Unpopular side with O’Yinka Ijabiyi
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It is a fact of life that the minute we are born, we begin to die. Every day is a step closer to our graves. In short, we are born to die. The interval between birth and death is what we loosely call life. What we do with that period is sometimes at our own discretion. Including what we do with our bodies in the intervening period. What we do with our bodies is however of extreme importance because whatever it is, it has a huge impact on the quality of the lives we live. And how quickly we return to where we came from.
Our bodies are Extra Fragile Borrowed Transportation Vehicles (EFBTV). We have been told it was made from clay and is only sustained by the breath of life. That may be true. But it is also a Very Strong Adaptable Survival Vehicle (VSASV) i.e. technically formed to adapt and survive in any environment.
Our bodies may be designed for survival. But our brains, or whatever directs the shell of our bodies, is of superior quality. If our body can adapt and survive, our brains drive the adaptation and survival process. The brain works out solutions for current and upcoming problems long before we are aware there might be problems. It works by focusing on the challenges of its current circumstances to figure out a solution that protects itself and the body from going through present and future pain.
The brain basically abhors pain for the body. Because when the body suffers, it suffers. Hence it encourages laziness. It encourages you to do the least possible to survive. Survival is the name of the life game after all. The brain understands that more than anything else. It will seek out the shortest cut to survival. So it always presents alternatives that align with your nature; alternatives that keep you in your comfort zone. If you listen and do what it wishes, you are better off dead. Because its laziness, which physically manifests as your laziness, will kill you. Literally speaking.
Yet, also in abhorring pain, the brain will creatively and innovatively find solutions to situations that defy all known or unknown laws of anything. Knowledge did not happen to us. Brains have over the years trained themselves to recognize patterns and see things beyond the ordinary such that the body of knowledge has grown not through some magical unexplainable means but via well focused study of things all around and about us by the brain. The law of random selection has meant that we are all different and the most “brilliant” of our species has a lot to learn from the very “dullest” of our kind. Eve was smarter than Adam by a long shot. Reason it was easier for the serpent to convince her of the sweetness of the “apple” and take a bite of it. In short, Adam’s strength and brute force was no match for Eve’s brain.
Over time, the brain has worked tirelessly to compensate for the perceived inadequacies of the human environment. It has learnt to harness all the various minerals and materials naturally available in our environment and channeled them to compensate for what it perceives as the unfriendly environmental factors in this self-same habitat of ours. It has done slightly more; it has over compensated. Nowadays, we have grown lazy. Most of our bodies are no longer the sculpted pieces that necessity and survival made them as we strove with the natural elements to survive in pre-historic times. We are now bone lazy.
Yet some of us are of the fallacious opinion that our “super busy” lifestyles qualify our bodies for the exalted terminology of fit. No we are no longer fit and able. We are dying to be fit but still we die because most of our brains have gotten used to the ease and comfy of doing the least possible. Everything is not easy. The brain says, why stress yourself? Billions more of us are not even making an effort. We are becoming obese and we are becoming sick with illnesses that had no name and no place in the past and so we are dying of newly discovered diseases and illnesses.
It is high time we focus on taking care of our bodies all over again. We owe ourselves the duty of self-love and body care. We deserve to be selfish and love ourselves. Our bodies are nothing without us. And we are nothing in weak and unfit bodies. So, it’s up to us to do something and be so much less lethargic and lazy. We have to watch what we eat and drink. We must watch what we do as well and what pressures we put the body through. We must take short breaks, sleep well, eat right, deliberately exercise, etc all so that we can take care of the vehicle. A great engine in a broken body is a broken vehicle. Do your best to keep your body top notch. You at least owe you that much.
