Welcome back Viphilus*
Once again, let’s start with
the Capacity Table, first posted on Nov.16.
So far we’ve looked at exercising
to increase capacity in the character markers known as strength and flexibility.
This week we look at exercising for endurance:
physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
Physical endurance is about having sufficient physical energy to be
able to prolong physical activity. The most common exercises for this are
cardio, or aerobic exercises where a high intake of oxygen is required to
ultimately build the heart and lung muscles to increase their capacity. Cardio
exercises are anything that get the heart rate up (to at least 70% of maximum
capacity … 80% is even better). The result of repeatedly doing this is that it
trains the body that you have become a person who requires additional heart and
lung capacity for greater oxygenation of the blood … so those two vital organs
increase in size. The ultimate benefit is having a heart and lungs that permit physical
activity to continue for longer and longer periods of time without fatigue
setting in. There are other exercises for increasing duration but this post is
not intended to be exhaustive … I simply want to highlight the importance of
building endurance in all 4 basic areas of our being.
Mental endurance is about the capacity to sustain focus and
concentration (on whatever you are intending to focus and concentrate on) for
long periods of time. The generations behind me struggle with a frequently diagnosed
malady called Attention Deficit Disorder (A.D.D.) … a term used to describe
patterns of behaviour that appear most often (but not only) in school-aged
children. The behaviors noted are the inability to pay attention, sit still, or
attend to one thing for a long period of time; they may mask their dysfunction
by appearing overactive.
I’m not a mental health professional,
but that doesn’t mean I don’t have an opinion on a potential reason for the upswing
in this diagnosis. Children can be found doing their homework in a room with a
TV going, IPOD headphones firmly in place, and a hand-held device delivering
them emails, FaceBook updates, tweets, instagrams, and a host of other
second-by-second distractions. The relentless overstimulation has trained a
generation or two that multitasking or task-switching is a good thing. It is
not. It creates a highly diminished capacity for sustained attention.
If you want to concentrate
for longer periods of time, the most sure-fire way of accomplishing this is to
simply practice concentrating. You might last only 10 second before your mind
wanders. That’s fine; don’t beat yourself up. Just gather your thoughts once
you’ve realized your mind has started off-roading, and get back on track. Oh …
and this is important: TURN OFF ALL THE DISTRACTIONS MENTIONED ABOVE (yelling
by CAPS intended … to get your attention).
I always get push-back from young people on this … but the proof always
remains in the pudding. Just try it and see if you don’t discover that I’m
right.
Emotional endurance is about the capacity for patience … the ability
to endure under difficult circumstances without acting on anger or other
negative emotions. How the heck do you exercise this? Actually, this one is
either ridiculously easy …. or ridiculously hard; it is a choice. Let me
explain.
The impetus for increasing capacity
is stress/strain … push the body or mind slightly beyond its limit, maybe even
to the point of failure, and the body/mind learns to adapt to increased
stress/strain. In other words, if you want more patience, simply look for or
create opportunities in which patience is required … because that’s how you
grow it. (remember the old humorous quip: “be careful if you ask God for
patience because He will probably just send you something to test it.”) This is where the choice part comes in. If
the only way to grow patience is through trying times, then intentionally
acknowledging that to yourself when things get tough will flip an important switch
in your head that turns the challenge into a growth building event … one in
which the aphorism will be true, “that which doesn’t kill you makes you
stronger.”
Spiritual endurance is highly correlated to faith. I like the
Biblical definition found in Hebrews 11:1: “faith is the assurance of
things hoped for; the evidence of things unseen.” There may be a crossover here to emotional
endurance, but spiritual endurance simply goes to a different level … and I
believe it is a much deeper one at that. Faith is “knowing” that things will
turn out a certain way, even in the face of all evidence to the contrary. In
many ways, faith can override the emotions and make the need for patience
almost moot.
For some, faith is too
irrational. Then call it a belief, or a conviction … it is an almost intangible
hope that “I will endure.” And as with emotional endurance and the need for patience,
if you ask for it you will likely be given an “opportunity” to grow it. One
Bible passage tells us that even faith itself is a gift from God, but that
passage doesn’t say whether the gift is packaged in the form of an instant
capacity of belief-without-evidence or whether that gift package looks more
like a challenging ordeal through which faith can grow. James says that it is
through the testing of our faith that we develop perseverance (endurance).
Finally, the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome by saying that “endurance
produces strength of character, which in turn, produces hope.” The posts this
month have been about character building … and that can’t really happen without the testing of our spiritual resolve.
I hope to see you back next
Monday for the final piece of this puzzle … exercising for resilience.
Blessings Viphilus,
Your friend, Omega Man
* Viphilus means, "lover of life"
No comments:
Post a Comment