Part Nine: Training the Mind/Brain (series: Action/Intent)

[Notice: The series are a personal effort in understanding the brain/mind and how it will apply to my life and practice of the fighting/marital arts. Any errors or omissions are mine alone and do not reflect on the sources from which I draw my thoughts and understanding. If you find any please allow me the human condition of making errors and provide me the information I need to learn, grow, and prosper.]

This is our next to last entry on this series of training the mind/brain. We desire to have peace and tranquility in life yet we also know that the nature of life is a constant rhythm or flow that is both yin and yang or to be more descriptive up and down, front and back, in and out and other such mundane descriptions which tells us that natures rhythm puts us in a constant state of flux.

This flux is something that can be trained so we can keep the wave as steady as possible. We can reduce the drastic highs and lows to little blips on the line of equilibrium so they rise and fall slightly. This is the goal of this section, to provide you a bit of guidance in finding more on this subject so you can expand, learn and become improved in life.

This is also how we practice the FA/MA. You will notice in the following suggestions that they can be related directly to forms of practice and training in this singular, not exclusive, form of training and practice.

The SNS or sympathetic nervous system and the stress related hormonal system gets your internal protective systems up and running full blast to assist us in our endeavors be they personal opportunities and especially important in avoid threats (remember in other postings on self defense that I push "avoidance" as a primary form of defense, etc.).

In order to reduce stress, etc. you need to enhance your mind-body connection [karate-do I am thinking along with mind/brain training, yes!] and when using that tool you can start by learning to activate the various nervous systems starting with the PNS. The start point or that system that activates the PNS is the ANS. It is considered the optimal entry point into all our systems, i.e. using the antinomic nervous system.

How do we jump start and possible control the systems? This is the question and what I provide here is not the end all of what to do but simply "notes" on what I perceive as the direction to go, i.e. continue research into how it all works. Remember, I am not a brain or mind expert but someone who is trying to learn so I provide this to stimulate your mind/brain into finding more.

Mental activity! Your mental activity has the greatest influence over your ANS system. It is more influential than any other bodily system you have and if you remember I do advocate "visualization" which are those "mini-movies" we run all the time in our mind/brain and this is something you have a lot of control over so it is "one" point of entry into mind/brain training.

There are other forms or techniques of training to control your systems thus controlling how they affect you and your ability to overcome them to some extent improving your life and in the FA/MA improving your abilities to defend yourself. Defense is not just protecting your physical being but a means of defending your spirit-mind-body against many things to include stress which equates disease, etc. Think outside the box on this one cause it means a lot more than you may initially think.

We can take control by instituting mindfulness in our thoughts and visualizations. How we talk to ourselves and the do such actions as "relaxation," "Diaphragm Breathing (really a primary important technique)," "progressive relaxation," "big exhalation (this goes along with diaphragm breathing but still a separate technique necessary especially in highly volatile situations such as street defense, etc.)," "touching the lips (bet you were not expecting this one)," "mindfulness of the body," "imagery," and so on. You are getting the picture by now how important this really is so wait for the next and last installment in this posting series for my recommendation as to a start point.

Bibliography:
Hanson, Rick and Mendius, Richard. The Practical Neuroscience of Buddha's Brain: Happiness, Love & Wisdom. Oakland: New Harbinger Publications, Inc. 2009.