Our dissatisfaction with the world and our lives stems from a lack of self-esteem. Lasting self-esteem can only be created on our own using our body.
I recently published the following article in Korean in the Korea University newspaper. I think it’s message applies not only to South Korea but to industrialized nations around the world. I would like to share the English translation with you.
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Last year, the suicide rate among teenagers reached its highest since statistics began in 1983. As of 2023, the average suicide rate among OECD member countries is 10.6 per 100,000 people, but in South Korea, it is much higher at 27.3, more than twice the average. Annually, 13,770 people, an average of 35.4 per day, ended their own lives. The suicide rates among the teenage to 20s age group and the elderly are particularly high.
The global village is overflowing with the Korean-wave, and this year’s Nobel Economics Prize winners praise Korea’s achievements by comparing North and South Korea, but the hearts of the people living in reality are only weary. The division and opposition faced by South Korean society have intensified, and the anxiety of future generations, born in the most prosperous era since Dahngun [believed to have founded Korea in 2333 BCE], is rather the highest. What have we truly forgotten?
In 2024, we are encountering the first generation of humanity that spends more time in the virtual world than in reality, a generation that is more familiar with screens than communication with people, and children who do not tread on soil. At the center of this is the smartphone, a symbol of material civilization.
The important thing is the condition of the brain that leads to smartphone addiction and even to suicide. Getting caught up in something means losing oneself. Suicide happens when self-esteem is lost, and one feels no value in oneself. Ultimately, it means the brain is not healthy.
In an agrarian society, industrial society, and information society, the amount of information has increased rapidly, but the basic structure and function of the brain have not changed. The essence of the increasing addiction in an interconnected information society is ultimately due to losing ownership of the brain.
People are ignoring the facts and accepting illusions, filled with unseen information, as reality. As long as there is a social system that drives endless competition, self-esteem will inevitably continue to decline. What can individuals living in an era of lost identity truly overcome?
I found the answer in the body. Everyone knows that doing sports makes you healthy. Now, I propose “Brain Sports” to make the brain healthy. The reason for talking about Brain Sports now is that it is the most universal and easy. It’s something everyone can relate to, and it’s done with the heart of loving oneself—that is Brain Sports.
Self-esteem is something you find on your own. It is my choice whether I spend time losing self-esteem or choose time to find it. No educator or parent can give you self-esteem. It is something you must strive for and achieve on your own, and to truly recover the self-esteem that is within you, you must start by moving your body.
When you fall off a cliff, even if someone throws down a rope, you must climb up with your own arms. Change begins at the very least when you lift your own body. Based on this, I recommend pull-ups. It is not just about regular pull-ups; the purpose and principle are important. This is because the brain can produce completely different outcomes depending on how it processes the same information and how much it perceives it on its own.
Self-esteem is something you find on your own, and to truly recover the self-esteem that is within you, you must start by moving your body. Share on XWithout belief in oneself, one cannot continue doing a pull-up. Hanging there allows for self-diagnosis. It is a time of loving myself. It is about awakening the brain and teaching it that “I am the master of my body.” By clenching both hands and overcoming the gravity of the earth, you lift your own body. That single pull-up, the difference between 0 and 1, is an encounter with another world.
If you do not change the physical body, the mind is like an illusion. The self-esteem I create is eternal, but the self-esteem someone else creates is always unstable. The balance of the brain is broken, and you fall into the victim mentality and anxiety of the past. Money, fame, and power are like that. However, when you become healthy on your own and regain self-esteem in your brain, you want to help those around you.
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Many scholars in foreign countries say that Korea is a nation established by saints. Its founding principle of Hongik Ingan itself is a philosophy of creating saints, and within the phrase Shinin Hapil (Divine-Human Unity) lies the meaning of possessing the character of a saint. It refers to a person who chooses and practices Hongik [widely benefiting all] not as an unattainably sacred being but by making a conscious decision to do so.
What does South Korea [and the world] need right now? Where should the seeds of hope be cultivated? Depending on what South Korea demonstrates, the world will once again turn its attention to Korea at this point when the limitations of the global material civilization have been reached.
Over the past 40 years, the path I have walked has been simply to convey how to play well with my body. I have shared ways to breathe with my body, converse with it, and feel it. Our ancestors were a people with a practice culture of training both body and mind together within the philosophy of Chun Ji In (heaven, earth, and humanity [which are believed to be one]). “Seek within the body” is the core essence of Sundo.
I imagine all the people of South Korea awakening their brains through pull-ups. I hope it becomes the country that utilizes the brain the best in the world. I was once asked a question at the International Brain Education Conference held at the UN headquarters: “How can humanity overcome the crisis it is facing?” People were curious and awaited my answer. My answer was simple.
“All we need to do is to play well with our body.”
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