Born To Be Wild Dr. Juan Harrison

Anyone who has had to help move a heavy object like a dresser or curio cabinet may find that the object has a mind of its own.  It almost seems like it has claws that dig into the carpet as it refuses to budge.  Unfortunately, some of us can get so settled into our retirement routines that we find it harder and harder to get ourselves off high center and moving again.  Maybe it’s the deep recesses in the carpet made by the heavy object, or maybe it’s the coats of wax or varnishes in the wooden floor seeming to grasp the legs of the chest of drawers refusing to let it move.

Most of us don’t like change.  It tends to get worse the more we get set in our ways.  I laugh when I see myself in James Garner mode in Murphy’s Romance as he refuses to try a new color or style of shirt in the western store.  He insists on his old reliable style.

Most of us don’t consciously dig in our heels and refuse to move like the walnut dresser.  It’s just that after a while most of us get so comfortable with the way we’ve come to organize our daily lives that we begin to resist any attempts to disturb or disrupt our daily regimen.

Once you finally get the heavy object moving, it often becomes easier to move and maneuver.  The hard part was getting it moving.  The same goes for the human mind which tells the human body if it can or cannot get up out of that chair.  If your brain can overcome the negative messages coming out of it, then the legs are likely to push up out of the chair.  If not, no spaghetti.  The recliner can end up being a mortal enemy of the human body.  Recent studies show an increase in heart issues for those who spend too much time in the recliner.  My simple rule regarding especially the human legs—use it or lose it.  Like old cars and lawn mowers, when they’re not used, they gum up, stop up, and become hard to start.  The more you use something, the smoother it usually runs.

We work hard all our lives looking forward to a time of relaxation and leisure.  Like eating too many sweets and drinking too many surgery drinks, we can overdo it and clog up our aging bodies.  The key seems to be moderation.  We need to know our body’s limits.  If we do too much or too little, eat or drink too much or too little, we’re going to pay for it. The key to a more trouble-free physical life seems to be one of moderation accompanied by regular monitoring of our activity.  Don’t overdo but do enough to keep a positive frame of mind that says yes you can get up, you need to get up, you must get up as long as you physically can.  Don’t let that motor clog up.  As Steppenwolf used to sing, “Get your motor runnin, head out on the highway, born to be wild.”