Final paper Blog Comments (in progress)

Gavin's Blog

I enjoyed the paper because it was very personal and heartfelt, however I think your title "How to avoid a meaningless life" doesn't fit with your paper, your essay, you list ways that long-boarding helps improve your life, which is something more personal to you. I'd like to see how you can apply the ideas you had in your paper to everyone since not everyone long-boards, and extend those ideas to the masses

 

Good and Meaningful Life Final Essay

A good and meaningful life can be studied from various angles, as it is a very prominent topic among things that live, obviously we don't want bad lives.  Naturally there will be someone to tell you how to live, either out of genuine care for you like your parents (in most cases) or just to control you in the case of governments and religions (in most cases).  Buts its important to sift through those messages, find parts you like and don't like about those lifestyles and synthesize and break down these ways of life to find something that works for you, no one completely knows who you are so no one can choose your life for you.

We've learned from different cultures how to live, each with different messages sometimes contradictory or illogical, but all the same we must consider and think about these messages.  Specifically I've learned from my grandmother, a representative of both an older generation and of a different country (Cuba to be specific), to value honesty and to be grateful for what you have.  I definitely agree with these teachings, for one these are just values so there are no demands from me, these are just ideas to think about.  My grandmother values a simple life with simple values and few conditions.

We've learned from animals, who I personally believe have good lives (in the case of wild animals, although it is debatable) to be more spontaneous.  As humans we've ignored our roots as primates and as animals.  For one humans need to accept that they are animals, secondly we need to accept that we are primates.  We as primates need to run around and play and climb on things and interact with people, which in our "boxed-in" society we don't get a chance to.  We as animals need to accept our bodies as well, while we shouldn't go around naked and ignore all thought, but we should accept our bodies, meaning we should understand our own bodies (since we are all different) and acknowledge that we are our bodies.  I definitely agree with these values, from my own experience I am happier when I play, when I say play I mean running around to run around, not just to lose weight or fill my quota of exercise, being at peace with your body will solve many different health problems and make you happier in return, we can see this in small children.

While studying health, physical, mental and emotional, we've learned that keeping yourself healthy will result in a better life, my own personal definition of health is the ability to do things, if you're sick you can't do much if you're mentally unhealthy you can't think as well etc.  Health comes from knowing your own body, the health nuts who follow fads, follow diets and training regiments that work for other people, when they should experiment with their bodies and find out what works for them.  Mental health and Emotional health can be measured by what the appropriate response is to a situation, to be emotionally healthy means to accept your emotions, hiding your anger when you're mad isn't healthy and neither is covering up sadness as we've all been trained to do (men at least).

The main moral I've taken from all of these studies is to accept yourself.  People are unhealthy and unhappy because they accept whatever is given to them.  To live a good life you must know your body, your mind, your animal heritage etc.  To accept yourself you must know yourself and to know yourself you need to know where you came from, which means knowing your immediate ancestors, parents grandparents, extended family etc. and further ancestors such as our evolutionary predecessors.  We can't just cover things up about ourselves, while I know its impossible to learn everything about ourselves (a discussion for another time) we can live better lives by learning more about ourselves.  People need to recognize that they are different and that we all have to potential to do great things if we accept ourselves for what we are.  A good life of health and happiness can lead to a meaningful life, once people learn to accept themselves they can go on to do great things.  This all boils down to knowledge, knowing and understanding yourself may uncover many weaknesses that were hidden, but knowing yourself will also uncover hidden potential.                 

Collapse Essay

Our modern society is based on Oil, an ever decreasing resource, when the oil reserves of the world are depleted we will have a collapsed society.  The collapse probably won't happen at the very last drops of oil, most likely our society will collapse due to the economic strains of not having oil, all of the other side effects of not having oil will kill us before the actual absence of oil sets in.

However we are blessed with knowledge, knowing that we will eventually run out of oil will help us to learn to use new sources of fuel and end our dependence on oil.  While that may seem unlikely we have started using solar panels and other forms of power.  While these power sources depend on oil, in solar panel production and delivery, and to turn the turbines in electrical power.  We can still research new ways of obtaining power, we, unlike many other societies, can see our demise coming.  Sadly, people will deny collapse until it's already happened and by then it's too late.

While it is also likely that something other than oil will destroy our society, peak oil has placed a death sentence on our way of life.  Unless we figure out ways to release our dependence on oil our society will collapse either close to the time we run out of oil, or randomly any time between then and now.  While peak oil predicts that we'll still have oil for at least another 30 years, now would be the time to start researching other power sources, sadly our government is more concerned with other things, which logically speaking it should tackle the more immediate issues, however our dependence on oil won't be something that can be quickly solved we should gradually within the next 30-40 years, ween ourselves off of oil, this way our society won't collapse, it will merely change its foundation, and once a structure has re-enforced its foundation it becomes much stronger.

While I don't think Americans should start stock piling food, we should be aware of what the absence of oil will do to our society and spend more time doing now, than wishing later.  The best way to keep from collapsing is to acknowledge your foundations and recognize their limitations, we're dependent on oil, therefore we should knowhow much is left and how much we really depend on it.  Aside from that spontaneous collapse is unavoidable, we can't predict whether some aliens will kill us all or anything like that.  We can only prolong our society from its immediate collapse, without a collapse there can be no improvement, "You must make the mistake before you can learn from it"          

Easter Island Reaction

Easter Island is an interesting case of collapse since it's an isolated community, until it's later years.  Easter Island was a fairly wealthy island in terms resources, until the Islanders became obsessed in competition with other clans.  To show off their resources they spent massive amounts of stone, trees and time to make several large statues.  In the process of making these statues they cut down full forests of trees to roll the statues into place.  The lack of trees made the soil loose and unhealthy, little could grow on it anymore.  Without trees the Islanders couldn't make canoes and fish for food, without any food they turned to cannibalism.  At the very end of all of this the Europeans came and claimed easter island as their own.

There are several important "clues" that hint at collapse that I've seen here.  Ignoring or forgetting your dependence on a resource, the Islanders cut down massive amounts of trees forgetting how much they needed them.  The Islanders also fought among themselves and competed, inner competition or division can also collapse a society.  In most societies I've studied that have collapsed almost got too advanced for their own good.  When a society becomes too advanced or too rich they tend to expand, physically in the case of the Roman Empire, Aesthetically in the case of Easter Island and its statues.  These expansions often lead that particular society's foundation to fail.  Metaphorically if you build a tower of blocks too high or branch out too much it will collapse, to sustain more blocks you must force re-enforce the base, and to do that you must dismantle the whole structure and start again.

America shows many of these signs in early forms, we're losing oil that we depend on, we fight internally on social levels (not nearly as violently as the Eater Islanders but enough to aid in a collapse), and we've expanded too much for our own good.  These are early signs of collapse, we may lose our dependence on foreign oil and use cleaner energies and learn to manufacture materials without crude oils.  Things like that can slow down a collapse but not stop it, we will eventually collapse like every society will.  However it is extremely hard to tell when a collapse will happen because while we may collapse on our own, it's far more likely that an outside source will destroy us.    

Industrial Food Essay

Most Americans wouldn't know exactly how their food is produced.  The only real reference most Americans have is the song "Old McDonald" where they just know what's and the farm and what it's there for.  They probably couldn't tell you the living conditions of the animals or their heath.  The sad reality is that most animals are kept as biological factories, churning out meat, eggs or milk at an efficient yet un-natural and un-healthy rate.  Crops are genetically engineered to yield more seeds and grow faster and provide more nutrients.  To make enough food to feed our nation we have to play god.

"The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race", an article by Jared Diamond says that agriculture in itself is flawed and is only used to sustain larger civilizations.  He describes it in a sort of "last-resort" tone, relating the agricultural lifestyle to a quantitative existence opposite to qualitative lifestyle of our ancestors.  Hunter/Gatherers were able to live well without the social burdens of laziness and political struggle over resources within that civilization.  Hunter/Gatherer societies were small enough that there was very little social order, at most there was a chief or leader who was chosen based on skill, not lineage.  Hunter/Gatherer societies also didn't have to deal with "dead-weight" citizens, the entire tribe worked except for the children, who learned how to hunt and gather from the elderly members of the group.  It's easy to see the qualitative aspects of Hunter/Gatherer society, in these groups true communism can exist and the population remains healthy due to their varied diets and active lifestyles.

I agree with the fact that Hunter/Gatherer society lacks many of the problems that we have in our world today, the only reason why that lifestyle seems worse than agricultural lifestyles is that Hunter/Gatherers depend on the agricultural societies for invention and things like art and entertainment.  Modern Hunter/Gatherer societies use guns and other modern tools to find food, things which they couldn't make on their own due to their lack of free time.  Unless that group of hunters was exceptionally good they wouldn't be able to develop as fast as an agricultural society.  While it isn't totally true that Hunter/Gatherers didn't invent anything (the spear, axe, bow and arrow are examples of this) they wouldn't be able to create advanced technologies at the rate we do now, and with that advanced technology they would create machines to hunt for them or breed their prey to kill it later, bringing us full circle to our flawed society.

Naturally we lived as Hunter/Gatherers, because humans are naturally omnivores so we can eat meat and vegetables, living as Hunter/Gatherers can be more efficient in terms of a varied diet.  In the kids film about farming, "VVVRRROOOOOOMM!!!" the farms grew massive quantities of a couple of vegetables, whereas Hunter/Gatherers can hunt many different kinds of animals outside of just pigs, cows and chickens, and can gather many kinds of wild grasses and roots that we would just call weeds and dismiss as food.  In out modern Agricultural society we use hormones and chemicals derived from these animals and plants we depend on, as Michael Pollan said in his book "The Omnivores Dilemma" "It's like eating corn with your corn".  We don't see food as a once living thing anymore, we view it as a string of proteins or sugars that we break down.  Using these words scientifically helps distance ourselves from the truth... what we ate was living (including vegetables) and had feelings and a personality (in the case of animals).  As Hunter/Gatherers we become closer to our food and actually come to terms with the food and accept the cycle of life for what it is.

In the movie "Our Daily Bread and Butter" animals are treated horribly and given hormones to grow faster and are kept in small confined spaces.  These animals don't really get a chance to live, they just sort of exist and die.  Our way of killing animals makes them stressed and unhealthy, so it makes sense that as we eat them we become unhealthy.  While I don't disagree with farm raised animals, I think they should be happy and have room to move and get a chance at life.  If not for the moral conflict than for the health aspect, eating an animal that's naturally raised will be healthier.  There's one scene in the movie where a crop duster kills a field of sunflowers to harvest the seeds, this illustrates that as we grow more and more food we have exponentially more waste.  As Hunter/Gatherers we had little to no animal waste, and whatever waste we had was eaten by scavengers or composted, agricultural society encourages surplus, which encourages waste.

Sadly Hunter/Gatherer society works mainly in small scale or small divisions of a large culture as the Native Americans demonstrated.  While not impossible, it's very unlikely that most people will accept an active fuller lifestyle over the luxurious lifestyle we have today.  There are small pockets of Hunter/Gatherers left who have much better food cultures than we do. My investigation of Hunter/Gatherer societies has reinforced my argument of "Natural is better" animals tend to survive better when they don't actively evolve and let nature do its work. As humans who have actively interfered with our natural processes like hunting eating and mating we alter our evolution, but thats a larger discussion for another time. In short, we need to keep to our roots, while Hunter/Gatherer society isn't accepted by larger civilizations I do think it is a better way of life and should be considered as an alternative to those who hate our agricultural society.

Response to Industrial Food Production

The internet flash cartoon "The Meatrix" addresses many different reasons for why industrial food production is wrong, mainly on the part of animal cruelty or health.  They bring up valid points about pollution in farms due to the bad hygiene of the animals.  They also address certain health problems that can come from artificially created hormones that they ween their cows with which can cause health problems for the animals and the consumer.  While these facts are true I don't have a strong hatred for these farm owners, the farm owners are wrong for what they're doing but our society is spoiled on food.  Stopping this mass production wouldn't be supported by the majority of America (the fat people who don't care about animals outnumber the skinny educated people who do care).  I see mass production farms as necessary only to our fattened culture, we can't change our farms until we learn to appreciate animals and live on less food.

Michael Pollan, writer of "The Omnivores Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food" was interviewed by Stephen Colbert.  In this interview Stephen Colbert jokingly asked Pollan if he let his son eat cocoa pebbles, which would be deemed as unhealthy, to which he responded yes but he clarified that we should enjoy certain foods in moderation.  The lesson to be learned from this is that we should be responsible for our own health, letting someone tell us how to eat doesn't make sense because they don't understand our health.  He brought up a point about how humans can't process high fructose corn syrup as well as natural substances, which seems logical.  This leads to health problems that we all suffer from since HFCS is in most of what we eat.        

Comments on Food Blogs

I like the idea of "Pushing" foods on shoppers to influence them to buy them. Do you think that every company tries to "Push" for customers in this way and some just shine brighter than others? or is this a more organized and deliberate way for someone to push food items on us?

-commented on Ian's blog 

I like how you distinguish between "American" foods which are few and fatty, and other foods which aren't american. I would like to see what your opinion is on "Americanized foods" how do we alter foreign foods to fit our American lifestyle?

-Commented on Henry's blog

My Food Habits Draft 2

I try to eat whatever I can to gain weight, mostly eating snack foods, soda etc.  My snacks are viewed as "un-healthy" when no food is completely "un-healthy".  What's unhealthy is the way that these foods are eaten, while we all love to point fingers at McDonalds their food is fine in moderation and when combined with exercise.  I don't say this just to defend my potato chips, even something like arsenic is technically non-lethal in small doses.  While these foods may contain preservatives and things like that, they still don't make you sick directly or have any long-term side effects (to the extent of my knowledge, correct me if I'm wrong).  For someone like me who is skinny, with a fast metabolism and burns off calories though extensive exercise these foods are fine.  Most of my meals however include meats and other foods that contain proteins and fats to help me bulk up.  While I am trying to eat more vegetables I wouldn't order a salad in a restaurant any time soon, I don't seem to comprehend how a salad can become a meal simply by adding bacon bits.  As the old proverb goes "If it doesn't kill, it fattens" if it fattens work it off, its very simple.

Response to "The Omnivores Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

The main argument in Michael Pollan's "The Omnivores Dilemma" about American health in relation to food is that as a mixture of different cultures Americans have no food culture of their own.  I agree with this somewhat, while Americans have invented burgers and hot-dogs we've just taken things that already existed and made them less healthy, some might argue better tasting.  Americans are confused when it comes to what to eat and how often, our food culture if any at all is to eat what we want when we want in front of the TV without any specified exercise, whereas other cultures might have certain customs when it comes to how food is eaten and even the exercise that comes before or after, other cultures essentially have eating "rules" or guidelines that tell them when and what to eat, we as Americans don't have that.      

My Food Habits

My own way of eating emphasizes meats and snacking, because meats and snacks taste good and contain fats, since I'm trying to gain weight I try to eat more fats.  I occasionally eat vegetables and fruits, vegetables being the least and I mostly eat them as seasonings on meats.  I prefer to stay away from fast food unless my parents can't cook or its very late.  

Response to May Day

May day is an interesting holiday for Americans to study, we don't really know it exists, we don't celebrate it and we don't know what its about.  learning about history, either yours or anyone else's, can make your life more meaningful because you understand the world.

Knowing your history just as a form of knowledge helps you improve.  The reason why we study history is mainly to study the mistakes we made in the past, May Day is a holiday that commemorates the struggle for workers to have appropriate working conditions, and it remembers the deaths of those who fought for their rights.  By remembering the mistakes that led up to those riots i.e. the abuse of workers, the governments lack of intervention  and the violence of policemen towards the protesters, we can learn from them and live better lives by not repeating those mistakes.

Knowing history also improves relations with people and helps us to understand people.  Many argue that the reason why the world hates, some say hated, America is because we intervene in problems that we don't fully understand.  America is currently involved in the middle east, which has many different cultures within it that have fought for hundreds of years, not understanding who fought for what and against who etc. leads to unseen conflicts based on historical backgrounds.  The same is true for small scale conflicts, not knowing the relationships people have with each other can lead to problems.  Most conflicts are caused by people offending other people because they don't know what offends them, learning who gets offended by what will make it easier to avoid conflicts. 

Overall any information we can learn from will make our lives better, learning other peoples histories will allow us to interact with them without the risk of offending them, and learning our own past mistakes will help us to avoid repeating them.      

Food Journal

4/28/09

Dinner: 2 steaks and rice

-I enjoyed my meal and I ate it while I was on my computer, at the time I was busy working on homework.  I ate at a reasonable pace to enjoy my meal and also multi-task at the same time

4/29/09

Breakfast: "Cheerios" and milk

-I ate it quickly so I would get to school on time and I liked the taste but didn't have the time to enjoy it.

Lunch: meatballs, Pb and J sandwich, snapple

-this meal was mainly to fill my stomach, because I eat in the cafeteria I'm used to the food and I can tolerate/somewhat enjoy it.  However eating with my friends distracts me from the sub-par food making my lunches more enjoyable

Snacks: Orange Juice, Coke, Fritos

-I like to drink juice when I'm sick because it hydrates my body and quenches my thirst, orange juice in particular tastes good and makes me feel healthy.

-I drank warm coke which doesn't make me feel particularly good, mainly because its warm and I was already hot, had the coke been more refreshing I would have felt better

-Fritos are incredibly salty and make me thirsty, although I was thirsty anyways so the fritos didn't really change anything, I ate them while watching tv 

Dinner: Chicken soup

-My mom made chicken soup because I'd been feeling sick, this brings back childhood memories and is one of the more nostalgic meals I've had, it made me think of snow days and winter nights when my mom would make soup when I came home from school.  While the soup is oily it does contain chicken, sausage and potatoes which are fairly healthy although I don't usually worry about oil since I'm not worried about gaining weight.      

Food Ways

Food is a large part of our culture and how we eat it depends on who we are, where we are and who we're with.  We're also taught to eat in certain ways to celebrate holidays or mimic other cultures.  We're taught through media and school to eat the "white" way.  On top of that we have our own ethnic or cultural ways of eating and our own personal beliefs.

My family tends to be fairly lenient with our meals, we're usually busy doing certain things, for me and my siblings it might be homework and things of that nature.  Because of this we prepare our food and eat it whenever we're hungry and have time, for larger feasts or vacation time where we aren't busy we tend to eat together.  My mom usually cooks because my dad can be busy and comes home late, but they both cook well and for big feasts I help cook.

The "white" way of eating is to eat at the table waiting to watch tv, or eating in front of the tv.  While food can be good on holidays its merely for nutrition on normal days, good food comes from large chains like Mac-Donald's or any other fast food chain.  White families even use these chains as rewards, "if you're good we'll go to Burger King" because apparently their food is better than anything any American can make at home.  Much like the rest of our lifestyle, eating is dominated by corporations and brands and our culture makes us favor those over home style foods.

My own personal way of eating is based on what I have and what I can make with it.  While I don't know how to cook too many things now, I'd like to prioritize home cooking and resort to ordering or fast food when I don't have time to cook, for lunch or if I have to go somewhere and I want a quick snack, or if I'm tired or don't have any ingredients in my house to make a good meal.  The key word of that sentence was "resort" while fast food may taste good and be cheap, home cooking is much more fun, rewarding and healthy than eating fast food.  When I have to choose a restaurant, for lunch I can't cook obviously, I choose places that are cheap and that I personally have a good experience with, if I know that a certain type of food is bad for me I won't eat it.  This way of eating will make breakfast and dinner more meaningful and lunch shared with friends will be meaningful as well, although the food may not be as prevalent in the meaning of the meal.                   

Why are Americans so fat?

Americans, mostly the south and midwest, are overweight on average making us a "fat" nation.  The obvious question is "why?".  There are a few reasons, the southern and midwestern states are spread out which influence people to drive everywhere taking away the need for walking limiting their exercise.  Our largest food chains are based around greasy and fatty recipes and our lives revolve around computers.  Overall we basically eat too much and exercise too little.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20040317/impatience-makes-americans-fat

According to "Web M.D." impatience has greatly affected obesity in America.  Due to delivery, drive through's, and car-hops we can sit back and grow fat while we eat, eliminating exercise and adding to the desire for fatty foods.  Some restaurants even have online ordering, a few years ago we'd actually have to get up to order on the phone but apparently standing is too much work for your food.  

What's in my refrigerator

In my refrigerator I have...

-1 jar of peanut butter -1 tub of cookie dough -12 eggs -lettuce -smoked sausage -rice -beer 

-mango nectar -3 cartons of milk -cranberry juice -tomato sauce -butter -mayonnaise -cream

-cans of soda (mostly coke)

Most of the things in my fridge are healthy, while it may look like a fatty diet these food items were bought in bulk and usually last a much longer time.  I think that in terms of the food in the refrigerator my diet is fairly healthy  and while some of the food may have pesticides in them, which are virtually unavoidable, they're still fairly natural.  My own personal belief is that a healthy diet is based on having a balance of different foods and personalizing it for your body type which comes from an understanding of your body  

Health Unit Final thoughts

Throughout this unit I've thought about what it means to be "healthy" in a variety of areas and how that effects your life.  The obvious conclusion is that if you're healthy you'll live a better life, you'll be able to do more, feel better etc. but what does being healthy actually mean? and how can we become healthy?

To be physically healthy means that you exercise and eat right, specifically eating what works for you, if you're over weight eat less, if under eat more etc. there is no universal diet.  Just as there is no universal diet there is no universal exercise plan, everything is based on the person and what makes them feel better.  Being physically healthy will increase your lifespan, make you happier and able to the things you love, an obvious requirement to a good life.

My own definition of mental health, ignoring the "averages" system that ask people to fit a certain criteria, is reacting correctly to a situation, most people say that if you're depressed all the time "you have problems" but if there is something in you're life to make you depressed then why not be depressed, it's an appropriate reaction to the situation.  Being happy all the time like we try to be isn't healthy either unless you live a pampered life where people go out of their ways to make you happy.  The only way to be emotionally unhealthy by my definition is to have a condition or disorder that prevents you from reacting correctly to situations, or not expressing those reactions appropriately, hiding sadness or anger is unhealthy since you aren't reacting to the situation, you're feeling an emotion and hiding it, reaction involves expression of an emotion.

Moral health can be trickier since not everyone has the same moral code.  My criteria for moral health is to have a moral code, and understanding it.  While someone can easily say things like I'll never lie, I'll never cheat, I'll never steal, they might have to do those things to survive, and thats the problem.  What if you had to choose between death and disobeying your moral code? I can't answer this question for anyone other than myself, this is a question for the individual, but knowing the answer to this question and knowing your moral code leads to moral health.  Being morally unhealthy is not being able to justify your actions and not having a moral code, having a code means you will be able to justify anything you do because you chose that action.  Not knowing what you're willing to do is unhealthy because you can't live your life if you don't know how you're going to live it.

The idea of life to attain the highest levels of all of these kinds of health.  Knowing who you are, in your mind, body and morals will help you learn about yourself.  Self understanding will help you know how to improve yourself and how to become a better person and each culture places these health standards on its people to shape them into better people.  My own personal belief is that a good life is one you enjoy, and a meaningful life is one that leaves behind a legacy and one where you live as the best person you can be.        

My Emotional Health

My own personal definition of emotional health is being able to react appropriately to situations.  Our main assumption of an emotionally unhealthy person is someone who is constantly depressed or angry, which are fine emotions and can't be escaped.  Someone who experiences these emotions at the wrong times is emotionally unhealthy, someone who is constantly depressed without a good reason is emotionally unhealthy.  Someone who expresses an inappropriate degree of an emotion is also unhealthy.  Extreme anger or extreme sadness in situations that aren't extreme are unhealthy reactions.  Likewise people who bottle up emotions and don't express them are also unhealthy.  These people aren't reacting at all, non-reaction can be an inappropriate reaction to a situation, emotions are meant to be felt and not feeling them or expressing them is unhealthy.

I'm emotionally healthy when I'm doing things I like which usually make me calm or happy, this would imply that I'm enjoying myself and something good is happening to trigger the happy response.  Note that I'm also healthy when I'm feeling sad or angry in a sad or angry situation, respectively, but I don't feel healthy because I'm in a negative mood.  These activities include hanging out with friends, playing video games, practicing martial arts, virtually anything that can put me in a good mood.  Things that put me in a good mood are usually social, creative and mentally or physically stimulating activities, as science would likely point to, being that the emotion happiness connects to activities that improve survival and encourage the animal to repeat these (humans included).

I don't feel emotionally unhealthy because if I'm depressed or angry its usually because I should feel depressed or angry in that situation.  Feeling bad isn't unhealthy, its just a reaction to a situation, therefore no activity can make someone emotionally unhealthy by my definition, the person must have a pre-existing condition or manifest their own emotional problems to react inappropriately to a situation.  For me I only feel especially emotionally healthy or neutrally healthy, just as someone may feel especially physically healthy when they're at the gym and not feel anything when they're going about their business.        

Humanistic psychology

Humanist psychology  is a very simple philosophy that evolved out of existentialism(see another blog that references existentialism).  The humanists emphasize the present unlike other psychologies that study the patients past to give them therapy.  They believe that true happiness comes from becoming a better person and understanding yourself, and while this makes your life better or more meaningful, they believe that each life is meaningful just for being a life.  Strong emphasis is placed on taking responsibility for past actions, they believe that atoning for ones negative actions and accepting reasonable praise for positive actions leads to happiness and mental health.

For more information on Humanist psychology follow the link  

http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Humanistic-Psychology.asp

Mental Health stories

Mentally Healthy story

Joe is walking to school, he sees all of his friends and says hi to them, engaging in small conversation every once in a while.  This makes him happy, he progresses through his day until he remembers that he forgot to do his homework and the teacher scolds him in front of the class for not doing it.  This makes him a little angry at the teacher but he gets over it and remembers to do his homework the next night to avoid getting embarrassed.

Mentally Unhealthy story 

Bob walks to school, other kids say hi to him and he gives them the middle finger, none of them provoked him and he isn't angry about a previous situation.  He is angry at these kids for no apparent reason.  Bob did his homework, unlike Joe, and is praised in front of the class by the teacher.  Out of nowhere Bob punches the teacher in the face and is expelled.  Upon expulsion he laughs and dances around the principals office as if he's happy.  Note that Bob doesn't particularly hate his school and knows that it will go on his record.  For no apparent reason Bob is happy to expelled.     

Health Questions

Q:What is the ideal Human in terms of BMI, weight, height etc. ?

A:http://www.trap17.com/index.php/what-bmi-body-mass-index_t36288.html

-the ideal BMI, Body Mass Index, is from 18 to 25, the ideal weights and heights aren't given but in terms of health the ratio is more important than the actual measurements which are more cosmetic, i.e. taller people may be more attractive but not necessarily healthier

Q:What are the benefits of the American Lifestyle?

A: I thought we were just being pestimistic, but I found no sources that commented on any benefits to the American lifestyle, we either eat too much just because we can, or starve ourselves to avoid being obese but in the process we become anorexic, either way we do too much or too little

Q:How many hour of exercise do we need as humans?

A:http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/exercise/a/enoughexercise.html

60 minutes of vigorous activity outside of everyday work

Q:What kind of exercise is most important?

A:http://www.becomehealthynow.com/category/exercisetypes/

Aerobic exercises, such as jogging cycling etc. are view as most important since they prevent heart disease and other circulatory problems.  Strength training and stretching have their own benefits but are considered supplementary and aren't "mandatory" exercises   

Q:What is the ideal diet for humans

A:http://www.webindia123.com/health/diet/diet/ideal.html

unlike other "1-sided" weight loss diets this one is more balanced and has a wider variety of foods