Letting Go, To Experience The Flow...
I had a treatment with Gunther, the osteopath again yesterday... I really enjoyed my time with him. He has given me many exercises to do to balance myself out.
When we were walking on Sunday on the wild and windy track by the sea, he passed us on his bike, whilst out for a three hour training ride...
'You may not like me saying this...' He said, 'but I knew it was you, because I could recognise your imbalance...'
'I like you saying it...' I said 'I know there is an imbalance, and I want to correct it, I can see it when I run slowly - Anadi videoed me, and I saw a slight limp - but it doesn't show when I am running fast...'
'It would have to be really bad to show up running fast', he said... 'It's like a car with a slight tick tick tick, you can hear it when you drive slowly, and then it disappears at speed, but it doesn't mean it isn't there...'
I reflected how easy it is to go fast to avoid our imbalances...
How we can ignore that we are not 'firing on all four' because the pace of life hides this from us... We can gather enough momentum to believe all is well, but the chain breaks at the weakest link and an imbalance is a weak link that needs investigating, in whatever area of life it shows up....
As he clicked me and cracked me we chatted more... He did comment that my pelvis was moving better too...
We talked about athletes and their minds; and coaching.
He told me a story of a coach who only stays with his athletes when things are going well...
'The time you really really need a coach is when it isn't going well', I said, 'anyone can coach people when it's flowing easily...'
'That's the difference between a dictator and a real coach of people' he said....
'Yes', I agreed 'a true coach leads others to the threshold of their own mind, their own self knowledge'...
We then talked about the power of the mind, and he spoke of an athlete who completed a race on a broken foot...
She was leading by a long long way, tripped up a step about ten miles from the finish. She couldn't put her foot to the floor, and was was sitting by the roadside waiting for a doctor, when the second placed competitor ran by...
Something switched in her mind; she got up and ran those last miles on what turned out to be a fractured foot, passing the woman again and winning the race...
'The strength of the mind overpowering everything, the need to win so strong....'
I wondered what her soul and heart were saying...
I can remember times in the past, when I was running at a top level, and finishing high up in races with fast times, that I knew I was running on empty, training too hard, eating too little... I wondered even then when in the midst of it all, at being celebrated for what in truth was a degree of abuse to myself...
What is this need to win at all cost?
It is more obvious when it is occurring in sport, as the body is exposed to the over drive and the push, and generally breaks down quite quickly...
But it occurs in all areas of life, and is often less easy to spot...
The need for success overpowering everything...
In exams and business and material gain...
And yet it isn't the practice that is the problem, it is the orientation...
Sport, running, sitting exams, striving for business and material success can all be part of the path of meditation..
Simply within the practice of being here, now, not getting attached to the thoughts or even the outcome...
Dropping between the chatter in our head, and instead listening to our heart and our soul, finding our true voice, and letting go...
So that we can experience the flow...
I ran on the track again today, 200metres repetitions, just 8 of them.
I liked the feeling a lot.
I felt that flow.
A meditation on the move....