personal progress

[Skip J.]

My business and personal life are quite challenging on a regular basis, and this is the life I have freely chosen for myself. Soooo,, every day or two or three, either one or both of these lives will go to hell in a handbasket for a goodly part of the day. Yesterday was one of those days....

What I noticed was that when the adrenalin started to flow, my normally relaxed shoulders relaxed even further...... that means that now when preparing to fight, my natural reaction is to relax.....

That is just so cool - you have no idea!!!! It seems like I've been a beginner forever....... maybe now I can move on.

And... my wife and I walk a coupla miles every morning and 6 miles on Saturday. I've been practicing Chi Walking for several years now. It's very hard in the beginning to get your eyes up to enemy level and just watch the street in front with the lower peripheral vision. Just lately it seems I naturally walk with my head up'n back and don't look down.

[Scott R. Brown]

Hi Skip,

When you feel the tension start to rise begin deep rhythmic abdominal breathing and focus your attention in your tan tien. You will find that helps significantly....or perhaps that is what you have already been doing.

[Skip J.]

Hi Skip,

When you feel the tension start to rise begin deep rhythmic abdominal breathing and focus your attention in your tan tien. You will find that helps significantly....or perhaps that is what you have already been doing.

Hi Scott;

Thanks! Actually I have been doing my best to follow my instructor's lessons on deep abdominal breathing, and starting this past year to focus on the tan tien. You are correct, the mind leading the qi to build the qi there has been of immense help in making progress.

On the other hand, since it is mostly mental anyway, there is the problem as a beginner that the idea of relaxing when going to a fight seems all wrong... It took me a year or two to accept relaxed taiji really was a MA, and then I started making progress faster by envisioning the app while doing the movement. That then starts the whole process of the mind directing the qi, which means the beginner has to really accept that thinking the movement thru in front of it actually does increase it's effectiveness...

It has taken about a year for me to notice the acceptance of breathing naturally, rather than just when consciously trying to do so, but it may have started earlier and I didn't notice. But when I did notice, it seemed amazing at the time.

Thanks again!

[Scott R. Brown]

Hi Skipp,

Keep in mind that stress is created by our minds through our interpretation of events. Something is stressful because we make it is stressful. If you can calm your mind, and forgo conceptional though, while training or in what are commonly experienced as stressful situations, no stress occurs.

Another form of stress is created when we our desire is in conflict with events. Something as simple as stress while attempting to get to an appointment on time is created by our own mind when we insist on achieving the goal when events interfere with our goal. Other times stress occurs when others do not live up to our expectations for them. For example, when someone makes us angry, we had expectations of their behavior that were not met. the conflict between what we want and what we get is a cause of stress!

Stress is caused by projections of our own preconceived expectations/desires upon events, it is an insistence that life occur the way we want it too, when life has other plans.

[dirtyrat]

Hi Skipp,

Keep in mind that stress is created by our minds through our interpretation of events. Something is stressful because we make it is stressful. If you can calm your mind, and forgo conceptional though, while training or in what are commonly experienced as stressful situations, no stress occurs.

Another form of stress is created when we our desire is in conflict with events. Something as simple as stress while attempting to get to an appointment on time is created by our own mind when we insist on achieving the goal when events interfere with our goal. Other times stress occurs when others do not live up to our expectations for them. For example, when someone makes us angry, we had expectations of their behavior that were not met. the conflict between what we want and what we get is a cause of stress!

Stress is caused by projections of our own preconceived expectations/desires upon events, it is an insistence that life occur the way we want it too, when life has other plans.

So you're saying to live a stress free and happy life, I need to change how I see things; that I need to stop blaming people for my own stupidity; that I need to stop flying off the bat whenever someone diagrees with my obviously 'correct' point of views; that I have to stop talking sh!t about those guys to prove my inate superiority so I can feel better about myself; that I need to stop thinking that I'm the center of the universe and so on and on?!?!???

I'm.... I'm not ready for that kind of responsibility...

[Skip J.]

So you're saying to live a stress free and happy life, I need to change how I see things; that I need to stop blaming people for my own stupidity; that I need to stop flying off the bat whenever someone diagrees with my obviously 'correct' point of views; that I have to stop talking sh!t about those guys to prove my inate superiority so I can feel better about myself; that I need to stop thinking that I'm the center of the universe and so on and on?!?!???

I'm.... I'm not ready for that kind of responsibility...

Hey DR;

Wish I could do all that, then I wouldn't need taiji anymore I guess...

[Skip J.]

Hi Skipp,
.......Stress is caused by projections of our own preconceived expectations/desires upon events, it is an insistence that life occur the way we want it too, when life has other plans.

Hey Scott;

Thanks I appreciate it!

I do my best to control my negative/adrenalin reaction to it, which is one of the reasons I take taiji. On the other hand, every now and then a situation does come down to a for-real conflict. My normal reaction would be to actively seek to control my adrenalin response, because it's gonna come no matter what. In the early years it was mostly telling my self to relax, which happened sometimes and sometimes not. Then it became more of a zoning out and just letting go, even before working out a plan of action. Then I found that a calm attitude really helps me think when all hell breaks loose; just when I need it the most..

But now it seems I'm mostly there, just calm all the time; and then reacting to stress by calming even more. Still, there are times I just have to say something and then do; even tho I know I shouldn't... so I'm not completely there yet!

In the past I've had a few low-stress jobs and wound up quitting pretty soon. I guess I need that mental challenge even tho I don't win many of the conflicts, I just try to do better than break-even and survive I guess.