Body Mind Mastery: Training For Sport and Life
Take this amusing test: A door swings open before you and you see a sink full of water. The drain is plugged, and the water is running. The water begins to pour over the sink's edge. Do you turn off the water and pull the plug, or do you grab a mop?
Many athletes, and others facing the problems of daily life, spend a lot of time "mopping up" - dealing with symptoms. Many couples, for example, argue constantly about various topics when they need to focus instead on communicating more effectively. Developing mental talent involves "pulling the plug" on the primary source of emotional turbulence and physical tension.
One way to appreciate your present state is to contrast it with that of a typical three-month-old. Babies store many of the impressions of movement and energy they perceive in the world. But because they can't talk, and because they don't yet have complex associations, beliefs, opinions, values, and attitudes relative to those impressions, they don't think much about anything. Children don't philosophize, conceptualize, or theorize. Their attention is entirely focused in the present moment, without judgement or expectation. While their intellects are underdeveloped, their attention is also free of the complex fears, angers, attachments, expectations, plans, biases, self-imagery, and self-criticism that characterize most adult minds. Such "ignorance" is bliss.
Babies are body mind masters in their clarity, relaxation, sensitivity, and openness to the environment, and in their simple, direct approach to life - free of mental reaction and resistance. These qualities account not only for their outstanding learning abilities but also for their innate charm and spontaneity.
When you pay close attention to what you are doing, your mind quiets; and in that moment of silence, the symphony begins.
- Body Mind Mastery: Training For Sport and Life
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