Here, Now

This week had a bunch of frustrations for me, and a bunch of great things.  Because of all of these things happening, though, concentration... didn't always happen.  I'm sure we've all been there - focusing on a task, and then suddenly, "If I had just... yesterday/last month/6 years ago, things would be different," or, "Tomorrow/next week/in 3 months I really need to ...".  Maybe this helps a bit in planning, but is not a terribly effective way to get things done.

For this reason, it hit me like a ton of bricks when during warm-ups Thursday night, my sensei suddenly said, "This is mostly for me, as well as you: Be here, now."  As soon as she said it, I realized that I had been a million miles away and phoning in my warm ups.  Of course, this is problematic because warm-ups don't just "warm up" your body - the ki exercises we do at that point in the class strengthen focus and the feeling of power that should inflect every technique, and they set each person up to do their best aikido that evening.  They are a centering technique, not just a way to limber up the muscles.

One of the great things about warm-ups, though, is that they do act towards centering.  We come into the dojo with scattered thoughts, and the formulaic warm-ups chase those thoughts out until we can exist in the present.  For me, they are one of the first steps towards mu shin - the feeling of alert "no mind" that I've talked about before.  They are indeed a reminder to "Be here, now."

This is a feeling that I think is vitally important to take out of the dojo and into the world.  Even if I can't face every task with a feeling of true centered mu shin, a smaller goal is to get more moments of "Here, now".  Rather than let my thoughts run rampant (and inevitably towards past and future) while I try to cope with work tasks, social functions, etc, I need to be focused on the task at hand.  The benefit to this approach is better concentration, leading to both faster and more precise work.  Then, I can worry about the future.

Of course, along with productivity, this style of focus also can open our eyes to the great things happening now!