Discussion: Mind/body
in: Orunner; Orunner > 2010-06-02
Jun 3, 2010 1:00 PM
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It's interesting to hear that completely buying into the notion of a mind/body difference (e.g., "_I_ tell my body what to do") seems to improve performance. This summer, I'll toy with getting non-dualism to lead to similar effects.
Jun 3, 2010 3:33 PM
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I am not sure what you mean by non-dualism. I reckon this encroaches on your profession. But I might try to clarify what I was doing yesterday, and do at other times as well.
I know very little about the human brain. But I have heard that we have a lot going on in there that we do not have direct control over. Something about massive amounts of input, reptilian brain, emotions, learning, rewiring, etc. As a young man I was a sucker for motivational speakers, aphorisms, and bits of wisdom. In practice, I learned it didn't take much to bring on an overwhelming feeling of embarrassment, fear, surprise, shock; shame could last days resulting in temporary depression. With practice I found I could reverse some of these feelings. Particularly shyness, fear, and confidence could be changed through visualization, mental practice and meditation. Popularly known as positive thinking. I have developed a pre-race psych-up ritual that invokes many positive attributes including acuity & vitality.
What I attempted yesterday morning was to prepare myself to run. I believed that the pain I perceived in my knees, although real, was not physically slowing me. But rather it was the mind that slowed me in response to the pain signals. I continuously pretended to believe that I could control the inputs and outputs in my brain. While I ran, I could still sense the feelings I had on Tuesday, but I devalued them, focusing on evaluating the twinges only for risk of injury. That is something that comes from the experience of 42 years of running. Had I felt the onslaught of a serious injury, I would have stopped. On Tuesday I was unprepared and thus unable to control the flood of mental and physical feelings that my mind was using to perform.
Another theory was it was just a result of what I ate over the holiday weekend. Too many brats, potato chips, and brownies. It left my body and mind a cesspool of toxins and waste.
I know very little about the human brain. But I have heard that we have a lot going on in there that we do not have direct control over. Something about massive amounts of input, reptilian brain, emotions, learning, rewiring, etc. As a young man I was a sucker for motivational speakers, aphorisms, and bits of wisdom. In practice, I learned it didn't take much to bring on an overwhelming feeling of embarrassment, fear, surprise, shock; shame could last days resulting in temporary depression. With practice I found I could reverse some of these feelings. Particularly shyness, fear, and confidence could be changed through visualization, mental practice and meditation. Popularly known as positive thinking. I have developed a pre-race psych-up ritual that invokes many positive attributes including acuity & vitality.
What I attempted yesterday morning was to prepare myself to run. I believed that the pain I perceived in my knees, although real, was not physically slowing me. But rather it was the mind that slowed me in response to the pain signals. I continuously pretended to believe that I could control the inputs and outputs in my brain. While I ran, I could still sense the feelings I had on Tuesday, but I devalued them, focusing on evaluating the twinges only for risk of injury. That is something that comes from the experience of 42 years of running. Had I felt the onslaught of a serious injury, I would have stopped. On Tuesday I was unprepared and thus unable to control the flood of mental and physical feelings that my mind was using to perform.
Another theory was it was just a result of what I ate over the holiday weekend. Too many brats, potato chips, and brownies. It left my body and mind a cesspool of toxins and waste.
This discussion thread is closed.