Obvious and non-obvious benefits of manual labor

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

“Study, otherwise you’ll twist the tails of the cows,” my mother said, hinting that I would have to earn a living by doing physical labor if I didn’t finish school well and didn’t go to university. Probably 90% of all mothers and fathers motivated their children to study in a similar way. As a result, we got a popular culture, at best disdainful, at worst - contemptuous of physical labor. And it is this attitude that is one of the main reasons for the large number of unsuccessful and mediocre people.

Have you ever wondered why physical labor is often opposed to education, a happy and fulfilling life, and is not respected and respected? For me, this state of affairs was taken for granted for a long time. But, as often happens in my life, it was time for this question to be questioned and analyzed.

Starting from the last grades of school, I was no longer satisfied with answers like "Everyone lives like this", "Everyone thinks so", "Everyone does this." So today I will try to show you that in matters of physical labor, the majority is not right, that without it we will not be able to develop harmoniously, achieve success, live happily and fully.

Possible reasons for the wrong attitude

First, let's look at the reasons for the wrong attitude. First reason - laziness is as old as human nature itself. I do not want to say that laziness is not a hindrance to intellectual work. Sometimes it's even the other way around: I start doing hard physical labor, just not to write an article.

But if a person is offered a choice of any profession, then, most likely, his choice will be more connected with intellectual work than with physical work. And what a person does not like, he often tries to present to himself and others as of little use or generally unnecessary. Here come to the rescue Plato's ideas.

Plato taught that a person has an immortal soul - a thinking and feeling entity associated with higher informational and spiritual matters. The body for the soul is just a temporary refuge associated with everything low, earthly and unclean. This is where the excessive exaltation of mentalization over physical labor begins.

By the time Christianity becomes the state religion of the Roman Empire, Plato's ideas are already firmly embedded in it, despite the fact that the main book of Christians - the Bible - says nothing about the immortal soul in Plato's understanding and denies the afterlife itself.

This attitude permeates all strata of society and the entire culture of Europe. In addition, in order to fight the Reformation, the Jesuit order is creating schools and universities throughout Europe, the system and philosophy of education of which have become the foundation in almost all educational institutions of the modern world.

Thus, in addition to natural laziness, a person from childhood receives the installation that intellectual work is associated with something sublime, spiritual and worthy of honor, and physical work is the lot of the plebeians.

AND third reasonfollows from the second and, in turn, even more consolidates it in our consciousness. This happens as follows: the child is lazy to work intellectually and does not study well at school (or he was discouraged from studying), as a result, he grows up as a person incapable of intellectual work, self-study and self-development. Low level of intelligence, small vocabulary, low culture - the only prospect is unskilled or low-skilled manual labor.

Looking at such a person, people usually confuse cause and effect and are affirmed in the opinion that physical labor does not contribute to mental and moral development and, in general, the growth of a person as a person. Below we will see that in fact, with the right approach, the opposite is true.

Overall benefits of physical activity

Today, more and more scientists say that playing sports helps us become smarter.

In his book, The Rules of the Brain, John Medina provides a wealth of interesting facts about the beneficial effects of physical activity on the brain and its function:

… lifelong physical activity leads to dramatic improvements in cognitive processes, as opposed to a sedentary lifestyle. Adherents of physical education bypassed lazy people and lazy people in terms of long-term memory, logic, attention, ability to solve problems, and even the so-called mobile intelligence. Such tests determine the speed of thinking and the ability to think abstractly, to reproduce previously acquired knowledge to solve a new problem.

John Medina

Medina also reports that physical activity cuts the risk of dementia in half, and in the case of Alzheimer's, the result is even 60%! The risk of one of the main causes of age-related brain diseases - an attack of angina pectoris - is reduced by 57%. Exercise also helps regulate the release of norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin into the bloodstream, which are directly related to brain health and function.

Unfortunately, today a sedentary lifestyle is a problem not only for adults who work in the office, but also for children chained to TVs, computers and tablets with smartphones. This negatively affects not only physical but also mental health:

… Physical activity improves children. Physically fit children recognize visual stimuli faster than their sedentary peers and concentrate better. Research on mental activity has shown that physically active children and adolescents use more cognitive resources to complete tasks.

John Medina

Physical labor can give no less useful and varied load to our body than sports exercises, having the same beneficial effect on it as, for example, running. But with all this, physical labor can give another load for our brain, which it cannot get anywhere else.

Practical mind

Even while cleaning an apartment, our brain solves many more practical problems than solving complex mathematical equations. Therefore, properly organized physical labor contributes to the formation of practical thinking. In this case, a person learns to see the cause-and-effect relationship and gains the skill to predict the consequences and results of not only their deeds, but also words and thoughts.

But due to the fact that physical labor is considered a curse or punishment, the majority do their work thoughtlessly, on a knurled basis and without creativity. Of course, such a situation does not contribute in any way to practical thinking, which is so necessary for achieving success and fullness of life.

Children brought up on video games and films, where often cause-and-effect relationships are completely absent or have little to do with reality, when they grow up, they often simply cannot understand what is happening with their lives, and they undertake to scold the stars, world conspiracies, the government, foreigners, neighbors … And they also learn with unpleasant surprise that life sometimes turns out to be a difficult and difficult thing and their knowledge, skills, and character are completely unprepared for it.

It is not for nothing that there is a school in Silicon Valley where children learn (without computers and tablets) to sculpt, draw, cut, and generally work with their hands. And famous people of the Hi-Tech society send their children to this school. Many of them, like Steve Jobs once, restrict the communication of their children with gadgets to varying degrees.

Character building

Physical labor can be an excellent helper in character education. Or rather, in the education of character traits: dedication, perseverance, hard work, accuracy, thoroughness - which are critical for success, development, growth and overcoming difficulties.

Whether the child wants it or not, by completing a task entrusted to him or reworking something badly done, he brings up all these qualities in himself. And the fact that without them it is impossible to achieve anything sensible, I think there is no need to explain. Children who share part of the household responsibilities with other family members grow up more independent, more prepared for life and its unpleasant surprises.

Preparedness for the vicissitudes of life

Nobody knows how the circumstances will develop for us in the future, but a person accustomed to physical labor has an advantage in this situation as well. The acquired skills will help you find a temporary job or even start your own business, and a hardened character will help you not to give up and not sink to theft or begging.

And if we take extreme cases - a desert island, natural disasters and other "ends of the world" - it is unlikely that the skills of a blogger or programmer will help if there is no electricity. Very different skills will be useful in such a situation.

Useful practical result

And, by the way, about the usefulness. The bottom line, which can be of benefit to you and others personally, is another benefit of manual labor.

If the result of sports exercises is health of the body and mind, then vegetables and fruits from your own plot, a cozy and beautiful home environment or even a balcony can be added to the results of physical labor.

Way out: love physical labor

What to do now? Quit intellectual work and sports exercises? Of course not. For starters, you can simply take every opportunity to physically work: from simple ditching to creating masterpiece furniture from sturdy oak.

And the most important thing: if you work without a good mood, without a creative approach, then it will be impossible to squeeze out all the bonuses. Is it possible to love physical labor? I know from personal experience that it is possible, although not soon and not easy. Think about the benefits it provides, and for free. Usually people pay a lot of money for various trainings, but here we get training for muscles, for the brain, for character, and even with a useful external result. As you wish, I rushed off to cultivate the vineyard.