I came across this great quote/slogan while reading Comfortable with Uncertainty: “If you can practice even when distracted, you are well trained.” I am not Buddhist nor do I meditate (other than the meditation in Tai Chi and/or Qigong), but this slogan spoke to me. It made me think about all the distractions that attempt to interrupt our mindfulness or awareness when we practice Tai Chi and/or Qigong.
Almost everyone considers Tai Chi as “moving meditation”. In accordance with the slogan above, one of the greatest challenges in any type of meditation is avoiding distraction. Our attention and focus needs to be relaxed. The problem is that our minds are quite accustomed to multi-tasking. We rarely pay full attention to anything in our lives. Many, if not most, people have trouble concentrating and lose track of where they are during practice. The more it happens, the harder it becomes to maintain awareness.
We’ve been told that when we become distracted in practice, we need to bring our mind back into awareness and our body. That’s easier said than done, because even experts believe that the left brain will try to take control. We need to acknowledge our distraction, without judging it, and put our “thinking brain aside”, as we return our awareness back to our body. Don’t think about your performance and how you are doing. Again, it’s not always easy to “move for the experience, not the results”.
Breathing practice is another method to help avoid distractions. Breathing is a “building block” to Tai Chi. We use breathing for building stamina, providing clarity of mind, improving our health and vitality, reducing our stress, and controlling our monkey mind. We’ve talked about monkey mind in other blogs. It’s when your mind chatters and “takes you all over the place”.
For reasons (mostly medical, i.e. asthma, allergies, etc.)some people with breathing issues have trouble focusing on their breath. How about focusing on your hands? That works. So does bringing your focus internally and tuning into what you are feeling at this time. You could try to focus on feeling your body moving. Focusing on your other senses is another method to try.
Tai Chi practice has been known to help those with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), as well as Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) to become more focused and improve awaress. It also works for those with other mental/psychological conditions, and/or addictions.
In his book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World* Cal Newport, differentiates between what he calls Shallow Work and Deep Work. In The Psychology Lounge ™, Dr. Andrew Gottlieb suggests adding Shallow Play and Deep Play. Gottlieb considers Shallow Play as those activities that we engage in that are “basically mindless”. Here’s some great examples: channel surfing, texting, Instagram (and other social media sites, including Facebook), pleasure reading, etc.
On the flip side, Deep Play requires that we use our “full set of abilities”. Under Deep Play, Gottlieb lists learning a new language, improving your ability at sports (such as golf), learning and playing an instrument, etc. Interestingly, he also named “practicing” Tai Chi”. One of my recent blogs discussed why so many students find Tai Chi difficult to learn. Maybe because it is “Deep”.
Shallow Work and Shallow Play are easy! However, both Deep Work and Deep Play involve learning “important and significant new skills”. Could it be, as Gottlieb, suggests, that most people are accustomed to “Shallow Play”?
When we are bored, restless, or lonely, we often shift to mindless activities! However, both Deep Work and Deep Play require us to train our brain to focus for longer periods of time. Just like you build up your muscles or stamina, you need to build up your ability to do Deep Work or Deep Play. And, like any training we do, start slowly and build up!
In Tai Chi, we need to spend more time working on our body awareness, both while we practice and in our daily lives! As our awareness improves, so will our focus. The outcome is that we learn mindfulness, as well as the ability to deal with, and put aside, distractions. We quiet our monkey minds and cease to go through life as if we are in a fog. As one of the national purveyors of coffee says in the slogan about life being short: Stay awake for it!
Bottom line: It truly comes down to “practice”. Perhaps I’ve mentioned this before?
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