I love the Olympics. As a somatic explorer, I am fascinated by the pursuit of embodied excellence, where humans challenge gravity to explore the myriad possible ways the human body can gracefully move through space. And the addition of danger adds a lot to the ‘wow’ness of the moment. The extraordinary discipline, precision and will power these athletes display raises the bar for all of us in our own personal pursuit of excellence in whatever our passions may be. And, at this level of embodied presence, the Yin/Yang relationship is so clearly obvious that the Olympics are a great teaching tool for us somanauts.
Winter Olympics: Ice, snow, cold, very yin. How to use yang heat to warm up, expand, burst out into space without losing a sense of where you are in relationship to Mother Earth. Gravity is the stage. The powerful attractive pull of Mother Earth, the Yin, is relentless. But so is the attraction of the Father Sky, up into the sun, into the light, into the unknown mystery awaiting us. How do we respond to both of these opposing forces in way that is integrated, creative, artistic, beautiful, elegant and delightful? When we feel yin/yang as two aspects of a single urge to grow, they nurture and support each other.
When the movement brain, the organizing intelligence of the nervous system that facilitates all movements through space is awake and engaged, there are endless possibilities. As yoga students, we often tend to be unaware of the movement brain and rely on thought and will power to control the body. We have to be able to feel what is already alive and moving inside us, nurturing this flow of sensation/perception and intelligence. B.K.S. Iyengar described this perfectly in his description of samyama in asana, where the organs of action, the yang/karmindryas, have to listen to the organs of perception, the yin/jnanindryas) as the intelligence (buddhi) merges with them to create a single conscious flow of aliveness. (Click on the samyama link and read/listen to this with a yin/yang framework.)
(If you read the rather dense yet simplified description of the movement brain by clicking the link above, amazingly enough, you will discover the brain operates, at its core, within the yin/yang model. Neurons can inhibit/turn off (yin) or activate (turn on) (yang) other neurons to send information through the system. From this binary core, incredible complexity can arise. This is samyama, or Yin/Yang at a cellular level).
Somethings to watch for with a Yin/Yang lens. Activate your mirror neuron system to really feel the energy flow.
Pre-movements: In the intense flow of a race or dynamic performance, subtle adjustments to change directions require pre-movements that come from the subtlety of the flow. We can call this effortless effort. When there is overcompensation, there is a break in the flow, and you lose precious time, or crash. Find the ever-present subtle flow in your own body, even as you are just sitting. In your personal practice, any time you transition in and/or out of a pose, let the effortless flow lead you.
Tail energy: Crucial in balance and landing from jumps and aerials, but in every action you will see. Watch/feel the relationship between the tail enegy (rooting/root chakra/grounding) and the feet, whether on skates, skis or snowboards. Feel it in your own body. Go beyond being a spectator.
In the jumps and aerials: Feel in your own body the Yield (yin) loading, followed by the and Push (Yang) take-off, various upper body/lower body actions, with right/left and head/tail rotations in the air, and then the landing yin yield with a yang fluid flow out. See how the relationship between upper and lower body creates powerful rotations, and how they can rotate around more than one axis at a time while in the air.
When on the ground: Feel the power from the yin lower dantien through the legs into the ground to generate movement. The skiiers, snowboarders and skaters all have strong roots and legs. Feel how the upper yang torso floats lightly, remaining in balance, steering the body with eyes and subtle adjustments of the flow through the feet.
Figure Skating: My wife Kate was a competitive figure skater in her youth, so she can tell the difference between a triple loop and a triple flip. I see the power in the jumps that comes from loading/yielding weight into the skate blade edges, followed by a burst up into a spiraling twist. Feel the effortless transition yin/yang transitions when they switch from moving backward to forward and vice versa. In the spins, feel the center axis ( yin thrusting vessel) and the use of arms and legs to create horizontal stability (yang girdle vessel.)
Skiing: Notice the use of edges and how that grounds the body at steep angles (hopefully). In the wide leg standing poses, the same edge action applies energetically. It is not about the separate parts of the feet, but how the energy flows through the whole body through the feet into the ground.
Luge: going tail first really awakens the root intelligence. Talk about a moving meditation! Very subtle inner adjustments help steer. amazing balance of stability and movement.
Speed Skating: Right/left, up/down, holding the edges on the curves; feel the power, speed and balance in action.
Intense practice (yang) needs to be balanced with rest and recovery (yin.) There are many injuries that accompany such intense practice in pushing the edge of possibility. Finding balance is challenging. The risk/reward ratio changes as we get older. Know where you are on the spectrum and use wisdom as it grows to keep you healthy and creative simultaneously.
A very small percentage of the athletes win a medal. Winning is a transient phenomena, exhilarating for sure. But is the in the act of practicing and participating, in ‘just doing it’ that the embodied learning, the emotional maturing and the life long skills emerge. In the long run, we learn far more from ‘falling down’ and making ‘mistakes’ than we do from our successes. Again, there is a balance. It feels great to ‘get it right’ to ‘nail it’, to accomplish a goal. But life is a continuous flow, and the flow is life. We grow by developing emotional and psychological resilience, not winning or losing, so as we flow through life, life flows through us.
Many of the athletes have described how they were inspired by watching others when they were very young, and deciding to go for it themselves. We all should be so inspired!