The martial world and martial arts are filled with all sorts of lovely rolls, jumps, kicks and acrobatics. In the real world, life and death are decided by a calm mind, a healthy body, timing and skill and a dose of luck.

One of the very basic ways to assess your surroundings and your own state can be the sit test.

Start in front of a chair or wherever you choose to sit and just sit down and get up. Record yourself or use a mirror to pay attention to the way to do so.

Are you making sounds as you do so?

Do you bend your back ?

Are you using support or grabbing onto something ?

Can you stop in the middle of the movement or do you plonk your behind on a seat and hope for the best ?

All these are simple but important questions to ask yourself and also observe in others as they move about.

The sound we make as we walk be it the footsteps on concrete or twigs in the forest.

The alignment and synchronicity of the limbs and spine in movement and in repose.

The balance we display and observe as we traverse icy roads, open grounds and how we choose to accept external support or support from the inside.

Now that you are more observant. Choose to sit down silently without excess sound, control the movement so you can alter course if need be and mind to place your body in such a way that you can keep your spine upright instead of bending and loosing freedom of sight and movement as you descend and ascend from state to state.

The simplest building blocks of our days and nights are crucial to our survival and development. Make yours of quality breath, movement and alignment and then even your mind and heart will be more free to see what is coming your way and how to handle it.

The magic is in the mundane.