Since I last wrote about my morning practice, I’ve stopped practicing Aikido, and started Chi Gong. Also, I’ve added some floor work to build my core strength and to stretch after moving.
- meditation – see what comes up
- meditation on my breath, still my mind
- state my intentions, know why I’m practicing
- Chi Gong
- Freeform Wing Tsun
- Wing Tsun forms
- Pilates and stretching
- Meditation – reflect on what I enjoyed and what I am thankful for.
I’m really enjoying my movement practice at the moment, here is what I do:
- start with a moment of stillness. Connect with my breath.
- state my intentions – why I practice and what values I intend to have while practising. At the moment I practice because I want mastery of mind and body and I want long term health. My values are presence, softness, strength and moving from my “one point”
- start moving with very small movements from my one point. Allow these movements to build up until they are very large and become stretches. Feel the waves through my body and identify blocks and tensions. Release these.
- do my Ki development exercises from Aikido.
- practice my Aikido forms.
- practice the Wing Chun first form (SNT) 3 times.
- practice the Wing Chun second form (CK) 3 times.
- improvise movement from my one point, with my arms “unbendable” and holding space – focus on legs.
- improvise movement from my one point, using the waves to power shapes that I form with my arms. I aim to use shapes from the SNT and CK.
- slowly come to a rest and do a bit of standing meditation
- at this point I usually feel a lot of love and excitement. I take time to feel gratitude and thank whatever comes to mind.
To play this game you will need:
- yourself
- something that is springy and will continue wobbling for a few seconds after you stop shaking it. I’ve found thin signposts and thin trees good for this.
To play the game:
- start shaking the springy thing forwards and backwards
- remove your hand(s)
- put your hands back on and continue shaking – try and make this moment as soft as possible. If you feel that you are stopping the natural movement of the springy thing then you could be softer.
What can this game teach you?
- how to be soft (least amount of jarring on reconnection with springy thing) and have forwards pressure (going forwards to reconnect) at the same time.
- greater sensitivity to movement
- the moving dynamics of springy things
Why would I want to play this game?
- being soft is very subtle and powerful way of life
- combining softness with forwards pressure is very difficult
- softness and forwards pressure equals automatic, effective and respectful problem solving.
Introduction to Softness
People often think that being soft is a disadvantage, the word itself often has negative connotations. I’ll explain here why I think that softness is actually a very positive thing, especially when in balance with hardness.
Hardness
Maybe its a good idea to think about what hardness means first. Imagine that you hold all your muscles tight so that your whole body is rigid and hard. Then think about what that means during life
- moving around obstacles is like dragging a plank of wood against railings: bang bang bang!
- if you knock into something that doesn’t move then you get pushed over by it – after a collision: bang!
And we’re not just talking about physical hardness. Many people freeze what their ideas of the world are and think that they know it all. This stops them from experiencing any new ideas or systems of thought that could be potentially very rewarding for them.
Water
water is often thought of as the ultimate in softness. You throw something into water and it gives way, letting the object pass through easily. It moves around rocks in its path as a stream and reforms around it afterwards. Yet water is one of the most powerful forces in nature; crashing into coastland and eroding granite water beds.
In life its much better to flow around the objects and reform afterwards. Taking on board what that particular rock has taught us. We don’t get hurt if we’re soft and we’re open to new ideas.
Balance
Of course, we’re not like water. We get up and move around – and its our integral hardness (skeleton) that allows this. So for us, its much harder to learn to be soft because we need to balance softness with hardness. Being completely soft as a person is being weak, about as useless as being completely hard.
Training
I’m training my body and mind to be softer by trying to keep an open mind, and practicing contact juggling, contact dance and Wing Tsun. I’m sure there are plenty of other ways. If you’re doing something to get a better balance, please get in touch and tell me!
