Center. Breathe. Let it be easy.
Center. Breathe. Let it be easier.
Re-center. Breathe. Notice the Quality of Ease that comes with every breath.
To live a centered life is to bring consciousness and ease to everything you do.
This is the state of being from which Ben and I have attempted to teach ourselves golf. To this point, I consider our experiment to be wildly successful. The improvement that I have seen in both of us is nothing short of amazing. Now at this point, I truly believe that anything can be learned in this manner.
When centered, using a heightened sense of flow, it’s possible to feel the truth of a movement, which lets us learn through observation as well as practice. This is possible because within our nervous system we have something called a mirror neuron. This neuron not only fires when we are doing an action, it also fires when observing someone doing that action. When I watch golf on television, it’s literally like I’m taking a golf lesson with whichever player I happen to be following that day. So as I sat on my couch on Sunday afternoon, centered, watching Billy Hurley III chip in on the 15th hole to secure his first PGA win, my body was literally learning to hit that shot. I bet that I rewound and watched that shot a dozen times. From his address to his leap of joy when he knew it was going to drop, I centered, watched, and learned.
Ben and I observed this ‘mirroring effect’ first hand a couple of weeks ago. We were at Flatirons on the chipping green when a man and a woman walked up on the other side. He wasn’t a pro there, but he was obviously giving her a lesson on chipping. They were in the rough, hitting over the cart path. The ball had to carry about 10 yards before hitting the green, then had to check up within another 10 yards before it rolled off the backside. As he talked and demonstrated the technique, we watched him hit ball after ball, successfully holding the green more than 90% of the time. It was quite an impressive demonstration. As we watched, his student was slowly able to replicate his motions and steadily improved throughout the lesson.
During this demonstration, Ben and I watched as intently as possible without disturbing the flow of the lesson. We talked about his body motions and how he manipulated his club to create enough back spin to hold the green. We both were actively centering and taking in as much information as we could. As soon as they finished the lesson and departed, Ben and I went to try to replicate what we just saw. I can’t say that we performed with the same success rate, but we both hit some really nice shots. More importantly though, we could feel the reasons for our successes and failures. Being able to feel why a shot is successful or not means that we were building neural as well as muscle memory with each shot. Over time, we will be able to hone the skills necessary to be as accurate as our unknown teacher.
Now, anyone can actually learn by paying attention and mirroring a more proficient player. But to do it while centering, brings it to a whole new level. When centered, you're bringing all of your collective resources to bear on the task at hand.
This week, take the time to consciously watch others. Look for the flow or truth in what they are doing or saying. Put aside your thoughts or opinions for the time being, just focus on their state of flow around their actions.
Center. Breathe. Let it be easy.
Center. Breathe. Let it be easier.
Re-center. Breathe. Notice the Quality of Ease that comes with every breath.