I grew up in a society that placed a strong emphasis on sports. I did a number of different sports, the usaul athletics one does at school and my parent encouarged me to play tennis, which I was good at. Growing up in a sub-tropic environment I also spent a lot of time at the beach and appart from swimming which I learned at a young age I soon started, bodysurfing, body boarding and snorkling. Once I strated surfing, nothing else really mattered anymore. I had a naturall talent for a lot of sports and had a latent lingering fitness.

In my mid twenties I was married and working a job that bought some stress with it. For the first time in my life I wasn’t in the precarious position of having to relly on the unwilling support of my parents in a financial emergency. I bought a house with a pool and and instead of slowing down I carried on my wild party life on weekends. Although I was pretty active and did some hiking, I did little sport. I moved to a new country and did even less sport and became less active in my spare time.

Ten years later I had my first of 3 slipped disks, and developed a number chronic ailments in my back which I will have for the rest of my life. Although this marked my return to sport, it also marked the beginning of 13 years of backacke which climaxed in 2 years of continues pain day and night and penultimately 10 months of no sport at all. I lost the very little faith I had in modern doctors, and rediscoverd what which I really already knew. We are responsible for our our own health.

Health is attained by doing regular exercise, proper nutrition and mental health exercises, among others. The health industries treat symptoms, curring you, would destroy an industry that generates an unimaginable amount of wealth and provides many many jobs.

Humans were made to move, we did so during our evolution and your body still needs to do this, or it cannot achieve a healthy state. One of the best ways to start which isn’t only easy to do and fanatstic for your physical health, it is also fantastic for your mental health is walking. As with most things, it takes a little time and dedication, before you notice the benefits and you will. Even if you don’t do any other physical exercise, do this. I also started doing other sports, especially surfing, very intensly. Watch almost any surf movie and you will hear the phrase “surfing saved my life”, and it did. But not only did it save my life once I started taking it seriously, it enriched my life like few other things have. Doing a sport very intensely can give you and teach you everything, you need to know in life; it taught me that alcohol effects my performance and mood more negatively than anything else in my life, it taught me discipline, nutrition, it taught me the value of community and gave me friends, gave me recognition from others, it channeled my exces energy, it filled my spare time, it forced me study it, learn from it and others, it taught me to relax my body, to use and understand it, it taught me mental disciplin and how to calm and focus the mind, it gave me fitness, strenght, health and happiness.

Yours,
John Honey