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There has been a serious decline in our physical and mental health in the last 10 years. More and more convenience and more and more spending power might have led to the worst of the human devolution!
According to the mental health statistics published in the last 5 years by Our World Data, approximately 13% of the world's population is suffering from some or the other mental health disorder (Anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, ADHD, alcohol and drugs) which totals to nearly 1 billion people.
The physical health decline as indicated by the obesity statistics published by World Health Organization, again, nearly 1 billion people suffer from this disease and the trend is on the rise.
The global joint pain relief technologies are expected to grow by over 8% in the next 4-5 years.
As the world moves swiftly towards advanced technology, we thrive on safety and security, faster travel, even faster entertainment, we are not really sure how our lifestyle has been slowly degrading. Unknowingly, the world is moving towards slavery to a lot of convenience and consumerism unless we develop awareness towards our lifestyle patterns and how to make the best of this day and age.
Western commode:
This one might seem funny, but one of the major reasons why knee pain has become so prevalent in older adults is due to the fact that they are not accustomed to "squatting" deep while taking a dump. Squat is a fundamental human movement pattern and is of prime importance for knee and hip health because you cover the entire range of motion along the joint. Sadly, the prevalence of western commodes and decline of Indian variant (or squatting down) has compromised our joint mobility.
Tourist vehicles:
This is really coming from the traveler portion of my heart. It has been disheartening to witness the state of our beautiful destinations. People who have wished to experience solitude in the mountains typically get stuck in SUV traffic jams. Not denying the fact that everyone has the right to travel in their own way, and keeping my personal liking for travel on foot aside, we humans are a part of nature first and we have gradually turned against it. Travel these days has become more of a photo posting competition and a bucket list tick off for majority of us and thus, come what may we would like to be there and get done with it to post our photos on social media and get likes. Travel is not earned, views are not earned, even mountain tops these days aren't earned but accessed. Not only is this worse for the environment (by burning fuel), it is also a sure shot way to tell our peers and the next generation that you can pay for any destination you want to visit. Some part of me wants you to earn your way to the best of the destinations so that you can appreciate them and take care of them, even if it means strictly not allowing vehicles after a certain point.
Food delivery apps:
The most booming convenience is food on our finger tips. Weekday or weekend, Swiggies and Zomatoes are rushing to satiate your appetite. 10 years back, cooking was a life skill and satisfied our hunger while keeping us healthier, mostly due to lack of eating joints and media to order online. For most part, a person had to learn how to prepare meals for themselves or their families. However, these days convenience has skyrocketed. You just need to tap a few links and your food will be available in 30-45 min. Again, these apps are providing wages to the hard working delivery boys but the point isn't not to order food online, it is to highlight the lack of skill development out of necessity. What will happen when you are not able to order food and don't even know how to boil your rice? The repercussions, poorly prepared great tasting meal in plastic boxes.
Lack of focus:
Due to the prevalence of smart phones in the last decade, the technology and social media have started taking away your focus. There are millions of distractions just a pocket away. How is one supposed to focus on deep meaningful work and brainstorm over their innovative ideas if they are constantly distracted and looking to take breaks to scroll mindlessly only to have spent two hours doing nothing. Some people have ADHD since childhood, these days adults develop ADHD like symptoms by lack of focus and billion distractions. One of the most important points I would like to highlight is about being with yourself in whatever state of mind you are at or boredom. We have lost touch with our inner self because of this mini chip inside your pocket called the smartphone which doesn't even let you be.
Quick entertainment or 20-20 life:
Further to the point made above, even if one wishes to use social media for the better, they are hooked on to stupid stuff uploaded by people and that too for some 10 odd seconds before it scrolls down to the next. Mindless amusing "cliplets" that keep on showing up on your feed because you entertained them. Moreover, test cricket became 50-50 one day cricket and is now 20-20 cricket because you liked the mini entertainment part of it, you didn't like the game all that much. It really gets difficult letting go of this pattern and deliberately do the opposite and even more difficult for people to share meaningful stuff because you are used to stupid entertainment while the other info might not arrive with dancing Nora Fatehi :D.
Consumption over Creation:
Linking to the above point on quick entertainment, we get so engrossed in dopamine infused content that we consume it for hours together each day. In whatever life which is left outside of social media, we again consume - we consume food, fuel for our vehicles, electronic gadgets in our homes and other material things from the market. Little do we care about giving back to the society. Now, most people wouldn't believe they have it in them to actually contribute to others at a certain level, but something as simple as sharing their life's learnings with others on a weekly or even monthly basis through your preferred media like blogs, journals, painting, sketching, podcasts, videos, etc. is a good way to look at it. For the most part, creativity will have you look for stuff within yourself and seek for clarity. You cannot paint or write or talk when you yourself are all foggy headed about something. You will never go within yourself if you are always in the consumption mode.
Machines in the gym:
Although machines do have a place and they provide the added stability for the elderly, those who are disable physically or during injury rehab, they have become a status symbol for gyms across the world and a preference for people who want to "try out" exercises on these highly stable machines. You might be thinking that at least you're getting some movement out of it, but sadly that little isolated movement occurs while keeping the rest of the body stationary in one position(for example, in a leg extension machine, your legs move while torso, hips, hands, lower leg remain stationary). In the real world when you move, you don't move just with your upper legs do you? The whole essence of building better and stronger functioning humans through Outlaw Lift is to make you move well which happens when muscles work in unison not isolation.
Too many glass doors, long mirrors and machines are an easy way to exercise without working too hard on fixing your movement as opposed to is I ask you to do pull-ups or perform a single leg squat. Similarly, an easy access to a treadmill won't make you look out for solutions to run outside in the rain or in traffic. It won't make you get up early and hit the road nor will the treadmill belt stop and ask you to push with your feet. When you run outdoors you need to find solutions to things like getting up early, finding a suitable place to run, and actually run with your feet on a stationary ground. That's way more work that checking into a lounge gym with air conditioning and pressing a few buttons on a treadmill.
Machines will never test you so much as the free movements will and if you're not tested in the weight room, how do you plan to become tougher mentally?
Worshipping celebrities:
In our country, entertainment is numero uno! People become starts simply by abusing on screen and the common man finds it hilarious and this makes them an overnight star. We wish to be entertained at each point in our day because deep down we know how miserable our life it and there's no point in discussing "serious" topics like self-development. Most of us want to flow in time. The thirst for entertainment and amusement is such that few actors or media artists are tagged as kings and Gods by the public and whatever they do and say becomes the word in stone and everyone must follow those rules. So much so that poor "celebrities" forget that they are humans and they won't know everything. This spreads misinformation and it gets viral like crazy. The brown breads, peanut butters, keto's, air fry etc etc etc are few such hyped fads that had spread in the country and products capitalized on them.
Not questioning things:
And lastly, the reason why celebrities or medical professionals or tagged highly intellectual people earn a lot of money on basis of their "status" is because there is literally no one who would question their words or actions. A famous medical professional might down a lab coat and spread evidence-less BS on TV and poor us would believe everything and turn our life around those words. A famous actor might vomit his feelings about a product in public and the public starts to hate that product. A grad from an elite college comes out with a product and claims it to be sustainable and we all would want to believe that. This goes back to Colonialism where we have always made to feel we are of a lower status than the English masters. The stupid hierarchy we have created in our society that has divided humans on basis of their work, status or caste is leading us to a societal downfall in self-confidence. Break the pattern! Start questioning! Not only will you gather a ton of knowledge, you will also develop confidence in yourself and let go of the belief of status and celebrity.
Beware, you might come across as a rude problem-maker and that is ok because every time someone tries to stand out in a society, people wont be able to digest that fact. It's good! it's making you different and leading you to your best life, keep going!
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I am Vidhu Mahana, a dual certified strength and nutrition coach and also a seasoned traveler.
For coaching inquiries, please email me at liftnwander@gmail.com or DM me on my Instagram handle @outlaw_lift
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