ABSOLUTE ASCENDANCY

Commencing operation . . .

Overview

Health. Such a broad topic it encompasses. It is of vital importance to keep on top of all aspects of your health from a young age because as you get older, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain good health.

Health is wealth.

If you do not take the measures to keep yourself healthy now, you will likely pay the price down the road. Below in no particular order are the five major areas of health, I believe everyone should apply a conscious effort to maintain.

1. Mental Well-being
2. Illness Prevention
3. Diet
4. Fitness
5. Organ Health

There is overlap among these five areas of health. You will likely find that if one area begins to suffer, it will have a knock-on effect on all other aspects of your life. Everything is interconnected and interrelated. Sometimes in ways, humanity has yet to comprehend fully.

1. Mental Well-being

The mind can be your greatest asset or liability. It all depends on how healthy and well trained your mind is. Your mental health is everything. It is the single most significant determining factor governing the degree of success you will have in any venture. It is therefore very much in your best interest to safeguard the health of your mind and strengthen it with a will of burning fire and unwavering resolve. The weak-minded accomplishes very little, if anything at all. Nothing great is achieved without a powerful thought engine.

There are two aspects to having a healthy mind; mental dexterity and spiritual strength. The former relates to the cognitive abilities and mental processing of the brain, whereas the latter deals with emotional management and morality.

Mental Dexterity

The best way I have found to maintain the mental prowess of my mind is to work my mind upon productive activities regularly. Just as the elite athlete trains daily, so too should you train your mind every day in some manner. This doesn’t mean you have to whip out an old maths book and work through pages of equations. Sure, that can train your mental capabilities, but you might hate maths, or more importantly, there may be better ways to work your mental muscles. Pretty much any activity which requires you to think actively will give your brain a workout. I will list a few examples below, but by no means is this list exhaustive.

• Read
• Write
• Play an instrument
• Play a game
• Play a sport
• Knowledge share

Regularly exercising the brain will keep it happy and healthy.

Spiritual Strength

Ironically while developing your mental dexterity requires an active engagement of the mind, the best way to increase your spiritual strength is by subjecting your mind to stressful situations. A few ideas of training your mind healthily are listed below.

• Meditation
• Cold showers
• Fasting
• Martial Arts

The ideal scenario is to place yourself in a situation that causes stress to your mind, but also, you have a degree of control over. If the environment is uncontrollable, the pressure can reach unmanageable levels, which you may struggle to free yourself. Just like with physical training, mental training should be performed in a relatively safe environment, gradually building up the difficulty as required. With the suggestions listed above, all of them allow you to set the parameters for the training, and they allow for an easy escape if you cannot stay the course.

Martial arts, in particular, have traditions, certain etiquette, and ceremonial procedures to follow. Integrating into these customs can build a sense of spirituality within. Following the opening and closing salutations during each class, bowing in and out when entering and leaving the mats, and showing respect to everyone at the Dojo, especially your training partners. All of these aspects promote a good sense of morality and spirituality within the individual. Training in the martial arts dives you deep into an ancient realm where the techniques you learn were first refined. Think about it. Most martial arts can be traced back a long way through history, and you have the opportunity to become a part of that history by taking up the arts. It’s pretty mind-blowing when you think about it, at least for me it is.

Martial arts also promote a very humbling attitude among students, especially those new to the arts. I am a beginner at Brazilian Jujitsu, and it very much brings me down to earth when I train in it once a week. There’s no room for ego on the mats, and when you end up getting submitted repeatedly, it is a humbling experience.

Sometimes things can become too hectic, so it is important to note that you can always talk through any problems with someone close to you or a professional if stress levels are unmanageable on your own. I adapt a philosophy whereby I train hard, work hard, and play hard, but sometimes I realise I do need to step off the gas from time to time and slow down. Daily meditation helps with this and further conditions the mind against stress. Black Box details many mental strategies which I use to maintain good mental health. 

2. Illness Prevention

Illness goes far beyond the common cold. There are sicknesses that are visible on an external level like the common cold, but others are more subtle; they wreak havoc internally and can pass unseen for long periods, to the point where it is too late to cure the disease.

External Illnesses

It is more or less inevitable that you will catch a common cold now and again. However, if you are falling ill regularly, this is a sure sign that your lifestyle requires change. Sickness is a way for the body to force you to slow down from time to time. Many people live fast-paced and hectic lifestyles, which can eventually take its toll on the human body. If you never succumbed to illness, your body would burn out without you even realising it until you were severely crippled. In my time, I have seen people who work flat out with very little rest, fighting through even when they are quite ill. These people do not look healthy even when they are not sick!

They look like the living dead. 

I’m all for pushing boundaries, but do so in a sustainable manner! At times resting is besting, so do yourself a favour and listen to your body when it gives you signals. This not only relates to illness but also physical and mental strains should be respected.

Internal Illnesses

The vast majority of internal illnesses stem from a poor diet. When you feed your body poorly, toxins accumulate within and create a breeding ground for all manner of sickness to thrive out of plain sight.

Cancer, organ failures, even sickness of the mind.

You could seem perfectly fine on the outside, but underneath it all, toxins could be stockpiling within. Keeping active, subjecting yourself to cold showers, and maintaining a balanced diet are all good ways of keeping both internal and external sicknesses at bay. If ever in doubt, go in for a medical check-up to know for definite the state of your health.

3. Diet

You are what you eat. While not correct in the literal sense, I believe there is much intricate meaning behind that phrase. Food is your fuel. If you use low-quality fuel and oil in your car, chances are the car will not last as long and will need to be serviced more regularly. Whereas if you use premium oils and fuel, your vehicle will be finely tuned for a more extended period and probably won’t require servicing as frequently. The same relationship can be transposed to food and the human body. In the vast majority of circumstances, eating poorly will lead to disastrous results somewhere down the line.

You may feel good ordering take-outs regularly and consuming a bunch of chocolate and ice cream, but sooner or later, you will pay the price, and it can sure as hell be a steep cost. Medical expenses are not cheap. You may have to pay more in your daily living to procure the good stuff, but it is well worth your while to do so to keep your body running at an optimal level. In the end, you would probably end up paying less in the long run by maintaining a healthy diet, rather than having to deal with any food-related medical issues as you age.

Eating poorly will, without a doubt, affect many areas of your overall wellness. If there is only one aspect of health I could choose to focus on, it would be my diet. As long as you have a sensible diet, you can keep most health issues at bay. Exercise is great, but I believe the diet is far more prominent in determining overall health levels. If you eat well and do moderate levels of exercise such as regular walking, you will not go too far wrong in maintaining your health.

4. Fitness

I believe an active body aids in nurturing a sharp mind and a healthy body. Take it from someone who has experienced having both a weak and strong body. I did not start out as a strong person. I was skinny, weak, and suffered from asthma in my younger years. I was incredibly unfit, and it took many years of arduous training to get to where I am today. Do not let my story daunt you, however. If anything, draw upon it as a source of inspiration. Indeed if I can manifest strength where initially there was weakness, then you too can do the same.

Neglecting your fitness levels will strain your body. The more weight you carry around, the harder your heart and lungs have to work to supply your body with blood, oxygen, and nutrients. Eventually, if left unchecked, you may end up hospitalised should your body succumb to the constant burden that has been placed upon it.

Staying active will keep your cardiovascular system in tip-top shape, your muscles and joints healthy and help maintain a good state of mind. You need not go completely crazy with exercise either. Regular walks in and of itself will go a long way in maintaining your heart health. Ideally, you should aim for at least three sessions a week of moderate exercise as a minimum standard. If you are unsure of where to start, my latest book Home Workout has everything you need to know to get a regular exercise routine into place in the comfort of your home.

5. Organ Health

The human body contains over seventy organs, five of which are vital for survival.

• Brain
• Heart
• Kidneys
• Liver
• Lungs

You can get away with losing a single kidney without too much repercussion, but if any of those remaining five organs become severely dysfunctional, your death will soon follow. Organs can be grouped based on role function within the human body, like so.

1. Musculoskeletal system-
2. human skeleton
3. ligament
4. joints
5. muscular system
6. tendons
7. Digestive system-
8. Mouth
9. teeth
10. tongue
11. salivary gland
12. parotid gland
13. submandibular gland

iii. sublingual gland

1. pharynx
2. esophagus
3. stomach
4. small intestine
5. duodenum
6. jejunum

iii. ileum

1. large intestine
2. liver
3. gallbladder
4. mesentary
5. pancreas
6. Respiratory system-
7. nasal cavity
8. pharynx
9. larynx
10. trachea
11. bronchi
12. lungs
13. diaphram
14. Urinary system-
15. kidneys
16. ureters
17. bladder
18. urethra
19. Endocrine glands-
20. pituitary gland
21. pineal gland
22. thyroid gland
23. parathyroid gland
24. adrenal gland
25. pancreas gland
26. Cardiovascular system-
27. heart
28. arteries
29. veins
30. capillaries
31. Lymphatic system-
32. lymphatic vessel
33. lymph node
34. bone marrow
35. thymus
36. spleen
37. gut-associated lymphoid tissue
38. tonsils
39. Nervous system-
40. brain
41. cerebrum
42. cerebral hemispheres
43. diencephalon
44. brainstem
45. midbrain
46. pons
47. medulla oblongata
48. cerebellum
49. spinal cord
50. ventricular system
51. choroid plexus
52. Peripheral nervous system-
53. nerves
54. cranial nerves
55. gangila

iii. enteric nervous system

10. Sensory organs-
11. eye
12. cornea
13. iris

iii. ciliary body

1. lens
2. retina
3. ear
4. outer ear
5. earlobe

iii. eardrum

1. middle ear
2. ossicles
3. inner ear

vii. cochlea

viii. vestibule of ear

1. semicircular canals
2. olfactory epithelium
3. tongue
4. taste buds
5. Integumentary system-
6. mammary glands
7. skin
8. subcutaneous tissue
9. Reproductive organs-
10. Female reproductive system

• ovaries
• fallopian tubes
• uterus
• vagina
• vulva
• clitoris
• placenta

1. Male reproductive system

• testes
• epididymis
• vas deferens
• seminal vesicles
• prostate
• bulbourethral glands
• penis
• scrotum

I will not cover every single aspect of that list, but I will talk through a few areas of importance.

Musculoskeletal Health

A particular aspect of muscular-skeletal health flew underneath the radar for me until recent years. Towards the end of 2017, I had an irritating case of back pain. I saw various specialists, such as osteopaths, sports therapists, and physiotherapists, but none of these worked for me. I tried implementing back-specific exercises and stretches, and while these did alleviate the pain somewhat, it was not a lasting solution.

I couldn’t believe I had back pain! I am super flexible, and my body was not weak. How could this be happening!?!

After six months of pain, I finally decided to see a chiropractor to see whether that would fix my problem. I had X-rays taken, and the doctor showed me that I had a hip imbalance, which was causing me to walk ever so slightly slanted. This, in turn, eventually created a spinal twist in my lower back, which was causing the pain. After a few sessions, my back pain was gone!

A strong, flexible body will certainly help in maintaining a proper frame, but also having an awareness of your posture is critical. Try not to look down at your smartphone too much. Bend your knees and stick your bum out rather than rounding your back when reaching down. Utilise your whole body for general movements rather than over-straining a particular area.

Dental Health

Unless you want to be forced liquids down a straw for the rest of your life, you better take care of your chompers. Inside the mouth is where most bacteria are found within the human body. As a martial artist, I make sure to clean my mouth guard after each use. For the average Joe, brush your teeth twice a day and floss each time you do so. Don’t skip your dental check-ups and eat healthily. Do these things, and your teeth should more or less be fine for a long time to come.

Sensory Health 

Mainly pertaining to the eyes and ears, but this also covers off your sense of touch, smell, and taste. Avoid areas with bright flashing lights and loud noise if you want to protect your eyes and ears. Nightclubs. Once in a while might be okay, but I do not recommend visiting such places regularly. Don’t stare too close at your phone or look at a screen without ample lighting. Avoid pumping loud music directly into your ears for long periods. Although glasses and contact lenses are commonly used to correct vision, these aids can cause further degradation to eyesight. I try not to wear my glasses unless necessary.

Conclusion

When you think about it, good health is not something to be taken for granted. There is a lot to keep on top of, no doubt about that. It is a mission but certainly one worth pursuing and investing time, money, and effort. 

Mission complete – Overlord Drakow signing out.