Gema García Marcos
Updated Sunday, March 10, 2024-22:11
He is from Bilbao, but he seems from another planet.
She doesn't have television
"for pure mental hygiene."
Every morning, she starts the day
meditating
and confesses that, since she has
eliminated gluten
from her diet, she has even changed her character (for the better).
Faced with the apostles of 'no pain, no gain' and 'impossible is nothing', Xabier Sánchez, personal trainer and founder of XST, focuses on
conscious breathing, postural alignment and smooth
,
fluid movement without ' epic',
based on the basic patterns of our ancestors.
"I advocate a
holistic and comprehensive vision of health,
which is nothing more than understanding what
Mother Nature's rules
are and trying to live according to them."
It's like following the rules of a game.
"Every day, the sun rises and sets. And, in the end, if we
adapt our own internal clock to the cycle of day and night
, we eat natural foods, if
we move
as we should and, above all, if we dedicate a
full attention
to everything we do, the body works.
Something, apparently, simple but that, in practice, could not be further from our current way of life.
"Human beings carry a great underlying wound which is the
disconnection with nature
. We turn our backs on it when we are part of it."
In this polarized world, Sánchez points out the cohabitation of two opposing trends.
"While one part of society is pulling very strongly towards a
more technological life
, another is trying to
return to our origins
. My vision is not located at either of the two poles, but somewhere in between. Modern life has exceptional things, but I think that, leaving aside the norms of that primal existence,
is making us sick
."
His argument is irrefutable.
"We cannot pretend to be well if
we are designed to lead a life totally opposite to the one we lead
."
Our body is not designed for us to spend more than eight hours a day sitting;
Another thing is that we do it.
Nor are we designed to live in a permanent state of alert."
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And, in the end, what this causes is a devastating chain reaction.
"The fact that human beings have become 'accustomed' to
living in a constant 'escape mode'
goes against our own nature and harms vital functions such as
breathing, digestion or rest
, which, obviously, are not designed to be forced to fulfill their mission in a
permanent alert
scenario .
We have no middle ground and either we don't arrive or we pass three towns, even in our 'sports feats'.
"This restlessness of the body comes from the mind. It is a reflection. We are a society that tends to
recreate in yesterday and 'travel' to tomorrow without stopping in today
. We are 'programmed' like this from the time we are little and all of this generates is a
total disconnection
with the present moment.
As if that were not enough, "we grow up with the idea that
we are never good enough
. Instead of letting ourselves 'be', valuing ourselves for the 'simple' fact of existing, they pressure us with 'what we are going to become'. That It is a wound that we carry throughout our adult lives and that makes us live
in search of constant acceptance
, of being loved."
We think, he continues, that "if we have a good salary, an expensive car or six-pack abs, the group will accept us and we will not feel alone. But, really, what makes us feel good is quite the opposite; "That
the people around us accept us and love us for how we are
, that they do not judge us, that they let us be ourselves."
Escaping this insufferable bonfire of vanities involves, in his opinion, "carrying out introspective work that leads us to find within ourselves the driving force of our actions. Taking care of ourselves, because
we love our body and our health
."
And, of course, to stop turning your back on nature once and for all.
«Even in a big city like Madrid, you can
live according to the laws of nature
.
"You only need one thing: to want."
It doesn't seem simple, really.