Agility
How mobile are you?
Are you agile?
What does Agility mean to you in regard to your mind, body and emotions?
This is not only an important principle in Fitness but also for the human pathway. In terms of our Physical or Body Intelligence; which some say is the end outcome, final culmination or result of all our “intelligence’s” to feel or exist as being a more ‘complete’ person, then being agile maybe the piece of the puzzle you are searching for?
Let me give you some concepts to consider and experiment with:
If I were to talk about the mind which includes our internal representations of our external environment and our emotions, being agile might mean: Creating and acquiring more knowledge and distinctions, a broadness in thinking, being able to
change and adapt to our environment. Having a hierarchy of ideas, better timing and wit or being able to bounce back from a stressful or highly analytical situation.
If I had a race car, I would be looking at suspension and braking, damper rates and g-force data. If I were a race car driver, I would be asking; ‘does it feel light and controllable? Give good feedback through the wheel and throttle? Does the vehicle cope with its environment or how well or quickly does it change direction?’
Emotionally it means to swap and feel different emotions more quickly; adjust, adapt, and acquire a more suitable state of mind to better control yourself in a given situation, which builds resilience.
Imagine that you have planned and prepared to do a task, assignment, or a mission and then through circumstance or another person’s intervention that completely changes?
What will you do?
Get angry or frustrated? Impatient? Crumble, cry, or sulk? Be shocked and yell ‘what am I going to do now?’
No doubt any of these emotions will materialise – but the Agility principle reminds us to consider how long we will feel this way? Can we alter or change to a more constructive mood or experience degrees of positivity and balance more swiftly?
We can adjust and get on with the new or altered task without clinging to the emotion that does not serve us.
If stress is the inability to adapt to changing circumstances, then having an agile mind will certainly aid in escalating you to a heightened level of emotional intelligence.
Finally, in physical fitness: Could I have that same speed, lightness, and quickness to shift and step effortlessly like a rugby league centre or wing? To adapt better you might ask yourself – How mobile is the range of motion in my joints? It combines with our soft tissue flexibility to be able to work, play sports, be as functional as a human can be or simply be comfortable, healthy and move with grace and without pain.
If I was exploring Agility in martial arts, I might want to be adept at anticipation and reading others. Have the traits of a monkey as they say, like speed and quickness. Practice eluding, stepping and evasion techniques with the feet and the body (ashi sabaki and tai sabaki). To a boxer or kickboxer – timing, technique, and speed, along with bobbing, weaving, sucking, drawing, rising and sinking will be what I want to develop a high skill level in to master sparring and fighting.
This may prompt you to write down or at least consider your own meanings for this principle and how it may relate to your Values, Your priorities in life, Your higher Purpose, or you might just discover that you are really talented and skilled at these tasks and concepts naturally!
If that’s the case, give yourself a pat on the back!
Balance
What an amazing principle that defines all life, universal law and the way of nature itself! Everything in existence must have its opposite. The opposing energies and forces must balance for there to be synergy and harmony.
Yin and Yang, In and Yo, comme si comme sa, internal and external, hard soft, night day, light dark, good bad, up down, in out, exercise and rest, anger and joy, peace and war, love and apathy, saving and spending, challenge and support, etc. etc. I could talk balance in many many realms, from the universe to the solar system to planet Earth to the ocean, to our countries and how they are run; economically and financially with surplus and deficit and income and expenditure and assets and liabilities. It is such an important and intrinsically active principle that it cannot be left out of our human development.
So let’s just talk human growth, evolution and potential. Why do we need to balance stuff out in life? It may be obvious, or you can do your own writing exercises on what may occur with a life of too much excess and risk; a life of too much reservation and conservatism. Too much of anything will lead to illness, weakness, eccentricity, mental illness, obesity, dis-ease, a distorted sense of things, taking things for granted, a lack of gratitude appreciation and value. Missed opportunities, lack of experience and wisdom, alienation, prejudice, judgement, burnout, failure and death.
Yes some of the greatest inventors, leaders, warriors, fighters, artists, criminals, and other record breaking humans were eccentric and perhaps destroyed everything in their path to achieve what noone else achieved, inspire and break through to pave way for followers and admirers of their pioneering ways. How did they last? How did they live and how did they die? They sacrificed to be legends – but were they still balanced? Yes they were, their glory usually had extreme opposites. For every win their might have been a thousand failures – some catastrophic to themselves and others.
Indeed a sacrifice.
In the beginning and the end it is the nature of all things to balance out anyway. Again I encourage you to do your own brain storming and creative activity that expresses your ‘own meaning’ for balance.
Mind
Balance in thinking, moderation, ‘this way – that way’. What is your perception or how do you perceive a thing, an event, a situation or another person? How does a balanced attitude affect your perception, your behaviour? Are those things balanced? Is your attitude and belief structure balanced in positive and negative? Knowing that there cannot be one without the other.
Somewhere between memory and imagination culminates a balance of being, existing and doing in ‘the now’. Mindfulness.
Martial arts
It is well known that generally there is the internal and external martial arts. A duality that must exist. Two good examples may be Shotokan Karate and Tai Chi Chuan. One a hard and linear style and the other mostly ‘soft’ and circular. A well-known saying is ‘Do not mistake gentleness for weakness – for one to be strong one must be gentle.’ Simply this is control over your own muscles. Can an Olympic weightlifter, one of the strongest men on the planet be gentle with his own new born baby? Of course! He has great control. A ‘hard/soft’, ‘go ju’ opposite flows to one another to create a harmony. In Lao Tze’s water poem he describes how devastating, hard, powerful and persistent water can be and then how compliant, soft and flowing it can be. ‘Follow the path of least resistance.’ – Like water – is one popular philosophy or methodology. Some systems use the elements to influence their actions in combat or in life! In combat sometimes there is the need for a balance of defensive or offensive tactics. Percussive impact and various hard or powerful striking, or yielding, redirecting and manipulating an opponent into submission, restraint or maiming and unconsciousness. Muay Thai fighters retire in their 30’s. Have you ever seen a hard style martial arts practitioner into their 60’s or 70’s? If they have not bothered to add Qi Gong (Chi Kung) or kata/Hsing practice that employs a balance of slow and fast, chances are they are arthritic and damaged, limited in their range of motion and mobility and sore. In Tai Chi they say ‘Don’t resist, don’t insist.’
In modern scientific martial arts, we talk about bio mechanics, summation of forces and ‘mass x acceleration = force.’ The power we require for striking and grappling in self-defence or sport martial arts. Of course, there is much more I can add to balance in martial arts ….
Fitness: Physically speaking; how are you at standing on one leg? Do your support muscles work and stabilise you in some competition where this is necessary? Surfing, gymnastics or maybe a yoga posture are other areas where not forgetting, but remembering to develop the core and lower leg or arm support muscles are paramount. Are we centred? Do we promote a neuro-muscular challenge? Excess in work (exercise) causes stresses, do you require this to grow in your own context? Or is moderation more suitable for your condition, age or body type? Most importantly, a balance in all areas of fitness will result in optimum health.
Automotive analogies
Have you thought about why car engines run so smoothly? They are balanced! If you are rebuilding a new engine. Performance or otherwise, the crankshaft is counterweighted – if it does not rotate evenly the result will be eccentricity and, for want of a better
word, wobbly! Some engines are balanced internally with the harmonic balancer/damper and flywheel or flexplate neutral; and some engines are balanced externally with a counterweight added to the flywheel and balancer. The rotational mass (pistons, rings, and conrods) throw off the crank, so the crank has to be either drilled or filled with mallory metal to counter act that action. Another analogy might be the tuning of the engine. The air, fuel and timing has to be balanced for the engine to perform efficiently. For example if we have too much fuel in the mixture the engine will run rich, perform poorly and burn the excessive fuel. If the mixture is lean, the engine can underperform, detonate and cause excessive internal damage. Interestingly, the human body will respond the same with being too rich (fat, obese, sluggish) or too
lean (unhealthy damage, lack of energy and nourishment). And who wants to be wobbly and eccentric?
I trust this article helps you employ some balance in all areas of your life, or at least awaken to the necessity of the Balance Principle.
Clarity
Where are you going? Are you clear on your goals and values?
Let’s talk goals first. What are those goals and are they structured, specific and achievable?
A goal cannot be a fantasy, or it will be unachievable. Can your goal be reached in a time frame? Is it a big or small goal, do you need to take smaller steps to get on your way? How much does it matter to you and why does it matter? And finally, is it aligned with a bigger picture – ultimately is it valuable and a priority to you?
Only in mastery can we see all at once. All sides, all angles simultaneously. In a state of absolute purity, or ‘grace’ the seed can be planted. Being clear on where we have been, where we are now and where we are going; and how we then react, respond, exist, be conscious of, plan and strategize depends on our truth, attitude, mental and emotional adaptability and flexibility, personal leadership, resilience and our state of mind …so what is next?
Everything then, begins from a desire. Desire is our inner energy. For any movement, for any motion desire is necessary. From this energy a thought may be present. A thought is an emotion.
Energy-in-motion, E-motion! Once we establish what we desire to BE, DO or HAVE, we might set an outcome from this. It could be in any area of life! Like the dawn of humankind, our thoughts may have been just like our ancestors and so the beliefs that form from these thoughts have been handed down through the generations. Limiting or unlimiting beliefs?
The awareness then must drift to expectation. What do we expect to occur? Will we be able to set an outcome that is achievable, which is desirable, or are you still unclear? Remember that a fantasy, or unrealistic expectation will surely cause some suffering, so it is best to keep it relevant.
Let’s say a competitor wanted to win a competition and was super focused on this, it took months of hard work and sacrifice, but it didn’t really integrate to a way of life that was ultimately sustainable.
After the person wins and the elation and celebration dissipate, the competitor feels sort of significant but inside they feel like ‘what’s next’? This is a common outcome for goal driven people.
They must set another one straight after. And while that sounds fine, what is the purpose of it all? How can we improve upon that, so we don’t go up and down the emotional scale all the time? I have spoken about BE DO HAVE before and this model is brilliant for setting outcomes. The model can be in the form of effective questions. Perhaps a table where we can write in our answers. Here’s an example:
1. What is it that you want to Have?
2. What action needs to take place to get it? (Do)
3. What state of mind Do you Have to Be in to begin or participate?
The process begins with asking yourself which state of mind is suitable to proceed forward. For example, if we want to learn something, we would be best productive in a curious, open or fun state to absorb the learning without judgment or too much analysis. Follow this with your action steps to acquire what you want to have. Do not settle for less than you deserve when thinking about Have.
Allow the spiritual to support the material or physical when you are Doing. Be authentic; this is for your self not other peoples wants or needs.
State vs goal: our ‘states’ can also be our moods. In this case our state of mind is related to our values. What do you value? It will be unique to you. When we want to set our outcomes, our values (or ‘states’) are described rather ambiguously, like love, freedom and living a peaceful life.
Untouchable nouns! There are no steps required, you can Have it right now! They are infinite and sustainable because we are Doing what we love, and we love what we Do. We can also write the outcome down to include others as well as ourselves.
Goals on the other hand, are stated specifically. They Have Clarity, which is specific and realistic, meaning that is aligned with your values, (hopefully). Goals require a strong drive, a strategy which is true or authentic to yourself and provides feedback, and they usually have some emotional resistance and regulation needed to achieve your reward.
This is a process that contributes to wisdom and the control of your life, however it’s a process that needs to be repeated and you most likely encounter change. Your values may change but to be Clear, this is about your true and authentic self doing what it needs to Do always and every day Not just for six months for example.
Action based on theory defeating confusion and mystery.
Mind: Have you ever felt that type of inspiration that washes over you like looking at a cloudless blue sky? Is your path clear? How can I deal with obstacles and procrastination? What good and relevant questions are you asking yourself?
For Clarity of the mind you must consider your priorities and motivation (which way are you motivated? Toward something you want or away from something you don’t want)? And of course, consider energy, time, and space and what you Do with them.
Your values will contribute to and summarise your vision and mission in life.
Importantly too is your awareness, are you focussed on the task at hand, the goal, or the values? Or is your mind constantly wandering? There are two sides to this however, a focussed awareness is good for safety, keeping out of danger and working through processes on the job or setting tasks. A wandering awareness or zoning out – like what is happening while you’re not focussing – can be a breeding ground for creative thinking and solutions to some of the world’s problems!
Emotion
You will want to consider the relationship between history, the past and your memory, to what is occurring in your environment and what is at your senses right Now!
Then consider the correlation between now – the present moment, and the future. What is dream and imagination and is it affecting what you Do? What are the lessons from the past? How does it affect you positively or negatively and how do the brains ‘files’ from the past help you to achieve these tasks right now?
Yes, that’s right, with our memory and imagination combined we can problem solve, provide distinctions which aids us in our work and achieving further clarity.
Remove the past from your current experience of life if it is keeping you at a low vibration, misaligned or negatively impacting you for too long. You may have to ‘clear’ an emotion or limiting belief if they are not congruent with your journey. Ultimately and because the past does not exist
any longer all of our experiences can be classed as lessons and feedback. Whether these are perceived as ‘good or bad’, in the end they help create our current wisdom.
It is important to mention the opposite of clarity when speaking about emotions. If we are affected by the supressing emotion of sadness, jealousy, or grief; or overcome by the stimulating emotion of fear, frustration or anger we will essentially experience a ‘fog’. We cannot see our way out and we struggle to feel love, happiness, and joy while we experience this black cloud that we are subjected to. Also, the ‘survival’ states will release potentially damaging chemicals into the body if we are depressed or anxious for long periods for example.
Emotional Intelligence demands that we are aware of these negative emotions and that we regulate and manage them to be successful (in anything, parenthood, corporate leadership, sports, politics, business etc etc) Disassociating and then moving toward our life’s important unique values is paramount in the shift out of the fog and towards clarity.
I recommend meditation – find a method that suits you.
Master your emotions.
Spiritual clarity
Inspiration, purpose, values, beliefs, and perceptions. Beliefs are the views you have about the world and yourself. Be sure that what you perceive to be true and authentic to you, will give to you now and forever the philosophical and spiritual ‘meaning’ that you need and want.
Beliefs can be easily misread, lies and distortions. They can be limiting to your success. They can also be marvellous, empowering, enlightening, and flexible – a pathway to your dreams! Are they working for you, serving you? Or not? Learn how to shift your beliefs if you must. Create a new path in life that serves you and those around you.
When you are inspired you are unstoppable! Discovering and uncovering your purpose is perhaps the most important step in your vision of Clarity. When you are living your life on purpose and are clear of your path and your outcomes you have fulfillment and contentment. Most of us hold these concepts high on our values.
Understand and honour your spirit and your souls calling.
Zen or Cha’an concepts are an intrinsic part of east Asian martial arts and worth mentioning here – the study of philosophy is encouraged. To live by the Tao (or Do) is cultural and common. Again, consider meditation and moving mediation practices such as Qi Gong and Tai Chi Chuan. The concept of Zanshin for example is having ‘no mind’ of other things going except what you are doing right now. (mindfulness). There are over forty types of meditation in Buddhism alone!
So there is no shortage of uncovering what method to learn.
Spread love, give generously, heal yourself and others, pray (like it has already occurred), live by the universal laws and the Universe, the unified limitless field and God will provide.
Living life and your own values is Clarity.
Clarity is perhaps the most important life principle of all, this is the awakener.
Flexibility
Has anyone ever asked you to be flexible in a relationship? Or maybe at your workplace in your job? You are asked if you can bend outside of the normal rules or boundaries. You might be obliged to do so, or you may have to be adaptable and have a willingness to compromise.
If you look in a dictionary it describes flexibility as being limber and pliant, bends easily without breaking. Flexibility is also a principle of fitness. It’s the range of motion joints can move through.
Flexibility in your body can be limited by tight muscles and tendons surrounding the joint and by stiffer ligaments connecting the bones in a joint. So, we practise stretching to maintain or increase our joints stability and range of motion. The result is better posture, coordination,and balance.
Being ‘inactive’limits the movement in the joint preventing the limbs from mobility and increases the risk of pain and injury. Stretching properly reduces this risk and improvesbiomechanical efficiency. Especially important in all martial arts. From warriors to soldiers and from sport martial arts to health promoting arts, flexibility has always been a foundational conditioning component of training. It doesn’t matter whether it is MMA, Olympic Tae Kwon Do, or a local Sanda match –kicking your opponent to the head is a score! Reaping your challenger in a Judo throw requires flexibility, manoeuvring your joints so not to tap out in a ground BJJ roll requires it, executing the basic techniques and in kata/forms requires it,pushing your body past extremes in combat situations for all the worlds armed forces requires flexibility. And that is just the physical side!
What does flexibility mean to you? What does in mean in various contexts you might encounter in your everyday life? Intricately linkedisadaptability, or ‘to be adaptable’ in your current circumstance.
A few examples: to be flexible in finance you may have to stay, withdraw,or cash in shares or currencies, re-invest,or change loan structures suddenly; adapt to changing trends to be able to prosper. I’m sure the wealthiest people put their attention to this principle.
In a spiritual sense are you flexible in your beliefs? Open minded? Could you change your attitude to some concept you believed all along because that concept has now changedor evolved? Does being obstinate and stubborn ruin your opportunities, social awareness and communication in relationships or families?I’m sure you would like your spirituality to be a sanctuary, a place for serenity, peace and where your higher self canfeel free to explore and express those beliefs and values.
Are you wrestling with your true and authentic selfbecause of your beliefs, or others’ beliefs that are incongruent to your values and limiting your inspiration to motivate yourself to your realpurpose? Maybe it’s time to break the mould and be flexible.
Where your attention goes energy flows, that iswhy we must practice and nurture positive emotions the moment they arise. The moment we are in them. Emotional intelligence requires us to be aware of ourselves and others. How best can I manage my negative emotions as they arise, or clear the past so as only to take the learnings? Accept new ideas, have the openness in your mind, consider new or different things –perhaps in a way you haven’t before! Give yourself the permission to stretch and expand the mind, your thinking and the meta-frames surrounding it and adjust your attitude accordingly.
You just might be flexible enough to accommodate life in a new way! -Michael Bromley 2021.
Strength
What is the meaning of Strength? More importantly what does it mean to you?
Do you sometimes say, “he or she is strong!”” I wish I was that strong….” Or “God give me strength!” …while your fists are clenched?
By dictionary definition it is the quality of being strong and having the capacity for exertion or endurance. You can rely on something because of its strength.
This sounds like a quality that we’d all like to have right? Perhaps we could incorporate strength as one of our ‘life principles’?
For a little exercise, and especially if ‘needing strength’ resonates with you at the moment; why not try writing the word ‘strength’ down in the middle of a blank page, circle it, and then branch off and write your Primary thoughts . The thoughts that come to you when you think about this core principle. If you had strength, what would you have? What would it look like, sound like and feel like?
This denotes Strength as having an emotional charge.
If you had it how would it change things? How and why would it improve situations, personality traits, relationships and events for you? How would you know you then that you were stronger? How do you know you don’t have it right now? Maybe it just needs refining. You do not need to place conditions on yourself to begin, we are all magnificent, intelligent and have everything we need already built in – including the self-confidence to begin this neuro-plasticity exercise and start living with more inner and outer strength!
Once you have written some Primary words, or thoughts, change the colour pen and write a Secondary word or meaning. Then you might want to change colour again and write a Tertiary word or meaning. You find that you are either accessing higher meta frames of your mind – things of higher value to you, or an answer to a deeper problem will emerge!
Either way you will be on your journey to Clarity, another important life principle.
Let me give you an example: perhaps you write the word strength, then the first thought (emotion) that comes forward is ‘will power’ (Strength of mind). That is your Primary word. From will power you might have a meaning come through of ‘endurance’. That is your Secondary word and the closer you get to your truth – which may take a while- don’t rush it, your Tertiary word may be ‘success’ or something – whatever is your own truth or purpose. (Spiritual context)
Here is a few analogies that will help you with context:
In the Automotive Performance and Racing Industry our outcome is to build a ‘strong’ engine for our race car. You will hear people all the time using the adjective ‘wow, that is a strong engine!’ what does that mean? Well, the motor provides good flexible performance for its given purpose (circuit car, dirt racing, endurance bike, drag racing, ski boat etc) and doesn’t fail – we hope it doesn’t fail before the job is done anyway – but it can operate strongly and flexibly in the optimum rev range needed for its purpose, usually fun and exhilaration is a given by product!
The engine can be stunning, startling, and reliable because of the power, torque, and efficiency it produces in the right areas. Reliability is key, same said for a production car engine.
I can certainly mention strength as a key principle of Fitness. This is the amount of sustained force a muscle can generate over a given range of motion. The ‘one repetition max’ (1RM) is the maximal amount of force that can be generated in one maximal contraction of the muscle. (Physical context)
If I were putting strength in the context of martial arts, I could relate the words ‘character’ ‘endurance’ and ‘reliability’. With our dedicated and disciplined consistent training we will breakthrough barriers continually to forge our foundation and then advance to higher levels of skill and knowledge. Grappling is a good example where we may use strength. Applying a sustained force until the energy is redirected for example. In Judo, Jujutsu, MMA, BJJ, Sambo, and other forms of wrestling it is quite often like a game of chess where we are constantly shifting and exploiting weakness in the opponents guard. With a great knowledge of functional anatomy and physiology, and the principles of structure and leverage, biomechanics and energy transfer, strength is both an
asset and a basic principle.
A by-product of strength is Gentleness. It is a trait in high regard for any relationship be it martial arts training with your partner, playing with your children or in marriage. There is an old Chinese saying that ‘in order to be gentle, one must be strong.’ Meaning if you don’t have strength of mind and body you have no control over your actions.
Again, talking in terms of the mind, when you are writing down your meanings and expanding your thoughts to keep your brain healthy, some ideas to write down might be:
Resilience, will power, determination, endeavouring to always do or be better, and the endurance of sustaining the strength of our mind.
I trust talking here about the strength principle will help you on your way to excellence.