Mind Recovery

In my last post I discussed Sanchin and its importance in training the body and the mind to recover from an attack. Let's take a basic element of Sanchin and apply it to daily life.

Sanchin is a very simple kata in terms of physical motion. It is highly repetitive and for some almost boring. While performing Sanchin Kata, your focus is on the motion of body and of breath. When your mind wanders from your focus, the practice is to recognize this and return it to the now of the body and breath.

During testing you are being struck. Sometimes it can be very uncomfortable, if not downright painful. Your mind, upon receiving the pain, will begin to wander into reactive judgement. It gets focused on its own reaction, struggles with fight or run, and forgets that another strike is on the way...and pow...another wave of pain...and now more struggle...and pow...and so on.

Life also has a way of doing this to us as well. Your boss yells at you, yours spouse is mad at you, the kids are not doing well in school and your car is having mechanical problems which you can't afford right now. Life just keeps throwing strikes and you begin to struggle.

Sanchin training gets you to refocus on the here and now of your purpose and to detach from the discomfort. When you are here and now, the punches thrown at you actually do not hurt as much and you can recover back to ground zero of the present moment. You feel more in control. It hurts, but you can take it and move on in a non-attached manner. Your mind is in continuous recovery.

Being able to recover from your daily problems moment after moment in non-attachment will help you feel more settled and 'problems' cease to be a struggle. You begin to take life one breath at a time...one moment at a time. Sanchin teaches and trains you in this principle of mind recovery.

One definition of a Kata, besides 'form', is 'how you behave'. Whatever you are doing, whether it be washing dishes, talking to your boss, picking the kids up from school, is a Kata. It should also be the focus of your mind. When washing, wash. When talking, talk, etc.

When life throws a strike at you...being able to recover and return your mind back to your purpose or Kata pays big dividends in terms of your emotional and mental health.

Other disciplines, such as Yoga and Zazen can also provide this type of mind recovery training.

Hope this makes sense.

Hands palm to palm,
Shinzen

Control

The other day at work I was struggling what to do with a certain drug and alcohol client of mine who just didn't quite seem to get the idea of showing up for appointments on time...if even at all. I was deeply enmeshed as to how to get this person to change and trying to find ways to motivate this person to stay clean and sober. Then that little voice in the back of my head screamed at me, "Hey...you are not in charge of the Universe! Just let it be."

At that moment I was just able to kick back and have a good laugh at myself...and let go. Here I was again trying to control life rather than just going with the flow. In the martial arts, as most of us know, the best techniques flow with what is given, rather than what is forced.

It is no different in the dojo than out of the dojo. When I again did meet with this client I engaged him where he was in his life and applied some conversational aikido, taking what he gave me and returning it to him so he could see what he was doing. This pumped up his motivation for change rather than me lecturing at him. No matter how long I have been counseling, it's amazing how at times your desire for quick control makes you lose focus of good interviewing skills.

The same applies in learning self-defense skills. As a martial arts teacher it is important to me to remember that every student has his/her own story and will mature at their own rate. It reminds me of an old saying, 'You can't make the corn grow by pulling on it.' You just have to have trust and let life flow. Clients and students will grow; my job is to just provide a nourishing environment and let go.

I am also thankful for this client as he helped me validate to listen to that little voice in the back of my head that screams at me.

Hands palm to palm,

Shinzen