Be Fit With Biray

The word “wireless” is ironic. When we hear the word, we immediately think of any technology that doesn’t require a physical wire or cord in order to connect to the world. But aren’t we, as human beings, naturally wireless anyway?

Yesterday on my endurance run, I purposely didn’t take my mp3 player, wear my heart rate monitor, or bring my cellphone with me.  I didn’t expect to have an epiphany from doing this, but I did feel a bit vulnerable knowing I had to rely on the world around me to guide my experience.

First of all, I couldn’t route my path on gmap-pedometer prior to leaving my house (which I normally do). Instead, I had to trust my inner compass to guide me through my neighborhood (which, believe it or not, was challenging seeing as I haven’t taken time to explore my community). Interestingly, I ventured into new developing areas that (I was surprised to find out later) are currently not represented on Google Maps.

I couldn’t depend on my music or daily podcasts for entertainment. All I had were the exhalations from my breaths, the ’sloshing’ from my water bottle, the repetitive sounds of my shoes hitting the pavement, the gusts of winds, and other ambient noise, like traffic (which, if you were STOMP, would be enough percussive sounds for an entire production!)

It also occurred to me that if I were to get in an emergency, I wouldn’t have an immediate way to contact my family or the police without my cellphone (yikes!). I didn’t dwell on that possibility too much, but the thought did briefly cross my mind.

And although I made guesses about my heart rate based on my rate of perceived exertion, I settled for knowing that I was alive, active, and moving without pain.

Now, I totally ‘get’ that this was not an extreme circumstance worth ‘woo-hoo‘-ing over. I’m sure many people exercise with minimal tech-weight. However, my short (less-than-an-hour) ‘wireless’ episode did lead me to another hypothetical question: What will this experience feel like 5 years from now? I often wonder about how technology continues to affect our behaviors. As computers continue to keep us ‘connected’ and nanotechnology advances the ways we interact with our world - how much harder will it be to experience the ‘natural’ environment in the future? What will a simple run outdoors even feel like?

So, my suggestion to you today is RUN (or walk, or bike)!! Get out there and experience the world as JUST YOU! Tech-naked and naturally wireless.