING: A NECESSARY DISCIPLINARY HYBRIDIZATION) containing healthy objectives and quantified goals, which will positively impact on a new paradigm of human walking and its specific solutions to the future problem of moving on one’s own feet.

Let’s walk on a new perspective so that we can all think better and be healthier.

(*) For purposes of analysis in this and other works, I allowed myself to consider 30 years as the average time between generations on creativity, in the modern era. The 9th generation started in 2010 and will end, according to my estimations, in the year 2040. The generations of creativity advance according to the development of the sciences (exact, physical, social, natural, etc.) that human beings have been perfecting, as well as the creative advances in the arts; and of course in technological activity, in all its fields. The generational periodicity of creativity was comparable in time to the generative biological evolution of the human being.

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May 15, 2021July 5, 2021

WALKING AND THE ELECTION OF LONELINESS. PART II

In this Part II of the post The walk and the election of the solitude, we will expose the different states of mind that society generates in the psyche of the human being, at the present time, and the benefits that are obtained when introducing us to the threshold of the solitude, by means of the application of the WALK-RWD system.

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In a concise way, we can point out several psychic effects that the current society (city, family, jobs and professions, lack of money and work, lack of physical exercises, sedentarism) provokes in the human psyche and in its physical-corporal response:

– Rejection

– Absorption, Disposal

– Stress

– Press

– Turbation

– Emotional disorders

– Exhaustion, apathy

– Sadness

– Pessimism

– Nostalgia, melancholy, homesickness

– Fear

– Blame

– Disappointment, hopelessness, disappointment, despair

– Grief, despondency, boredom, tedium, listlessness

– Discouragement, apathy, boredom

– Annoyance, indifference, indolence

– Disgust, anger, irritation

– Dislike, boredom

– Hate, harassment, anger

– Impatience, exasperation

– Indignation, frustration

– Distress

Some of these manifestations are signs of more serious problems, and that most likely, the periodic recourse to a “rest in solitude” can help you prevent and correct them to some degree.

ARTWORK # 1068-SAX-1-ANDANTE en MI-nueto

Returning to the first stage, the suggestion I make requires practice; only in this way can we enjoy that place, that rock, that landscape, the solitude, being alone, almost completely alone. Only in this way can we understand what it means to be in the 2 stages in which the human being can enjoy his 2 ways of feeling life, of enjoying his existence: accompanied and in solitude.

Besides, it is probable that in that state of solitude, only your eyes have appreciated that space, that landscape, that panoramic view, and that experience can be very valuable for the walker.

This search for solitude with ourselves is recommended, just like the walks, for a brief period of time, from 1 to 2 hours. We are not, by any means, suggesting that they be carried out as the recommendations of spiritual retreats for 1 week or more. The results that we obtain are much more reconstituent since we do not stop being in contact with the society that has propelled us to move away from their relationship. Coming into contact with loneliness in a recurrent, measured and constant way, allows us to obtain its benefits in a habitual and reiterative way, which makes it truly revivifying and healing.

Of course, what we are demonstrating and achieving with this recurrence with brief lapses, by walking in solitude, is that we are definitely not responding to a call from the conscious – or subconscious – to “run away”. A flight that is usually motivated by the absorbing and overwhelming mechanisms of society, work and family, among others. Of course, this need to “flee” is a process of emotional disorder, which is usually unconscious in our mind and apparently we wish to solve all the existential problems generated by that binomial “freedom-solitude” that we have briefly pointed out in the first part (WALKING AND THE ELECTION OF LONELINESS. PART I). We are sure that by letting this pressure escape periodically, through “recurrent solitudes” we can stop looking for an unconscious “escape” and reach full tranquility.

Let us not get absorbed by those confused states generated by the freedom-solitude binomial, which are well expressed by certain thinkers. Walking can dispel that state of confusion, since it can be a true “maker of solitude” to enjoy it and allow it to operate in a beneficial sense.

The Walk-RWD system can harmonize the two stages in which solitude manifests itself, since its intrinsic activities jointly create a mechanism of solitude, which installs itself in its own natural space and time.

We have a personal obligation to seek our virtuous circle of SOLITUDE in order to discover ourselves: What we are and what we wish to be. (Post WHO DO I WANT TO BE? WHO AM I?)

It is important to get away from this mechanism of loneliness, while we walk, because there are many benefits that are achieved by entering this threshold, which can effectively correct the various negative emotional states that we have pointed out, and that society generates in the human being, namely:

– It is a creator of ideas

– Encourages inspiration

– Drives reflection

– It is edifying and stimulating, because it is accompanied, if we wish, by silence

– It generates and stimulates dialogue with ourselves; and in that mechanism it allows us to be more authentic, since in our unconscious dwells the truth.

– It heals stress, anxiety, anguish, uncertainty, restlessness and impatience.

– Renews the energies of the body and mind

– It naturally stimulates catharsis, which allows us to eliminate emotional overload.

– It teaches us to be happy also in that same state of loneliness, so we become aware that we do not necessarily need to be surrounded by crowds to be happy.

– In the same way, it teaches us certain ways to allow us to understand, tolerate, digest and accept our sorrows and sadness, without needing to be surrounded by people, and it teaches us to be more tolerant and understanding of our afflictions.

– Our truths are nested in our unconscious, in that deep healthy interior, and we can extract and reveal them, calmly, silently and plainly in solitude, in a dialogue with ourselves.

All these effects achieve, in the human being who manages to subtract in solitude, correct the various states of mind in which we are immersed daily by the society that overwhelms and suffocates us.

An element attached to loneliness is leisure. This is an important factor that we can associate, as it has been analyzed by experts, to that stage that we achieve when obtaining the individual solitude and that sometimes we look for in and with freedom and we find to rest and to recover the lost energy, because it allows the human being the development of the personality, the satisfaction of the same one and the self-realization.

As I have pointed out in Post WALKING AND FREE TIME-PART II, the leisure is carried out inside the availability of the free time but that the human being carries it out with an absolute freedom to choose the activities that he prefers, that he likes, and that they are not inside those needs, obligations and conditionings, conscious or unconscious, that are given inside those environments of commitment and quite overwhelming. Leisure is a natural and vital behavior of the human being, in which he feels a freedom to do or even to do nothing, but it is not synonymous with laziness, negligence, indolence or disinterest, or wasting time.

Leisure is to be able to be fully conscious of both taste and enjoyment, and of freedom; it is a more qualitative than quantitative concept and each individual must realize it according to his or her own desires and tastes, and always according to his or her own sphere and intellectual foreshortening of freedom (Post WALKING THROUGH STREET FORESHORTENINGS).

We could point out that doing nothing and being in complete solitude could fall into the basket of leisure, since that is what that person wants to do, to be alone and do nothing.

The individual who can have leisure time and also knows -dominates- being alone and enjoys solitude, will have the emotional capacity to integrate himself or herself healthily into society; and on the other hand, the one who can and does enjoy solitude, will be able to get to know himself or herself and also understand the social environment in which he or she is immersed. Therefore, the person who feels good about himself, trusts his own feelings and seeks solitude occasionally, is fit to be formally included in society.

Let’s concentrate on those activities that we can develop in solitude in the sequence that we propose in the mentioned post, of organization, disposition and use of free time and leisure (Post WALKING AND FREE TIME-PART II). Which ones can be practiced in solitude? Some of our leisure activities are best developed when we are alone. How far do we look for solitude to carry them out, consciously or unconsciously?

Let’s go for a walk, let’s hold hands with solitude so we are not completely alone and let’s record all its sensations and benefits.

Or, let us prepare ourselves to experience that recollected reading, that which is done in a solitary way, while we are walking.

Traducido al Español