Emotion vs. reason

The concept of yin and yang is very dominant in Asian religions, as everyone is very much aware. In a way, they are polar opposites, but instead of fixing in an stalemate and ending up with a static equilibrium, they are ever moving and their balance is dynamic. This circular nature of things is also instilled deep in how people of the eastern cultures understand the world; some academic writers suggest that if westerners are keen to identify a start and an end, the Asian cousins are in turn in a loop, so to say. Projects versus processes. When yin gets very strong, yang also starts growing, thus forcing yin to shrink again, only to cause the opposite. There are four qualities to yin and yang:

1. They are opposites
2. They are complementary
3. They mutually transform (e.g. when yin reaches its maximum, it starts going towards the minimum)
4. They are in a dynamic equilibrium (e.g. when yin grows, yang shrinks, and vice versa)
   

In a way, emotion and reason can be seen through this lens as well. A widely held belief is that emotion and reason are polar opposites, but at the same time the complement each other. They also transform as a person goes through different phases, yet they (typically) remain in a dynamic equilibrium. But then, this is very subjective and dependent on the individual. Some people are more emotional than others, as can be overheard so often. So in a way, if we plot a one-dimensional line and define the left side as emotion and the right side as reason, then the average of where the subjective equilibrium is varies by person.

Different people also sway different amounts. This might be understood to be stability; the less you sway the more stable you are. Meaning that if we draw a bell curve around the average, the smaller the variance is, the more stable the person. The curve, of course, may not be a bell curve. Personally I am very often a very rational person, but that does not mean that I am not emotional as well. This year has been very emotional for me, and although extremely rational individuals often scoff at the uncontrollable nature of emotion, one should still not underestimate the power of emotion. This I've learned the hard way.

The dualistic nature of the situation, however, need not be a weakness or a problem. In fact, I think that it is in fact a strength, if one is able to tap into it. Emotion enables passion, and life without passion is not a life worth living. And passion, much like fire, must be kept a steady eye on as an uncontrolled fire will turn into a forest fire and consume everything. Similar to how passion will consume the individual. So reason, then, is the cool opposite of the fire-y emotion and keeps emotion in check. They are in a symbiotic relationship, as one without the other is a dead end. If emotion without reason is a forest fire, reason without emotion is a robot. And a person sways between the two, striving to find the right balance.

But ultimately, both emotion and reason are still meant to be subordinate to the individual. Much like neither fire nor water can ever be truly controlled, neither can emotion and reason. But they should be harnessed and the energy they create should, in the end, be used towards happiness. I am sure that this is nothing new, but as seems to be the case with me, I have to learn everything myself--and preferrably the hard way--before I can truly grasp it.

Vampires of misery

Why do people feed on other peoples' misery? Or, well at least some do. Might it have something to do with an inherent, biologically programmed tendency towards automatically handling situations as zero-sums? Or are some people just inherently more evil than others? Or maybe it has something to do with trying to get even or righting some past wrongs?

Summary for week 36

Well, since I'm turning into Antti already, I guess I should start listing what I'm actually doing to improve my physical shape. Alas, I don't have any sort of GPS contraption right now, so I can't make those nifty maps of the routes that I'm running in the way Antti can, but oh well...

• Sunday 31.8.: Run around Keilalahti
• Monday 1.9.: Gym at work
• Wednesday 3.9.: Gym at work
• Thursday 4.9.: Run around Lauttasaari
• Saturday 6.9.: Run to the office, gym, and run back home

And now that I actually listed those here, I have this bad premonition that maybe this type of routine is ever so slightly amitious and may not provide the most optimal results in the long run. But I guess only time will tell.

Oh, and on an entirely unrelated note, I have to thank Mikko and Kristina for the brilliant present they got me from Stockholm. It was a refrigerator magnet with Audrey on it! So now I have my very own Audrey!

Offshoots from exercise

I've been recently reading a bit about the history of Sparta. The rationale behind this is that whereas Athens was famous for the intellectual endeavors of its citizens, Sparta was known for its incredibly pragmatic and determined ways of waging war. The planning versus execution discussion revisited, so to say. So naturally Sparta might be an interesting subject to study a bit in the quest to find the will to act or to execute. And it might also be interesting from the point-of-view of my recent increased focus on exercising.

One aspect that I regarded as especially interesting was the role of Spartan women, who seem to have been a lot more ahead in the journey towards gender equality than their Athenian sisters. Cartledge suggests that Spartan women were also considered very beautiful, as can be recalled from Helen of Troy (previously Helen of Sparta). No, I cannot help but wonder if the beauty and the fact that women were more equal and able to e.g. actively engage in sports had anything to do with each other. I'm of course not speaking for all men here, but at least personally I find athletic and strong-willed women more attractive than their opposites...

And tomorrow's exercise will consist of running to the office along the shores of Lauttasaari, Kaskisaari, Lehtisaari, and Keilaniemi, followed by a light gym routine before heading back to Lauttasaari.

On exercising

I was recently attending a seminar on segmenting at work. The idea, as everyone knows, is to try to understand who your customers are and what they actually want and need from you. It certainly seemed like the segmenting folks had really done a thorough job by interviewing over 100 000 people around the world over the past years and compiling a fairly exhaustive database from which they had derived 13 different archetypes. Technology-focused early adopters, family-oriented pragmatists, and so on. Of course with slightly different terms, but anyway.

One aspect which was brought up was the relationship that people have with health and keeping fit. One person argued that instead of trying to sell the more conservative late-adopters the coolest possible technologies right now, one should perhaps try to solve problems that are important to them. For instance, health might be important to the slightly older people. I guess I can reflect on that since both of my parents seem to be very keen joggers and enjoy spending time outdoors in general.

I would venture a guess that at some point of your life, you start paying more attention to health in general, especially when you start noticing that you shouldn't take it for granted. But the relationship is one of very pragmatic nature; the intent is to keep fit and maybe enjoy the activities at the same time. My relationship to exercising is sort of different. Because I'm still a fairly young twentysomething, I don't really have a problem in controlling the size of my waist. My body is still young and hasn't yet starting showing any visible wear and tear. So why do I go out running or to the gym or to play tennis?

I think in my case sports and exercising in general act as metrics of sorts, as one could already see from my previous blog posting. They offer the means of proving that I am moving, advancing, and evolving. So it is the delta which I derive my value and pleasure from. It's not a necessity (in terms of staying alive) that motivates me, but instead the competitive aspects. And now that I think, it may also have something to do with vanity. So, the question is, is this model of transitioning from competitive/vanity-driven exercise to survival-driven exercise more widely applicable?