I Give Myself All The Permission I Need

I mean, seriously. Insomnia in your teens ? Erectile dysfunction in your twenties ? Signs of coronary heart disease and full blown diabetes in your 30s ?

These are the kind of gut-wrenching statistics I have been reading for years and wondering what the hell we have been doing wrong. My understanding is that these issues directly stem from a man’s lack of interest in his dietary and lifestyle requirements, leading to life-threatening, unnatural, and often psychosomatic illnesses.

Taking this reality into consideration, issues such as approach anxiety and a lack of success with women seem arbitrary and a non-issue. Let me just say that if you can make some fundamental adjustments and make your inner core function optimally again, not only will all your perceived problems with the opposite sex be automatically resolved, but your life will be far more radiant, positive, successful and healthy. Your innate attractiveness as a man will outshine all other “men” whom you encounter in your daily life, because today’s men ceased to be men a long time ago.

A complete transformation is required, but this is not to say you are not perfect at the moment ... you are. However, it is essential for you to find out what the missing jigsaw piece in your life is, and once that happens, there is the possibility of a complete transformation in your perfection. The present man is crawling in the mud when he should be soaring in the sky with the eagles. Not physically, but his awareness should be in the cosmos.

Who am I, and what qualifies me to talk about the potentially daunting topic about the state of man today ? No one gave me a “certificate” to be able to express my understanding. I don’t need anyone else’s permission to express myself, and I give myself all the permission I need. All that I talk about is according to … me.

Perhaps it sounds amusing. Surely every man needs validation from others before he can even open his mouth ? Things should be according to Doctor so-and-so, Professor so-and-so, or this book or that book, shouldn’t it ? Isn’t that why we have colleges, universities, centers of accreditation and qualification ?

How about I turn things around for you ? Everything I write will be according to my own understanding. If, after reading this article, you come to terms with what I mean by “according to me,” then you will have understood many things. If you can talk to anyone and utter the words “according to me,” then this article will have served its purpose.

For this article, I intend to give you a basic outline of my philosophy. This philosophy, I believe, is the innate philosophy of man. Consider it a man’s default setting once he makes the decision to revert to his natural, healthy and limitless state.

Let me talk about the psychological aspect first. There is the suppression of the plethora of emotions and thoughts which a man has trained himself to classify in various categories. The categories can vary from person to person, and typical classifications are “good, bad, shameful, guilty, evil.” When a man is calling himself “bad” and labeling his emotions and thoughts as “shameful,” resulting in him feeling “guilty” because he feels angry or hateful, it is completely illogical.

All emotions, feelings and thoughts are nothing but energies. These energies such as anger, hate, lust, and jealousy are all a part of man. Where are they coming from ? They are not coming from external sources, but from within you. Learn acceptance of everything, all your emotions, all your feelings, desires. Do not beat yourself up, do not question or judge yourself. Accept, invite and deal with all your feelings by treating them alike. Anger can become compassion, hate can become love ... it is all transformative energy which you can use and mold to become whatever you want.

Do not suppress your thoughts, feelings and emotions, but allow them to intensify and blossom. If you remain weak, wishy-washy and lukewarm, then your cannot transform. Lukewarm water never transforms, but has to be boiled at an intense heat before it can vaporize. Gold has to be melted at a high heat before it can be molded into jewelry. Metal has to be glowing before it can be forged into a sword. Allow complete and free expression of all your inner feelings. Feel unburdened and light.

This does not mean striking your loved ones when angry. I simply mean allow a full expression of your anger without suppressing it, which will only drive it deeper within you and cause future psychological pain. You can lock yourself in a room, beat a pillow, take up martial arts classes, go running. Just be alone and face your demons. Welcome them, urge them to come out. Be thankful that this angry / hateful / jealous energy has arisen within you so that you have the opportunity of getting acquainted with it and understanding it, thus understanding yourself. Only then will these emotions dissipate.

Once you master the art of expression without reservation, you are finally ready to become meditative. Consider your thoughts as separate from you. Observe, witness your thought processes impartially without judging, condemning or criticizing.

I was visiting someone in hospital the other day, and one of the other visitors was talking about the “benefits” of being in a ward with others rather than by yourself. My point was that I would prefer to be alone, and my friend stated that it was better to be with others so that you don’t “go crazy with your thoughts.”

This is the biggest problem: thoughts. Thoughts can drive a man crazy. This is why most people are afraid of aloneness. Aloneness is different from loneliness, and to quote my good friend, Zaffar Miskeen, “My aloneness is my treasure.” What a beautiful statement, which sums up the entire experience of meditation. Embrace aloneness. All relationships are temporary. If you can sit alone and be content with your own company, this is meditation. Try and understand this vital point.

Physically, man is designed for vigorous exercise. He is not designed to be sedentary, yet this is what modern man does. He is growing weaker and weaker, the bones in his body are become fragile and his muscles are wasting. This can lead to poor blood circulation. Gym workouts are not a natural workout. They result in bulky, knotted muscles, while a lean, dense musculature is ideal. Most men today carry excess fat around their waists and chest which is not the way a natural man should look. This clouds the thinking, making a man lazy and sluggish.

A martial arts class is the best way to gain overall fitness, as it works on the internal structure of the body as well as the outer appearance … not to mention giving you a good grounding in self-defense. However, I understand that not everybody can afford the time or the mental energy to devote the sort of attention it takes to train after a long day at the office, so here are some suggestions.

Make a point of walking for 30 minutes three times a week. This is not a big goal, but it will get your body moving. Do twenty push-ups in the morning before going to work or college. Look at the way soccer players stretch before a training session or game, and let that motivate you to do the same before a big meeting or an exam (yes, it will fuel your mind). I have a whole plethora of calisthenics which I teach my martial arts students, but try and find a good stretching and moving routine which is suitable for your needs.

The modern diet is killing us. I believe that meat should be eradicated from the human diet, simply because man is naturally a herbivorous being. A human digestive system is not designed for flesh, but it is designed to process vegetables and plants. Meat (and seafood) starts to putrefy within four hours of entering the stomach. True carnivores have no problems with meat, as they have short, tubular intestines designed to get meat in and out the system. The human intestine is long, and designed to slowly extract the nutrients from vegetables and plants.

Meat causes long term illnesses, clogs up the human arteries and blood vessels, makes the blood fatty and increases cholesterol, leading to severe coronary heart disease. When you go into hospital for heart surgery, the surgeon will find your arteries clogged up with animal fat and cholesterol, not broccoli and cucumbers. Yes, we do need fat to survive, but not another living creature’s fat … not animal fat. Natural fat found in vegetables is sufficient.

Moreover, there is no need to eat meat, as vegetables are more than enough for our vitamin and protein requirements. The myth that we need meat to have a balanced diet is just that: a myth propagated by the meat industry. Elephants, horses and cows grow to large muscular sizes on grass and vegetation. The only supplement I personally take is vitamin B12, which helps red blood cells, and yes, it is found in meat. It is contained in meat because meat is dirty. Vitamin B12 is found in bacteria, and can easily be found in unwashed carrots.

Aside from the health issues, I believe it is abhorrent to kill animals for food, when there is so much variety in vegetarian food. For me, it was relatively gradual to drop meat because I very rarely ate red meat, and preferred chicken and fish. Then one day, I dropped chicken. Then I dropped fish. I always liked eating vegetable and lentil dishes since childhood, so it was not really a big deal for me. However, I did have cravings for chicken and lamb ... which tends to happen once you know you have stopped eating something.

This changed, and I started seeing food differently: so many delicious vegetables and fruits in the supermarkets which I had not noticed before. I started experimenting with various dishes, and had the time of my life, feeling healthier, lighter and far more sharp than before. Meat does not consist only of lean flesh. It contains veins, nerves, blood vessels and fat. All this gunk clogs up blood vessels, so naturally the blood flow to the brain is affected. Hence when I dropped this, my thinking cleared up. Don’t do it all at once, otherwise you will miss meat. Do it gradually, and discover a whole new world of taste and delicious, natural food.

To conclude, I have focused on three key areas for the purpose of this article. Self-expression, meditation and diet. If you can work on these three areas, then you will find that your quality of life and experiences will drastically improve. You will experience life in more dimensions and discover yourself in a way you never thought you could. I wish you all the best.