Be More Humane with Yourself: Journal Notes #120

Notes from my March 2014 Zhan Zhuang Training Journal. I train with The School of Cultivation and Practice which practices Wujifa zhan zhuang.

* When you resist a change is when the armors go up.

* The foundation of practice must be curiosity and willingness to explore what you discover. One of my stumbling blocks is declaring certain areas of my life "off limits" to curiosity and willingness to explore and experiment with change. When one part moves then all parts move. If one part is stuck, then all parts are stuck.

* One of my school brothers made this rather eloquent statement: There are no mechanics to the experience of connection. The methods set the stage to feel something.

* In the noticing of "it" feeling different, something else can show up that you couldn't possibly anticipate.

* Regarding trying to communicate various levels of feeling through writing, it would be better to get together and show and talk about feeling.

* A side-to-side training tip: when on one side, pause, settle, relax, let go, feel the burn then slowly shift to the other side and do the same on that side. One aspect of practicing side-to-side can be as if doing alternating single-leg stance with mindfulness of the transition. There are many lessons to be learned in this deceptively simple exercise!

* As you progress, the tendency is to proudly hold onto the level recently achieved; to assume you have "it". Continued growth is in noticing what your new level of feeling reveals in daily life experience and bringing that experience back into practice, and on and on and on...

* When I encounter an uncomfortable feeling, my tendency is to shut down to it. I would be more humane with myself if I explored whatever feeling I'm feeling, pleasant or painful and talked about it.

* I notice that when I feel relaxed, connected and expressing "me" around other people, in those times I feel overwhelmed and so my tendency is to pull back and squelch that amount of aliveness which then snowballs into a general dampered living of feeling.

Further reading:
Introductory article explaining this "Journal Notes" series: Zhan Zhuang Training Journal
Previous article in this series: Noticing vs Analyzing: Journal Notes #119
Next article in this series: - Stay Tuned... I'm still in the game...