the CRAIG VAN cast
Hey, I’m Craig. I've dedicated more than a decade to understanding the human spine. Now I’m sharing what I’ve learnt. Get started with my SPINE STRENGTH project - Part 1 is free. Subscribe and you’ll receive my work as I release it.
the CRAIG VAN cast
45 | Why our practice needs philosophy
What if you could significantly boost your physical strength, intelligence, and self-awareness, all by adjusting your actions, not your beliefs? This episode unpacks the transformative power of action adjustments, as guided by the Kinetic Keystone course. This isn't just another step-by-step guide, it's a journey to mastering beneficial routines and ditching detrimental ones. We delve deep into the core of our brain through the Simon Sinek's Golden Circle concept and discuss how its 'why' and 'how' can alter the course of our neocortex.
Ever wondered about the hidden potential of your spine, both in terms of pain and performance? We tap into this aspect too, discussing innovative ways to revolutionize your spine experience. Sharing this knowledge is a pivotal part of the episode, as it could potentially help others enhance their lives. So, buckle up for a life-altering journey that promises to reshape your actions and expand your horizons. Help us reach more people by subscribing and liking, let's revolutionize lives together!
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The reason we're here is because we all want to change, and probably for the better. The most important thing that needs to change when we change is our actions, not our beliefs, not our ideas, not our perspective on anything. Only to the degree that they help us change our actions or they're useful to us. And in this specific instance, we are here because we want to change ourselves into a version with a more powerful back, a more intelligent spine, more awareness of our core. And that's really why I created this course, carnegie Keystone, to take us, step by step, through the process of radically transforming our movement, our physical actions, in such a way that we are moving towards a stronger back. We are moving towards more awareness of our spine through our actions, not just understanding mentally or desiring a different situation, emotionally, physically, acting in accordance with principles that are moving us towards the preferred situation, towards healing, towards strength, towards power. If you go to craigvandcom and you take a look on the homepage, you'll see a banner for Carnegie Keystone and that's where you can navigate into the course. Of course and this is everything it's one of a kind, really, that I've seen so far, that I haven't seen anything else. I've designed it in such a way to hold your hand entirely through the complete process. It's the closest thing we could do to putting me in the room with you Now. You can get started right away.
Speaker 1:There's a part one. In part one we really we do everything necessary to minimize the impact that our sedentary seated lifestyle is having on us. I have often spoken about two wings of a bird to on this project, on this journey. One is stopping the harmful actions. The other is adopting beneficial actions. A lot of people under the impression that they can simply adopt some beneficial actions without ever refraining from the harmful actions and that's going to be sufficient. But it's just not the case. We have to remove the insult that's putting us where we are in the first place. Then our beneficial actions have a much better chance of succeeding. Part one is really predominantly focused on that, on minimizing harmful actions, minimizing the stress on our lower back, on our spines in general. But I have also included the taste of the beneficial actions of the corrective movement, so that you can get an idea of what it's like to follow along with these sessions, what it's like to basically have me in the room with you, and also I've selected a few exercises which I think are arguably the most important, and with them alone, along with the rest of what you'll find in part one, if you follow it closely, you will experience radical change, and part one is completely free, so go get stuck in there. Then, of course, part two is the full movement correction, where the emphasis is really mastering the beneficial actions. So go check it out and you'll see something that is entirely practical, something that is geared to help you change your actions for the better now, to minimize harmful actions and to adopt beneficial actions from day one.
Speaker 1:And you hear me say this many more times that it's our actions that matter, not our beliefs, not our ideas, not how much money we have, not what we think. We are, who we believe we are, who we want to be, what we don't want to be. Everything that matters is our actions and, for any change, the only thing that matters is the actions we change, because they're gonna be what moves us to where we want to go or prevents us from getting there. It's our actions that shape us, it's our actions that move us and it's our actions which cause all of the reactions cause and effect. This is where we look, this is where we should look. And now, with this, with these ideas, with me having such a strong opinion, belief, experience around action and consequence, why do we spend, why have we spent a few lessons discussing abstract philosophies, high level ideas, where do they fit in? If the most important thing is action, they play a very important role. Of course, once again, the value of our philosophies lies entirely in their ability to change us, and change only happens through action. The degree to which our philosophies support Our desired behavior is the degree to which they are useful to us.
Speaker 1:One very famous concept map which has made this very clear is Simon Sinek's. Why start with why? The golden circle, why then? How, then what? So if we consider that the course is the what, the practical changes, the actions we make, the behavior that we modify, this is the what. This is the definitive practical matters. But these are guided by the how, the principles that govern what our actions are trying to achieve. The principles that form the how are themselves governed by the why, the meaning, the motivation, the direction, the vision, and Simon Sinek's book start with why. He lays out a very clear case that what moves people is their feelings, their emotions, being someone, an idea is impossible. You have to sell them a feeling. An idea is only meaningful if we resonate with it, if we feel it.
Speaker 1:I found a beautiful depiction of these concepts, of the golden circle start with why by someone called Anthony Villas, and it was attributed to the first wealth blog. And he's got two circles here, the familiar three concentric circles with why in the middle, then how outside that, and then what outside of them both. And next to that he's got another two concentric circles, one with the limbic brain at the middle and the neocortex on the outside, really just communicating how the why and even the how no-transcript touches us in the deeper parts of our brain, those emotional, ancient parts of feeling, of intuition, meaning, and then how this limbic brain really provides the direction for our neocortex. I think this isn't generally underappreciated dynamic of our conscious experience, because we are hyper aware of our thoughts and our ability to reason and completely ignorant of the limitations in our perception and how we can really reason anything to seem true and how truth is so difficult to even come close to. What's happening most of the time is that we have our feelings moving us in a direction which we then decorate, justify or enhance with our thoughts. We use our thoughts to achieve the means with which our feelings are pushing us towards or away from. At the very core of that is the pain and the pleasure that is at the heart of what we're always moving towards or moving away from. As much as we like to believe that it's our reasonable thoughts that are logically dictating our actions in a way that we feel consciously in control of, what's really happening is a much of a vast collection of data coalescing into an experience of feeling, of intuition, and that's what's truly moving us.
Speaker 1:He goes on to explain. This is Anthony Villes' graphic that Simon Sinek has communicated in the why, how, what, that? The why is your purpose, your motivation, what do you believe? The how is your process, actions taken to realize your why, and these correlate with the limbic brain, your trust. That's a big word that he uses a lot in the book and when he discusses this principle is the trust that we need to develop. In his case, he was referencing mostly brands, but it's really any idea that it's when we trust something that we are truly moved by it, and trust is very closely related, even if we just look at these words as truth, when we trust something or the degree to which we trust something is the degree to which we perceive that to be truth. Truthful.
Speaker 1:Now, the consequence of these the why, the how and the limbic brain, our feelings is the what, the results. What do we do? What are the results of these phenomena? To the way I understand the why, the how and the what, the why is really my philosophies? These are we're actually going to define philosophy shortly, but this is what it means to me. Then, the how are my principles? These are like pipelines in between the what's and the why. How do we bring an abstract philosophy down a little bit more towards reality? Well, this is, in a principle, something that we can say is relevant for all action, or all of the time, something of that sense. And then we go down there to the what's, and this is what I understand as practice Practices which are governed by principles, which are motivated and directed by philosophies, what's which are guided by how's, which are compelled by why's. So we need the philosophies to motivate and direct our principles. We need the principles to guide our actions. We need the practices which constitute or are constituted by our actions. We need the practices to to realize the change, to realize the goals, to become what we choose to become, to go where we want to go. So, as much as the action is the be all and the end, all it rests on principles, which rest on philosophies.
Speaker 1:I thought it was best we look for a more formal definition of philosophy, because that's where we are in this journey and can see what I've highlighted here is what I consider the most relevant interpretation of philosophies in this context. It's the study of the theoretical basis of a particular branch of knowledge or experience, the theoretical basis of a branch of knowledge or experience, or a theory or attitude that acts as a guiding principle for behavior. Really the the bedrock, the foundation for us to guide our actions, for us to direct our actions, for us to motivate our actions. To wrap this up, I want to emphasize the necessity, the critical role that these philosophies play. Of course, you may be at a point in your journey where you have reached a stage where you have all the motivation you could possibly ask for and you understand exactly where you want to go, but really few of us are there, even though we need, we know we need something like a kinetic keystone course to solve a problem which we desperately or urgently want to solve.
Speaker 1:If we really want to ensure our long-term success on that journey, if we really want to go the full nine yards, then we need to commit to studying the philosophies and the principles as well, because giving ourselves this thorough understanding, giving ourselves a greater perspective, coming to understand the real reasons behind what we're doing, why we're doing it, where we're going, why we're going where we're going, why we're leaving what we're leaving behind, this is what keeps us committed for the long-term. This is what instills a deeper, deeper motivation for what we're doing. This is what pushes us through the challenges. This is what gives us the impulse to move forward, to keep moving forward, and there will be challenging times. And another concept that Simon Sinek has also popularized is the finite game versus the infinite game. And these journeys health, wealth and connectivity, happiness these are infinite games.
Speaker 1:These are journeys we need to slog away at. We need to march forward, inch forward for the rest of our lives, for as long as we can. There is no end in sight and we will face many challenges. We need the motivation, we need the understanding, we need to be propelled by something with real perspective, with real context, and on the other side of that, we want to make sure that we are going somewhere deliberate. We want to know where we're going, we want to choose where we're going, we want to plan it and we want to be deliberate about where it is we are headed. What is our north star and where is it taking us? These are some of the benefits that we get from thoroughly understanding the philosophies which support, the principles which guide our actions, our practices.
Speaker 1:As much as I urge you to get stuck in straight away with a course, to start making practical changes immediately, don't forget about these philosophies. Try and really study them and understand them. Understand where the course has come from. Understand why the course exists, understand where it is taking us and why it is taking us there. These will really strengthen your journey. These will strengthen your commitment, they will strengthen your resolve and overall, I believe, enrich your journey not only strengthen it, but enrich it. So now that we've got that out the way, we can continue on our journey with exploring some of the philosophies behind the course. We've got a bit more to get through, so stay tuned, stick around.
Speaker 1:I've really poured my heart into this project and I really have put together something I believe is very useful for someone who is looking to revolutionise the experience of their spine, either because of pain or because of performance. So if it's not you, but you've somehow got this far, then please, you have a decent idea of who might benefit from the Shed the Sweat thing. Let's get this information out. Let's help each other. Otherwise, subscribe to the channel for the sake of your future self. Like the video for my sake. Let's help spread the word. Otherwise, see you next time.