THE ADVENTUROUS SPIRIT
June 5th, 2011No comments »
We quickly get caught up in the everyday “struggle” of life and try to organize our lives into routines. These routines allow us to function automatically to get our daily tasks done efficiently. Yet the routines also make our lives robotic and drain us of the adventurous spirit that we may have had at a younger age. That spirit gave us energy and vitality.
How can we re-capture that spirit while our lives are filled with many routines? Learning a practice like Tai-chi, Zookinesis or any other subject can provide us with a life-time of discovery. My mother went back to college when she was 65 years old. Many people asked her why she needed to go to college at that age. She explained that she needed her mind to be challenged in order to feel alive. My father used to say that when you stop learning, you die.
Do you feel that you have learned as much as you need to, in order to live the rest of your life repeating cycles of routines? For many people life is a dulling process. Your spirit becomes duller each year until you die. Yet you can add an adventurous practice to your life at any time. Even if you spend just a few minutes a few times a week at your study or physical practice, it will add the spirit of adventure to your life. You don’t even have to excel at your practice. Simply being involved in it can change the “flavor” of your life.
At many points in our lives, we often say, “I should have” learned this or that. Remember that today is a point in your life. Imagine what you would like to do. Think of what skills and other tools (such as knowledge) you would need to accomplish your goal. Then patiently acquire those skills and tools. Your life will begin to organize itself around your dreams instead of around your routines. This is the key to maintaining your vitality.
Most of my students come to the school to learn a Tai-chi form or to reduce stress. They have a limited goal in mind. As they set about to accomplish this goal they discover the great depth of these training systems. They find that these studies are a path to self-discovery and a way to revitalize their bodies and minds. As their skills deepen, their goals deepen. The surprising thing to many students is how much self-discovery there is in every class. Breakthroughs in skills and understanding become so regular that they feel they are on a speeding train of self-discovery. And this is true no matter how many years they have been coming to class.
There is simply a great distance for all of us to go to really develop our potential. It is the thrill of wondering what discovery awaits around the next corner that keeps them coming to class. Life becomes thrilling even in the midst of your everyday routines, which of course, you still have to do.
One of the most important roles of culture in tribal societies was to unite the “sacred and profane worlds”. This means that in the midst of the everyday chores of life (the profane), our connection to nature (the sacred) had to still be the focus of our attention. Many ceremonies were carried out at regular times throughout the year to commemorate our connection to nature. These ceremonies were “routines” but ones that changed peoples’ focus from everyday problems to thankfulness to nature. We were reminded that the miracle of being alive overpowers any aggravations and sadness we may have.
The dullness that has overtaken many of us is so profound that we are not aware of how much feeling we have lost. After I give a Tai-chi massage, the person usually says, “I feel like I’m really alive!” If I had asked them before if they felt alive they would have surely said yes. But after the massage they realize how much feeling they gained. Every little part of the body wakes up and is eager to participate in life. It is the difference between not wanting to get up in the morning and wanting to jump out of bed to start the day.
The Zookinesis exercises are specifically designed to develop feeling and skill in each joint and muscle of the body. They are imitations of animal movements. Connecting your mind to your body is another way of making your life “sacred”. Many peoples’ minds spin all day. This uses up a lot of energy and doesn’t accomplish anything. Connecting mind to body ends this useless spinning, which is just mental routines that have gotten stuck.
When the mind functions in endless, repeating routines, our lives duplicate the patterns of the mind. By connecting mind to body, we become more creative and our lives more exciting. Many people feel that their lives are exciting because their routines exhaust them. They feel that if they are tired at the end of each day, that’s all the excitement they can take. Yes, routines can be exhausting but they are depleting to the spirit as well.
Somehow the excitement of learning new things doesn’t deplete you. You may be so worn out after Tai-chi sparring practice, for example, that you fall down to catch your breath, but within a minute you are ready to get up for more sparring. I often used to be tired when I began to teach sparring but after two hours of sparring, I was invigorated. It is an illusion that you are too tired for your practice.
Practicing Tai-chi, Zookinesis, Pilates or any other such activity refreshes you. Whatever time and energy you put into it is more than re-paid by the energy you get out of it. I have often thought that living a life of routines is like spiraling down a funnel into death. Life can be a spiral upward towards more vitality, skills and knowledge. It doesn’t even take much time each day. Starting a practice or study can change the entire nature of your life.
