As I have mentioned in my last blog words mean nothing
without actions, and so the tools that I use that have been taught to me by
Cmdr Divine at the SEAL Acadamy are as follows.
I use yoga for peace, tranquillity, mastery, focus, to set
yourself up mentally, and spiritually for your meditation practice. The yoga
poses I use are taught at the Navy SEAL Academy under the name of Warrior Yoga. They
are essentially a series of poses to get you to focus intently on your actions
of mobility, and flexibility. The tranquillity and mastery flow from these. To
mesh one pose into the next, to maintain balance, mastery, requires
concentration and all the while focusing on your breath control, and your
ability to relax, or you will not be able to complete the movement. These were
all things I was not very good at. Again, getting the mind, and body to work
together under the leadership of your spirit is very difficult to master. I
fell over a lot, and at the very least was wobbling all over the place, but
with persistence, consistency, and practice, I noticed that I was getting more
balanced, and I have felt more relaxed, and had some sort of control over my
movements. Have I mastered it? Not likely!!! That will take the rest of my life
. The mastery of my breath also has improved a lot with time, and became a lot
smoother and easier the more relaxed I
am. I'm talking about 5 months of nearly daily practice here, I am only a white
belt still. It will take a life time of practice. The words consistency, and persistence
have become the bearer of good news as I become better. Now I love doing it.
Some days I find myself in the peace, grace, and tranquillity. Other days I
feel the movement, the mobility, the flexibility, and the balance. It also sets
me up for my meditation practice. At the moment in our classes, Cmdr Divine has
us doing Box Breathing, Breath Awareness, Still Water Visualisation and Focused
Visualisation Practice. I liked the Box Breathing, because it provides a strong
structure as a tool to reach a meditative state. I use Box Breathing most of
the time, and when I want a break, I use the visualisation. At the
moment preparing for my Ironman Triathlon I visualise every step of the
marathon leg. Every part of that course , nothing escapes my gaze, and how I
want to feel, and what to do if things are not going my way. I have the tools. These
are very strong tools and with constant practice are very successful . Box Breathing
is essentially being in a relaxed position and breathing in, filling your lungs
from the diaphram up, and then holding your breath for a count, say starting at
5, then breathing out, right out and then holding for another count of 5.
Breathe in again hold for 5 and then breathe out hold for 5. Cmdr Divine gives
us some latitude on how we hold our concentration. He has given us the tools,
and we all choose the ones that are suited to our own specific success. I use
visualisation with box breathing, and I literally draw a number in my mind. If
I start to think about other things,I don't beat myself up. It's very important to stay calm. I choose to bring myself back to the task and I concentrate harder on drawing that
perfect number. A simple task, but not easy. Many people think that meditation
is about thinking about nothing, this could not be further from the truth. Meditation
is the ability to be able to master the thought process in your mind. Another
part of box breathing is the "feeling" you have when you are holding your breath. It is the
"how about taking a breath now fella" feeling. You remember when
somebody challenged you to swim the length of the pool underwater. You remember
that feeling turned into a very strong urge to actually take a breath, but you
did not because you knew you would get a lung full of water. It is the same
with Box Breathing meditation. The urge to actually take a breath and to
renounce that urge produces an intense focus, and concentration on the job at
hand. When you do take a breath make sure it is a controlled breath. You do
not fast breathe, you take in one deep
breath from the belly all way up to your chest and then relax hold the breath
and count again. I can tell you it certainly holds your attention. And even
though I am aware of sounds around me they do not impact on my thought
processes. The point of all this is to actually master the art of your thought
processes. That is what meditation is all about. The mastery of your mind and
thought processes. One of the reasons people do not persist with it is that
they do not see any difference in a week or two, or they just forget for a few days and it
becomes intermittent, and then the excuses come rolling in, and then they
realise that they have missed so much so they give up. But it is a practice
which is so important as I am finding out after 5 months, I am starting to
notice the difference. I can master my breathing up to account of 10 now, and
control it. I can hold that feeling of stillness for 15 minutes without
thinking about what is going on today, tomorrow, or what happened yesterday. It
is still only a short time. And some days are better than others, but I know if
you persist, have consistency, and courage to do something different, to walk
the path less trodden, then you will
discover a peace, and a calm that was
not always there. How does all this relate to the 28 km mark of a marathon, or
an ultramarathon, or an Ironman marathon. Now in these endurance challenges,
when things get tough, you feel the wheels wobbling, and you feel like the end
is near, and I am not talking about the finish line. I will now use these tools
of relaxation, of breath control, of visualisation and to be able to mesh with
the mantra that works for me, "slow is smooth smooth is fast" and instead of worrying about finish times, or
pace, or whatever other silly thoughts pop up, the tools of relaxation, breath
control, mind mastery will come to the fore, as it has been practised and as I
have said before it is fine to have a goal, but if you keep looking for the
finish line, you might just trip over the stone right in front of you. So set
that goal and then concentrate on the journey, and success will be yours.
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| Self Mastery is a Life time project of Improvement |
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Peace and Tranquillity.
Would you rather be here or in your office |
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