WHERE THE MIND GOES, THE BODY WILL FOLLOW


WHERE THE MIND GOES, THE BODY WILL FOLLOW


These series of post are mainly my own LIMITED thoughts and experience from practicing Yiquan and should be taken with a HUGE DOSE OF SALT.

The most difficult step in beginning the practice of Yiquan is the INITIAL step. Before you even BEGIN, you must be willing to throw away all your preconceived notions and beliefs that you have about your body. This must not only occur on a conscious level but must be internalized down to the subconscious. Think about this for a moment! Is this even possible? Most of us find it hard to even get rid of simple clutter in our homes. And here, we are talking about letting go off part of our identity… In a way, this is an impossible task. It is easy to pay lip service to saying we can let go, but in reality, this is a Herculean task.

Yiquan is an INTERNAL martial art. As such, it is a belief system that goes against the common world view of this world. Here and now, often we are preoccupied with earning wealth and gathering more external objects to gratify ourselves. How then, can one realize practice an INTERNAL martial art if one is always preoccupied with EXTERNAL gratification? If we’re preoccupied with external things 24/7, it’s unlikely that an hour of Yiquan practice can undo that mentality.

If one wishes to practice Yiquan, then one must embrace its’ philosophy. At its’ core, Yiquan is about INTEGRITY (to move the body and mind as one unit) and about LETTING GO (to totally relax and go with the flow). Where the mind goes, the body will follow. However, if your current philosophy and attitudes towards life contradicts or is not aligned with the philosophy of Yiquan, it will be difficult to progress in your practice.

For instance, if you are easily aggravated all of the time, tense and irritable most of the time, how can you relax in your practice? If your mind is tense all of the time, thinking of all your responsibilities and how to earn more… can your body ever be relaxed? When I asked some people to perform the exercise I described here, it is surprising to note that some people can take up to 3-5 seconds before they can even let go and release the tension in their arm. They are so full of thoughts and tension that to relax is alien concept to them.

At its’ core, the default position in Yiquan is to align the skeletal structure of the body in perfect alignment with gravity, such that there is almost minimal to no strength required to hold the body upright. In this state, the ‘qi’ flows naturally, breathing is natural and the whole body is at rest even though one is standing. This is being in harmony in nature and should come easily. However, because of the stress in our modern lives, we have lost sight of this. Our default position is one of constant stress, tension and skeletal misalignment. Most of us don’t even know what being truly relaxed means! We mistake less stress and tension as being relaxed… But that’s not true relaxation!

In a nutshell, the most important step in Yiquan is about letting go and being totally relaxed. It is important to continuously focus on ‘intention’ of being relaxed and to let go of muscular tension in the body. It can only be done in stages, limb to limb, area to area. We relax the areas that we tend to overuse and slowly try to exercise control over areas we underuse.

During the practice of Yiquan, the tendency to tense up and use muscular strength will recur again and again. Just like clutter and rubbish that builds up in our homes, you must maintain a high degree of MINDFULLNESS and AWARENESS. Use these as the broom and dustpan to sweep away all the clutter and rubbish (i.e. stress and tension) away from your body. Only then can you truly begin your practice properly.