Do You Notice Your Environment? - #62

The ambiance, or to underscore the point of this post,  the environment of my inbox was enriched by a message from Scott Forrester, author of The Aware Athlete. 

Scott wrote that his entire book answers the question I posed last week: What is the difference between exercise and fitness?  

He then offered a definition: Fitness is when an organism is able to adapt to circumstances the environment presents. 

This reminded me how the instructors in the active adults exercise classes we attend, target exercises that mimic the physical demands we face in our everyday environment. One instructor labels these  functional exercises: Pulling across the body to mimic putting on seat belts. Bending down to rescue a dropped sock. Reaching for a vase on the top shelf.

When I'm not exercising, I am working on a memoir describing my experience as a patient in Freudian psychoanalysis. I discovered, while researching the history of analysis, that Freud believed what  psychoanalytic treatment offered was a healthy environment.   He believed that if a patient developed a dynamic relationship with an analyst, this would provide the type of healthy interactions they had missed. In other words, analysis wasn't a set of exotic maneuvers but merely supplied the appropriate environment.

The idea that fitness is related to the environment is an important point in the book. I was intrigued by an idea in Chapter 1 that suggested posture originates, and is conditioned by, our interaction with the environment. When others slouch, we slouch. 

CLUE: Pay attention to how the environment affects your day to day feelings. Which part of your environment is the most influential for you? Sun? Clouds? Cold? Heat? Light? Darkness? Stillness? Order? Mess? Let me know - I'm curious. I'm feeling affected by the sudden cold here in Iowa.

Thanks for exploring the mystery - Nicky Mendenhall


The image was received before the Guardian received her necklace.