Master Esrar mentioned a few times that as individuals we were capable of executing any technique he asked of us. The mind he said was the barrier, our bodies were capable of anything we want to put them through. Today, I had first hand experience of the mind getting in the way of my progress.
I had shown the picture of Hun Ho being assisted with performing a split and shared with him the goal that I’d like to be as flexible as him. Motivation for me was two fold, first it was my aspiration to be able do what this young Korean TKD blackbelt was able to do and secondly I had made a promise to my colleagues at work to demonstrate this particular exercise by June 2011. The consequences would be extremely painful if I would fail to achieve this goal.
Following warm up, Master Esrar instructed us to perform a series of stretching exercises. We were performing these exercises in pairs. As I set down and drew in my feet in with my hands, he came over and pressed hard on my knees. My mind and vocals screamed pain. “Breathe out” said as he pressed harder. I felt resistance and so did Master Esrar. He again instructed me to breathe out and pressed harder as he goaded me to relax further. Pain was blocking my progress. Try as I may to relax the pain was winning. Master Esrar kept me at it through the pain. For a split second he wasn’t my favourite person anymore…just for a split second!
Thinking I got over the worst of it, engaged with my partner in assisted stand up splits, master Esrar came over again. At full stretch, so I thought, he pushed my leg out a further 6 inches. Sharp pain radiated through my legs and registered in my vocals as a sharp aaah. Again master Esrar was there to instruct. “Breathe out and hold, 10,9,…1”. Just as I thought I was past this one he pushed my leg out by a further 6 inches. The pain was unbearable. He forced me to stay there and again said “breathe out and hold”. I barely held on for another 10 seconds. As he let go and moved to another ‘victim’ I drew in my legs with help of partner. Pain lessened but was enough to be still in my awareness.
Controlling my mind was the key, but how? I put the question to master Esrar at the end of the session. He did not know how, however, what he was definitely sure of was the mind mastery was the key.
This question, how can I control my mind to overcome the obvious pain I had felt had continued to occupy my mind for several days after.
As a self appointed master of mind dynamics, how can I not know the answer to this question? Pain was a signal to the body that something was wrong. I had the choice to leave it well alone or do something about it. Instinct and innate reflex shouted to push Master Esrar aside and give in. Mind said Master Esrar is there to help you, find another way to deal with it. With Master Esrar’s assistance, I let the pain be. In the end the pain let me be too. Was the key to controlling the mind then simply a case of making a choice? Acknowledging the feedback from my body, and then letting it go! I had made the choice against instinct and was sore but not hurt. Could this really be the answer? I don’t know. May be it is then again maybe it is not!
We must bare in mind that pain is the bodies mechanism to alert us to physical damage to the body. I have spent many years working in the medical profession learning and teaching about pain control. 1 key thing about pain is that pain is what the person says it is. Its subjective being affected my many factors like physical ad mental health, culture, gender and socioeconomical backgounds of individuals. but one thing i have notice when treating terminal cancer patients is the power of the mind to control their pain.
ReplyDeleteConsider this -- occasionally, we see remarkable people who have learned to be completely immune to pain. They go into surgery without any anesthetic, and they undergo extensive procedures while lying peacefully, oblivious to pain. These people are otherwise normal, just like you and me, who carry on a normal life, but they are not affected by pain. In other cultures there are even more extreme examples. In India, for instance, fakirs pierce their cheeks with needles or sit on beds of spikes, while exhibiting no signs of pain or discomfort. In a special Indian celebration, steel hooks are shoved under the skin and muscles of the back of a chosen man. Strong ropes are attached to the hooks, and the man is lifted off the ground and swung around a pole.. This is proof that pain can be controlled by the mind but to progress is this sport we must always be aware of what our body is telling s to prevent injury. What use is it if we block out pain and end up with a torn muscle. all that hard training will potentially be reversed. Sorry if I've waffled on a bit but what im trying to say is that it is a great thing that we can condition our minds to ignore pain but we should not do this when it can become detrimental to one's health
Gary Smallbone
Thanks. There is a lot of truth in what you say. Ignoring pain to risk injury is definitely not a good idea, as you have rightly said. Pain indeed is the signal by which the mind alerts us to a possible threat of injury. However, exactly when we feel pain depends on our perceived threshold and as such can be controlled like the temperature in a room by a thermostat. You have given a number of excellent examples in your comment testifying to this fact.
ReplyDeleteIn the context of my personal experience, I believe the threshold has been set too low, by years of inactivity. To realign to what I was able to do easily do in my toddler years I have got to turn up the thermostat of pain slowly. Pushing past the pain barrier too quickly could cause me injury simply because my unused muscles are fighting back. Therefore exerting control over the pain is of upmost importance.