Curing from the Origin

A while ago I set up the high goal of curing my own bad eyesight, which to my understanding is a result of unnecessary tension in the muscles controlling the eye. First I tried eye focus exercises but a good friend of mine made me understand that the tension originated from tension in other bigger muscles in my body. So I started correcting my posture, which was not too bad to start with due to my many years in martial arts, but there was still unnecessary tension in my shoulders which made them come forward a bit too much. Correcting this proved very hard until I found that the true origin of the tension was even more basic, namely tension in the stomach muscles. That made me lean forward a bit, and then the shoulders followed. Let me just point out that already before this begun I had people commenting that I had a unusually good and well balanced posture, so even small adjustments make a big difference. Because a big difference it was!

As soon as I learned to consciously completely relax my stomach muscles I automatically begun to breathe from the stomach like when you sleep, and as all humans are meant to breathe all the time. Furthermore I did not have to be conscious about my shoulders, they fell into place automatically as my body straightened up. Next the neck followed and my head were lifted and balanced on top of the spine, instead of having to be carried by the neck muscles. I believe that almost all tension in almost all people originates from the stomach because tensing these muscles is a natural response to fear and stress. Then this tension over time spreads to other parts of the musculature and eventually puts stress on joints and bones.

Consciously practicing to completely relax my stomach muscles for some time has relaxed my body a lot, and my body slowly accepts this as the new original position to return to as soon as there is no other action going on. An effect of this is that I now feel a slight tension around my cheeks originating from my neck, this is due to the smaller muscles being used to the wrong position of the body resulting from tension in the bigger muscles. With the new and more healthy posture and moving patterns of my body some smaller muscles have to readjust themselves. My hope is that this will lead all the way to the tiny muscles controlling eye movements, and maybe cure my bad eyesight!

(re)activating reflexes by rewiring you brain

I am beginning to explore a method of (re)activating reflexes in my body. When for example your head is moved out of position (by someone/something) to the side there is a reflex that automatically should correct the head back to the middle balanced position. If the reflex is working the response is immediate and also carried out by exactly the right muscles. If the reflex is not "turned on" the brain has to process the information and manually delegate your muscles to correct for the dislocation of your head. In this case a lot of muscles are being used and the response time is much slower.

This method also helps me to get rid of unnecessary tension in your muscles. The thing which needs to be fixed is that muscles that work in pairs usually remain a bit tensed even if they are not doing any work. And when work is done by one of the muscles in the pair it has to work against its partner and a lot of energy is wasted.

The reflex method works by learning the brain how it feels to work with the correct muscles while keeping the others relaxed. This rewiring is made by using the muscle for static pressure and release several times while relaxing everything else. When you can do this it only takes a few minutes of practice before the reflex is "turned on" and the response is effective and immediate.

1st Step on the Road to Mastery

I am now convinced that I recently have experienced the first step on the road to Mastery in ShorinjiKempo. It is all about focus and focus points. Or rather, the effects of focus and focus points.

It all begun when I decided to forget about arms, legs, techniques and everything else that requires the use of the thinking mind. Instead I focused on my own center of mass, the origin of all movements.

The result of this was relaxed body and movements, deeper breathing, calmness, feeling of control, and this sensation that time moves slower that comes with expansion.

To achieve mastery, the most important thing that needs to be practiced is to quickly shift to this state in any situation and to increase the duration of the focus. This might as well be the only thing that needs to be practiced. Mastery is achieved when you are able to maintain this focus for as long as you would like.

At the moment I do not know whether the point of focus is of any importance or if the essential thing is just to stop unnecessary brain activity, an effect of any focus. Unnecessary brain activity is not just thought processes of attack or defense, but also tension in mussels. Furthermore, tension in mussels also include obstruction to efficient heart and lung activity.

Everywhere Simplicity

"To me, the extraordinary aspect of Martial Arts lies in its Simplicity."

-Bruce Lee