Too much tension...

[shaolin11]

Hello,

New to the forum, have been reading for a while, but I finally decided to post. Have been practicing Shaolin Kung Fu for three years and enjoy it immensely. My immediate and most pressing concern is the high amount of tension in my body. Just so tense. Breathing problem? Sometimes, I don't really even feel tense, but training buddies tell me to relax, "you're not practicing karate," I don't think I'm always tense, but a lot. Any advice or bits of knowledge that can be shared will be appreciated! Thanks!

[Mikkyou]

Try to relax.Some people mediate some people draw or write or run or whatever.
If your having problems breathing it could be your hyperventilating or your to tense that your breathing is shallow do to tense muscles.If you have some sort of breathing problem it is best idea to get checked by a doctor to make sure everything is ok physical(many people get misdignosed with mental problems to later have it discovered it was really physical)I don;t think medication is the best choice but maybe seeing a mental health provider might be a way to look into other possibilities.

[Scott R. Brown]

Hi shaolin11,

It is common for beginners to use excessive tension when learning new activities. The cause of this is the mind. The body follows the mind. Too much mental tension creates excessive physical tension. Because the movements are new and unusual and the actions are aggressive in MA, beginners tend to try harder than necessary when performing movements. Instead of just striking, they TRY to strike. The idea of TRYING to forcefully strike creates excessive tension in the muscles. With practice we learn that the key to effective and powerful striking is in the technique and not in forceful action. It is the intent that changes, and this changes the actions. With relaxed intent the body relaxes allowing the action to happen naturally “of itself” (wu wei). Think of walking, it is an activity you just do! You don’t think about it or try to do it. It seemingly happens “of itself”, but when you were a child it was difficult to learn, you fell down a lot. The same with feeding ourselves, the fork just finds the mouth. You don’t have to look for it every time you shovel food in. With time and practice tension should lessen.

There are a few things that can help.

1) The recommendation to meditate is a good one. This will assist in calming the mind. But often it is intent rather than an agitated mind that creates tension in beginners, and this is mollified by changing one’s attitude/intent. Intention is the focused attitude or mental condition that directs action. Intention can lead us to TRY too hard to accomplish a new skill! It is the relaxed receptive mind that learns the quickest, not the tense TRYING TOO HARD mental attitude. While meditating, learn to sense your mental tension and ease the tension by letting it go.

2) Be mentally detached from your actions. This means, place no value judgments on the quality of your performance or be unduly attached to results. Attached to results is being overly concerned with perfect execution, scoring points or winning praise! Just perform the actions and let the improvement come through time. Don’t try to force improvement!

3) Reduce aggressive intent. Aggressive intent is a big cause of tension. Focus your mind on the actions, but without hostility or aggression! Just perform the actions matter of fact without any real intent to hit hard or kick hard or move quickly.

4) Relax when training and attempt to perform the actions as if you were walking or eating. It is better to go slow and right than fast a wrong! Speed comes with experience. It is years of experience that taught us to walk easily and eat without concern; the same applies to all other activities.

I hope this helps a little! Good Luck!!!

[shaolin11]

Appreciate the reply, thanks guys, especially Scott. I have been meditating for some time now, but not on a consistent basis, I'm struggling for consistency. Mentally detatching myself from the actions is great idea and something I will try to implement. I can sense the inherent benefits from not placing value judgments on perfect execution. You are correct, I must let improvement come naturally, not forcefully. Which leads perfectly into focusing the mind to reduce aggressive intent. Simply performing the actions "matter of factly" is a good idea also, thank you. I have been concerned with improvement, striking hard, and moving quickly. Finally, relaxing is another great idea, however easier said than done for me, but I will actively try to relax. I realize that relaxing is key to pretty much everything. Again, thanks for the help.

[cam]

Maybe if you were to practise zhan zhuang(standing). The only activity in his practise is to maintain a proper structure while you learn to sink(relax/loosen) into it.
If you can learn to relax in stillness just apply that to motion and be patient with it

[Scott R. Brown]

Hi shaolin11,

Actually relaxing is the last thing you should be focusing on. I am sorry I wasn’t clear enough about that. Relaxation will occur naturally when you are able to modify your mental attitude. It is mental attitudes that create tension.

One other thing I meant to mention but forgot, was breathing! Train yourself to breathe from your abdomen. That is, when inhaling distend the abdomen instead of lifting the shoulders as most people do. Concentrate on your breathing when you feel yourself overly tense. Take slow deep breaths. When you practice your meditation perform abdominal breathing as well. In fact train yourself to breath abdominally all the time. Observe yourself breathing when you are tense and you will find you are lifting your shoulders to breathe. If you need more oxygen than abdominal breathing provides, merely start from the abdomen and then fill the upper lungs last by raising your shoulders. Shoulder breathing enhances tension, while abdominal breathing reduces it.

Again good luck!!

[Taff]

I have a somewhat different suggestion, which has proved effective for me. When we do Chi Sao in Wing Chun, it's important to relax, which can be difficult when there's so much going on.

I've found listening to classical music before class can help. Preferably something relaxing. One of my usuals is parts of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto Number 2. I find this playing in my head during chi sao, and it's like a little piece of calm in the storm. It helps me emotionally detach somewhat, and frees up some of the tension.