Interview with Konstantina Rodi for Greek News and Radio FL
George Hatzimanolis was born in Crete but studied Exercise Physiology in Boston. A student, practitioner, and teacher of Tai Chi, Qi Gong, and Kung Fu, he was the perfect person to discuss the effects of a sedentary lifestyle on our bodies, whether it is our decision to stay healthy, and how urgent it is to listen to the most current teachings of ancient China!
You have studied Chinese Taoist thought for many years. Do you believe there is something in it that makes it relevant today, or could it also concern us Greeks?
Taoist thought is a whole, always relevant, and concerns every people.
As a kung fu practitioner, but also a fitness trainer, I want you to tell me about Greeks today, about the "healthy body" they once knew, but also about our sedentary lifestyle.
In the Satires of Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis (55-135 AD), a Roman writer of satirical poetry, the phrase in Latin is found: "orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano" meaning "if a healthy mind is in a healthy body, it is desirable" and that is where the supposedly "ancient Greek" proverb originates.
The sedentary lifestyle or life without physical activity concerns a large part of the planet's population and not only the people of our immediate geographical area. As I. Mouratidis characteristically states in “Topics in the Philosophy of Physical Education: Introduction to Philosophy”:
“… both Socrates and his student Plato believed that exercise and maintaining good physical condition helps not only the physical, but also the mental health of the individual. Socrates (Xenophon Apomn. 3.12.1), reminds the young Epigenes, who stopped exercising, that he is in danger of losing his health, resulting in his memory weakening and creating a clumsy and clumsy character. It is a shame, according to Socrates, for a young man to grow up without ever seeing the health, beauty and strength that his body can acquire with gymnastic exercise and movement. Aristotle, as we have already seen, in turn will emphasize the importance of exercise for human health and will say: “Although none of us blames someone who was born with physical disadvantages, we nevertheless blame those whose physical ugliness is due to negligence and lack of exercise".
Therefore, the completely sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise are responsible for the increasing depression and procrastination. Greece ranks high internationally in relation to depression among its citizens.
Physical exercise, has been repeatedly documented by valid research, contributes to increased levels of endorphins in the body and therefore to well-being. Also, adaptations to the systematic and specialized stimulus of “physical fatigue” help maintain ideal levels of hormones in general in the harmonious functioning of the human body. When the neuromuscular and musculoskeletal systems function efficiently, movement is effortless. The absence of pain and discomfort during movement makes the mind more carefree. Let us remember that in the body-physical function relationship, the body (material structure) is Yin and its functions (energies) are Yang. If one increases at the expense of the other, the sum is disease.
The balance we seek in our lives therefore, first of all, starts from our body, internally. And from maintaining a natural balance. Health inside, means harmony outside us. But why do we forget this?
The first decades of the 20th century find man in a different relationship with his body. The body enters a “second destiny” due to the comforts that technology creates in work and everyday life. Each change (e.g. from Yin to Yang or vice versa) begins gradually and culminates to give way to another.
That is, our decisions, what we will consume and what we will focus on, cause harmony or disharmony accordingly...
After so many years of recurring crisis, citizens are being pressured in many areas. Psychologically, mentally. What are the basic Taoist principles that you believe we could adopt for a better everyday life?
The “recurring crisis” is something that exists and touches everyone who lives within the body of society and the “state.” I would like to refer to stanza 11 of the Classic of Taoist Virtue:
Thirty spokes share the wheel coverage
But it's its central hole that makes it useful.
Shape the clay into a vase
It is the space inside the vase that makes it useful.
Dig doors and windows for a room
It's the holes that make it useful.
Therefore, profit comes from what exists.
The utility of the non-existent
These verses describe a perfection of harmony, when what you think, what you do, and what you desire are in agreement – and the state, of course, does the same, if it truly respects its role.
I want you to comment on a specific principle of Taoism: “success is living harmoniously according to the circumstances and not trying to succeed in something other than what you live” (if I say it correctly). On an individual and collective level.
When the whole feels the crisis, the individuals that make it up will need to harmonize with the anxiety of the whole. Abstaining from it emphasizes individuality. By keeping our contact with the whole during a turmoil, we automatically contribute to its organization to emerge from it by restoring harmony again. Man, remaining on the Natural Path (as defined by Taoism), sets aside his individuality and gives space to develop his innate virtue of sharing and participation in the whole. In this way, he progresses with and benefits from the evolutionary process of society.
The phrase of George Hatzimanolis "By maintaining our contact with the whole during a disturbance, we automatically contribute to its organization to emerge from it by restoring harmony again," is in itself a topic for great discussion. The person who “feels the crisis” is aware, and only then can he be the solution…
Until the new discussion with George Hatzimanolis takes place, I leave this phrase with emphasis here, for each of us, and especially for the younger ones.
