Journey to Nothing

[LastThursday]

Warning: I'm going to be using one sentence paragraphs, heh.

What is the real language of love?

Is it gift giving? Is it hugs? Is it doting? Kisses? Valentines cards? Sex?

No it's something more fundamental: being present and being attentive.

Society is so contrived with its social mores and the corporate selling machine.

We are so inculcated in all this that we throw out the baby with the bath water.

Loved one forgotten our anniversary? Got the wrong year on the birthday card? He never buys me flowers? Takes me out? Boring sex? Doesn't care about Christmas?

What's forgotten is that you are not entitled to have anyone pay attention to you.

You are also not entitled for a person to even want to be in your local vicinity.

Forget the corporate advertising, forget social functions; even having the same person near us regularly (and them not wanting to hurt us) is a great honour.

And if that same person regularly gives us attention in any way: they love you.

Simple.

[LastThursday]

What is living like?

It certainly feels constant and unrelenting and sometimes unforgiving. At some point in childhood something becomes obvious: life isn't here to suit you. What's it like before that point? Stuff happens. But because our awareness is underdeveloped we soon drop any memory of what went before - we live in a perpetual state of newness and freshness.

What should living be like?

The greatest gift of being (alive) is awareness itself. Awareness is a double edged sword though. We can get lost in a maze of awareness which can cause us suffering and to lose the spark of life. But awareness is a lot more alive than that. We can break out of the maze and see with clarity once again.

So yes, we can be like children and live life like new every day. But we can also be like adults who aware of the beauty, love and fantastical nature of life. And as adults we know there will only be greater and more profound awareness in future.

Life is immense and awesome and here we are.

[LastThursday]

I had my beef with the word "consciousness" a few posts ago. Today's turn is the phrase "direct experience". We'll call it DE for brevity.

I like a good definition, because it gives a base to spring off from. Without a definition we're just left second guessing each other. So what is DE?

Good question. One place to find a definition is to look at what would be "indirect experience". Already we're in slight murky territory. But at its simplest it would be experience that was told to you second hand, or slightly more abtractly an experience that was inferred by you. Anyway, let's take a more solid example of indirect experience:

1. A friend is run over by a car and in hospital he explains to you the whole ordeal. You can tell from the result of his injuries and the story he told you, what it might be like to be run over by a car.
2. You see some flowers strapped to a lamp post and you know that someone was killed by being run over by a car at that spot. You can guess what it might have been like to be run over by the car and the grief of the family involved.

Ok. So a DE of being run over is not either of the two above. It is the visceral feeling of a tonne of metal slamming into you at 30mph and throwing you through the air, only to land on hard cold road.  So a DE is "reality" so to speak and 1 above is a story and 2 above is guesswork.

But.

Note that both 1 and 2 above are both still DE's. They are just DE's of sitting in a hospital listening to a friend or of standing on a pavement looking at flowers. And that is the crucial point, all experience is DE, there is nothing more than DE. So why use this phrase at all?

Because, the phrase is missing something, and it should always be qualified. It is a direct experience of something. And this is how it should always be used.

Ok. So some guru goes and tells you that you know nothing until you have a DE of God for example. The question then arises, if you have never had a DE of God, how would you know it if you did? Secondly, how would you actually arrange having a DE of God? You see unlike being run over by car, God is far more abstract - God isn't something you can infer or guess at (you can try). "Take a psychadelic" might be an answer as to how. So you take a psychadelic and have a DE. But what was it a DE of exactly? How do you corroborate that what you experienced was God? Hmm?

And that is the problem with offhandedly saying "Go have a Direct Experience of God by taking a psychadelic. You don't know what you're talking about." It's unscientific, because there's no way to check a DE after the fact. For example after taking said psychadelic you say "I experienced God and it was X and Y and Z." And the retort is simple: "No you didn't. That was a different DE you had, it wasn't God."

In short: all there is is DE and DE is unverifiable by others.

And that in a nutshell is spiritual work.

[LastThursday]

Am I special?

I think we all have narcissistic tendencies or bias at least. Even those folks who label themselves as self haters single themselves out as being special from others. Where does this bias come from?

In a naive sense it comes from having an ego. The ego needs to carve itself out from the maelstrom of appearances. By definition it is a special arrangement of feelings, thoughts and sensations. The ego is not a stupid entitity. It knows very well how to keep on surviving and thriving in the face of entropy. One of its tools is to think about itself as somehow special and separate from everything else. The very definition of an ego is that it is special. Disolve the ego and the specialness disappears.

Or does it?

Outside of the ego, we are all deserving of the "special" label. Ego or not, we are unique. There are seven billion humans, and each one of us is unique. That's quite a thought. Strangely though, we all seem to be cut from the same cloth. We all realise our uniqueness early on, unfortunately we confuse this uniqueness for our egos and cause ourselves self hate or narcissism. We can and should cut loose. That doesn't mean we are not special, just that we're special in a way that transcends our egos. This specialness comes from a place of self love not self obsession. It allows us to extend our egoic boundaries and include more humans in it.

But how can everyone be special? Doesn't that burst the specialness bubble? No. Because we all share that same specialness. We are all capable of love for ourselves and the universe we find ourselves in. Being special is "built in" to the design.

[LastThursday]

A human songbird:

Oh yes and there's this:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180328092527.htm

Sequitor or non sequitor?

[LastThursday]

Future notes: intention, resisting intention.

[LastThursday]

Intention seems to be talked about a fair amount in self help, law of attraction (LOA) and law in general. With regards to law if the intention was to kill someone that's murder if not that manslaughter - and they carry different penalties. With regards to self help, intention is important for sticking to goals, making goals and for generally developing yourself - without intention you are lost in the wilderness. Lastly, LOA is solely based on intention, without it there is no LOA.

What is intention?

At a high level it's a kind of directed "will". I use the word "will" because of its connection with "free will" and intention being the product of that free will. At a low level, intention is a type of goal orientated decision - a decision is made to either perform an act or in the hope of acquiring something. So you can intend to apply for a new job (an act) or intend to be a millionaire (acquisition of money). Because the goal is future orientated there is a sense in which the intention continues to be in force until that goal is fulfilled. 

It's worth comparing intention to random events or to accidental acts. Things can happen to us, for example we're left an inheritance of a million pounds; or we get headhunted for a new job. These are things which happen out of our control. So, even though the results can often be the same (become a millionaire), how those results come about makes the difference.

Where does intention come from?

Intention arises within consciousness from nowhere. That's a little bit misleading as everything arises within consciousness from nowhere. However, the cause of an intention is ultimately mysterious. It could be argued that context is important in forcing an intention to happen; for example someone may have the intention to steal food because they're starving and poor - but they may not - the connection is tenuous. In this sense the law does not particularly take context into account (other than to perhaps reduce a sentence), intention itself is all important.

With regards to LOA the source of intention is never discussed, it's just a given that intention causes or increases the likelihood of an event in the future. But an interesting angle is that both the source of (the) intention and the source of the outcome are actually both connected (potentially non-materially). That would mean that intention is not the means to the outcome, but just a by-product of the same cause. In this way the illusion of free will is maintained, but the external world and internal intention are connected in a much more profound and meta-physical way. You attract a certain person into your life not because you intended it beforehand, but because the "event" of that attraction is spread across time and space (in your head and out there) and has a different underlying cause (the work of source itself).

For self help intention is also all important and often talked about as if it were possible to control it at will. Those that don't control intention well are lazy or dispassionate or is doomed to stay where they are in their development. This is disingenuous. If ultimately the source of intention is unknowable, then it isn't possible to control it. Those people blessed with strong intentions are just lucky. But if there is even a sliver of a chance at all of being able to affect the source of intention, then the first step in all self help should be the mastery of that source. A tall order indeed. Those that are unable to help themselves need compassion and outside help, not stronger intentions.

Resisting intention.

If intention does indeed "arise from nowhere" and it is happening constantly and randomly, then why don't we all follow through with our intentions? Because intentions are judged and often blocked from the outset. It's easy enough to have an intention to meet friends for lunch tomorrow, but there are many things that can stop that intention from happening. Not least of all judgments about the particular friends themselves or about the venue, the weather, timing and so on. If we're intention machines then we are also intention resisting machines.

And this is what is meant by flow. When an intention arises we actively don't resist it, we let it play out and take the consequences. In fact LOA requires us to somehow "forget the intention" - this is a way to get us to stop resisting intentions that arise. It seems that the very act of resisting or interfering with the pure intention weakens it considerably.

In terms of self help, resisting intention is the norm, and flowing with intention is the state we want to reach in order to change ourselves for the better. Again, a good grounding in not resisting intention would be a help here.

Edited October 12, 2020 by LastThursday

[LastThursday]

I'm losing the will...

 

[LastThursday]

Free will questions pop up on the forum like the many headed Hydra. In my curiosity I thought I would quantify and provide a rundown of the Free Will related questions that have appeared on the forum. My guess was right: a lot. Anyway, those curious about Free Will should start here:

 

And to dig further into it, some forum posts:

February 8 2016: 442-how-can-i-master-something-when-there-is-no-free-will
February 15 2016: 1058-no-free-will
February 18 2016: 1287-destiny-vs-free-will-question
March 5 2016: 1999-free-will-vs-determination
April 21 2016: 3359-free-will
December 8 2016: 7133-question-about-free-will
December 11 2016: 7186-free-will-vs-free-choice
December 15 2016: 7277-is-there-a-free-will-final-answer
January 25 2017: 7997-are-we-all-living-a-predetermined-destiny
February 5 2017: 8234-free-will-vs-determinism

April 17 2017: 10122-free-will

April 20 2017: 10190-please-help-free-will-no-good-or-evil-got-me-depressed

May 6 2017: 10633-anything-is-possible

May 28 2017: 11241-awareness-and-free-will

July 2 2017: 12235-insight-on-free-will
July 3 2017: 12247-if-there-is-no-free-will-how-can-i-decide-to-surrender-to-the-idea-that-there-is-no-free-will
August 28 2017: 13704-determinismno-free-will-and-meditationenlightenment
September 28 2017: 14442-how-to-reconcile-no-free-will-and-action-taking-the-worst-limiting-belief-ever
October 25 2017: 15072-who-becomes-enlightened
November 3 2017: 15258-no-free-will-determinism
November 19 2017: 15728-enlightment-no-free-will-happy-with-not-being-able-to-hold-down-a-job
November 20 2017: 15757-no-free-will-limiting-beliefs
November 21 2017: 15767-no-free-will-suicidal-thoughts
November 21 2017: 15797-you-have-100-free-will-and-you-also-have-no-free-will-the-other-side-of-the-paradox
March 9 2018: 19267-question-about-the-free-will
January 5 2018: 17318-rupert-spira-about-free-will
February 22 2028: 18799-determinism-vs-dream
June 27 2018: 22655-does-free-will-exist
July 28 2018: 23664-is-determinism-a-truth-or-just-a-belief
August 10 2018: 24075-if-all-a-dream-and-no-free-will-then-no-awakening
September 15 2018: 25462-no-free-will-vs-life-purpose-compatibly
September 21 2018: 25734-sadhguru-says-we-have-free-will
October 12 2018: 26515-free-will-does-exist-within-the-illusion-and-must-be-exercised-to-achieve
November 11 2018: 27574-if-all-timeline-were-created-in-an-instant-and-free-will-does-not-exist
November 15 2018: 27765-forrest-gump-and-free-will
November 28 2018: 28361-the-illusion-of-free-will-is-life-scripted
December 18 2018: 29225-everything-is-predetermined
December 20 2018: 29320-does-god-have-free-will
January 2 2019: 29895-you-have-free-will
January 4 2019: 29984-is-this-a-workable-view-on-free-will-vs-predetermination
February 2 2019: 31165-free-will-vs-no-free-will
Fabruary 14 2019: 31659-how-can-i-choose-to-awaken-if-i-have-no-free-will
February 15 2019: 31673-laws-of-infinitygod-and-free-will
February 18 2019: 31792-do-you-believe-that-we-have-free-will
February 21 2019: 31925-free-will/
March 24 2019: 32851-im-starting-to-think-there-is-no-free-will
March 30 2019: 33071-i-don%E2%80%99t-have-free-will-i-am-free-will
April 9 2019: 33466-how-much-do-you-think-were-constrained-to-gods-plan-free-will-vs-destiny
Aprril 17 2019: 33766-free-will
May 15 2019: 34801-if-free-will-doesnt-exist-then-acting-also-doesnt-exist
May 19 2019: 34946-determinism-or-free-will
June 11 2019: 35862-disagreements-on-free-will
June 27 2019: 36478-no-free-will-and-pure-awareness
July 11 2019: 37037-if-leo-say-we-are-god-then-do-you-think-free-will-exist-or-we-have-control
July 25 2019: 37534-leo-new-video-on-free-will
August 9 2019: 38049-if-i-am-god-how-do-i-not-have-free-will%C2%A0
August 15 2019: 38321-free-will
August 28 2019: 38931-is-there-not-even-a-tiny-bit-of-free-will
August 29 2019: 38952-free-will-is-not-free
October 23 2019: 41226-freewill
October 27 2019: 41372-is-there-freewill-in-absolute-love
November 8 2019: 41864-determinism-vs-free-will-with-higher-states-of-awareness
December 10 2019: 43135-so-do-we-have-free-will-or-not
December 20 2019: 43524-about-volition-free-will-and-determinism
January 3 2020: 44012-life-is-deterministic-isnt-consciousness-a-free-will
January 13 2020: 44339-what-it-means-for-there-to-be-determinism
January 18 2020: 44502-free-will-rant

January 18 2020:  44504-is-determinism-just-a-paradox
January 30 2020: 44953-leos-recent-video-confusion-determinism
February 9 2020: 45345-why-is-there-no-free-will-why-does-god-allow-this
March 3 2020: https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/46184-fred-davis-free-will/
May 11 2020: 48844-is-there-free-will-most-beautiful-answer-i’ve-ever-seen
June 3 2020: 49739-if-everything-is-predetermined-why-try-why-pray
August 18 2020: 53042-the-oddities-of-no-free-will
September 12 2020: 54122-had-the-experience-of-where-human-free-will-comes-from

Edited October 13, 2020 by LastThursday

[Someone here]

@LastThursday you don't have free will because you don't exist as separate self. 

[LastThursday]

@Someone here indeed, you could invert what you say: you don't exist as a separate self because you don't have free will. 

I must admit my own view is pragmatic. Free will is really a non-idea.

Whether you believe strongly in free will or completely in determinism, it still makes no difference to the outcome of your actions. It really boils down to taking responsibility for your actions: if it's all pre-determined then you can give up all responsibility, because you're not in control.

 

[Someone here]

2 minutes ago, LastThursday said:

@Someone here indeed, you could invert what you say: you don't exist as a separate self because you don't have free will. 

I must admit my own view is pragmatic. Free will is really a non-idea.

Whether you believe strongly in free will or completely in determinism, it still makes no difference to the outcome of your actions. It really boils down to taking responsibility for your actions: if it's all pre-determined then you can give up all responsibility, because you're not in control.

 

@LastThursday

Well actually it can't be reversed.. Who is this "you" that has free will or has no free will?.. If it's nonexistent then there is no question left.    Now don't get this wrong.. Obviously you appear to be a this body or somehow an entity inside this body looking at the world.  And this will continue to be the apparent experience.   But it's not actually the case. 

I don't like abstract theoretical approach.. Especially to this question of free will it took me a long time to get in terms with it.   You can practically figure out the defentive answer to the free will question.. once and for all.   Just sit down and try to completely still your body..that means no thoughts no actions no internal or external movements.. You will quickly discover that you can't.  The body will do something automatically. A thought will arise. A feeling. A movement. A tingle. A blink.  A breath.  Etc.   That's it the body is just running automatically. There is no separate agency creating this. 

And to your pragmatic approach.. Unfortunately even that is not in your control. To take responsibility or to not take responsibility. To Believe in free will or to Believe in determinism.  That assumes these two choices are exceptional from the free will dillema at hand. As if you can't choose anything except that you can choose whether you believe in choice or not. ?. 

Anyways just sharing my thoughts on the topic. Because I'm super interested in it as well. Great journal btw.  I enjoy your writings a lot ❤️

[LastThursday]

@Someone here it's much appreciated. There are some really interesting journals on here I read regularly, yours included.

I was trying to be clever, but by my inversion of your statement I was merely trying to point out that if we actually existed as a separate self, one of our characteristics would be free (independent) will. Because we would truly be separate from outside influence. So it follows that if we don't have free will, then we can't be separate. In other words we are deterministic automatons who have been somehow "programmed" by outside influences - i.e. not separate.

As regards your bolded paragraph above. I pretty much agree. I made a comment to that effect in the Compatibilsm thread, in response to Nahm:

https://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/55172-proof-of-free-will-why-compatibilism-is-correct/?page=2

On 09/10/2020 at 11:37 PM, LastThursday said:

I've never not moved. I don't seem to be able to choose to stop.

Always happy to discuss these things!

[LastThursday]

The self is a complicated ragbag construct. It is not rational, it is not coherent, nor is it planned. Most of the time we just make do. We have to cajole, analyse, incentivise, accept, inebriate, self medicate and a thousand other activities just to get the self to do anything at all. Seen from a rational standpoint it really is insanity.

If doing is your shtick, then finding ways to reduce the friction the self induces is critical. Fundamentally, there are only two ways to improve yourself and situation: do stuff to affect the outside world, and, do stuff to affect the world inside your head. The two are also closely connected. Further, the act of doing is really about change. The resistance the self puts up is about resistance to change itself.

Why should the self be resistant to change? There are a number of reasons:

• Change is about death - in the broadest sense. One thing needs to give way to another for change to happen. If there is a strong need or identification for the thing about to die, there will be resistance. This is why addictions can be so hard to stop for example.
• Change is risky. There is always a chance that changing a situation or aspect of ourselves will make things worse. So there is often an informal cost/benefit analysis which happens in the face of change: "Will this make my life better? And is it worth the aggravation?". The best short term reaction is always to do nothing. The self is mostly reactionary and short-termist.
• Since the self is incoherent and grows organically, there will often be conflicts between different "parts". Don't be confused by the word "part", these are not well defined portions of self. Rather they are a fluid set of emotions and constructs which have been conditioned by innumerable outside influences over time. It's possible for one part to clearly want change, and yet for another part to not want that same change. This can cause paralysis - with the result that nothing changes.
• First and foremost the self is a survival machine. It is there so that your physical existence continues as long as possible. That means that there is a strong and deep connection between the self and the physical body. If the body rejects action because of a perceived threat, the self does not have much choice but to follow. Normally the body will signal threat through emotion, such as fear or anxiety. The body has to also balance energy expenditure and food intake, so there is a strong bias towards not using energy. This bias translates into inaction. This explains why starting that running habit can be difficult - and why food addiction is rife.

Anyone interested in change and doing stuff for self improvement, needs to address the four points above. The self can be re-programmed to be more coherent and its parts aligned and processes put in place to manage the emotions of the body. And with planning and good habits change can be managed better. It can be done.

[LastThursday]

Call me conventional, but music that gets me emotional every time and reminds me just how beautiful and astonishing people can be:

 

 

And yes Bach is greedy:

 

[LastThursday]

What is life?

Scientifically, there are a number of observations which help in understanding it. Firstly, all life is made is made of the same components: proteins and DNA or RNA. Secondly, life copies itself through reproduction. Lastly, life evolves and changes over time.

The first observation is profound. What it says is that all life is connected. You are somehow related to a plant or an octopus or a fly. That is truly astonishing. Why is it connected that way? Why is a plant or a fly so different yet uses the same chemical components?

The second observation supplies the inductive step needed to answer the why of the first one. If life keeps ever copying itself over and over then there is an unbroken chain of generations of life stretching back into the past. That explains why all Sycamore trees look alike, they are all related through their distant ancestors.

The third observation is no less profound than the first. In the act of reproduction the copying process is not perfect. Imperfections or mutations build up over time and this causes the organism to change its form and function over successive generations. Mutations affect the survival chances of the organism and in turn that affects the chances of reproduction. The net effect is that beneficial mutations are more likely to be copied. What is "beneficial" can be extremely subtle indeed, but mostly the environment the organism finds itself in dictates this.

Evolution is the solution to why all life is connected through proteins and DNA. The wide variety of organisms alive now, evolved from a slightly smaller variety of organisms in the past. Each successive generation increases the chances of divergent evolution. One type of single celled organism eventually gave rise to the plant kingdom and the same cell the animal kingdom. All life arose from a single source.

It's right to take a moment to appreciate that idea.

If life is simply chemistry and physics then one chemical reaction started billions of years ago has produced all life on Earth. In essence that single first chemical reaction has never stopped; it's still going on in you and me and my spider plant. When you eat a chicken that same chemical reaction is devouring itself, even Vegans are guilty of this. It's like a single spark that caught the whole planet ablaze.

Life is like a throwing a pebble into a pond and watching the ripple as it expands out. It is one ripple through all time. It is all the same ripple. When you sit on a wooden bench in a park, you are not just related to the bench and grass, but in a sense you are the same thing as them. You are them. Looked at this way, a bacterium is no less advanced than a human: they a simply just different aspects of the same chemical reaction. There aren't a trillion organisms there is only one.

The copying aspect of reproduction is very much like the self-similarity of fractals. Fractals can be infinitely detailed and absolutely unique spacially and temporaly. This is what life is really like:

The equations which governs the fractal of life is made of atomic forces and the elements: Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen. They are much more complicated than those for the Mandelbrot set. But the mechanism is the same, life sits on the boundary between order and chaos.

Because life is a chaotic system it's infinitely sensitive to initial conditions. This high sensitivity allows the copying process and evolution to use everything at its disposal. This is because anything that confers an increase in reproductive chance will be selected for. This includes not only the makeup of the organism, but in turn the effect the organism has in the makeup of the environment it finds itself in. In other words the organism will evolve its environment if it confers reproductive success. This is exactly what humans do. This is why the Earth itself could be seen as a giant organism, its environment is not at all "natural" - just look at Mars or Venus for natural. No, life has changed it drastically for its own benefit. Life is suited to its environment and the environment is suited to life.

Other effects that evolution co-opts may be quantum ones. For example the capture of photons in photosynthesis. And ultimately consciousness itself. If consciousness confers reproductive advantage then life somewhere will have used it. Humans anyone? It is food for materialist thought: consciousness is a property that mutations affect (but note that mutations don't produce consciousness). It is no accident that you are both conscious and a living organism.

Life is intelligent, not in a designed by a god sense, but because it is infinitely sensitive to both itself and its environment. Given enough time life will intelligently take over the whole universe. Perhaps by starting on Venus.

 

Edited October 19, 2020 by LastThursday

[LastThursday]

These are just some of my favourite things:

Open fires

The first sip of a pint of beer on a hot day

Restaurant food

The sea and the beach

Making people laugh

Being a little drunk at parties

Walking, walking, walking

Symbols and signs and maths and computers

Showing off

Sarcasm and irony

Playing music, making music, listening to music

Electronic music

80's music

Unplanned days on holiday

The first time I unbutton my lover's top

That first kiss

Thinking about hard complicated nitty gritty things

Finding an answer

Being the smartest one in the room

Beautiful people

Beautiful faces

Talented people

Going above and beyond for people I love

Being non-judgemental

Leading by example

Good tasty food

Being carefree

Coca-Cola (I don't drink it anymore)

Smoking (I don't anymore)

A quiet peaceful mind

Playing stupid games with kids (I'm a big kid really)

Being a decent respectful guy

Giving people my attention

The Sound of Music (maybe I'm gay, no it can't be????)

 

 

Edited October 23, 2020 by LastThursday

[LastThursday]

How much influence do you have on other people?

It's easy to think that the answer is: very little. Maybe we're just mostly self-centred selfish narcisisstic creatures? We want and feel that all influence flows inwards from the "out there", to our particular centre of the universe.

The reality is a little different. Our very makeup is one of accretion and disorganisation. Bits and pieces of stuff from the out there stick to us and over time build us up to be who we are now. We are never a unified whole but a constantly shifting shimmering mirage of sand dunes and heat.

We are built this way from nothing at all.

Our complex selfs are then completely made of others. There's nothing original about us, other than the novel constant interplay of our stolen parts. We are all then made 100% of influences outside our control.

The flipside of the Frankenstein is that we constantly influence everyone we meet, whether we want to or not. Every interaction not only changes you, but changes them too. And in their turn they will pass your influence to more, until those six degrees of separation are saturated with your influence. The irony is that we're mostly too dumb to realise our immense power and influence, we can't wrap out feeble cobbled minds around it.

But there is something other than mind that can impress your influence on you. That thing is pure awareness. An awareness that you don't just exist here and now in this one body, but you are spread and diffused into the 7 billion.

Use that influence with responsibility and awareness.

Edited October 26, 2020 by LastThursday

[LastThursday]

My god. I think this combines all my fetishes into one:

Notes for future self: talk about Fetish don't be shy.

[LastThursday]

How To Run

About a decade ago now I used to run regularly. Eventually I managed to get up to half marathon distance, which is around thirteen miles. It taught me a lot about how the body works mechanically. Nowadays I mostly walk and play sports instead. However, there is an art to running long distance which other activities don't have.

One of the most important considerations is rhythm (or pace). The legs act as a pair of pendulums and so will have a natural resonant frequency. Longer legs have a lower natural frequency, and conversely for shorter legs. This natural frequency requires the least effort to run. Running faster than this requires notable extra effort; running slower than this can feel awkward as if you're working against yourself.

The natural running frequency, is not just determined by leg length, but by the body as a whole and especially by muscle mass and how quickly the muscles can contract. This fact is important for sprinters who tend to have muscle fibres which contract more quickly than most. For long distance running it's important to find this natural frequency and maintain it throughout the run. To run faster, you need to improve muscle mass.

The pace at which you run will determine how much air you need to take in. Oxygen is burnt is the muscles at a specific rate, and so enough needs to be taken in to cover this. In turn the rate at which you breathe and the lung capacity determines this. However, for efficient running the breathing needs to be in sync with the frequency with which you move your legs. This is because the whole body is acting as a connected system, and each part needs to be in resonance with all the others to run well. You will find it awkward if you breathe out of step with your leg movement. You can increase intake by breathing through the mouth and by taking deeper breaths - but this will require you to have stronger diaphragm muscles.

I never used to run with music for two reasons. Most running music has a lot of percussive elements, and this can affect your running frequency so that you're not at your ideal rate. Secondly, it distracts from paying close attention to what your body is doing. A lot of the art of efficient running is fine tuning different aspects as you run and at different phases of your run.

I would never stretch before a run (I never had an injury). But I would always start off with a very light jog for about half a mile or so - especially on colder days. I would vary my pace in small bursts over that half mile to get the body and mind prepared for what's to come. At the end of the half mile I would nearly walk (but not stop at all) before doing the run proper.

With colder muscles you will naturally run more slowly, so you should maintain a slower pace for the first mile or so. I found that I would naturally increase my pace over this distance, but that could well be due to training. Once up to speed it's essential to maintain that speed throughout most of the run. How far you can maintain it is purely down to fitness. If you find you can't maintain your natural pace more than a certain distance, then you should stop and aim to improve the distance the next time.  A good rule of thumb if you run once a week is to increase distance by 10% each time, but probably a bit less if you are less fit. If you are just starting running, then you should run exactly the same route each time and extend it, so you have a very clear physical way of seeing your improvement.

For distance running I would say extending distance is more important than running faster. You will naturally start running faster as you get fitter, so no need push faster than your natural pace, if you do so fatigue sets in more quickly.

Of course it's absolutely natural that your pace tapers off gradually towards the end of the distance as fatigue sets in. But you will reach a point were the running feels stilted if it's too slow and you should stop then.

Where you place your arms can have an effect on your balance as you run, and there will be more efficient positions than others - you should experiment as each person's body shape is different. Ideally you should aim to reduce any lateral sway or rotation when running, as this means energy is being taken away from your legs and momentum. You do this with both your arms and how you angle your feet as they hit the ground.

Early on in my running, when I was improving my fitness I would find my knees would ache and sometimes my hip bones. The main cause was that the muscles around the knees were too weak and therefore not holding the joint together, which in turn was causing more rotation in the joint than necessary. The other was the angle of my feet. Ideally they should point forward at nearly 12 o'clock at all times. Any other angle will cause the knee joint to rotate and can cause pain and injury.

The ideal for running is to use your Achilles tendon as a spring which stores energy with each step. Unfortunately, most running shoes impede this mechanism by making your run more flat footed than it should be. This also means that the shockwaves as you hit the ground are transferred to your knee and hip joints rather then being absorbed by the tendons. Obviously, running in barefoot is not really possible out in the street, so getting the right shoes is critical - unfortunately it's mostly trial and error - but they can make a big difference.

Should you drink lots of water? No. Take small amounts if your mouth gets dry. If it's a hot day, drink so that the liquid is not sloshing around in your stomach. Running holding a large water bottle can affect your running gait and should be avoided.

Lastly is the psychological factor. Towards the end of a long run fatigue will set in and you'll need to overcome this to keep the pace up. Efficient running technique will help to a large extent. There's a tendency to throw technique out when fatigue sets in and the running can become sloppy. Instead of battling through you should just stop and try again a different day. One thing I used to do was stare upwards towards the sky, this has the strange effect of putting you in a light trance and this can distract from the fatigue. Another was to imagine lying on a warm beach or taking a hot bath. Choose a visualisation which works for you.

And very lastly, if you're just starting, then stopping half way through on a long distance can be beneficial - especially if you're quite fatigued or out of breath. However, you should keep it short enough just to catch your breath and avoid sitting if possible. Start off slowly again and gather momentum over a few minutes.

Should you warm down? Ideally you should do a light jog or walk for a few hundred yards at the end - enough to get your breath back. After that you should get indoors and keep warm if it's cold outside.

 

Edited October 27, 2020 by LastThursday