Liberal Arts Blog — The AUM (“Om”)Thing, the Waltz Thing, the Fake It Thing — A Quasi Annual Report

Liberal Arts Blog — Saturday is the Joy of Sports, Dance, Fitness, and All Things Physical Day

Today’s Topic: The AUM (“Om”)Thing, the Waltz Thing, the Fake It Thing — A Quasi Annual Report

Companies file annual reports and distribute them to shareholders. Should individuals write up annual reports for themselves to track their own progress along moral, intellectual or other lines? You could call these reports, “What Matters Reports.” Today, a version of this exercise on the subject of sports, dance, and fitness. Looking back over the last many years, I attempt to answer as best I can the question — what ideas have I come up with that are most worth remembering because they are so universally applicable? My first shot: the “Aum” thing, the “waltz thing,” the “fake it” thing. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.

THE AUM (“Om”) THING — aka the posture thing, the breathing thing, the smiling thing

1. You live breath to breath. Are you doing it right? Most people don’t know that there is a huge gap between optimal breathing and their actual breathing.

2. Optimal breathing requires optimal posture. This means the optimal angle of the head which causes the sternum to rise and the abdominal muscles to be engaged. This strengthens your core with every breath you take and maximizes your height. This is why all soldiers, ballerinas, and Olympic athletes have the same posture — their livelihood depends on it.

3. Optimal breathing requires abdominal breathing. This requires nasal breathing which requires shutting your mouth.

NB: Optimal breathing requires smiling because smiling tends via biofeedback to maximize nitric oxide production and thereby open your mind, heart, and soul just a tiny bit to make you more likely to say a kind word, lend a helping hand, or think a positive thought. Proper breathing will, thereby, make the world a more beautiful place.

THE WALTZ THING — why dancing should be mandatory K-12

1. Waltzing is the simplest and most beloved of all dances as is evidenced by Chairman Mao’s obsession with it.

2. Dancing is the best way to teach music, self-control, cooperation, and physics.

3. Waltzing has a wider repertoire of gorgeous music than any other dance.

NB: for details on the Waltz, see the seven post series, “Waltzing through Covid” of February 13 through April 3, 2020. Available by clicking on the link below and selecting the Sports Book.

THE FAKE IT TO MAKE IT THING — thank you to Tim Murphy, Harvard’s legendary football coach

1. Sometimes you are just not feeling it. Fake it. Get out of your actual self. Be the best you can be.

2. Life, as Shakespeare said, is a stage and we are all players. Play the person you want to be. Choose who you want to be and go for it.

3. Who you are is in your hands. Ditch the stage fright. Inhabit the role. Feel it in your soul.

NB: Choose what you want to be remembered for. Choose who you want to be. The Latin motto for this is “sua sponte.” I learned that because it is the motto of my youngest son’s middle school, Fenn, in Concord. It is also the regimental motto of the 75th Ranger regiment of the the US Army Rangers. For the last four years of posts organized by theme:

PDF with headlines — Google Drive

YOUR TURN

Please share the coolest thing you learned this week related to sports, dance, fitness. Or the coolest thing you learned about Sports, Dance, of Fitness in your life — whether on the field, on the dance floor or in the gym, whether from a coach, a parent, a friend, or just your own experimentation.

This is your chance to make some one else’s day. Or even change their life. It’s perhaps a chance to put into words something you have never articulated before. And to cement in your own memory something cool you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart.