Bruin MMA

According to Marxist doctrine, the rich prevent the working class from becoming aware of their oppression and latent power by imposing their ideology on society. The ruling class uses ideology to persuade the poor that their miserable condition is either inevitable or compensated by future events. Marx identified the primary ideology as religion, the opiate of the masses, which justifies the misery of the workers by promising eternal benefits in heaven. Instead of religion,  Fight Club  identifies consumerism as the modern worker’s opiate. For example, the narrator (i.e. Jack) says, "the people who used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they sit in the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue." In other words, the pursuit of the next best product is the current generation’s pornography. Workers pore over magazines because they believe that the accumulation of material possessions exemplifies the good life. Let us suppose that you bu...

Thousands of books have been written on what art is or should be, t he problem is that art is entirely subjective. In other words, art is in the eyes of the beholder.  Nobel Prize winning author  Andre Gide gave his view on art in  Poetique,  stating that  “Art begins with resistance — at the point where resistance is overcome. No human masterpiece has ever been created without great labour.”  Here, Gide means to say that sacrifice is a necessary condition of any artistic pursuit. If you subscribe to this interpretation of art, then fighting is the purest form of art.  F ighting is an artistic pursuit in which the  stakes are very high for the competitors because  they will probably both end up bloodied and broken in the process.  This is because t here is nothing more brutal, sublime, and honest than a fight.  T he high stakes of a fight remind us of that "truth" that is always talked about in relation to art; namely, that without...

You often see NFL players on the sidelines breathing oxygen, and you may wonder whether breathing that high concentration of oxygen through a special mask is actually helping them to recover faster, or perhaps it is just a placebo.  Dr. Johnathan Edwards who is a physiologist,  anesthesiologist, and  sports medicine physician says that supplemental oxygen  can help athletes with: wound healing, tissue repair, inflammation, and mental acuity. However,  there are some very important things to consider when administering oxygen, since it is possible to give too much oxygen (referred to as "hyperoxia") as well as too little oxygen (referred to as "hypoxia").  Oxygen is contained in the blood in two forms:  dissolved in plasma (which is about 2% oxygen) and  bound to hemoglobin in red blood cells (which is about 98% oxygen).  Breathing supplemental oxygen saturates the hemoglobin and increases the concentration of dissolved oxygen in...

Deprivation therapy treatments, referred to simply as "float tanks," have recently garnered lots of buzz. However, float tanks have been around since the 1950s. Sensory deprivation is achieved through floating in a tank that cuts off all sources of sensory experience: sight, sound, smell, and touch. Float tanks are filled with 12 inches of water that is almost the exact same temperature as the floater’s body, along with Epsom salt. The salt allows you to remain restfully floating at the water’s surface in complete silence without needing to exert any effort to stay afloat. Some people report that float tanks can actually bring about a "psychedelic experience" in which they see various geometric patterns. While these experiences are difficult to prove, a slew of research is now showing that floating is an effective, noninvasive method for: lowering levels of cortisol, lowering blood pressure, restoring a normal breathing rate, and promoting positive feelings of wel...

Mindfulness is a state of being aware of one's thoughts, sensations, and surroundings in the present, and accepting them without judgment. Mindfulness can be achieved by taking deep breaths and focusing on them; in doing so, one can reduce stress and anxiety. Recent studies suggest that mindfulness can have a positive effect on a person's mental, emotional, social, and physical health. For example, a study published in The British Journal Of Psychiatry in 2013 examined the effectiveness of mindful breathing in several British secondary schools. The findings showed that the more often students used mindful breathing, the higher their levels of focus, calm, and well-being. Students involved in mindfulness also reported less stress and fewer symptoms of severe depression. Mindful breathing is intended to activate the relaxation response, this decreases blood pressure and allows your body to engage in reparative and restorative functions. In 2014, a study in Proceedings of the Na...

The subconscious mind is analogous to a programmable hard drive. The “programs” of our lives, are downloaded into our subconscious mind. These programs are what we would call beliefs. So in this way of thinking of things, belief becomes the software that programs reality. This is because the subconscious mind does not rely on the outside world. Hence, it cannot differentiate between what is real and what is imagined. The subconscious mind remembers everything and processes only in the present. Moreover, the subconscious mind uses the imagination and emotions to communicate.  It will look for and guide you to whatever you tell it. So you must be absolutely clear and specific in directing your subconscious mind to help you accomplish your goals. Thus, the imagination is like a laboratory of the mind where you can experiment endorsing beliefs without doing so in the physical world. Your conscious mind, on the other hand, is an evolutionary development of higher mammals. In humans,...

Workout fads come and go, but virtually no other exercise program is as enduring as yoga. Yoga has been around for more than 5,000 years. The word yoga itself means “to yoke;” it is the process of connecting the body, mind, and breath that is the essence of yoga. This is what makes yoga different from traditional exercise; yoga has the unique capacity of bringing all aspects of yourself into focus of the task at hand. “The purpose of yoga is to create strength, awareness and harmony in both the mind and body,” explains Natalie Nevins, a board-certified osteopathic physician. She says: “The relaxation techniques incorporated in yoga can lessen chronic pain, such as lower back pain, arthritis, headaches and carpal tunnel syndrome...Yoga can also lower blood pressure and reduce insomnia.” Yoga can also increase your flexibility, muscle tone, vitality, protection from injury, circulatory health, and athletic performance. Aside from the physical benefits, one of the most essential b...