Video – The Art of Centering: part 4. Relaxed Readiness

The Art of Centering: part 4. Relaxed Readiness

This is the fourth of a series of four short videos on the art of centring.
Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3Part 4

Each video gives you a specific practice, the rationale for how it works, and guidelines for when to use it. Enjoy this opportunity to enrich your practice.

And a second way, which is really using the language of the body, which is complementary or really inseparable from the language of the mind, because the body and the mind are one, would be to say that in our bodies, we’re completely awake, very, very ready, and simultaneously, fully relaxed.

So that’s the state of someone in deep meditation. That’s the state of people in flow, surfing and so forth.

So how do you practice being ready and relaxed? Here’s a simple practice. I would recommend you do it standing up. I’m sitting in a chair now because my back hurts. But imagine yourself at the starting blocks of a race. And the starter’s going to go, take your mark, get set, bang. And the runners take off.

OK. Well, you’re not going to sprint in order to practice this. But instead, become aware of asking of yourself, what’s the fastest physiological clap that you can make? Without thinking, if every part of you were completely relaxed. [CLAP]

Now that may have shocked you. It may have exceeded the audio components’ capacity of both our recording and your listening back. So I won’t do it again quite like that. But just take your mark, get set– you can practice this. You can do this.

The fastest clap, the fastest clap you’re capable of. [CLAP] OK, I lied. I did it again.

And as soon as you finish that clap, back to relaxation. Now get softer. Get really relaxed. Be really in your body. And when you hear me say go, clap. The fastest clap you can make. Go!

I know maybe this seems silly. The fastest clap you can make. But only when I say go. Take your mark, get set– ho. Did you clap? If you clapped, you were being reflexive. You weren’t being ready. You were being reactive. Oh, I’ve told you to clap when you hear go. And it sounds very similar to go and made you clap.

So practice this. Try to find in your body the sensation. Right now, I’m walking to my kitchen, for example. Or I’m leaving the bathroom, going down the stairs in your house. Or I’m going out to my car. Or I’m walking up the road. And you’re in a state where you could make the fastest clap your body physiologically is capable of. But you don’t ever make it. That’s readiness.

And as you find that readiness, don’t get tense. Relax, relax, relax. Teach yourself what this sensation is like. Ready, and so, so relaxed.

And that will be taking you out of your head, into your body, into the environment, into your senses. You’ll be walking down the road, but you’ll be like a surfer on a surfboard, or a skier on skies.

It’s a really simple practice, once you understand and feel and sense the state. Are you ready? Thanks.