What is Mastery? Mastery comes with deliberete practice. This type of practice is geared towards repitition with an eye on increasing proficiency, confidence and competence. Typically specific tasks are practice and then combined with other tasks to exhibit more complex skills.
It is not the quantity of practice that is important but rather the quality. Now don’t get me wrong, you have to put in the required time and the right effort to master anything complex. But, short focused practice is the way to achieve mastery over time. Please watch the youtube video above for a description of what I mean.
As we previously discussed in Parts 1 – 5 of The Free to Be Blog (energy series), we explored various ways to align our Body, Mind, Spirit & PassionEnergy with our lives. We primarily centered our practice around meditation and visualization. In Parts 6 – 10 of The Free to Be Blog (energy series), we will begin to explore integrating these different types of energy into each other and ultimately together into a whole, harmonized energy pattern.
Embodiment is the first dimension of Energy Mastery. The concept of Embodiment refers to the unification of Body and Mind Energy. Typical embodiment practices center around movement disciplines such as Tae Kwon Do, Yoga, Qi Gong and Tai Chi. These disciplines help us achieve a state of Flow with the physical movements and create synaptic pathways that connect these physical movements to the corresponding cognitive processes required for movement. In other words, these movement disciplines, over time and with practice, form new neural pathways that negate the necessity for technical thinking. Only the movement and the breath exist. The mind is fully absorbed in the action of movement.
Embodiment is the gateway to mindfulness, the physical expression of who and what we are right here, right now. When we are mindful, we are focused on the reality that arises before us. Using the simple example of walking. In embodied walking, we strive to dwell in each very step for the duration that it exists, then we move on to the next step. Dwelling only in the present step, not in the previous step, not the next step. Dwelling everywhere and nowhere simultaneously. Not thinking, only doing.
These “walking” neural pathways were established when we were very young so now we no longer think about walking, we just walk. The movement disciplines I referenced above help us to train our Body and Mind Energy to flow with each other into a mindful now. I believe we can bring embodiment to every aspect of our lives by practicing a few simple activities:
Embodiment: Movement Disciplines – These practice disciplines include various Martial Arts such as Tae Kwon Do and Aikido, Yoga Flow Practice, Qi Gong Practice and Tai Chi Practice. Engaging in personal movement practice will begin to help us train our minds to flow with our bodily movements.
Embodiment: Mundane Life Activities – Think of any mundane, repetitive physical activity you engage in during the week. Examples include washing dishes, raking leaves, shoveling snow, vacuuming the carpet, walking to work…Next time you engage in one of these activities, do not let your mind wander and focus on the task and only the task. What happens? Did you lose yourself in the activity? Did you feel your Body and Mind connecting?
Practicing embodied activities will incrementally begin to free us from distracted living. If we take the time to slow down and authentically flow in the activities of our lives, we can begin the process of unifying our Body and Mind Energy and begin to integrate and unify all the energies we experience into a whole, happy, healthy and successful life.
Thoughts? Comments?
Please visit my Blog at Daibozen.com for more information.
When we begin to be mindful of the state of our lives through meditation, we may become aware of a “feeling” that manifests itself within our bodies. This “feeling” is an expression of the energies that influence us within our lives. Philosopher Eugene Gendlin called this “feeling” The Felt Sense. The Felt Sense functions as a connection between our Body, Mind, Spirit and Passion Energies reflected as an inward attention to what is at first sensed un-clearly. Zen Roshi Paul Genki Khan describes the Felt Sense as our whole sense of something – a person, relationship, situation, or feeling that may include thoughts, but is primarily sensory and unknown. It is an un-thought known, in that we can feel it, but it is not yet accessible to cognitive definition. It is unformulated experience, something we have been through or are in, but have not yet grasped.
People experiencing a felt sense feel more in tune with their body and bodily processes, and often even feel as if they can feel themselves within their stomach or chest. While a felt sense is partially emotional, Gendlin characterized the concept as a combination of emotion, awareness, intuitiveness, and embodiment. The felt sense is often unclear; people cannot specifically verbalize what they are feeling, but often describe it as a vague awareness of things ranging from old psychological traumas to burgeoning ideas.
For a more detailed discussion of our Body, Mind, Spirit and Passion Energies, see the Daibo Zen – Free To Be Blog – Energy Series at Daibozen.com.
