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.