Growing Stronger (with the Force?)

In the midst of the last few months, all their kungfu and new exercises and suchforth, I wanted to take a moment to point out that getting physically stronger is a profoundly mind-altering experience.

You grab something, a heavy door, that you grab and pull all the time, and suddenly it’s easier to move.

…And you feel somehow that your powers of manipulating this plane of existence have increased.  Mentally it seems you’ve leveled-up as a wizard of the prime material; and you begin to see things around you as more under your power.

You walk fast, and realize that you can go faster on less energy than you could before; that your legs and hips and back and stomach all move more fluidly and with less effort, carrying you farther.

…It’s like you’ve grown lighter, your chains to the earth have loosened.  Your mind wants to follow along:  If the body can break free, can’t I?  You begin to think in wider circles.

You begin to get good at the exercises, and find yourself doing things that most other adults around you can’t, like 20 fast pushups.  Strangers who notice — the parents sitting out the kids’ class while you’re in it — begin to give you oddly pack-animal glares.

…Your lizard-brain registers that you’ve gained social capital, pushing you into a different category of human animals:  You’re now one of the Fit Ones, one of the ones who could be called on in an emergency, and one whom others will now unconsciously work to stay on the good side of, and avoid physical confrontation with.  Your behavior becomes more forward, more likely to go in front; but also more alert, knowing that you may have to step up here if no-one else can.

And you get curious, after accidentally finding out about your new talents a few times, about what else you can do.  You test boundaries, of your speed, endurance, balance, strength, concentration — whatever’s handy.

…Your mental comfort-zones become less comfortable, and you become more interested in what you can do with your mind and your emotions as well as your body.

As it becomes more and more apparent that there aren’t limits, really, just gains of different types and sizes, fear and anxiety dissolve.  The game of “how will I fail next?” has become a fun game instead, a game of “what cool thing can I do now?”   Even emotional fears and old phobias seem tantalizing (and you have to remind yourself periodically to slow down, at least for the sake of other people).

Your mind sees your body growing stronger, and follows along, and pretty soon you’re realizing that there are countless ways to grow stronger, and that you honestly, actually, really never have to quit.  Whenever you hit a new obstacle or ceiling, there will always be a way to grow through it or past it or around it.

…

I begin to see why the masters nearly worship Practice:  Because it’s the food of Growing Stronger.  As long as you have your Practice, you can’t really be stopped.

And “Practice” is a big word.  They’d literally have to kill you to stop you growing stronger somehow.