Tense to relax!

Many ideas work.

Many ideas do not work at the same time. 🙂

Our job is to find and make up what works for us right now and see what does not. But further, We must understand why things do not work so we can learn from them. Only then, we can move past them.

If you feel your movement does not continue, if you feel tense when confronted with resistance, You need to make friends with your tension.

Begin with a solo practice of shadow fighting. Imagine being attacked and move to handle the situation but with your body slightly tensed on purpose. This allows us to further understand the tension and as you repeat this practice, you can increase the tension until you are fully tensed up but still moving. Keep breathing calmly though to keep the practice healthy and then you can move on to add partner work.

Have a partner attack you lightly and move with them using light tension. Do so with care and listen to your breath at all times. Make the drill about being tense in the body and relaxed in the mind and thus you can progress to the next level of tension and more until you can move fully tensed.

Next tense just a part of yourself and move in solo movement and then with a partner while maintaining the tension. Change body parts from time to time and enjoy the imbalance as it will bring you within yourself faster than a balanced practice. It is poison fighting poison to a degree.

Making friends with fear and tension is not an easy or short task to undertake. It is however, a very beneficial practice and it will give you many gifts over time.