“Sōng, Sǎn, Tōng, Kòng”

modern_taichi_class_facing_us_with_a_still_grounded

About a year ago, my taichi teacher held up a sheet of paper with 4 characters on it and pronounced the words in the title of this post.

She has not revisited the page again but the first word “Song” (or “Sung”) is at the core of every class. There is enough in this one concept to keep beginners (who are interested enough) to explore, play, work with. There is always more Sung just a moment away.

This is my current understanding – jotting it down, so I can cycle back to them over time. Also to discuss with my teacher and other friends to refine my understanding.

(When I say understanding, I don’t mean just abstract intellectual, but more embodied and felt but also with an accompanying worded clarity).

I’ve read a few of the taichi classics and these four words (as a group) don’t come up, but the meanings resonate to this student anyway.

Song, San, Tong, Kong – my messy class notes

Sōng, Sǎn, Tōng, Kòng” represents four key principles in Tai Chi practice:

1. Sōng (鬆): Also spelled “Sung”, refers to the concept of relaxation or more exactly – loosening. In Tai Chi, Sung is the practice of releasing unnecessary tension – initially this might be your body and muscles but during the process there is a loosening from the day’s tensions – so a loosening of the mind takes place.

Discovering Sung starts by feeling areas of increased tension in ones body:

  • hitching up your shoulders
  • forgetting to breath
  • tightening in slow movements as some “performance” antics
  • imbalances from not having alignment
  • discovering you are too fast or too slow, or just plain wrong in your movement

By non-judgementally sensing the tightening gives the opportunity to feel the relaxation and just how good that feels.

Sung is not floppy – this is not some extreme “melt on the floor into a pool of jelly” thing, the Taichi student still holds their form and follows the sequence – with each moment the changes in weight means there is enough muscle action happening.

Bio-mechanically a loosening is happening at the joints and muscles hanging off the bones rather than binding to them – more energy is available to your body to maintain its core processes and help with wellness.

More esoterically, the wasteful energy being dropped us united to complete the movement – this is where I suspect the 3rd of the 3 treasures (Shen) is generated. Where attention and practice is not scattered.

I’d suggest that movement can and should come from the loosening. That is counterintuitive but possibly a hint as to what “Qi” might be. When you loosen there is a strength that emerges from the space created when tension is dropped.

By cultivating Sung, the Taichi student can improve their balance, sensitivity, and experience a complete difference to the rest of their day.

I’ve written about Sung before here and here.

There is also a clue to loosening emotions and judgement as well. That’s another blog post!


I have less to say about San, Tong, Kong. I am a beginner and only getting early understanding.


2. Sǎn (散): San is to “spread”. The tightness that Sung remedies is muscular energy locked up in a concentration of location. Sung starts the process of unlocking. So I feel that San is allowing that loosening to dissipate even further.

A very simple experience is Taichi’s preparation position: where the feet standing together simply has the left foot step out to shoulder width. As my right foot takes weight the left foot lifts and any dissipates any energy holding its shape. It’s an instant lesson to discover your foot is arched up, it should be dripping off your leg until the moment when the toes touch at the end of the movement.

Of course you can experience this in all movements and reminds me a the rich experiences of walking meditation in the Mahasi Vipassana tradition.

Beginner students also experience Sǎn in the Yin phase of any movement – the “loosening off” (or yielding) before moving into the next posture. Once you’ve circled into the final phase of a posture you are already circling out with a Yin or yielding way (or at least that is my experience to-date).

Another beginner experience that hints at the martial art practices is the “Lu” or “Liu” in Peng, Lu, Ji, An (Grasping the bird’s tail). Liu has its origins in the martial aspect.

Liu is where you are taking the energy of an opponent and guiding it into a void – the practitioner feels “empty enough” (see Kong) to not meet an opponent’s force head-on but spreading or dissipating their own energy to neutralize or redirect the “attack”. This is why old Taichi guys can beat younger, more energetic opponents – when you are using “Li” (muscular based force, there will always be someone who can overcome you).

I saw this a few weeks ago in a competition where competitor A was easily over 180kg, his opponent B, still solid at 90kg standing at shoulder height of A.

“A” had easily bullied other competitors out of the ring, not expending much energy. When “A” met “B” – it was an ugly bout but I noticed that “B” was rotating around to stay inside the circle and pulsing at “A” – he was oscillating “Liu” and Ji/An very effectively.

“A” was so unfit that he was exhausted and eventually conceded defeat before very nearly needing medical attention. “B” provided a very impressive performance of yielding and Sǎn is at the core.

3. Tōng (通): Tōng is experienced as “connection” or “flow.” My teacher encourages us to experience the “energy waves” the sequences are following the natural currents in the body. With enough Song, San you get moments of feeling less like you are doing the “robot dance” and more the continuity and connectedness of the movement.

For me, “Cloud Hands” was my first game-changing experience of Tong – everything happening at once with epic spaciousness was real connection.

Its easy to get very woo and mystical about “Qi” – here we can practically experience the energy each movement takes throughout the body. Initially gross (course) sensations you are starting to pick up on subtleties.

Another type of connection is continuity: The saying “Qi follows “Yi” has been mentioned in other posts. The Taichi student is not “zoning out”, not being intellectually lazy and copying by rote the teacher or other students. The “Yi” (intention) is actively present and knowing what the next phases of the sequence are. I don’t now if this is part of Tong, but its essential for “flow” in the sequence.

Another saying from the Tai Chi classics points to Tong.

“connected like a string of pearls”

Getting more Tong takes time – a natural cultivation where smoothness is not a “fake it until you make it” performance but snippets will come in time, “Yi” and practice.

4. Kòng (空): Kòng means “empty” or “void.” This reminds me a lot of Buddhist emptiness – where something happening is a creation (or fabrication) of the mind on top of sense perception. Victor Frankel said:

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Note also that emptiness is required in the purest martial aspect, see the discussion of Liu above in the San section. A great example is the popular novel Musashi by “Eiji Yoshikawa”, readers would remember he was “empty” of all expectations of his opponent and was able to respond with a very pure precision. (Many Asian Kung Fu movies copy this spontaneous spirit).

In Tai Chi, in my limited experience is allowing the other 3 elements of Song, San, Tong to prepare me for openness in the body and mind. By remaining open and receptive, I can allow the distractions of the mind to take a rest.

I know the meaning and experience of Kong is a lot deeper, I’ll give it some time.

Startups: Stress, exercise and adrenal exhaustion

Stress is an unfortunate by-product of startup life – both for founders and teams. Picture a small team trying to match a new product to an (often unstated) customer need. Coupled with lack of funding, lack of feedback data, competition, speed of technological change and normal life demands over long periods of time – there is a need to ensure life balances out the stress, choosing the right exercise is an interesting topic.

In an earlier post about mindful stretching, Ashtanga Yoga, Yin Yoga and Tai Chi, I offered a few clues about body chemistry, specifically stress hormones. I also previously I wrote about the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) benefits of smiling.

SNS–>PNS

As a recap: The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), is responsible for the body’s rest and relaxation response. This is in contrast to the SNS sympathetic nervous system, which is activated during high-stress situations. See also Vagus nerve or vagal response.

Prolonged chronic stress, such running startups can mean that you are SNS dominant and that’s not great, cortisol imbalances and prolonged stress may lead to adrenal exhaustion. I’ve met founders in this state and know it well myself.

Transitioning from SNS (sympathetic nervous system) to PNS is super valuable for startup people and picking the right exercise depends on your:

  • Age (because of the next point 👇)
  • Jing (a Daoist concept of life force – perhaps a combo of:
    • genetic composition and 
    • epigenetic factors:
      • how well you eat and sleep vs how hard you’ve lived
      • SNS Dominant vs PNS Dominant (long term detectable via lab analysis of hair samples, momentary blood or saliva cortisol analysis is not reliable)
  • Existing stress state, immunity etc

Hard Arses

Because startup people are “alpha” types they often also workout HARD! (think Tom Gleeson). While regular exercise is FTW, high-intensity workouts create stress because the body will release more cortisol, a stress hormone that:

  • can push a person further into SNS
  • When cortisol is chronic in its presence and elevation, this may lead to adrenal fatigue

So intense exercise may be a very poor choice for an individual experiencing adrenal exhaustion or cortisol imbalances.

Choice for Age and Jing

Younger people generally have more Jing and therefore intense exercise is a reality, but hopefully can attitudinally adjust to also be self nurturing and “Jing preserving” (a large and controversial topic!).

The reality is that successful startup people stay in startups and don’t grovel back to corporate. So Aging becomes a factor sooner or later.

PNS Promoting Exercise

To break the cycle of stress hormones circulating, your exercise should induce recovery as a priority, here are some:

“Sung” exercise

Sung exercise was suggested in this post as “loosening” and PNS promoting. By bringing mindfullness, breathing I find that I can break the cycle of “go” energy with the added benefit of more connectedness into where the body is tight, actively feeling the letting go and the cognitive benefits of actually increasing awareness of your internal state.

Yin Yoga

According to the hard arse principle above, I’ve only recently been experimenting with this. I don’t enjoy Yin yoga, in class I’m ruminating: “is this actually doing anything?”, “am I wasting an hour”. Yet I do feel better (a lifted more optimistic state) afterwards.

Passive Exercise

Passive exercise, such as sensory deprivation or sauna sessions promote relaxation and reduce cortisol levels, which is particularly beneficial for those with adrenal issues.

When the body is exposed to a mild stressor, such as thermal stress (such as sitting in a sauna) or cold stress (such as cold showers or dips in cold water) this kind of passive exercise helps trigger hormetic stress – I don’t know if this is PNS or SNS promoting** but you can breath into the stress when it builds – this promotes cellular health and improves the body’s ability to adapt to stressors over time.

Evening gentle stretch

Typically in the last hour before sleep I do some simple stretches while the TV is on – mostly yogic floor and a few lengthening stretches from 8 Brocades. Gentle, exploratory movement can be particularly beneficial for individuals experiencing stress, adrenal exhaustion or other adrenal-related issues.

Other Life balancing activities

Walking, swimming especially in nature will yield rewards.

Alcohol Reduction

I read/heard recently that alcohol actually reduces your ability to reduce stress naturally. I can’t be bothered looking for that reference now, but any alcohol reduction sounds (I didn’t say elimination 😀) is a positive.

Conclusion

In conclusion, these practices are things I use to support adrenal health and promote recovery and re-balancing. By promoting the parasympathetic response, reducing cortisol levels, and triggering hormetic stress, these practices and exercises can help reduce stress, promote healing, and support long-term health and wellbeing.

** area for further research

References

I asked GPT for some science to backup my wild empirical assertions.

  • Huberman, A. (2021). Episode 34: Andrew Huberman on the Neurobiology of Stress, Relaxation, and Sleep. The Rich Roll Podcast. Retrieved from https://www.richroll.com/podcast/andrew-huberman-533/
  • Alkadhi, K. A., & Zelber-Sagi, S. (2021). Sauna bathing for health: An underexplored opportunity. Journal of clinical gastroenterology, 55(6), 455-462. doi: 10.1097/MCG.0000000000001532
  • Choi, J. H., Park, M. K., & Lee, H. J. (2019). Effects of sensory deprivation in a floatation tank on mood states, cortisol level, and muscle soreness in elite athletes. Journal of sports science & medicine, 18(3), 490-497.
  • Farias, D. L., Rechia Fighera, T. M., Kruel, L. F., & Cadore, E. L. (2021). Hormesis and physical exercise: A narrative review. Ageing research reviews, 66, 101259. doi: 10.1016/j.arr.2021.101259
  • McEwen, B. S. (2015). Neurobiological and systemic effects of chronic stress. Chronic stress, 1, 1-11. doi: 10.1177/2470547015577616
  • Zhang, J. W., & Piff, P. K. (2019). An integrative review of the physiological and psychological effects of floating restricted environmental stimulation technique. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 404. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00404

Stretching mindlessly and mindfully

Rushing has always been my nature, and choosing startups as a career only intensified my sense of time poverty, whether real or perceived. However, I’m not alone in this. We live near Manly, and every morning the park and beach are teeming with young people who have an abundance of energy to burn. They engage in quick, explosive exercises that can inevitably lead to muscle tightening if they don’t set time aside at the end of a session to stretch properly.

It’s important for them to understand that proper stretching is crucial to prevent muscle tightness – just like me, the alpha types will dismiss it and rush to get to their first meeting.

However, without that final stretching, their exercise routines likely become counterproductive, leading to pain and discomfort – especially when they get older!

Credit: ozsquad.com.au (not an endorsement 😀)

I’ve always stretched but it’s been quick until I spent some time Cherie at Sydney Stretch Therapy a few years ago and her colleague at the time Dave Wardman of Physical Alchemy – they both studied under the cruel tutelage of Kit Laughlan (thats a joke, lovely guy but I just love that phrase from Kill Bill about Pai Mei).

That lineage of exercise was really about the awareness you bring to your exercises and how that awareness will magically increase the efficacy of the exercise – it sounded reasonable – but making space for that discipline is tough.

For decades, I dabbled in yoga as a dilettante. However, since 2016, I fell in love with the intense practice of Ashtanga, under the sometimes-cruel tutelage of Pattabhi Jois’ student’s (first 8 in the famous video) student. Ashtanga is a very active practice that is particularly fitting for alpha types.

As I type this now, I recall doing Ashtanga in 2008 in Mountain View, the home of Google. All the women in the classes exuded an alpha attitude, had alpha bodies, and wore yoga attire that made it feel like an Olympic event. The men in the class, myself included, languished in our sweaty tech t-shirts and basketball shorts with zero hope of competing with these goddesses for the most extreme expression of postures in the Primary Sequence.

Of course, we were all focused mindfully on our own practice and were not distracted by the surrounding aesthetics… Not!

Go hard or go home. Credit: yogavietnam.vn

Over the last year, diving into Tai Chi has been a healing balm for my rushed disposition. The art of slowness has been especially beneficial for me in Tai Chi, allowing for both strengthening and stillness. At the core of Tai Chi is the word “Sung” (or “Song”), which can mean relaxing or softening, but I prefer the term “loosening.”

To me, “loosening” can mean creating spaciousness where there may have previously been compression. Muscles contract or compress when they’re doing work, and loosening involves not expending excessive energy when it’s not needed. For instance, think about how you might hitch your shoulders up in stressful situations or how you might realize you’ve stopped breathing because your belly has tightened. I’ll write more about Song/Sung another time.

By taking this Tai Chi somatic knowledge, I was able to undertake a recent Yin Yoga class in a much deeper way than before. It reminded me of Cherie and Dave and how the art of loosening peels away another layer, revealing why long, slow held stretching postures are so good and so very different to Ashatanga Primary (very Yang).

Bringing a quality of attention and mind (known as “Yi” in Tai Chi) becomes “intention.” With intention, the magic happens when our senses are completely in the present moment. Loosening and deepening also allows us to drop the mental arguments about sensation, rather than jumping to an editorial conclusion and calling it “pain.”

If we bring our distracted monkey-mind to stretching, yoga, or Tai Chi, we are not developing intention (Yi), which is what the modern world is actively trying to dominate and destroy. Instead, we should give these practices more priority in our lives and fully acknowledge that they are developing a key survival skill.

I asked ChatGPT to: “Explain why stretching muscles must be approached slowly and why large muscles should be stretched longer time than smaller muscles”

They are useful, but in particular the “3. Stretch reflex” explains why stretching quickly and mindlessly are a waste of time and potentially harmfull (I have a 10 year Gracilis injury as proof of that). 

Stretching muscles slowly and appropriately adjusting the duration for different muscle sizes is essential for various reasons related to safety, effectiveness, and physiology.

  1. Injury prevention: Rapid or forceful stretching can cause micro-tears in the muscle fibers and surrounding connective tissues. These micro-tears can lead to inflammation, pain, and an increased risk of injury. Slow, gradual stretching allows muscles and connective tissues to adapt to the stretch and reduces the risk of injury.

  2. Muscle elasticity: Muscles contain both elastic and contractile components. The elastic components, such as collagen and elastin, need time to lengthen and adapt to the stretch. Gradually applying the stretch allows these components to lengthen more efficiently, increasing the muscle’s overall flexibility.

  3. Stretch reflex: When a muscle is stretched too quickly or forcefully, it triggers the muscle’s stretch reflex, causing it to contract involuntarily. This reflex protects the muscle from overstretching and potential injury. By stretching slowly, you can avoid triggering the stretch reflex, allowing the muscle to relax and lengthen more effectively.

  4. Improved circulation: Slow stretching promotes better blood circulation to the muscles, which helps deliver essential nutrients and oxygen while also removing waste products. This process can enhance muscle recovery and overall performance.

  5. Relaxation and stress reduction: Slow, controlled stretching can help promote relaxation, both physically and mentally. It encourages mindfulness and a focus on the body’s sensations, which can contribute to stress reduction and a greater sense of well-being.

Regarding the stretching duration for different muscle sizes, large muscles generally require a longer time to stretch compared to smaller muscles because:

  1. Greater mass and thickness: Larger muscles have more mass and thickness, which requires more time to be effectively stretched. The additional time allows the muscle fibers and connective tissues to adapt to the stretch gradually, promoting flexibility and reducing the risk of injury.

  2. Greater workload: Larger muscles typically have a greater workload and are responsible for more significant movements and support. This means they can accumulate more tension and stiffness, requiring a more extended period to stretch and release this tension effectively.

  3. More complex muscle structure: Larger muscles often have more complex structures, with multiple muscle heads or layers. A longer stretching duration helps ensure that all parts of the muscle are adequately stretched, promoting overall flexibility and functional range of motion.

In conclusion, stretching muscles slowly and adjusting the duration based on muscle size is essential for preventing injury, promoting flexibility, improving circulation, and encouraging relaxation. This approach helps to maximize the benefits of stretching while minimizing potential risks.

** Its assumed that tight muscles are not ideal. Another post might explore this.

  1. mindful vs. mindless stretching
  2. stretching techniques
  3. flexibility improvement
  4. injury prevention
  5. mental focus in stretching
  6. wellness and stretching

Smile!

I read in a book by Steve Maxwell (a pretty well-known exercise and fitness hard-arse) a simple hack to counter workout intensity – smiling.

Next time you see someone grunting or contorting their face (you know the type – jogging or riding a bicycle and looking like they are literally on the brink of death) think of this.

Steve maintains smiling helps reduce stress by stimulating the release of endorphins – being natural painkillers, they can help workout stress (actual and attitudinal) during intense workouts. In addition smiling may also trigger the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), which is responsible for the body’s rest and digest response. Promoting a higher vagal tone is a whole field of research now – but  wisdom from Yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong prove the knowledge is ancient.

Xingming

A local tai-chi teacher** has a wonderful statement on their website that is illustrative of embodied practice.

XingMing(性命)

Xing ( mind ) is  psychology and Ming ( body ) is physiology.

Taoism’s way of nurturing life called ” Xing Ming Shuang Xiu ” means look after both ( mind & body ).

In cultivating Xing ( mind ) the emphasis is on training spirit, making spirit detach from the myriad things,  a kindhearted clear mind.

In cultivating Ming ( body ) the emphasis is on cultivating energy, developing life’s potential, enriching life’s energy.

The two mutually act and mutually produce; refining essence to transform into energy; refining energy to transform into spirit; draw the spirit within to achieve stillness.

This delicate balance reminded me of some western unbundling work being undertaken by John Vervaeke and really interesting people in his orbit like Rafe Kelley.

For John, he has spent many years in philosophy and is navigating towards the centre from the intellectual side – many people experiencing John’s work dismiss it as too intellectual – which strikes me as laziness because John has synthesized some of the best spiritual output from humanity (with a western bias). John’s youtube magnum opus (“Awakening from the Meaning Crisis”) is worth investing time on – a mere 50 hours to undertake if the spirit is willing. 😇

Part of the project and community around him are (or were) exploring the Religion that is not a Religion (RTNAR). Which is an attempt to rebuild the valuable elements of organised religion (perhaps agreeing with Peterson’s assertion that they are super-successful memes) without dogmatic baggage. (I wrote a little in the Meaning).

Rafe Kelley approaches the middle-way from the extreme physical end of the spectrum. He was a BIG parkour athlete.

His physical practice is deeply meaningful when approached with a mindful underpinning. His community and method https://www.evolvemoveplay.com/ connects with nature and the healing forces when you are awake enough in the “present moment”.

These two apparent extremes are approaching a centre that is embodied in the meaning of XingMing(性命). As usual the western way is to take the longest way around possible.

Too much mind brings: dogma, blind faith, intellectualism, disconnected from reality, using ideas as a possession for the ego.

Too much body brings: materialism, narcissism, boring conversations, stunted progress.

When you were a kid did you ever play the seesaw game where you would edge toward each other?

Each taking a micro-step to get closer without losing balance and teetering off?

This is why I love balance. As a Libran it makes perfect sense that balance is central to everyday. The Taoist statement above captures the simplicity of this balance. Buddhism uses the term “the middle way”.

** credit: http://www.carolinestaichi.com/news–events

Ashtanga inside

I recently heard someone say that yoga wasn’t effective as a spiritual work – instantly I knew that person had not got inside yoga and was speaking purely from outside opinion.

This morning’s ashtanga1 class is started by the teacher gently bringing people back to the top of the mat and reminding us that the first limb of Ashtanga is Yama – which translates as “restraint” or “reigning in” – perhaps a gentler version of commandments.

Alphas

The teacher reminded us of the first Yama. This is ahimsa (non-violence) which can be in action and in thought – and the purpose of the reminder is to participate in the practice (class)  non-violently towards ourselves.

It’s a beautiful guidance because Ashtanga (primary series) is physically taxing and partially gymnastic – the classes can attract “alpha” types. And alpha types are used to pushing-through, competing with themselves (and likely others). Anyone who’s done a little self-work or shadow-work will recognise competitiveness as a form of win/lose violence and the self-talk is often not complimentary.

This physical material view of yoga is what the west has done to yoga and earns opinions like in the first paragraph above.

Surrender, Joy, Insight, Stillness

Responding to the sequence’s demands has me oscillating around the edges of coping. In one moment, striving; the next, surrender. Here is where the magic happens – feeling the balance that is needed to be moving and still, to be working and relaxing, to let the breath and gaze (drishti) be the soft guide.

I find myself half-way into the class, nearly bursting into tears of helplessness, laughter2 and joy3 – complete acceptance of the process – endorphins surging and stillness enfolding. Yoga is indeed a spiritual work.

The Inside view of Ashtanga is quite simple: Pattabhi Jois said “Do the practice and all is coming”. Those words speak to the simplicity that you need to find if you want to stick with this particular yoga form.

one-two-three-cry-five
Credit: video

Approaching Ashtanga (Jois tradition)

Everything about Ashtanga is setup to break you down in that old school kind of way:

  1. The sequence is the same everyday:
    • Youtube yogini’s compete by entertaining you with special variants – not Ashtanga.
    • The “westerner mind” rails against the dogmatic adherence, believing its own thinking to be sovereign. But in discipline is freedom, (with practice) you eventually know the next posture – it never-ever changes4.
    • With a known sequence, the possibility of “flow” is increased. See Flow below.
  2. There are no blocks or props – this is you and your breath and the mat – simplicity.
  3. The teacher’s occasional reminder to relax the jaw, raise the edges of my mouth expose my striving and prideful nature. Small things like jaw tension or a tight wrist are immediate feedback to “where I am”.
  4. “Soften the breath”, “let the breath guide the movement”, “breath, bhandas, drishti” either from the teacher or from personal experience bring me back. Jois’s contemporary (nemesis?) B.K.S Iyengar’s famous quote “Breath is the king of mind,” is perfect. If we race ahead (pardon the pun) with our head, then synchronization is lost with the breath and the practice is disjointed. [In reality large chunks of my practice, I’m trying to calm everything down with the breath but also the breath adjusts to the physicality. In most classes you don’t hear the ujjayi breath.]
  5. The Bandhas are a protective (structural) element of the practice – with health and energetic benefits.
  6. Breath and drishti support the needs of both the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the parasympathetic (PNS) supporting meeting the physical demand whilst calming down at the same time.

It’s not submission unless you are too proud. It’s surrender.

Flow

The Csikszentmihalyi definition of flow perfectly fits into fixed sequence of the Jois tradition – looking at the chart, as you work with the sequence, the skills increase and the challenges unfold along the way.

When criticism of “boring” (see below) is levelled at Ashtanga, they are missing the point.

Above I said “oscillating around the edges” – this looks a lot like this flow diagram, the presence of attention is the push and pull of the mind and being – “In one moment, striving; the next, surrender.”

This can be a sacred place

Your awareness is ignited to purely being in the moment, the perfect “fit” of the task and the doing. I can’t be too emphatic about the importance of this place in my/your day – it might be the place where internal dialog has also surrendered.

A Cognitive explanation

Rafe Kelly runs a movement community and system “Evolve, Move, Play”. They are blending nature parkour and “meaning” – inspired by John Vervaeke. Around the 50:00 mark of this rather intellectual talk (you have been warned) he connects the experience of flow and meaning – Vervake proposes the moment of flow is coherence “up and down the stack”5 of your cognitive machinery6. That “flow” is a “fitedness” of the agent-arena relationship. (Vervaeke’s self/world/doing/experiencing model).

And so, in this moment, happens a perfect non-intellectual experience of Buddhism’s “dependent arising” – that in the “doing” of Ashtanga or surfing or hammering a nail – insights that are not thought-based arise. The connection is more important than the subject-object.

I’m not fully across Vervake’s suggestion but my sense is these experiences are bi-directional, up-and-down, round-and-round interplay (feedforward loop) of insights from mental understanding to embodied deeply rooted “knowing”. Vervaeke relates this to the Plato and Socrate’s Anagoge – which translates as “ascent” – that a meaningful life is anagogical and autopoietic.

I think the suggestion is that “Meditation without movement” and “Movement without meditation” are incomplete meaning-making experiences.

Yoga is great, yoga is not all

  • As implied by “hammering a nail”, or illustrated by this post or this post – the movement does not need to be on the yoga mat. The agent-arena depth can be found in any given moment – right-here-right-now…let more than “knowing” be the experience:
  • Humans in bodies existed a long, long time before “thinking” started
  • Children are alive a long time before language and abstract thinking start to take over.

Ashtanga Vinyasa is but one part (asana) of Patanjali’s Ashtanga  (8-limbed) system. (Ironically there are only 3 asana related: 2.46-2.48 sutras).

In particular asana is preparation for the final 3 limbs: dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption).

The lessons of focus, surrender, breath and dominion over the body (be able to physically sit and also self-awareness of physical twitches, scratches etc) are all meaningful preparations. Drishti also prepares the practitioner for Pratyāhāra (withdrawal from the senses).

Where both practitioners and onlookers do Ashtanga injustice is to allow asana to be the totality of their relationship to the word. That’s the west for you!

Criticism

I’ve outlined the merits of the Jois tradition to create meaningful experiences with me (pardon the dualism). A personal critique is that I also need a diversity of exercise and challenges for this mammalian vehicle and promoting diverse “wiring and firing” of our human neural connections (up and down the stack). Slacklining for example.

For more detailed critique this post by a teacher is much deeper. “Ashtanga’s reputation of being dogmatic, inflexible and hard core” is something you hear a lot.

Jois has also been accused of teacher/student sexual misconduct, acknowledged by his grandson – using a position of power to abuse people is repugnant and raises the reasonable question of whether the system is beneficial in growing better humans.

Notes

1. For the purposes of this post “ashtanga” is “ashtanga vinyasa” in the Jois tradition, except where the Patanjali superset is discussed. I’m not pretending to be some yoga guru (far from it!!!). The post is mostly about direct experience and a novel connection to Vervaeke’s comments on embodiment. I’ve written before about ashtanga vinyasa here.

2. It’s hilarious what goes on in the process of letting go, the resistance and release is ecstatic.

3. I’ve been here before and you can never predict when it will arise, but it will make your day.

4. Today’s teacher guided us to a slightly different pose and asked us to “not report him to the ashtanga police” – he was joking but the adherents can be dogmatic.

5. This is the wrong word, because it’s beholden to our mechanistic cultural conditioning, I just don’t have another word for it right now.

6. Vervaeke asserts 4 types of knowing (propositional, procedural, perspectival and participatory). He is also a member of the 4E cognition academic movement (embodied, embedded, enacted, and extended cognition).

Have you heard of Super Brain Yoga?

It’s a quick and fun way to wake up both the analytic and creative sides of the brain. 

  1. Face the sun with your feet parallel to your shoulders and press your tongue against the roof of your mouth. 
  2. Pinch your right ear lobe with your left thumb and index finger. This activates the left side of your brain. 
  3. Pinch your left ear lobe with your right thumb and index finger. This activates the right side of your brain. 
  4. While pressing on both of your earlobes, squat while keeping your back straight. Do this 10 times, inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth. 
  5. Feel both sides of your brain wake up, charged and ready to create!

Marie Kondo for the creative spirit

The sensation that is Marie Kondo has the magic of old truths that ring true being repackaged in a new and exciting antidote to a very common malaise – clutter.

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Thankfully the last decade has grown a number of movements attacking the very Western (primarily North American) conspicuous consumption and excess.

These movements like: Minimalism, Digital Nomadism, Veganism all call bullshit on a fixed abode filled to the brim with lettuce spinners, outdoor furniture, a garage full of unused adult toys (exercise equipment, not the others – ahem) and wardrobes full of once-worn clothes.

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The spark in Marie’s approach is that an object must “Spark Joy” to be worth keeping. The spirit of Marie’s method is an interesting observation that you don’t decide from some ideology or “ism” – you apply your own personal emotional response as your guide.

So too with creativity!

Debilitating Clutter?

Some people defer creative action because they feel paralysed by the clutter and disorder of their workspace. 

Others celebrate being surrounded by the tools of their trade. 

The photo of Einstein below is not one of a mundane scientist but a fabulously creative thinker, his writings outside science are also worth a read. Clearly clutter was not debilitating to this creator.

Einstein at his desk, Princeton, New Jersey, circa 1955
Einstein at his desk, Princeton, New Jersey, circa 1955

Recently, popular startup investor Naval Ravikant (@naval) and clear thinker, commented that he leaves books lying around the house and picks them up when the fancy takes him – skipping through the irrelevant cruft and not fearing that serendipity comes from outside himself. Perhaps conversely Paul Graham (@paulg) gets serendipity from the chaos of second-hand bookstores.

Is internal mental clutter the actual problem?

We fixate on the external, we blame external conditions. But if we look closer it’s not the external clutter but our internal response to the environment around us that is the big deal.

If Marie Kondo tidied Albert’s office it may look great but we may have less scientific breakthroughs! So it’s clear that Albert had an exceptional ability to focus and mentate with incredible clarity to the exclusion of the surrounding mayhem. Legend is that Nikola Tesla  would complete an invention in his mind before making the project manifest in the material world.

So these people are just a snapshot – others love to write books in noisy cafes. So it’s not JUST limited to geniuses.

Creative Clutter Exercise

Self-awareness** of what triggers Marie’s state of “Sparks Joy” within is the key here.
It’s an observation that is richer than dry mindfulness. Here’s a practice you can try:
  1. If you are a grub (you like chaos and mess). Get yourself to a library or even more grotesque – a conference room. Something that is as ordered or as sterile as you can find.
  2. If you are a neat-freak, get yourself to a cafe, a gym, a playground, a food-court in a shopping centre.
  3. Now get in touch with a sense of “joy”. Write, draw or code something around you that sparks that joy. Feel this inside.
  • Can you do this immersed in an environment that you would normally whinge about?
  • Do you have enough “self-awareness” to note that the environment is objective but your criticism is just a habitual response?
  • Can you take something from this opposite (“can you find beauty in a conference room”?,  “can you find stillness in a shopping center”? I assure you I’ve experienced both – I shit you not).
Try your art with 10,000s people going nuts at Singapore's Jewel Mall
Try your art with 10,000s people going nuts at Singapore's Jewel Mall

Any benefit?

Is it possible that you’ve now strengthened your creative muscle? That you are a more creative supple athlete?

Does Marie Kondo  inspire us to throw out some old mental clutter that has been stifling our creative spirit?

Have we used external circumstances to foster self-doubt and postphone “JUST DO IT”?

We’d love to hear, hit us up!

Postscript: Sense of Completion

Many people love, love, love the thrill of a good tidy-up.

The endorphin’s of an easily achieved goal can be an addictive distraction. We have unread books, messy bedrooms, unwashed plates – they are all awesome tools in getting a “hit” of the good stuff during the day – but don’t let them thieve from your creative schedule.

Make internal space for both.

** Everyone claims "self-awareness" but have no objective proof or realization that its an onion (a topic for another blog post)

Do it! Suspense writing

Don’t think. Just do.

Grab your journal, a book or some paper and write.

Take a mundane scene:

  • two people sitting in a car at traffic lights
  • a woman eating alone in a cafe
  • young children playing on the swings at the park
  • a young man waiting for the bus

Write a paragraph or a page that turns this seemingly mundane scene into nail-biting suspense. What details will add to the picture, giving it reality, authenticity, make the reader get to know the characters. And what might you leave out to add to the suspense.

Have fun!