You, the athlete

By Chris Crowell

Seduced.

It is so easy to be seduced by entertainment and information that flood into our lives. The ease of access to entertainment and information though readily available low cost technology and its marketing capitalization lure us to become addicts. As our time within a day/week/month is spent not just in front of a TV, but reading blogs, on Facebook, sending emails, watching YouTube, listening to pundits or being spectators to events, we are stimulated into an inactive paralysis. The stimulation is exciting and can create deep emotional and mental responses. However, it demands little or no participation of our body.

We must use the body as a means to free our minds and engage our spirits. We are a spirit experiencing this earth in a physical being and must utilize physical movement and challenges as stimulus for aliveness. That does not mean that the most physically strong or fit are the most successful, or that a rich life exists only through the physical, it is meant as an awareness of the value of physical in each of us. As Bill Bowerman, co-founder of Nike and coach of University of Oregon, is quoted “If you have a body, you are an athlete.”. We are all athletes and all need physicality to enhance the magic and glory of life.