I’m not long back from Dublin where I trained with my mentor Paul Linden Sensei. Hosted by Fiona Kelty and Chierchini Sensei of the Aikido Organisation of Ireland.
I’ve previously blogged about Paul’s work and there’s a video clip here. He works through teh body in a wide variety of contexts including with children with special needs, computer posture, peacemaking and abuse recovery. The martial art of aikido is his “laboratory” and he has a unique “feeling” approach that emphasis body awareness and sensitivity. On the course we covered many of this key ideas including how intention shapes us, how love is an embodied state that makes us more powerful, the role of posture, blending and how relaxation affects our ability to respond effectively to conflict. As ever Paul taught with rigorous logic and playful humour letting people discover and test the principals for themselves.
Highlights for me included his games such as “Samurai Pattycake” and the use of colours and other concepts to quickly access an associated set of somatics states. One very simple statement came up for me based on what he said the first day, “You can’t feel and be tense/do at the same time.” What he calls “alive relaxation” seems to be the foundation of Paul’s work and from this other skills such as “feeling into” ones partner and “tasting” the holes in space that lop-sided intention creates, become possibilities. I was also playing with the observation that the more you want something the more resistance you create from your partner, and how to hold desire lightly.
While this was an aikido course there is much that translates into daily life and the embodied training that I do. I hope to bring him to the UK in Spring. Thanks to Paul and our generous hosts.
………………..
So What: Be aware of the role of body awreness in health, relationships, conflict and who you are
Aikido So What: Feel, reach out, relax, love – it makes you more powerful.
