Last December I admitted that a huge hole in my nerd -Cred.
I grew up with cartoons, took AP art in the high school and was always fascinated by hand-drawn animations …
But I had I have never seen a single second of a studio Ghibli Cartoon!
Studio Ghibli is the Japanese equivalent of Disney, with Hayao Miyazaki as a Japanese Walt: The studio has won several Academy Awards for their beautifully hand -drawn animation films, and Miyazaki has achieved a legendary status in the past 40 years to make these films.
Fortunately, the amazing community over threads gave me hundreds of support and helped me to decide which film I should start with!
Since I made this announcement, I’ve seen All more than 20 studio ghibli filmsPresent fell in love with JapanAnd was endlessly fascinated by Hayao Miyazaki.
(My favorites are spirited, my neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s delivery service, whispering the heart and the wind rises.)
After seeing every film, I watched documentaries about Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli because I had to know more.
Thanks to these documentaries, I got a fascinating look at the creative style and the experiences of Miyazakis to make these films together with his employees.
The running joke was that Miyazaki is the “never ending man” and cannot retire.
In every documentary I fell something that I noticed:
In The realm of dreams and madness, Once all employees of Studio Ghibli got up and moved through a number of mobility roads and calisthenics, including Miyazaki.
Later I watched in the document Miyazaki shows a very deep crouch With a perfect shape and without help. How many people do you know in the 1970s who can do an uninterrupted deep crouch?
In Never-end man: Hayao Miyazaki, Miyazaki is Filmed wood pounding several times With an ax in the back yard of his studio.
And in Hayao Miyazaki and the HeronMiya-san (his nickname), now in the 80s, still chops wood, walking in the forest, climbing over fallen trees, does his office exercises and works hard on the film that culminated the work of his life.
(Yes, I know. Miyazaki also has a cigarette in his mouth for almost every minute! He is lucky that he has not yet developed lung cancer, and I am reminded that he is not the perfect picture of health!)
I do it because I think it shows another side of the movement than we could normally consider.
Train for your old body body
You can see how this Doc from Hayao Miyazaki stays active and his brain keeps it sharply in his 80s …
I was reminded of it Amazing contribution from Elizabeth (@Thisgirlllifts on Instagram):
When we get older, it is easier for us to move less, which gives us less energy and makes it more difficult to find the dynamics and mobility to keep moving. This could prevent us from spending time with our family or our friends because we are unable to brave the energy.
Teddy Roosevelt once said: “Better let us take the risk of completing yourself than rusting.”
In other words, use it or lose it, boy.
It is not a distance for me to imagine that Miyazaki’s ability to be a “never ending man” is not just due to good genetics (and happiness), but also because he has actively chosen not to develop, Instead of having to come out.
He thought about why he decided to push himself to complete another animated film in his eight decade on this planet, and simply replied that this was all he knew how to do it: “I would do it Better die than not to do anything. “
Fitness is more than weight loss
At nerd fitness we encourage all rebels to think about their “big why:”.
Why should you bother to train and build new habits and move to improve your life when the couch waves?
What does it bring to practice and learn to deal with complaints when you retire in comfort, easier and so damn tempting?
A really strong “big why” can help us stay with the goal, especially if life becomes a dumpster fire or we want to give up.
For Miyazaki he decided that “what is in me” is a worthy use of his time. He found peace and fulfillment by creating things instead of consuming them, which means that he has to take enough care of his body to stay alive long enough to do these things!
For my gramma (who I visited the hospital last month) Your goal is to support your community and help people around them. Staying active made it possible for her to do this well in her 90s!
If you have difficulty finding a reason why you should do something …
You can make worse than “training for my old body body”. This is the only body you get, and the only life you get is almost any other day to treat your body with a little more respect.
It doesn’t have to be dramatic either. We can just start:
- We can take a short daily walk.
- We can get up all day and do mobility work such as squats and arm fluctuations.
- We can Start strength training Building strong bones and taking support for as long as possible.
It is up to us to keep our body active, and wear is better than rusting through a lack of use.
As a chaotic creator who spends a lot of time in my own head, Hayao Miyazaki gave me a lot to think:
I hope that if I am in my 80s, I still write this newsletter and help people, hack wood and take walks and spend time with loved ones.
I know that I can’t control what happens and accidents happen and so much life is outside of my control, but I will do my best to give myself the best chance to create and grow away instead of getting out!
I will leave you with the last short quote from Miyazaki, which closes the documentary Hayao Miyazaki and the heron:
“Stop complaint and make yourself moving.”
If you apologize now, it’s time for me to train for my old man!
-Steave
PS: The original Japanese title for The boy and the Heron Is How do you live. This is a much more interesting (and more professional) title for the film; It is really the encapsulation of his life’s work, those who have influenced him, and his deepest thoughts about the meaning of life.
PPS: Do you need instructions and accountability to reach your fitness goals? Nerd Fitness has helped more than 10,000 people with 1-to-1 online fitness coaching in the past 8 years. Click here to get more information.
