Remodeling Our World

We are the masters of our own destiny. And we oftentimes forget it. You hear it all the time in our daily dialogue, the words we choose when we speak about our world:

I am fat. I am slow. I am dumb. I am unlovable. I can’t learn this.

Worse yet, how about the unspoken dialogue that exists when you read between the lines:

I am a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Are we passive victims of our own physical and mental worlds? Must we be transfixed on a life of woe ahead of us? The answer is simple: No.

We can choose to Live A Smart Life, or we can choose to do nothing, or any of a number of options in between. We can choose to remodel our world – and here’s how.

In health, fitness, medicine, and any other area related to human physiology and movement, some simple truths exist. Even though there is a great degree of complexity in the human body, it adapts and remodels according to the physical and mental demands imposed upon us. In the physical world, it could be a mechanical stress such as a training session, or strength training, or walking up a couple of flights of stairs. In the mental world, it could be a neurological stress such as learning how to play the guitar, or reading, or simply in the words we say to ourselves. We adapt to the imposed demands. As form follows function, if we change how we function, we change the overall form of the anatomy and physiology required to perform that function.

The human body can, literally, remodel itself. We can remodel our tissues. The cells of our body turn over at a tremendous rate. The body we exist in now is far different than the one we had a month ago. And that doesn’t mean that we’re just another month older.

We can remodel our nervous system. The central nervous system is a very plastic and pliable entity. We can create new synapses between nerves. We can essentially “re-wire” our selves and change our programming mentally.

All of this is very powerful from one simple context. We are not victims. We are not passive. We can remodel our world. Change is within all of us. It just requires some dedicated effort – starting with one simple choice to do so.

Photo credits: Anders Adermark