Playing a sport is one of the best ways to learn new things about yourself. The best part is that it's just play. Last nights badminton did not disappoint. I've been quite intrigued by this idea of being present more often during the day. It's quite hard because the mind, as awesome as it is, it's not a good resting place. I remembered something from a meditation session by Sam Harris from few months ago. It was the idea of being able to use your body as a residence by focusing your attention onto it. At the moment it felt like a cool thing to do but never really was able to put it into practice. Until a couple of weeks ago, when I decided to quit YouTube. Not that it should come as a surprise but turns out I was using the distraction to distract me from myself. When you take that distraction away I guess you are left with the things you have been avoiding. Mostly things in the future, past or sometimes just the frustrations that arise from the perception of not making any progress, despite efforts.
Back to what I realized during Badminton yesterday. Sport is a game of the mind and body. Yet it's something that the body can do all on it's own. Infact it might be better to let the body do it's thing. Especially with Badminton. It's a fast paced sport, where you are constantly making adjustments to your position and reading where the shot from you opponent is going to go, where the opponent is going, and which way is their weight shifted to and on and on. Safe to say, you are not making any real time calculations, you are simply perceiving all this and simply reacting. Each game your reactions are refined as you understand your opponent better. It's an awesome game. Where am I going with this? There is a tendency while playing to come with shots you are going to play ahead of time or thinking about how could have played the last shot better. Both things are either in the past or the present and entirely pointless. Just gets in the way of what needs doing. Yesterday I got a chance to remember the meditation and implement it. I was in my head exponentially fewer times. Anytime I did, I would head straight back into the body. It was fucking awesome.
As I go on with my day to day and in instances where I don't need my mind active, I'm practicing going back to the body. I'm failing most of the times, as the mind has been my default resting place. I've realized it hasn't always been so. This is a relatively new thing, something I picked up in my teenage years. At the same time it does not seem impossible to rest in the body. There is still a lot to explore. Yet I'm finding that the more I do it, the less I'm bothered about my perceived failures. Which is my goal really. To focus on doing the work and then going back home, letting go of all frustrations or expectations of timeline. Home is the body.
The great thing about all of this is that, you carry your body everywhere, that means at a moments notice you have space to reside in. To re-adjust and get straight back. There is a lot I could talk about this right now, but I think this too needs more cooking. It's something I will be revisiting. This is gold. The best part about all of this is that, the mind does feel rested, I've been able to focus better when I show up work. I don't know about you, but I'm finding all of this fucking fascinating.