Thinking In Circles

This past week, I taught my first class for Aikido Kokikai OC!  I played around with teaching a bit, since it was just myself and one advanced student.  I did an experiment, and I think it worked!  We were breaking down some of the more "basic" techniques, because the devil is in the details with those.  After a while, I could tell that we were both getting frustrated: why did basic tsuki kokyunage (timing throw from a punch) feel so awful to a brownbelt and a blackbelt?!  So, what I suggested that we do was stop practicing the throw slowly, and just throw sets as quickly as possible, focusing on breathing.  I even had us sing while throwing, both to illustrate the principle of "one-breath throw" (a near-translation of kokyunage), and to distract us even more from form.  When we went back to slowing things down a few minutes later, some of the problems were more exaggerated and therefore easier to spot and fix, and I think we both were able to face the issues with a clear mind.

Though it is always awesome when teaching works exactly the way you hope, I use this not to brag, but actually to demonstrate a personal failing: when I am too close to the nitty-gritty of a problem, I tend to get caught up in it, unable to see a way out.  I think this is why taking breaks, varying attack, talking to other people for their thoughts, etc, are such useful strategies.

This week also marked one of the first times I've really gotten down to work since my move, rather than just fussing through this and that.  The way I got through it was forcing myself to use "Pomodroido" on my phone.  This app uses the Pomodoro technique - it chunks time into 25-minute work sessions and 5-minute break sessions.  I have the basic version, which doesn't block anything else, but since I started using it about a year ago, I've found that just having the timer sitting there helps me keep focus.  Looking at "I have to get a ton done today and read this whole stack of books!!!!" always sends me into the sort of tailspin that means very little gets done, outside of a lot of Facebook browsing.  Focusing on reading one chapter, or however much I can read, for a solid 25 minutes is easy, though.  In my 5 minute breaks, I try to vary my activities entirely - play a round on Duolingo to think in Spanish for 5 minutes, get tea, check that same devilish Facebook, respond to e-mails, etc.  Shifting my focus entirely for a few minutes always helps me get a clearer head so that I can focus entirely again for my next 25-minute chunk.

All of this is to say that personally, getting too fixated on tasks can be harmful, whether that fixation is on nit-picking a technique (or a paper), or on how much needs to get done.  In aikido, we like circular motion, but I don't think circular thinking works nearly so well.  For me, changing the topic and clearing the mind works so much better - it enables the return to a state of focused mu shin, or no-mind, which in turn enables productive work.