Physical Intelligence

Talking about “Physical Intelligence.”

So here’s Google’s definition of intelligence.

in·tel·li·gence

inˈteləjəns/

noun

1. 1.
2. the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

The word intelligence is typically used in reference to a very specific realm of knowledge or skill, but here I have chosen to modify the noun with the adjective “Physical”.

So I’m talking about the ability to acquire physical knowledge and skills.

Or you could also think of it as “Doing smartly”, as opposed to “Thinking smartly”.

It seems to me that physical intelligence is discounted much of the time, and not given its proper weight as an essential aspect of personal growth.

I have been struck recently by how low the average physical skill and awareness seems to be in the general population. And I’m not just talking about fitness levels.

Simple procedures or tasks that to me seem like they should be intuitively obvious are bewildering and fumblingly executed by person after person.

For instance, in my experience blacksmithing I’ve had the chance to watch many different smiths or aspiring smith of various skill levels work.

And I can’t help but notice how few people seem to grasp what should be the most fundamental of skills in this discipline- hammering.

It’s a relatively complex motion I grant you, with multiple linkages involved in a coordinated relationship. Still, it’s swinging your arm, not rocket science.  And yet I watch so many people struggle along, fighting their own bodies and tools, for years sometimes.

They don’t seem to be able to tell that they aren’t using the strength of their muscles and the inertia of their tools effectively. Or if they can, they can’t correct the problem.

What’s missing here?

There are multiple things involved in this problem, but I’m addressing the fact that they just aren’t familiar and comfortable with their own bodies, or with the tools which should be an extension of themselves.

Having spent a very small percentage of their time and energy actually living in their bodies, people are uncomfortable with their own physicality, and find their own body awkward, unweildy, and alien. And because they are so out of touch, even beyond the discomfort of stretching physical limits, there is a discomfort with the unknown.

In this digital age it is easier and more common than ever for people to be out of touch physically.  You may find many who are skilled perhaps at certain derivative realms, technology, computers, what-not…. But lacking awareness and competency in the most basic of realms- the physical world.

Now I grant you, those who regularly engage in active and physical activities, such as sports, are is much better shape, no pun intended. But despite how big an improvement this is over sitting at a computer, I would still point out that many or most sports or things of this sort are games. More in touch yes, with your own body and others. But you play according to arbitrary rules made up by humans, not the rules of the physical realm and nature. Retaining a level of removal from physical reality and the way things really work.

It hasn’t always been this easy to disconnect from physical reality. For most of history this particular set of realities has been painfully felt, and inescapably understood by the general population.

Most available occupations were physical activities, and a laborer was judged primarily by the skill in his body and hands. Scores and scores of people down through the ages have been required to push their bodies to the limit in their everyday lives. Many essentially spent their bodies, just plumb wore them out in doing physical work.

This is an end of the spectrum we rarely see today, the spent body, as opposed to the atrophied one. Neither of these extremes is good, and I’m not advocating one over the other. The desire is health, and balance.

No matter what your natural bent when it comes to physical activities, the reality is that EVERYONE is a physical being.

So regardless of your fitness level or aspiration, get to know your body the way it is, right now. Know what you’ve got to work with, and Do Smarter. Work to gain Physical Intelligence.

Or at least learn to use a hammer, please. I beg you.