Have you taken time to consider your existence? Could it be that you aren't aware of your own life?
Have you considered how you continue to exist? Could it be that what you ingest keeps you alive? Have you considered how you obtain what you ingest? Could it be that movement is how you obtain what you ingest? Have you deeply considered how these elements: awareness, ingestion, movement contribute to your existence? Don't listen to me or anyone else regarding your existence. Deeply consider your experience, here and now. There is no other truth.
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“Mindfulness” is the Buddha’s word for meditation. By mindfulness he means you should always remain alert, watchful. You should always remain present. Not a single thing should be done in a sort of sleepy state of mind. You should not move like a somnambulist; you should move with a sharp consciousness.
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana The Buddha propounded a set of teachings known as the Eightfold Path for the cultivation of complete Awareness. Notice how they all involve being present and paying attention. 1. Right view – Seeing reality as it is: fluid, flexible and constantly in motion. This involves looking at reality directly, without prejudice, belief, concepts or opinions (abstractions). 2. Right intention - Coming back to reality: to be present in this moment. This involves letting go of intentions and desires (attachments) and moving from moment to moment, wherever it leads. 3. Right speech - Speaking and listening out of the whole. This involves saying what is true and real, honest and authentic and includes only that which you have experienced for yourself. 4. Right action - Acting on seeing the whole. This involves action based on complete awareness (the complete and balanced functioning of mind). 5. Right livelihood - Earning a living that is conducive to enlightenment. This involves earning a living based on needs, not desires and includes work based on creativity, not destruction. 6. Right effort - Becoming the moment naturally and effortlessly. This involves action that is effortless and based on its own intrinsic value. 7. Right mindfulness - To return to actual experience. This involves remaining alert, watchful and present at all times. 8. Right meditation - Staying with immediate experience, moment by moment. This involves being totally absorbed with reality. Please visit to understand – www.humanbydesign.info/awareness When pursuing optimal movement capabilities we must consider the point of diminishing returns. This is the point where additional investment in resources or effort fails to produce a proportional return in profit or results. We have moved beyond our capabilities. There is nothing inherently wrong with this pursuit, but we must be realistic.
The restoration of evolved movement capabilities will require work. However, we must be careful with its application. There is a linear relationship between work and the development of these qualities. The more work you do, the more improvement you will see. However, once you reach a certain point, the amount of work required for continual improvement will exceed your design specifications. The cost will be a significant increase in the potential for movement dysfunction, injury and sickness. Work hard, but work appropriately based on individual genetics, environment conditions and goals. All things are poison, and nothing is without poison, the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison.
-Paracelsus- An anti-nutrient is a natural or synthetic compound that interferes with the absorption of nutrients and the proper functioning of the body. These compounds evolved in numerous life forms as deterrents to ingestion. Anti-nutrients are essentially poisonous to the organism that ingests them. Without technology such as cooking, we would be unable to ingest these compounds at all. Like nutrients, their effects appear to be dose-dependent. Barring individual genetic susceptibility and ingestion of massive quantities, the deleterious effects of anti-nutrients occur via chronic consumption. Examples of this phenomenon include malnutrition, leaky gut and endotoxemia. The most prevalent anti-nutrients in our modern environment are the gluten complex (found in cereals or grains), lectins (found in legumes or beans), glycosides and glycoalkaloids (found in nightshades such as tomatoes, peppers and potatoes) and phytates (found in cereals and legumes). These should look familiar to you. In reality, we can ingest anti-nutrients occasionally without acute toxicity (think birthday cake), although there may be some discomfort (think hot peppers). However, we should avoid the chronic ingestion of these compounds and focus on ingesting high quality nutrients. This Pali word is often translated as suffering, but it means something deeper than pain and misery. It refers to a basic unsatisfactoriness running through our lives, the lives of all but the enlightened (those who are completely present with wisdom). Sometimes this unsatisfactoriness erupts into the open as sorrow, grief, disappointment, or despair; but usually it hovers at the edge of our awareness as a vague unlocalized sense that things are never quite perfect, never fully adequate to our expectations of what they should be.
Can you be satisfied with what presents itself from moment to moment? Can you be content? This is the path out of Dukkha. Be completely present and you will see. Imagine navigating your day feeling vibrant, calm, and confident - your senses alive and your body completely responsive. You feel as if you are capable of accomplishing anything. This is optimal health and wellbeing, it can be yours, and Human by Design is the way.
There is only one way to completely realize truth: enter it through action. Implementing the Human by Design system involves action, and this is something that must be done individually. We must move beyond understanding and act. Action is reality. Our modern environment makes it difficult to take appropriate action. We have access to unlimited amounts of knowledge. Unfortunately, this makes implementation more confusing than it has to be. Which one of the myriad sources of knowledge is true? What should we base our actions on? Experience is the key. Truth comes down to personal experience. Having access to an appropriate knowledge base is a good way to start. This is the function of the Human by Design system. However, no one else’s answers are going to help in the end. This includes everything that you have read and seen up to this point. Do not take this point lightly. Each of us must find our own answers, and we must depend on our own experience. In order to experience optimal health and wellbeing you must test any and all knowledge out for yourself, and trust your own experience. You must experience and realize for yourself what is true and real - you are the final authority. This applies to every principle, practice and method associated with the Human by Design system. Don’t believe anything I say, but don’t ignore it either. Try it out and decide for yourself. With that said, Human by Design recognizes that you may not know where to begin. Based on this line of thinking, Human by Design has developed the three implementation plans, which are explained below - The Simple Path, The Basic Path, and the Complete Path. A meal should be composed of a variety of high quality food sources.
High quality food sources include plant and animal matter that is appropriate for our species biochemistry. This includes temperate fruit, salads, vegetables, roots and tubers, mushrooms, nuts, eggs as well as chicken, pork, fish and red meat. An optimal meal could look like a large salad that includes the following:
Please visit for more ideas – www.humanbydesign.info/ingestion Movement is composed of muscle contractions. The three main types of contractions are concentric (the muscles contract), eccentric (the muscles extend) and static (the muscles contract and extend, which results in no movement). These contractions can be dynamic and fast, slow with lots of tension or have no motion at all. In reality, movement is a seamless blend of all three contractions and speeds, with the emphasis depending upon a particular movement context.
An optimal movement practice includes functional movement patterns that emphasize all three contractions. You can do separate movement patterns that emphasize one over the others, but why not practice all three at the same time. This may look something like the following unilateral (one side emphasis) giant sets (more than two sets performed back, to back, to back). Power Skip (maximum height), Single Leg Squat (full range of motion, slow on the way down, fast on the way up), Single Leg Squat Low Position Hold (45 degree angle, hold with tension for five to ten seconds). One repetition each. Repeat other side. Reaching Pull-up (do a dynamic pull-up but release one hand at the top, extending the arm up as high as possible, then catch yourself with both arms), One-arm Pull-up with Assist (use the hand that stayed on the bar, with the hand that extended off the bar grabbing the wrist for assistance – slow on the way down, fast on the way up), One-arm Pull-up High Position Hold (top of the movement, hold with tension for five to ten seconds). One repetition each. Repeat other side. Explosive One-Arm Knee Push-up (start at top and use opposite arm as brace on the opposite leg, stay tight on the way down with dynamic push on the way up – hand may briefly leave ground; you can also do this from a secure bench or from your knees), One-Arm Push-up (slow on the way down, fast on the way up; you can also do this from a secure bench or from your knees), On-Arm Push-up Low Position Hold (bottom of movement, hold with tension for five to ten seconds. One repetition each. Repeat other side. These are intense. One or two sets for each side will suffice. If you are unable to do the initial, unilateral dynamic movements, you can substitute them with similar bilateral movements – ex. Jump Squat, Explosive Pull-up, Explosive Push-up. Please visit for more ideas – www.humanbydesign.info/movement What does this Zen Mondo (a dialogue between student and Zen teacher) mean to you?
“We have to eat and dress every day,” said the monk to Mu-chou. “How can we escape from all that?” Mu-chou said: “We dress, we eat.” “I do not understand.” said the monk. “If you don’t understand, get dressed and eat your breakfast.” Be COMPLETELY present. If you aren’t, meditation will help. Human awareness is complete and balanced functioning of the primary (instinct)/secondary (reasoning) representation systems. Zazen, the path to wisdom (intuition), is the modern, paleolithic approximation of ancestral awareness.
Human dietary strategy is based on vegetable matter in the primary position and animal matter in an essential, secondary position. Paleolithic nutrition is the modern, paleolithic approximation of our ancestral dietary strategy. Human movement capabilities are based on terrestrial, bipedal movement and arboreal-based movement such as walking, running, jumping, climbing, carrying, tool making and throwing. Movement qualities include power = fast execution/moderate intensity, strength = slow execution/high intensity, endurance = moderate execution/low intensity. A functional movement practice is the modern, paleolithic approximation of ancestral movement. |
AuthorSeth Clayton is the creator of the Human by Design System. He is a human from Charlotte, NC who is interested in helping you achieve optimal health and wellbeing through the avenues of Zen Buddhism, Functional Movement and Paleolithic Nutrition. Archives
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