Body Mind Mastery, page 6
Step 1. Without paying real attention, casually toss some balls toward the basket, and see if you sink any.
Step 2. This time, focus your attention intently in the center of the wastebasket. Sink your mind into the basket. Staying relaxed, toss a few balls in. (Remember not to try or you’ll become tense; just let them go in.) Check your results. Were you focused?
Step 3. Repeat Step 2, but have a partner standing behind you periodically poke you in the ribs, at random, as you’re about to shoot. Notice how this affects your mental focus and accuracy. Then overcome it.
One-pointed attention brings freedom from internal distractions and can help you master any game. Such mental power carries over into the games of life. As you stabilize your ability to focus your attention fully on the matter at hand, you will find yourself resting more and more in the present moment. Life will become more simple, profound, and full.
Freedom from mental distraction equals power. Olympic champion weightlifters not only have powerful bodies; they have powerful minds. The same quality of attention frees us, in the moment of truth, from any thought of self-concept, criticism, or fear. Body mind masters eventually come to the realization that this and every moment, on or off the field, is the moment of truth.
We have to isolate mental qualities before we develop them. Training is either conscious and systematic, or random and haphazard. If you feel something wrong with your running as you jog around a track but aren’t able to pinpoint the specific problem, you’ll struggle to improve by doing more of the same. But as you learned in Chapter Two: The Power of Awareness, you need to clarify a problem before you can solve it.
You’re involved in the action and vaguely aware of it — your focus is not on the commotion but on the opportunity ahead. I’d liken it to a sense of reverie … the insulated state a musician achieves in a great performance … not just mechanical, not only spiritual; something of both, on a different plane and a more remote one.
— Arnold Palmer
Golfers experience periods when they can’t seem to sink a putt; tennis players often have double-fault slumps. Because they can’t identify the source of their problem, these athletes may look to the heavens, wondering why the gods are punishing them. They start carrying rabbit’s feet wrapped in garlands of four-leaf clovers. They develop nervous tics or superstitious rituals. They may even voluntarily commit themselves to rest homes.
Now that you have a better understanding of the mental mechanisms that influence your performance, you’ll realize that although we all find ourselves in slumps occasionally, we don’t need to get stuck in them. And when you feel like you’re going nowhere or even slipping backward, you may actually be backing up to get a running start.
So when the time comes to act, remember to lose your mind and come to your senses. Now we’ll turn to the realm of emotions — the fuel for your journey.
CHAPTER FIVE
Emotional Talent
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
You may understand and have a sound vehicle for the journey, but whether your journey travels through athletics or daily life, you need sufficient fuel to get moving.
Different from physical energy, emotional energy creates the critical impulse to move you toward your goals — often called motivation. When emotional energy flows through us freely, without obstructions, we feel naturally motivated. And no force is more powerful than a motivated human being. We’ve all heard success stories about underdogs who produced miracles through powerful motivation. Motivation serves as a key to any training and beats at the heart of emotional talent.
Inspiration and motivation can be the difference between victory and defeat, success and failure, even life and death. The energy derived from motivation carries distance runners past the “wall of pain” when their physical energy reserves are exhausted. On the other hand, strapping athletes bursting with vital physical energy who lack direction may wander aimlessly and arrive nowhere in particular.
But motivation, like all emotional states, comes and goes, rises and falls. I certainly didn’t feel motivated all the time during my gymnastics career. But I trained six days a week, for more than four hours a day, for years, by keeping my eye on the goal. Although motivation comes and goes, you can always rely on your will. Still, motivation is like an umbrella on a rainy day. You can go out without it — by applying your will — but it makes for a more enjoyable journey.
Once released, the power will transcend our changing emotions. An obstacle is just something we worry about when we’ve taken your eyes off the goal.
I’ve seen athletes with real physical limitations develop into national champions through directed emotional energy. Eric Courchesne, a teammate of mine, had had polio as a child. His legs were so atrophied that when I first met him he required braces or crutches to walk. He became a specialist on the rings. He simply worked harder than anyone. He not only developed superior strength, he also began to practice a dismount from the rings that took him about nine feet in the air. He performed a full-twisting somersault and, by some incredible feat of will, landed unassisted on his weakened legs. Over and over I’d see him crash to the floor. His brother told me he used to go home and cry, the pain in his legs was so intense. After three years, Eric was able to run around the gym without leg braces. He tied for first place in the national championships.
Life demands much of us, on and off the playing field. Emotional talent is the capacity to stimulate and draw upon our natural fountain of energy — to learn to blow into our own sails. We develop emotional talent not by relying on motivation all the time but by applying our will no matter how we feel.
As a baby, motivation was natural to you — everything was interesting. On occasion you tensed your little body and cried, but crying was a simple, natural response to physical discomfort, rather than mental worries. Your mind was free of thought — in a state of clarity, focus, and attention. Your body was free of tension — sensitive, and conducting the energies of life. You naturally felt this state of pure energy and motivation. Nothing impeded this fuel for action — the impulse to move, to explore, to grow.
As you grew and became more aware of rules, meanings, associations, interpretations, right and wrong, success and failure, and all the other demands of the world, you began to separate from the protected cradle of infancy. Vulnerable to a world of emotional turbulence, social turmoil, and human frustration, you began to know guilt, doubt, and anxiety.
Body mind masters do not deny or repress their feelings but learn to stay physically relaxed even under stressful conditions. Even when feeling angry, fearful, and sorrowful, breathe evenly and fully. Keep your body relaxed. You have much more control over your behavior than you do over your thoughts or emotions, so paradoxically the best way to master your emotions is to let them be, stay relaxed, and focus on constructive action. So, accept your emotions as natural to you in the moment, without trying to fix them. Know your purpose or goal — not someone else’s. And, do whatever you need to reach that goal, whether or not your emotions or moods help or hinder you. These are three principles that carry well into daily life.
Breaking the Circuit of Tension
The mind imposes tension on the body and is one source of emotional turmoil. But until you master the mind, how do you break the harmful circuit of stress?
Follow this technique to regain emotional equanimity:
TENSE, SHAKE, BREATHE, AND RELAX
• Deliberately tense your whole body as tightly as you can for three to five seconds, while holding your breath.
• Then gently shake your body.
• Next, stand tall, as if your head were suspended in space from a string, and breathe slowly, deeply, and evenly from your lower belly. Let the breath bring a sense of deep relaxation.
Undoing emotional habits formed over the years isn’t easy, but you can do it. In any moment, you have the capacity to breathe deeply, relax, and let go. Allow rather than resist what arises in the present moment — inside or out. Let it be interesting rather than good or bad. In this way, you reawaken true emotion and the energy to act.
Breath and Feeling
Inspiration, in addition to its usual definition, also means to breathe in. The breath is a key to your emotional state because it both reflects and affects your level of tension. Learning to breathe with full feeling gives you the ability to inspire yourself.
The breath is a unifying link between mind and body. Meditation works with the mind but also relaxes the body. Relaxation exercises, in turn, work with the body but also affect the mind. Both body and mind are intimately related to the emotions through awareness of the breath. Various approaches to well-being demonstrate the intimate relationship of the three centers: physical, mental, and emotional.
Meditation practices center around insight and release of thought. As thoughts pass, emotions flow naturally, and the body relaxes. And as you relax your body, you consciously release emotion-producing tension — another step on the path of body mind mastery.
Ultimately, we gain mastery over emotions by controlling the body. And a good place to begin is to observe and control your breathing. Yogis, Zen masters, and martial artists have all placed great emphasis on proper breathing. Such awareness and discipline are central to the teachings of the most ancient spiritual traditions. The body mind master, like the infant, breathes naturally from deep in the belly, with slow, full, relaxed, and balanced inhalations and exhalations.
If you observe your and others’ breathing over a long period of time, you will see that the three primary emotional obstructions — anger, sorrow, and fear — are each linked with an imbalance in breathing.
Anger is reflected by weak inhalation and forceful, exaggerated exhalation.
Sobbing, a physical expression of sorrow, is characterized by spasmodic, fitful inhalation and weak exhalation.
Fear can result in very little breathing at all. As you consciously develop awareness of your breathing patterns, you can recognize these reactive patterns and use the breath as a key method of balancing body, mind, and emotions.
The following exercise will give you a feeling for proper breathing and its effect on the body:
BREATHING
Sit comfortably, on a chair or cushion. Your spine should be upright but not stiff.
Tension breathing. For a few minutes, breathe with your shoulders raised upward. Breathe using the upper chest only; take shallow breaths. Experience how this feels.
Natural breathing. Relax the shoulders by lifting and dropping them a few times, until they just hang. Feel their weight. Keep the mouth closed, the chin tucked gently in, and the eyes closed. Breathe slowly and deeply, but without any sense of strain. When you inhale, feel your belly draw downward and slightly outward. When you exhale, let the belly relax back up and in. Do this for at least ten minutes, remembering to relax your shoulders, to keep your mouth closed, to notice the rise and fall of your belly. Experience what natural breathing feels like.
As natural breathing becomes more instinctive for you, you can apply it to sport and life. Your breath becomes timed rhythmically to the force and rhythm of your movements, providing a greater measure of grace and ease. Ultimately, you will begin to feel that your breath moves your body, freeing you from unnecessary muscular effort. Whenever you feel tense, take a relaxed breath. As the children’s rhyme goes, “Breathe in the good stuff, breathe out the bad stuff, set your troubles free.” Feel the pleasure of slow, deep, relaxed breathing. Let the shoulders hang. In a few moments, you’ll feel the change. Controlling the breath is one of the ways you can harness the power of emotions.
Expanding Awareness
The law of accommodation reminds us that “in life, development follows demand.” In contrast, what isn’t used becomes obsolete. On the physical level, for example, if you don’t use a muscle, it atrophies — it becomes weak. It’s the same for reactive emotional habit patterns; through nonuse, they become obsolete.
Witnessing is a learned skill consisting of recognition and release of old patterns. If you notice anger, you acknowledge it and accept it. It may seem strange, but you can feel good physically no matter what negative thoughts or emotions arise. Negative thoughts don’t have to mean negative tension — if you remember to breathe, shake loose, and relax. This is the essence of witnessing.
Acknowledging an emotional obstruction — “I’m afraid,” “I feel angry” — seems essential for optimal health. But obsessing on fear, habitually dramatizing it, and struggling to fix it only reinforces the obstruction. Instead, pay attention to doing whatever you are doing with elegance.
Fear, anger, and sorrow are all parts of life. You can’t make them go away by wishing it. Emotions pass like clouds in the sky. Meanwhile, you always have the power to choose how you will respond. You may feel afraid, but you don’t have to behave fearfully. Emotions are not destiny.
As a famous boxing coach, said, “Heroes and cowards feel the same fear; heroes just act differently.”
CHAPTER SIX
Physical Talent
Ambition by itself never gets anywhere until it forms a partnership with hard work.
— James Garfield
To many athletes seeking the mental edge, working with the mind and emotions seems to promise an easy way to success. But as Thomas Edison said, “Most people miss opportunity because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
As mental clarity lights the path and emotional energy furnishes the fuel, your body provides the vehicle for action.
Even if you understand the road and your tank is full, you need a vehicle to take the journey. Golfers with clear minds and inspired emotions still have to learn to swing the club if they are going to play well. It all comes down to what you actually do.
Success is sweet, but it usually has the scent of sweat about it.
— Anonymous
Your Most Prized Possession
Take a moment to appreciate your body — or take a lifetime. There is no greater miracle in nature. Its complexities fill libraries, and still there’s more to be discovered. Just as the universe contains millions of bodies, your body contains millions of universes — you are made of the same stuff as stars. Each time you breathe, you are breathing in molecules breathed out by Jesus, Mohammed, the Buddha.
Your body’s brain can contemplate the cosmos over breakfast, write a sonnet over tea. And if there is a cosmic instruction manual, the first rule is surely that we each receive a body. It is the only thing we are guaranteed to keep for a lifetime — not our house, our car, our money, our relationships, our friends, or even our beliefs.
Whatever our beliefs, we can only know for certain that we have this life, this body. Its warranty is limited — good for a short time. So let’s look at the body’s care, feeding, and development.
Leverage for Change
Because our mind and emotions are difficult to observe and tend to resist change, the body is an ideal, highly visible medium for transformation. And developing and caring for the body also helps the mind and emotions. When you relax the body and release tensions, the mind and emotions reflect this change — and vice versa. Physical training uses the visible to mold the invisible.
Our knowledge of fitness is incomplete. We are even now rediscovering ancient body wisdom from the Eastern traditions, particularly certain martial arts. We are going deeper into the body, from the outer layers of musculature, into the heart and lungs, and still deeper into the recesses of the nervous system.
Physical fitness of the future will center around forms of conscious exercise that include, or even evolve from, forms of hatha yoga, breathwork, meditation, and ever-more-sophisticated forms of bodywork and refined physical disciplines. These may include Feldenkreis and Alexander work, other deep-tissue massage methods, biofeedback, acupuncture and acupressure, and hundreds of other systems that explore healing and bridge the body mind connection.
We have seen aerobics evolve from high-impact routines to nonimpact, flowing movement, often incorporating sophisticated warmups, cooldowns, deep relaxation, martial arts, and meditation. In the next generation, we will see sports become less competitive, and more cooperatively challenging and sophisticated.
Where no pain, no gain was once the norm, aware teachers are now showing how to develop within one’s comfort zone, without stress, without cycles of fatigue, strain, and recovery.
Exercise is only as beneficial as the posture in which you perform it.
— Matthias Alexander
Reshaping the Body
Your body is malleable; you can sculpt it over time with daily habits of diet and exercise. The law of accommodation reminds us that the body may change slowly, but it will change. Training for body mind mastery means aligning the body’s shape and movements to natural forces. Look, for example, at your body’s relationship to gravity. There are only two stable positions in gravity: horizontal and vertical. If your body is lying flat or standing straight, it’s naturally aligned in gravity. If the body is out of line — if it has poor posture — then extra energy is required to keep it stable in the pull of gravity. To maintain an off-balance position you need to lean on something, or else exert muscular effort.
Take a moment to stand up; then lean forward, sideward, or backward a few degrees, from the waist — or just stick your head forward a few inches. You’ll soon feel a pressure or slight tension in the muscles now working to hold the spine vertical. If you held that position for a few minutes or more, it would become painful.
GETTING STRAIGHT
For ten minutes, while sitting, standing, or moving, see if you can maintain a tall, stretched, erect posture, with a long back, chin gently tucked in, the back of your head stretched upward, and shoulders relaxed. Notice whether this is easy or difficult for you.
