I have been thinking on this for quite some time now, and would now like to pose the question to you. Do you think that our ever growing self-obsession is killing our compassion for fellow humans? Does it reduce our humanity in the face of ever more common violence, corruption, and hatred in the world today?
Over the last 5 years, I have been mostly consumed with carving out a place for a unique personal training business based on restoring the quality of our movement , eating real food in a social setting as a cornerstone of health, getting together in social settings such as book club events, movie nights, and group activities. In essence, trying to change the focus of attention from topless Instagram photos that wreak havoc with the self-esteem of many, and put it back on building confidence and health from within, and reconnecting with ourselves, as well as with our brothers and sisters.
On the side of the above, I have been involved in presenting 2 TV documentaries, covering both 100 years of my hometown Belfast, and also exploring the current issue of the frightening rate of suicide among young people in Ireland today. Both these projects have widened my perspective about what people can be going through unbeknownst to anyone else, and the pain and struggles that individuals and families can go through and come out the other side of. I contrast this to the 20/20 vantage point I have of the health and fitness industry from ‘rapid fat loss program’, superficial social media posts, socially isolating diets, and marketing fad extreme exercise routines or products. 3
Social media is in our pockets and in our faces just about every minute of the day. Couples in restaurants are scrolling through their timelines and homepages. Who’s doing what, who’s skinny, who’s fat, selfies, photos of breakfast, lunch and dinner, targeted ads, and click bait. Happy exteriors, but dying on the inside.
Meanwhile, we have 2800 homeless families in 2017, corporate interests are controlling many of the decisions that our governments take in the Western world, the Grenfell tower atrocity, one of the most extreme and hate filled parties are propping up the London Government in the DUP, Israel is blatantly and openly destroying the nation of Palestine in front of us all, and our health as a nation is in dire straits with obesity figures, diabetes, and other diseases that results poor lifestyles and diets are rampant.
I don’t mean to paint a bleak picture of the world today, and I can say for one that I focus on the positives most of the time, but that doesn’t mean that I shy away from the cruelty and injustice that is so obvious in todays day to day life. Every night when I cycle home from work, I pass a dozen people at least in sleeping bags in shop doors on Patrick street. Not so many that I can rationalise it in my own head to be a problem of epic proportions in Cork city, but few enough for me to feel even more uneasy that we let people sleep rough like this when it clearly could not be that difficult to put a roof over a dozen or so heads.
Anyway, all this got me thinking about the possibility of there being a link between our continued freefall into the world of electronic devices. Our zombie like gaze at the iPad screen, and constant checking for likes and shares. Our insatiable desire to stumble upon some breaking news or scandal on our newsfeeds, or our obsession with beach bodies, 6 pack abs, or the next best diet or exercise routine. Our busy lifestyles, our first world problems, and our chattering minds. I am not preaching from above here. I include myself in many of the above traps, at times some more than others. It disturbs me that I may be becoming less compassionate towards the plight of others, or more likely to be indifferent to inequality or injustice because I may be busy working on my ‘health and fitness’, taking pictures of my perfectly formed flat white, or taking a scenic selfie.
It makes me realise that there is no such thing as individual health and fitness really, when we turn a blind eye to the people in need who are at our feet, our neighbours, or on the other side of the world. Its not that we all need to live a life of political activism, but I don’t want to be sucked in to a world of being self-obsessed at the expense of my humanity, compassion, and curiosity. Health starts from within ourselves, deciding what we value, and living our lives in according to those values. This includes what we eat, how we treat others, how we carry ourselves, what kind of work and physical activity we do, and how we exert our innate human energies.
A quote that always pops into my head when an opportunity arises for me to help someone who could do with a hand is;
‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor”