Break Fall

        Break falls can be intimidating, and even from a short distance from the ground, they can cause issues if you don't commit to the technique.  It's easy to want to stiffen up and prepare for the impact, which can lead to injuries of the shoulders and neck, or wrists when falling forward; or injuries to the head  and back if falling backwards.  Best thing to do is to stay as relaxed as possible until you apply the technique just before impact.

        Now if you think this post was going to just be about the actual, physical break fall, then brace yourself, because I'm just using this as a metaphor.  Now maybe I just rattled my head a bit last Wednesday when we were practicing these movements, but break falls made me think of how we tend to tense up and want to brace for impact in our lives.  Oddly enough, we tend to tense up and brace for an impact that's never coming.  Stress and anxiety are forms of how we do this.  We're very good at coming up with scenarios in our head that make us think we are danger, when there is no danger around; or worse, we make the danger for ourselves.  In my experience, the worst kind of danger I put myself in, is having my brain fabricate for me what others think of me.  It has by far, been the most damaging to me and my relationships.  So why do I do it?  Second to this, is when I suffered major panic attacks, the kind where I thought I was dying.  Best I could do then, was curl into a ball and sleep it off.

        Where is this all leading?  For me it leads back to mindfulness.  It leads back to meditation.  It leads to clearing the mind of all the noise that can often times overwhelm us and can lead to negative thoughts that impact our goals.  Thinking about the break fall, a certain amount of surrender is needed to execute the technique properly, because you need to trust in the technique as you let yourself fall whatever which way.  I find that this is true in life.  A certain amount of surrender is needed, a trust if you will, that all the effort that we put in day in and day out pays off.