and Back The next movement oscillates forwards and back (standing in the Basic Stance leaning forwards and leaning back), which stimulates the inner ear, one of the most extraordinary pieces of engineering in the body. As we lean forwards and back the fluid in the inner ear acts much like a builder's spirit level, providing vital information as to whether the head is level or not. The brain stem and the cerebellum (two of the areas of the brain that control reflex movement) are continually monitoring this information from the ear. If we lean too far forwards or back, the brain immediately makes us shift our feet and hands to ‘catch’ our balance. By evolving our sensitivity to this inner movement of energy, we protect the centre from being lost; if we lose the centre then very soon we will fall over and have to fight or defend ourselves from the ground.3 Up and Down The last dimension is up and down (the vertical axis), arguably the most significant of them all as not only is it the most common way that we lose our centre but also the connection to this area helps to work against the body’s most powerful symptom of the fight-or-flight response: energy travelling upwards in your body. You will see in the exercise on centring the body that the vertical axis is found by relaxing and ‘sitting’ (similar to sitting down on a chair) into the Basic Stance, so it is a movement of relaxing where you instruct the muscles not necessary for standing to turn ‘off’. This is of tremendous significance because in any conflict situation our inner energy travels up and backwards simultaneously turning the muscles ‘on’ (tension). This type of reaction is the root of many popular sayings such as ‘to blow one’s lid’, or ‘to lose one's head’. Becoming in touch with the absolute truth of this statement is one of the keys to self-defence.
In any conflict situation (and we have gone to some length to describe what we mean by conflict) the first movement of self-defence must always be a relaxation and dropping towards the centre. This is not as easy as it would first appear because the aforementioned effect of fear in the body is of always moving the energy up and turning the muscles on. Therefore, by working with the exercise of centring, the body creates a deeper connection or movement towards the centre, and once we have found our centre everything else can orientate itself around it. The stronger the connection with the centre, the more of an anchor we have against this movement upwards of fear in the body.
Physical Imbalance
When we become physically imbalanced we lose our centre in a combination of the above dimensions (left, right, up, down, etc.). If you recall a time when you tripped and fell forwards, or jerked your head back away from something coming towards your head, you will already have a very real impression of physical imbalance. The Basic Stance is the most balanced position a human body can take, and relaxation is fundamental in order to adopt it correctly. When we relax, the body accepts the force of gravity through it (see Align the Body) and naturally begins to find its point of balance. We have evolved by nature an upright spine, so by relaxing and entering into this most balanced of postures we once again move closer to a natural state of being. That does not mean that we have to always walk around with a lowered centre of gravity, but in terms of applying self-defence techniques, the lowered centre is essential. When standing or moving generally in life we can still have this movement of relaxation and dropping down by connecting to our sense of the centre even if our legs are not bent and we are fully upright.
Mental Imbalance
Working with the physicality of the body is very tangible and we can feel it if we are in the present moment; by the Principle of Resonation this sense of balance then begins to teach the other areas of our being: the mind and emotions. Therefore, we begin to feel when our minds become imbalanced; the classic symptoms of this imbalance are a heightened internal conversation and projection into the future or the past with daydreams. For most of us this imbalance goes on all the time inside our heads, but when humans for one reason or another become chronically imbalanced we see this internal conversation starting to manifest itself outside ourselves. When this happens people talk aloud to themselves and actually begin to see their daydreams in the form of delusions and hallucinations. In this situation the internal imaginings take over control of the physical body and start to change its position correspondingly; this process happens in much more subtle ways with regular daydreaming. The balancing point for the mind is the present moment, which is the fulcrum between the past and future. To maintain this balance you as an Intelligent Warrior must develop the ability to quieten internal conversation and direct internal energy away from the part of the mind that generates daydreams.
Emotional Imbalance
Emotional imbalance always has a positive or negative charge so we either become overexcited, silly or ‘over the top’ or we indulge in negative emotions such as anger, self-pity, depression or self-loathing. Emotion is the quickest and most powerful energy in the body and for this reason it is the most ‘expensive’. If we become extremely enraged at something, it can take days for the body to rebalance itself. Recall a time when you became extremely emotional about something and remember how the emotional energy took over your physical body, perhaps contorting it into various positions, and how any rational thought was severely impaired. When we find the balancing point for emotions, which is always a sense of stillness, then we can begin to develop or evolve the emotions into feelings and allow them to take a more subtle form such as the composition of a piece of music, poetry or painting or the selection and execution of an appropriate self-defence technique.
The Three-Dimensional Point of Balance
The process of searching for balance can be well illustrated by the movement of a pendulum. To start with the pendulum swings in quite large movements from side to side and then gradually, as the force of gravity takes over, the movement decreases until it finds the point of balance (pointing straight down) and it comes to rest. This point of rest is a defining characteristic of your balance but it is not a complete point of rest or stagnation as it is always oscillating in tiny movements between the three dimensions. Think about a tightrope walker making very fine adjustments to stay on the tightrope or a child learning to ride a bike, wobbling from one side to the other until he or she finds a point of balance and stability. In humans the point of balance has many different expressions but the three primary characteristics are relaxation in the body, quietness in the mind and stillness in the emotions. The gradual development of balance through Meditation brings these characteristics to the surface and each can only truly be found in the present moment.
The Exercise of Centring
http://bmsmartialart.com/centring-exercise-iwv
Centring the body is an essential skill for the Intelligent Warrior for it allows you to hold two opposing forces in your awareness and find a balancing point between them. This is critical for applying intelligence to emotionally charged situations.
Left to Right
This exercise opens awareness to pressure sensitivity in the legs, a device the brain uses continuously to keep us upright, especially when walking.
1 Stand in the Basic Stance (see here) and close your eyes.
2 Direct your intention down towards the area of the Tan T'ien (an inch and a half below the navel).
3 Slowly shift your weight from the left leg to the right in quite large motions, leaning quite far out over each leg (see Photograph 5).
4 Relax and be open to the impressions of the pressure as
