Sharon Friedman – Vigilance and Tranquility

Pulse awareness: Start by staying at a position you are cmfortable in. On the ground, sitting or standing up. Feel for the pulse with your hand on your temples, sides of neck or heart (positioned from the middle of the chest and to your left) if you can do this without the hand it’s better but there are stages in everything. Once you are aware of your pulse go for  breathing with it. Start by breathing in once and out once with every beat and go for as much as 10 or how many you are comfortable with. Do not over ventilate or inhale more than you feel comfortable with. Try to feel the pulse in places close to the place you started and expand to the entire body. A helping method is to tense and relax or shake the part you want to feel through. We tend to feel more in times of adjustment and imbalance before we sink into comfort again. A good drill for shooters would be to become aware of the pulse in the arm, forearm and fingers of the trigger hand and stay aware of it while NOT feeling the pulse there. It is a good drill to silence any unwanted noise and demands some manouvering. For example expanding the awareness of each finger and becoming aware of the tactile and heat input in each finger may aid you in keeping with the arm and quieting the pulse. Remember there are no secrets just common sense and the right frame of mind.  The input we get from the body is constant. It is our use of it that varies.