(no subject)
I know it's just coincidence. But sometimes it seems like when you put something out into the universe it has a weird way of coming right back at you. Joe, you crazy fucker, what are you talking about today? You might be asking.
Yesterday I was waxing nostalgic over the military. I was thinking about trying to find a veterans group who get together to exercise military style and hooking up with them. So today I go out for my second day in a row of walking on the levee and what do you suppose I come across? A bunch of Coast Guard people assembling on the levee for a 5k "morale" run. I know this because I asked them if they were conducting a PT test, or something, and they told me it was a morale run. Yes indeed, morale. You see, the military is smart. They know that exercise causes the body to produce a chemical in our bodies called dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers. Dopamine also helps regulate movement and emotional responses, and it enables us not only to see rewards, but to take action to move toward them. So yes, getting up early in the morning and running 5 kilometers on a cold, or let's say brisk, morning will actually improve you moral, because it causes your body to produce dopamine. They talk about people who are clinically depressed as having a chemical imbalance. Could it be that their bodies just need a little more dopamine? I mean, I can tell you that when I was in the army and every time we went on a two mile run, which was every day, Monday through Friday, I might have been feeling depressed before the run, but not afterwards. No, no, no, after the run I always felt like Superman! And now that I think about it, it's no wonder to me that when I was in the army I would feel more depressed on the weekends, when we didn't do PT, than I ever did on weekdays, when we did.
So really, if you're depressed could exercise actually help you to snap out of it? I tend to think so. And I know it at least works for me, but everyone is different, and I recognize that too. But if depression could be reduced by merely getting more exercise then doctors and pharmaceutical companies would lose a lot of money, wouldn't they?
But I digress.
So when I was talking to the Coast Guard people and I told them I was a veteran one of them said that he knew it, he could tell. How? I asked. And he said it was by my stride, the way I walked. He said my stride has military written all over it. Now I know this probably isn't true when I'm just walking a short distance. but I know it's probably true when I start to walk for any length of time. I can feel my soldier stride start to kick in. I can feel a sort of swagger start to happen, even thought it's not meant to be cocky. I think the body just has a way of adjusting to walking longer distances and sort of just goes into that mode. But it does improve your posture. It makes you feel confident, it makes you feel strong, and yes, it makes you feel proud too. And that brings me to another topic: Body Language.
Your body language always reflects the way you feel. Always. But it can work two ways. I've done experiments where you're told to put a smile on your face but then try to think of things that make you really mad and try to get yourself mad while keeping a smile on your face. It's very hard to do. Another experiment was to hold your hands out over your head in a sort of jovial, victorious, confident sort of way and notice how you start to feel more confident. I still practice this on occasion. If I go out dancing and I'm not feeling particularly confident that evening, what I will often do is go into the bathroom, the single bathroom where no one else can see me, and I'll put my arms out in victory stance, and I'll stay in that position for a few minutes and sure as shit, when I come out that door, it's like Clark Kent just went into the phone booth and out walks Superman! Try it sometime, if you don't believe me. I think you'll be surprised at how well it works.
And the military knows all of these things too. I even had a class in the army about body language, how you can read other peoples' and how you can change your own body language to make yourself feel better. They know how to motivate you, they know how to make you feel strong and confident. But like I've said before: too bad it's a system that is predicated on killing. If it weren't for that I'd say it's a damn good institution.
So wait, was there a point to this post? I'm not sure. I think it was supposed to be about how strange it was that just yesterday I was looking back nostalgically on my time in the military and today I run into a bunch of Coast Guard people exercising on the levee, just like me, and how I, as a veteran, who is familiar with the kind of physical training they were engaging in, can connect with them. It's almost like we're part of the same family, only instead of being one of the younger kids I'm now more like an older, crazy uncle.
Yesterday I was waxing nostalgic over the military. I was thinking about trying to find a veterans group who get together to exercise military style and hooking up with them. So today I go out for my second day in a row of walking on the levee and what do you suppose I come across? A bunch of Coast Guard people assembling on the levee for a 5k "morale" run. I know this because I asked them if they were conducting a PT test, or something, and they told me it was a morale run. Yes indeed, morale. You see, the military is smart. They know that exercise causes the body to produce a chemical in our bodies called dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers. Dopamine also helps regulate movement and emotional responses, and it enables us not only to see rewards, but to take action to move toward them. So yes, getting up early in the morning and running 5 kilometers on a cold, or let's say brisk, morning will actually improve you moral, because it causes your body to produce dopamine. They talk about people who are clinically depressed as having a chemical imbalance. Could it be that their bodies just need a little more dopamine? I mean, I can tell you that when I was in the army and every time we went on a two mile run, which was every day, Monday through Friday, I might have been feeling depressed before the run, but not afterwards. No, no, no, after the run I always felt like Superman! And now that I think about it, it's no wonder to me that when I was in the army I would feel more depressed on the weekends, when we didn't do PT, than I ever did on weekdays, when we did.
So really, if you're depressed could exercise actually help you to snap out of it? I tend to think so. And I know it at least works for me, but everyone is different, and I recognize that too. But if depression could be reduced by merely getting more exercise then doctors and pharmaceutical companies would lose a lot of money, wouldn't they?
But I digress.
So when I was talking to the Coast Guard people and I told them I was a veteran one of them said that he knew it, he could tell. How? I asked. And he said it was by my stride, the way I walked. He said my stride has military written all over it. Now I know this probably isn't true when I'm just walking a short distance. but I know it's probably true when I start to walk for any length of time. I can feel my soldier stride start to kick in. I can feel a sort of swagger start to happen, even thought it's not meant to be cocky. I think the body just has a way of adjusting to walking longer distances and sort of just goes into that mode. But it does improve your posture. It makes you feel confident, it makes you feel strong, and yes, it makes you feel proud too. And that brings me to another topic: Body Language.
Your body language always reflects the way you feel. Always. But it can work two ways. I've done experiments where you're told to put a smile on your face but then try to think of things that make you really mad and try to get yourself mad while keeping a smile on your face. It's very hard to do. Another experiment was to hold your hands out over your head in a sort of jovial, victorious, confident sort of way and notice how you start to feel more confident. I still practice this on occasion. If I go out dancing and I'm not feeling particularly confident that evening, what I will often do is go into the bathroom, the single bathroom where no one else can see me, and I'll put my arms out in victory stance, and I'll stay in that position for a few minutes and sure as shit, when I come out that door, it's like Clark Kent just went into the phone booth and out walks Superman! Try it sometime, if you don't believe me. I think you'll be surprised at how well it works.
And the military knows all of these things too. I even had a class in the army about body language, how you can read other peoples' and how you can change your own body language to make yourself feel better. They know how to motivate you, they know how to make you feel strong and confident. But like I've said before: too bad it's a system that is predicated on killing. If it weren't for that I'd say it's a damn good institution.
So wait, was there a point to this post? I'm not sure. I think it was supposed to be about how strange it was that just yesterday I was looking back nostalgically on my time in the military and today I run into a bunch of Coast Guard people exercising on the levee, just like me, and how I, as a veteran, who is familiar with the kind of physical training they were engaging in, can connect with them. It's almost like we're part of the same family, only instead of being one of the younger kids I'm now more like an older, crazy uncle.