Survival of the Moderate

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People remember well to old adage of, “moderation: Everything in Moderation!” 

“Moderation is a very subjective term that can mean very different things to different person. ... Moderation is about finding a balance between two extremes – deprivation and overindulging. Strategies and habits that can be maintained long term as part of a lifestyle to avoid a yoyo effect between these extremes.” - unknown

In a recent article researchers have discovered that for a species, the lower metabolic rate is more likely indicative of that species survival. It comes from the study of species metabolism where an ‘average’ metabolism indicates that the species in question, study, is inclined toward using less energy, then they are more likely to survive. Researchers said, “You cannot just decide to be lazy as an individual and expect to live longer or survive.” It is a bit more complicated than that as there are other factors involved such as the human species necessity to form groups to survive. 

To survive and prosper the species that can use their energy more efficiently from their environment seem to be in balance with that environment and since according to the experts all things in the Universe are connected it appears logical that to find your balance in all things is literally the “survival of the moderate.” 

Experts further explain through a common comparison, business, that how a company survives is by maintaining a moderate balance of overhead that allows the company to survive an economic downturn, i.e., if we can use our energies in moderation we are more likely to survive those periods when decreased food availability exist leading to the speculation that this would apply to all things including how a species utilize the energies necessary for their survival. 

After all, the more moderate one is expending energies in every day survival the longer their energy span lasts leading to a moderation that will allow them to go the distance and have extra energies necessary to expend especially in high stress often dangerous situations that often come in spurts. 

The experts in furtherance of this theory said, “it has recently been demonstrated that the energy expenditure of humans and other primates is remarkably low compared with other placental mammals, and that this may be linked to our long lifespan.” Spend some time contemplating this one.

Watch professionals and masterful martial arts practitioners and you will see how the moderate there application of principled methodologies, they don’t slack off yet they don’t overextend energies to get the job done. It is this very conservation and moderation of efforts that expend internal energies that allow them to seemingly perform, especially in the later years of life, miraculous efforts in both demonstrations and actual competitions and self-protective methods. 

Try to resist overextending and expending great energies in an effort to get done NOW and allow yourself to apply skills, training and practices in a moderate way. If you moderate your efforts, then you allow your very nature to moderate and encode those skills in a natural way, not forcing it or muscling it, etc.

Sooner or later practitioners will deeply enjoy just how naturally their principles based methods and skills will flow. Everything happens sooner or later. There is a strong pre-supposition that progress will happen seemingly faster than when forced, the only decision is you need to make is whether it happens one way or the economical moderate way. Try to resist the desire to be forceful and muscling it, be playful with your imagination to strengthen your resolve and help ensure success. 

As a professional I have found that spacing my efforts out over the entire day, taking time to relax between and taking days as the body and mind feel it necessary that my progress is greater than when I expended a huge amount of time, effort and energy trying to learn and create skills in a shorter time rather than over a period of time. I find I have more energy that lasts longer and in my winter years that has become critically important. I found that applying certain principles that actually conserver and preserve rather than ‘burn the candle brighter’ tends to make the candle last much longer. The more I conserve, the more I moderate, the better my concentration and absorption of what I am trying to learn, achieve and apply in life and on the dojo floor. 

A person is able to reach greater heights and achieve greater results by applying moderation; by applying a natural rhythm; by applying a natural cadence; by applying the same effort in relaxation of the mind and body. When people imagine the concept of the ‘void’ sooner or later people come to realize that the void is the space placed naturally between effort and relaxation that achieves the greatest achievements. 

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