MASTER THE MIND - Self Hypnosis for Martial Artists Part 1

 

Have you ever wondered how useful meditation is for your martial arts development? Do you try and meditate but find that it is just too difficult to do? Do you meditate but feel like you are not getting the most out of your sessions? If you’ve answered yes to any of these questions, then you are going to find the following information very interesting and highly empowering.

Years ago when I commenced my training I was not taught how to meditate. It was incorporated into my traditional karate training but unlike the physical aspect of training we were not given any meditation techniques to practice. During the meditation at the end of class time, I would close my eyes, struggle to remain comfortable in the kneeling position, listen to the breathing of the other students around me and wait patiently for the meditation to end.

Feeling like I was missing something important in my training, I decided to learn more about the use of altered states of consciousness and enrolled in a hypnotherapy course. Through my hypnosis training I began to learn how the mind worked, how to initiate altered states of consciousness, what they felt like and how to use them constructively. I found the straight forward explanations and practical demonstrations learned in my hypnosis training opened up a new dimension of my martial arts training. It is my hope that in writing this article, students and teachers of the martial arts will be able to apply the following information in order to achieve a greater degree of success in their training and their lives.

This article discusses the differences between the conscious and subconscious minds, identifies different levels of awareness, what they feel like, how to harness them and how to put it all together so that you can practice it straight away. Part two will cover more advanced concepts such as anchoring, auto-suggestion and deepening techniques so that you can take your meditation to the next level.

Conscious vs Subconscious

It is important that we first understand the differences between the conscious and subconscious minds. The conscious mind is regarded as the smaller and weaker of the two. It makes value judgments and creates belief systems based upon information that it either accepts or rejects. The conscious mind has predetermined beliefs about what is possible and impossible and is the part of the mind responsible for defining what we would wish to change or improve upon in our training and lives.

The subconscious mind on the other hand is a large store house for emotions, feelings and thoughts. It is unable to make value judgments and can only respond to what it knows. It is incapable of discriminating between good and bad and therefore does what it is told in a very literal fashion regardless of what the outcome may be. The subconscious is the powerhouse that manifests changes in our lives based upon what the conscious mind has directed it to do. An important and often misunderstood difference between the two minds is that the subconscious is unable to discriminate between a real or imagined event. If the imagined event contains sensory information like colours, feelings and sound then it acts as if that event has taken place. A great example of this is to imagine a lemon. Visualize what the soft plump juicy yellow flesh looks like, imagine sniffing the lemon and inhaling the spicy citrus scent, now imagine biting into the lemon and tasting the extremely bitter flesh. If you have imagined this scene well enough, your salivary glands would have increased production in anticipation of this imaginary lemon making contact with your taste buds! The ability of the subconscious to respond to an imaginary event is highly useful in integrating new techniques. For instance, if you have recently been shown a complex Kata or form and you are having difficulty executing it. Repeatedly, visualizing yourself moving through the pattern, performing blocks kicks, punches or throws perfectly will assist you in executing it physically. Incorporating the feeling of performing these techniques correctly with power and control will teach your body how it should feel when executing them. Hearing yourself breathe in on preparation and out on execution will add realism to your imagined event and teach you how to breathe appropriately when applying the Kata. The more realistic this Kata is made by your imagination the faster you will learn it and the better you will perform it.

The Language Of The Mind

The previous Kata example highlights how important it is to communicate with the mind, using it’s language. Dreams are a great example of how the mind communicates and also provides us with a great insight into how we can maximize our meditation. If you are capable of recalling a recent vivid dream or nightmare you had, what were the significant aspects of the dream that you are able to remember? If you remember complex language and dialogue then you would be one of the very few people to do so. Most people primarily remember images, feelings and sounds. Some people may even recall smells and tastes if the dream has been particularly vivid. This is because most communication is non-verbal and we encode our reality by what we can See (Visual), Feel (Kinaesthesia), Hear (Auditory), Taste (Gustation) and Smell (Olfaction). So is it any surprise that our mind attempts to communicate through the channels it uses to experience life?

When engaging in meditation, the 3 primary modes we can use to achieve significant results with are the Visual, Kinaesthetic and Auditory modalities. This is the reason why most hypnosis and guided meditations use language designed to create associations with images, feelings and sounds. Once you identify for yourself which modality you are most comfortable using as a starting point, you should structure your meditation primarily around that channel and gradually add the other modalities. For instance a person who has a preference for the Kinaesthetic (feeling) modality may be able to achieve a profound level of relaxation by imagining their body becoming physically heavy and very relaxed. On the other hand a person who has a preference for the visual modality may find that visualizing each muscle relaxing then encourages and promotes the feeling of physical and mental relaxation. A person who has a preference for the Auditory modality may find that listening to music set to a certain frequency assists them in reaching deep relaxation. Everyone is unique and it requires a degree of experimentation to discover which modality works best for you as an initial entry point for entering into an altered state. Keep in mind, that you engage all of your senses and just because you may have a preference for one over another does not mean that you engage in this modality exclusively and in isolation from the others. Remember that the example of the lemon commenced with visualizing a lemon but ultimately engaged all your senses in the process.

 

States of Consciousness.

To fully appreciate the different levels of awareness you will encounter during your meditation periods. It is important to know what the various levels of consciousness look and feel like so that you are prepared for the changes in your mental and physical state. One of the greatest hindrances in the process of accessing the deeper levels of trance is the conscious mind’s tendency to babble with internal diologue and cast doubts on the sensory information being received from the subconscious mind. It must be stressed that in order to achieve these states of consciousness, the eyelids can be either open or closed. Trance is a state of mind, not a state of eyelids. The use of the void (mind /no mind state) in combat is a classic example in Martial Arts of altered states being used while the eyes are opened.

Beta State: The Beta state is associated with an alert frame of mind. Our conscious minds are capable of making value judgments and we respond to external stimulus quite readily. Our awareness is primarily externally focused but may also at times be internally directed as well. Beta is an ideal state to consciously identify our goals so that our subconscious mind can act upon them in the trance state.

Alpha State: The Alpha state is usually experienced by most people as a type of daydream state in which our awareness is still partially exteriorized but we have turned a greater protion of our attention to our inner world. It is akin to the experience of driving a car during which we respond to road hazards and changes in traffic speed whilst all the time we are focusing a significant portion of our attention on some mental topic of interest. Before we know it, we have arrived at our destination puzzling over the length of the trip and whether we passed significant buildings along the way. The Alpha state is physically characterized by a decrease in breathing and resting heart rate coupled with decreased muscle tone. This state naturally begins to activate shortly after closing the eyes as a result of the mind attempting to fill in the missing sensory input by creating visual images on the inner mental screen. Phenomena associated with this level of awareness is decreased critical analysis, a distortion in the perception of time and possible feelings of heaviness and increased relaxation.

Theta State: The Theta state is often identified during sleep as the level of consciousness where we experience dreams and exhibit Rapid Eye Movement (REM). Our attention is completely focused on our internal reality and critical faculties are operating at a very limited level. People can feel dissociated from their bodies and may experience time and space in a very different manner to the Beta and Alpha states. People often describe this altered state of awareness as being engaged in the NOW. With no preoccupation on the future and no identification with the past, some individuals experience true freedom from wants and desires in this state. The Theta state is an ideal level to program the mind as all modalities (Visiual, Auditory, Kinaesthetic, Gustatory & Olfactory) can be experienced quite intensely.

 

Delta State: The Delta state is a very deep state of relaxation. Externally it can be hard to distinguish from the Theta state except that REM can be absent at this level. This is a very interesting level of awareness to work with as Hyperaesthesia (increased sensation), Anaesthesia (loss of sensation) and mystical states of consciousness can be worked with at this level. Delta can be hard for individuals to recognize as at this level conscious awareness is very limited. A person experiencing this level of awareness is fully operating under the control of their subconscious mind and can be oblivious to what is happening around them.

 

For martial arts training we would primarily focus our attention on utilizing the Alpha and Theta states for the purposes of improving our performance, accelerating healing, integrating learning, managing pain and overcoming fatigue just to name a few reasons. In the same way one conditions the body to respond rapidly and effectively to potential threats by way of regular training, so to can one condition the mind to manifest these altered states of consciousness by repeatedly engaging in meditation.

 

Practical Applications

Putting all this information into action is much easier than most people would think. The key that opens the door to your mind is your imagination. The more vibrant your imagination the better your results will be. Being imaginative has a unique way of suspending logic which is exactly what we want when seeking out deeper levels of trance. When you look back at the example of the lemon, you were asked to imagine it instead of think about it. Thinking stimulates your logic and analysis of events, imagination assists you in creating and becoming part of these events. The martial arts are full of highly descriptive and imaginative names for techniques and stances. Not only do they provide a frame of reference for the practitioner but also encourage the exponent to adopt a mode of being. For instance, Horse stance does not have the same feelings or associations associated with it that Cat stance has. However, if you pretend to move as lithely as a cat or be as strong as a horse there is every chance you are going to move, stand, strike and possibly even think differently.

Here are some key points to remember for your next meditation session:

1. Trust and believe that from the moment you close your eyes. You are already in the Alpha state and engaged in trance.

2. Breathe deeply in order to increase the feelings of deeper relaxation. This assists in slowing your heart rate and provides yourself with an auditory cue for trance.

3. Visualize, Feel and Hear to the best of your ability positive images resulting in successful outcomes. For example: performing a punch or block with strict form, feeling the technique through the full range of movement as if you were actually doing it. Imagine seeing the angle and direction of the technique as if you were seeing it through your own eyes. Imagine what the sound of your technique travelling through the air would sound like and listen to your breathing as you inhale and exhale on preparation and execution.

4. Be like a child in the way you use your imagination. Being playful and treating your meditation / self hypnosis like a game will take the pressure off you to achieve results. Being serious and results focused is something your conscious mind is preoccupied with. Let it go and just enjoy.

 

In Part Two we will explore how you can store these trance experiences in your physiology, systematically deepen your level of altered consciousness, and illustrate how your inner dialogue can make or break you.

 

© 2005 Paul Mischel

~ by Paul Mischel on September 15, 2007.