Apply It To Your Practice

"[There is] evidence that environments, schedules, and rituals restructure the writing process and amplify performance… The principles of memory retrieval suggest that certain practices should amplify performance. These practices encourage a state of flow rather than one of anxiety or boredom. Like strategies, these other aspects of a writer’s method may alleviate the difficulty of attentional overload. The room, time of day, or ritual selected for working may enable or even induce intense concentration or a favorable motivational or emotional state. Moreover, in accordance with encoding specificity, each of these aspects of method may trigger retrieval of ideas, facts, plans, and other relevant knowledge associated with the place, time, or frame of mind selected by the writer for work. Gratitude is the trigger. What do you have to be grateful for today? Right now?"

Great piece of writing by Wendy MacNaughton for Brain Pickings talking about the important roles that ritual, routine and a habitual daily practice play in our practice. Be that practice writing, training, martial arts or anything else that demands dedication and relentless pursuit of continual improvement. 

As we stand on the eves of Christmas and the New Year, there might not be a better time to take an introspective analysis of our daily routine to see if any opportunities exist for refinement. I know I could do a cleaner sweep of my late early evening routine. 

The idea of gratitude being a trigger for the retrieval of associated emotions, including muscle memory for the athlete, is a solid one. It thematically dovetailed in nicely with the primary concept of class this morning, which was, of course, gratitude. Being in the warm golden glow of gratitude as we go about our practice is one of the perks of the activity. As dopamine and endorphins are released into our bloodstreams we feel the unmistakable vibration of that mysterious magical state known as dynamic flow. When mind, body and spirit are harmoniously humming along in three-part a capella. If this emotional release of associated memories brings back the instant and profound olfactory recall of chestnuts over an open fire, you got it. If it googles-up the long-forgotten sound of your Mothers voice, you are there. And when the one snowflake that has been waiting for all of eternity to softly land on your nose triggers the memory of your finest love, you have made it so. Right place, right time. 

In the audio book currently keeping me company, the Martial Arts Master Miyamoto Musashi

is putting words to the Samurai oral-tradition of swordsmanship. In it he talks about the difficulty and challenge of taking the spoken word, handed down for 300 years before it reached his ears, and transcribing them onto the blank page. As he describes the rituals, drills, mindset and discipline necessary to progress along the honorable path, he concludes every insight with these words: Therefore investigate this concept deeply and apply it to your practice. 

Investigate the concept of gratitude being the trigger for enhanced awareness and apply it to your practice.