Month: October 2010

Simple. To gain awareness on how your body works and works well in different positions you need to explore them with different tools and with calm so you can both process and make use of what you learn.

Start standing upright tensing and relaxing your body one part at a time with your breath setting the pace and not the other way around.
Continue by leaning from the hips forward standing on one leg and having the other walk balk with the body to remain as relaxed as you can and repeating this process again.
Continue by leaning back from the hips keeping your upper body as aligned as possible to keep the breathing relaxed and the head free to move and again the leg in the air is in line with the body as it works the same in walking and you repeat the tensing and relaxing process.
Close your eyes and repeat the process and please mind how your feet both work together even in midair to help you transfer tension out and when you finish the drill keep this knowledge and don’t let your plans get in the way of letting your feet clean and clear you out of rough spots.

Two is one and one is none

There is an old army joke about a soldier getting two wishes from a Jinn. He thinks and things and then declares I want a magazine that never ends and poof it is laying in his eager hand. The Jinn asks for the second wish and after pondering the soldier says proudly I want another one…
There is actually quite a lot of wisdom in this silly yarn. We are taught that two is one and one is none in the army but in broader terms we learn to rely on ourselves and not on our gear. Things fail break or are” loaned” by someone who thinks they know better but never tastes the dirt. What stays with you is a spirit of mistrust in everything in the beginning from the timeline your commander issues to the rifle actually shooting. When you mature by a few months you learn to attach small and shiny items to yourself by more than one mean and learn to use things to more than their intended purpose. You can open a can with the front sight of an M-16, You can put torn flesh together with Locktite glue (a historical note is that one of the original uses was just that) and you can use your mind and body for just about anything.
It is a state of mind first of using tools with your mind being one of them. Thoughts of despair frustration and vengeance are kinks in the machine you are running and as you know you cannot escape a trap leaving parts of you behind and return to normal living. Learn to harness your mind by working everything together. Your emotions and body both effect the mind and it affects them as well. Ignoring a glitch in any of them will lead to not knowing why you are angry after not eating or sleeping for a while and if one part of the chain is stretched it is soon to break.
Make it not a habit but a drill to be used when needed to report to yourself on all your systems. How am I feeling ? Am I afraid or something or angry which is the other side of the coin. Is my body suffering from bad nutrition while on a trip or deployment ? Am I bored from patrol and drift away in my mind while driving or walking ?
These simple questions take the harness from the emotions thoughts pangs and pains and places them in you. It is simple but not easy so slowly start with this process and see what it can do for you.

Simple is not always easy but it is the easiest path. Staying with the principles and avoiding getting lured into work for work sake is the greatest pitfall of pride and knowledge instead of awareness.

Start standing on one leg with the other one relaxed in the air under you and not in some static tension position. Have a partner use either his legs and body or a good stick to move your legs alternating between the one touching the ground and the one in the air. Work to stay within your comfort and move as little as possible. Keep breathing and clean out the idea that you need to defend the ground under your foot. Move to stay comfortable but only as little as needed. A good measure of comfort is how you perceive time within and this is another key to mastery.

Continue to moving the air leg without stop while your partner creates blocks for your movement using himself or the stick or both. Learn to clean out movement that has to finish its course with no reason and move from more than one guiding point at once. Pay attention to your breathing and live in your hips knees ankles and toes all at once.

Once you gathered a bit from that drill walk into each other in turn and then all at once learning to clean out measuring your location in relation to another person and just move with no unnecessary anchor. Learn by simply walking without leaning your legs on someone else how the previous drills allow you to naturally find the open door rather then trying to force your way and remember to keep moving. It is the definition of life. From every breath you can learn and from every encounter you can gain. How you grasp the movement is key to mastery. If you struggle for victory you may get it and you may not which is a bad dice roll in a knife fight but if you strive to understand what you experience in yourself and in others and avoid separating these very similar concepts you will gain more from every breath.