20211217 - Inner Relaxation

Olympic finals, 100m sprint. For the sprinters, this is probably one of the most important moments of their career, perhaps even their lives. They have prepared for this moment for years, basically all their lives, and now they are finally here! And how do they face that? https://youtu.be/2O7K-8G2nwU?t=187 Look at Usain Bolt the last few minutes before the race . He looks laser-focused just like everyone else (as you would expect), but he's also playing around, putting on a show for the audience, smiling, winking, having fun. It reminds me about the importans of inner relaxation to be able to perform. For Usain's body to peform at peak level he needs to be relaxed. If he tense up, the body will stop working as a unit, his motions will be more controlled, less fluid and more restricted. This is true for everyone, and not only for physical performance, but also for cognitive, social, emotional and spiritual "performance". Perhaps you have noticed that when you are relaxed the "right think to say" just comes automatically. You don't really have to think about what to do, you just do it. Or when you have tried really hard to solve a problem for a long time and the answer comes after you've let it go while standing in the warm shower. This is inner relaxation working. It frees up the mind, heart and body to function as a unit far beyond what is possible for us to willingly control or force. You cannot create creativity, you can only open space for it to show up. When we tense up and go into the control mind we become less fluid, it becomes harder to flow with the moment, we block our natural flow of energy and there is more effort and less ease. Conversely, when we are relaxed we free up our mind and body to work for us, we gain more access to our inherent curiousity and joy, love flows easier, creativity and the possibility mindset is more present, and so on.