Fitness: What Role Does Our Ego Play?

By admin on February 20, 2013

We live in an information war era in which it can be difficult to find un-bias or non-manipulated information in regards to what is “good” for our well-being. Currently the normal body standards that are portrayed to the general population through the media reveal that one is “normal” if they have less than 5% body fat. Men and women are pressured by idealistic body image criteria and are spending a lot of money to attain this image. With the dietary supplement industry pulling in annual sales of over $ 20 billion (1), one has to question the true motives behind the health and fitness industry. Is our overall health and mental state truly in the interests of the mega-companies? What role does our own ego play in the motivation to stay physically fit and where does the balance lie between health and vanity obsession?

Our ego is an essential part of our human experience; it is the mirror from which our soul reflects to understand itself and to learn. The ego gives us a name, gender, and appearance to form a sense of a separate identity from one and other, helping us to grow and to learn in the most profound ways. When we say, “I want to exercise and become fit”, it is merely a facet of our ego trying to morph an identity to which it can attach itself to. As the planet shifts and we awaken to our true potential, we are being forced to look at our ego more than ever before to help us become more conscious of how it drives our motivations. Humankind’s goals to be physically fit can be traced back to the hunter/gatherer times where only the strongest survived. Nutrition came in its rawest and most unadulterated forms, and our bodies were internally pure and in sync with nature. As civilization evolved so did our ego’s separate identity away from nature, and coincidently our need to be strong and fit took on a philosophical and social interest, as portrayed in the gymnasia of ancient Greece where men would use these arenas to participate in physical exercise and to gather for social interaction. Over the years the gymnasium culture faded away and it is only in the past hundred and fifty years that we saw a rebirth of the gym concept when the “turner movement” propelled through the United States in the late 1800’s and gymnasia were built once again (2). It is interesting to note that the Turner movement originated in Germany during the early 19^th century, when Napoleon had occupied the country, and we know this area correlates with the illuminati/masonic origins(3). Nevertheless the Turner gyms provided the groundwork for the explosion of similar organizations such as the YMCA and by the 1920’s gyms had become assimilated into the public school systems to provide exercise, games and social interaction for the youth.

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