Body Mind Mastery, page 10
With your back straight, squat halfway down with your arms in a “biceps curl” position and tense all your muscles as shown.
Stretch up directly to one side.
Squat down as shown, elbows on thighs, then stretch on opposite side.
Keep weight evenly balanced.
Let your hips move in the opposite direction of arms.
Face front squarely with upper elbow behind ear.
Benefits
Opens ribcage and expands lungs.
Sideward stretch of the spine.
Generates vitality.
Clears energy around the head and shoulder areas.
NECK RELEASE
Directions
Inhale continuously as head makes three full circles to the left ending in position as shown; then exhale fully as head relaxes down to front in preparation to again inhale for three circles in the opposite direction.
Keep head relaxed as it circles; let weight of head provide the stretch and next release.
Keep teeth closed but not clenched.
Keep shoulders still and even as head makes relaxed circles.
At the end of the long, three-circle inhale, as the head rolls to the side and slightly back as shown, the lungs should be completely full of air.
Benefits
Relaxes tensions of jaw, neck, and shoulders.
Opens the lungs.
Clears tensions related to the weight of responsibility.
SHOULDER ROLL
Directions
Inhale forward-upward, exhale backward-downward.
Circle shoulders forward-upward-backward-downward.
Grasp one wrist with other hand.
Keep arms relaxed and passive; let shoulders move.
Benefits
Releases tension around the chest, shoulders, and upper back.
Invigorates and frees movement of upper thorax.
Clears emotional tension around the heart.
SPINE SWING
Directions
Inhale while pulling arm back, exhale rapidly while turning back toward center.
Hold your arms straight and sideward at shoulder height, forming a straight line as if a broomstick were tied to both arms.
Turn upper body only; keep hips squarely to the front.
Exhale rapidly so you have time to inhale around to the other side.
Keep knees relaxed and slightly flexed.
Head turns to look behind you at your hand as arm pulls back.
Benefits
Benefits internal pelvic organs.
Prevents atrophy of lower spine (associated with aging).
Clears energy field from knees to top of head.
Increases vitality.
HIP CIRCLES
Directions
Inhale continuously as pelvis circles three times in one direction; exhale continuously as pelvis circles three times in opposite direction.
Keep knees relaxed with head tall and still.
Let hands rest on hips as shown.
Pelvis moves in circular movement.
Benefits
Frees movement of the pelvis.
Releases tension in lower back and hip connectors.
Aids digestion by moving intestines.
Opens energy field from knees to navel.
HEAVEN-EARTH
Directions
Inhale as you bend knees slightly, curl arms, and tense all muscles; exhale as you move to stretch-balance position on either side.
Begin by tensing as you bend knees and curl arms.
Then stand tall and stretch one arm directly overhead as shown with opposite knee lifted to waist height and other arm down as shown.
This movement can be done vigorously or slowly, for balance.
Watch a spot in front of you to help balance.
Advanced: rise up on the ball of your foot as you stretch upward.
Benefits
Invigorates entire musculature.
Enhances coordination and balance.
Floods energy field with strength and vitality.
Stimulates and integrates two hemispheres of the bran.
Releases numerous points along energy meridians.
LEG-SWING LUNGE
Directions
Inhale as you swing one leg forward; exhale as you swing leg back — repeat three times.
As leg swings forward for the third time, lunge onto forward leg as shown and bounce gently up and down in the lunge position three times with three sharp, full, exhalations.
Rise up on forward lunge leg (so you are now balancing on opposite leg) and:
Repeat all movements — (leg swings then lunge) on opposite side.
Keep feet facing forward.
Keep back and upper torso vertical during leg swings and lunge bounces.
Benefits
Stimulates cardiovascular system.
Increases power of legs.
Provides stretch for thigh and Achilles tendon.
Enhances coordination and balance.
Coordinates right and left brain and body.
Contributes to improved rhythm, timing, vitality.
ARCH-PIKE
Directions
Inhale as hips move forward; exhale as hips move back.
As shown, use chair, couch, bench, bed, or other stable object.
Keep arms straight.
As you arch your back, lift your head gently, eyes looking up.
As your hips push up and back, move head between shoulders and look toward belly, stretching shoulders.
Benefits
Improves flexibility of spine and legs.
Releases tension in lower back and abdomen.
Strengthens shoulders and wrists.
Opens solar plexus.
KICKBOXING LEG SWEEP
Directions
Inhale as you lift leg up in front; exhale as leg sweeps sideward and back.
Inhale once again as leg sweeps around from back to side to front.
Repeat this sequence three times with each leg.
Standing leg is slightly bent.
Begin learning with leg held lower than shown — work up to waist height gradually.
For balance, keep eyes focused forward and pelvis stable.
Benefits
Tones upper leg, lower abdominal, hip flexors, and buttocks.
Improves balance and coordination.
Supports lower back and frees tension.
Reduces injuries to hip connectors.
BODY-MIND BALANCE
Directions
Sitting on chair, bench, or floor, with spine straight —
Inhale letting belly expand; exhale as belly relaxes.
Let any thoughts come and go but return attention to the rise and fall of your abdomen.
Remain sitting as you count ten breaths, until heart rate returns to normal, or as long as desired.
Enjoy a sense of centeredness, of equilibrium and serenity, and take that with you into your day.
Benefits
Reestablishes normal metabolism as a transition back to daily activities.
Provides rest, relaxation, and release.
Relaxes and coordinates body and mind, enhances concentration.
The Evolution of Fitness
Before 1950, popular culture decreed that fitness meant big muscles. Men, with their larger bodies, were thus mistakenly considered more fit than women and the exercises people performed to become fit centered around strength and power. But, as a few people noticed, sometimes even bodybuilders died young. Big muscles didn’t always help people feel better or live longer.
Then came the aerobics revolution, popularized by Dr. Kenneth Cooper and others, which showed that cardiovascular capacity — the heart, lungs, and blood vessels — provided a more meaningful indicator of fitness, vitality, and longevity than muscles alone. People began to think of women, who had started jogging, doing aerobic dance, and swimming, as equally or more fit than muscular men who lacked cardiovascular endurance. Popular understanding of fitness began to delve deeper into the body, beneath the muscular armor. With a new emphasis on aerobics — combined with some strength training — we began to pursue new kinds of exercise, such as jogging, aerobic dance, swimming, bicycling, and other forms of training that make moderate but persistent demands on the cardiopulmonary system.
Our understanding of fitness continues to evolve. Today we enjoy a growing awareness of the Eastern psychophysical traditions of training, such as yoga; internal martial arts, such as T’ai Chi and Aikido; and healthful disciplines like Chi Gong and a variety of hands-on and energetic bodywork. We are delving deeper into the innermost recesses of the body and mind — into the nervous system, and the controlling glands of the body.
Today we embrace the benefits of strength training and cardiovascular workouts. We are now beginning to appreciate the supreme importance of a centered, balanced, serene, and inspired state of harmony, where body, mind, and spirit form a holy trinity, a whole greater than its parts. And as our concepts of fitness change, so do our exercises. Where once strength training was supreme, we now pursue cross-training that incorporates aerobics and breathing, stretching, concentration, balance, and relaxation. And we now exercise body, breath, and attention in forms of dynamic meditation and sitting practice.
Meditation as a Fitness Exercise
At the highest levels of spiritual practice, meditation goes beyond the act of being aware, and enters the realm of becoming awareness itself. You become the witness who sits in serene balance, neither leaning forward into the future nor backward into the past. You sit, stable and detached, merely watching the body, mind, emotions, and soul — watching with the eyes of God.
For some, meditation is this profound, but for the purposes of body mind mastery, it may be more practical to view meditation as a revolutionary (or at least evolutionary) form of fitness training, essential to any complete workout — the ultimate cool-down.
If the deepest realms and rewards of fitness lie in calming and balancing the nervous system, focusing the mind, and pacifying the spirit, then meditation does this the same way pushups strengthen the muscles or bicycling expands the heart and lungs.
Numerous medical studies show that those who practice meditation experience lowered or stabilized blood pressure, less stress-produced tension, and fewer stress-related maladies. The evidence also points to other productive behavioral changes, including a reduced tendency toward addiction, and even enhanced access to creative inspiration.
Instead of viewing meditation as an esoteric, Eastern religious practice, or placing it on a spiritual pedestal, we can appreciate it as we would sit-ups or jogging — as the next step up the stairway to our potential, on our journey to body mind mastery.
Learning How to Learn
You may have had the opportunity as a child to play in an empty lot just after a fresh snowfall, when the bare earth was hidden by a smooth blanket of snow. Maybe that winter you were the first kid on your block to blaze the first straight, clean pathway through the crunchy, knee-deep carpet of white. As it happens, the neurological pathways you blaze through your nervous system when you learn a new movement pattern are just like those paths through the snowy field. And the enjoyment can be just as great.
Once you have prepared well, you are ready to learn your new skill — to blaze the neural pathway. Repetition of the skill will serve to groove the pathway. This applies to any set of movements, simple or complex, whether running, jumping, swinging a racquet, throwing a ball, playing an instrument, turning a somersault, or singing an aria.
I use this image of the snow-covered lot above because it graphically represents what happens in your neuromuscular system when you are learning a new skill. The solid line from A to B shows the perfect execution of a skill. If line A–B is your first attempt at the skill, it means that you were totally prepared — mentally, emotionally, and physically — and were thus ready to perform it correctly the very first time.
Because most of us are not perfectly prepared, our first attempts are represented by the curving dotted lines in the figure. Then you gradually home in on line A–B. This homing in process takes varying amounts of time, depending upon the approach to learning.
Your first attempt at a new skill is most important, because you’re forging a new pathway. The next time — and each time after that — you’re likely to follow your first path. Every time you take this neural pathway, you’ll stabilize and reinforce the motor response — whether or not it is correct.
Every time you let yourself practice a movement incorrectly, you’re getting better at doing it incorrectly. It follows that you want to repeat the correct movement pattern as much as possible and to avoid, at all costs, reinforcing an incorrect pattern. A fundamental rule of learning, therefore, is never repeat the same error twice.
Errors are a part of learning; we all make them. But if you make different errors each time, you don’t habituate yourself to any single incorrect movement pattern. This is very important, because one of the prime causes of slow learning is repetition of, and habituation to, an incorrect motor response. You get used to swinging the racquet or bat too low; you get accustomed to arching in a handstand; you begin to feel comfortable shifting your weight to the wrong foot on your golf swing.
By making each attempt different, you explore and experiment while homing in on the straight path, the optimal movement, and avoid grooving bad habits.
Awareness and Practice
If you practice hitting five hundred golf balls every day but really pay attention to only one hundred swings, then you’re wasting four hundred swings a day. In fact, those four hundred semiconscious swings may do more harm than good, because, as I just pointed out, you can form incorrect pathways without noticing it — like walking through the snow-covered lot in your sleep.
Only perfect practice makes perfect. Proper learning technique consists not only of attempting the correct pattern but also of avoiding the incorrect one. Remain fully aware in your mind and in your body of every attempt you make during practice. If you make an error, don’t automatically repeat the attempt. Take a moment to fully identify the error, or you’re likely to repeat it. Then do something different.
The Stages of Practice
Many of us assume that to improve we have to practice skills many times, right from the start. In reality, most beginners tend to practice too much at first. As a beginner, you’ll probably have a low level of kinesthetic or “feeling awareness” at first. You don’t know what the correct skill should feel like. When first learning a new skill, many repetitions may develop an incorrect pattern. Instead, begin with a few very conscious repetitions, maintaining intense concentration and interest.
Continue practicing while concentration and interest are strong. But if you begin to repeat an error, or if interest and attention fade, then stop and return to your practice later. Practice is like gambling: you have to know when to quit. Only repeat your skill for endurance and stabilization when you can consistently repeat the correct pattern.
I recommend practicing in threes. Learning studies have shown that we can maintain our best concentration for three attempts; the fourth try is generally not as good. So practice everything in threes, and then pause, reflect, relax, and take a break before practicing another series of three.
Following this principle of threes, I taught myself within a very short time to juggle. I’d try each progression only four or five times each day. Working for five minutes a day, I taught myself to juggle three balls within five days. Some people might learn to juggle three balls in one day. But my method, aligned with natural order and realistic psychological dynamics, will allow you to learn correctly. Many fast learners also pick up little compensations and poor habit patterns. They may learn the skill quickly, but they don’t necessarily learn it right. Take the time to learn it right, and you’ll save time. There’s a big difference between learning and learning correctly.
Remember, as you practice, stop for a moment between three attempts. Check yourself, take a deep breath, shake loose, and relax. Feel awareness tingling through your body, out to your fingertips and toes. Feel your connection to the earth. Then continue.
Learning, then, is not just a matter of casually (or fiercely) performing a motion over and over. Instead, employ insight and concentration in place of mechanical repetition.
The following techniques and principles will produce a faster, more powerful learning curve:
Overcompensation
Overcompensation may be the single most valuable aid to rapid skill learning. Here’s why: When you perform an incorrect movement pattern over a period of time, you become comfortable with that pattern. Any changes — even toward the correct pattern — will feel strange and will be more difficult.
Movement teacher Matthias Alexander tells a story about a young girl who limped up to the stage during one of his seminars and allowed him to work with her to straighten out her twisted, distorted posture. After a few minutes she transformed from an almost grotesque posture to one that looked straight and aligned. As she walked gingerly back toward her mother in the audience, she was overheard to say, “Look Mommy, I’m all twisted up!”
When you’re wrong, what’s right feels wrong.
— Matthias Alexander
Because we all become comfortable with established patterns of moving and acting in the world, and because changes — even improvements — feel awkward for a time, we tend to undercorrect. We stick “close to home” — to the old familiar patterns. If, for example, you’re learning to hit a baseball and have formed a habit of swinging too high, you’ll tend to continue swinging too high. Even if you know you should swing lower, you’ll tend not to swing low enough, because it feels wrong.
