MAN PROPOSES – GOD DISPOSES (30-Oct-2020)

A 3-year journey, expected to end on a high note in October 2020, by quirk of fate was cut short exactly 24-days prior to the logical end.  November 2017 is when I embarked on a new regimen, committed to a 100% adherence every single day no matter what – rain or shine, to improve my fitness with a commitment to maintain good health.  The daily goal read 15,000 steps, and 120 minutes, and 600 kcals burn, and a distance coverage of 12 kilometres.  Oh, I love my WALKING!

Walking has been a blissful experience where every step has helped me to connect with my inner self.  The birth of many a new idea, taking shape to mark a logical boundary, filling up of the parts within that boundary for perfect synergy, and the plausible next steps to implement the idea poured out as I varied the pace and intensity of steps.  As I huffed and puffed to climb the gradient to challenge the heart to its medical limits, and as I raced down the gradient I could sense my ideas go through a roller-coaster ride and achieve an equilibrium as I turned and started to pace on flat ground – the hope those ideas gained a perspicuous logical end when I reached home to record them.

The start to a walking regimen mandates that one slip into relaxed clothing and a pair of good comfortable shoes.  A walk in the serene nature under the blue skies, like a park or a playground or even the neighbourhood roads relatively free of vehicular traffic is easy on our lungs with copious supply of oxygen as well as the purse strings.  I am not a great proponent of the treadmill within an AC-controlled gym.  My choice has been the winding parallel roads around where I live; a 15 to 20-degree gradient that offered the required uphill and downhill experience that test the heart so I can alter the pace to suit any pre-defined patterns.  A choiceful variation to this discipline is when I occasionally carried a 2 or 3-pound dumbbell which, with the swing and the curl of the arms, provided the required workout for the upper-body muscles.

I started to introduce variants to shape this routine into a more insightful and strenuous exercise as well a test to the brain cells.  The choice of a clean stretch of road with no dip or rise that can otherwise upset the body balance made me venture into a few variations as described below:

• backwards for a few counted paces as a check on steadiness
• sidewards to activate and strengthen the side muscles
• head tilted upwards and gazing at the blue sky to count the stars or experience the green top of neighbourhood trees to maintain body-mind balance
• along a straight painted white line on our roads by varying paces to test body stability
• along the edge of a pavement, and on the kerb to maintain body equilibrium
• last but not the least, closing the eyes shut for a short interval to help infuse a highly liberating experience

It did not matter that it rained – all it mattered was to hold steady an umbrella as a protective gear.  If the puddles ruined the roads, then I needed to kick-in indoor walking albeit with a few innovations.  Spot walking is popular, and I adopted to an altered pace to manage the calorie-burn.  Another variation was to choose a step within the home boundary and with left foot at ground-level while the right foot on the step and then alternate for vice versa, accelerated movement provided the required burn-out.  The last one I would like to allude to is Yogic Walking in the shape of a digit 8, that helps to activate alpha waves in the brain and release stress and improve concentration.

Whatever is described here serves to provide the stated benefits of walking to regulate blood pressure, improve the mood, balance the blood parameters, maintain and reduce sugar levels, tone the muscles, lose some excess weight, and in addition to a host of other advantages that form the content of many an article that authors passionately describe when they write on this subject.

Data collected and analysed and presented offers a good insight.  A summary of my 3-year stats as measured on my Health App is as below:

• 450,000-500,000 steps per month, translate to 17.5 Million (1.75 Crore) steps
• 150,000 minutes or 2,500 hours of walking activity
• 375-400 kilometres per month, translate to 15,000 kms – a two-and-a-half round-trip by road from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, or a 125% of the direct distance from New Delhi to New York cities in India and USA respectively

Now on to the twist to the tale...I aspired not to miss a single day and by His Grace maintained that through-and-through the 3-year journey.  Even during a major portion of 2019 when both parents were hospitalized due to illnesses, I would put them to sleep at the hospital in the night to then step out under the starry sky to catch up on my daily dose.  Except the fact that recently on October 7^th I fell sick and then tested positive for Covid, and since then with hospitalization, medical treatment, and tiresomeness I’ve hardly stepped out yet.  Indeed, the first time ever that I had to take a forced break in my walking regimen.  As if to rub salt on the wounds, my immediate and extended family was infected too, and my beloved mother-in-law succumbed to the dreaded virus.  This Covid story with learnings is for another day and time.

It is a true blessing that God enabled a 3-year journey without any impediments. It is sheer destiny that I had willed to end Oct 2020 month on a high note, while it was meant to be otherwise. 

We human beings continue to propose, while He the Giver continues to Dispose...or that is the perception we mere mortals carry when we wear our ego on our shoulders and carry our own high unrealistic expectations.  We resist total surrender to Him, and instead vehemently oppose acceptance of His generous daily giving.  But with fervent prayers we gain increased confidence to confide in Him all our pain and ailment laced with agony.  We need to improve as a home sapiens race to ‘walk’ step-to-step in absolute resonance and perfect synchronicity with the Supreme Lord!  May those days come sooner to steer us away from this pandemic and its detrimental effects, as well establish serenity in our environment.  Lo behold, walking is an optimized solution!

Friends I would like to wish you Happy Walking if you tread the same path...may this tribe that subscribe to this moderately intense workout get motivated and then let the participation number increase exponentially to catapult our country to a truly fit-nation status inhabited by a healthy population in serene surroundings! 

Man Proposes-God Disposes – Could we then view it as an anomaly?  Welcome your viewpoints here…