Sharon Friedman – Vigilance and Tranquility

Overcoming fear is a big issue to many students of martial arts, soldiers, law enforcers and rescue units. We go somewhere not knowing what is there or will we come out alive or with all our parts. There is a saying that it is ok to break down during the race as long as your feet keep moving. This is the way to gain some relaxation over this fear and desire for support from the future or somethign outside ourselves. Many find answer in prayer and here are a few bodily things to do as well. 

We invest a lot of thought and evergy wanting to get to a particular lock or position we see in our head. Getting Johny in a head lock and work from there or getting to that window and having a good line of fire to cover the entry tean and so on. By leaning toward a set outcome we narrow our field of vision considerably and by putting so much value on a particular goal we loose focus of the big picture and loose our mental balance. Once we are out of balance we are much easier to tip over by fear pain and other servants of the mind. Stay open to posibilities and don’t expect anything. This way you will see things as they are and naturally relax both in mind and in body.

Using the breath and tension to relax is easy in several ways. Consider smiling as you are upset hurt or afraid. When the face relaxes the nerves along this paths relax as well as the muscles next to an activated muscles tense up to support the structure (and than you can work on taking the structure down) if you are tense in class while working with someone you consider better or fear the pain try to hold your breath and tense up as much as you can while you work for a while. This will clearly convince you that it is not the way to go and you can gradually lower the tension and breath as if you are with friends instead of harming yourself. One of the main principals in systema is do no harm and while we work we sometimes allow ourselves to be sucked into the vortex of inflicting pain and attacking. A pro doesn’t want to inflict more pain than nessesary or escalate a situation. think of returning safety and freedom as you work and you will find ways to complete the job that were not visible before.

 Enjoy what you can and see each man and woman as a person. Anything else takes away from your humanity and relaxation. Work honestly to solve problems and solutions will present thenselves. Try to fight and more fighting will come to you.