A Short Instruction:
The purpose of this article is to practice and validate the Ki principle (Mind moves body) which is the foundation of Ki-Aikido in our daily life. Therefore, it has no meaning if you just read it without practicing it.
The fundamental method of mastering anything is practice. However, not just practice, but it is also important to validate how one has changed as a result of the practice.
It is easy to lose what you have learned without practice. On the other hand, you will never lose what you have learned through practice and validation. Therefore, please read, practice, and validate the contents of my article for at least one month.
Changing the Subconscious Mind
To keep the subconscious mind plus is one of the most important training methods in Ki-Aikido.
For example, a strong opponent holds your wrists with all his force, and you think,
“I might not be able to move because such a strong person holds my wrists!”
If such an idea goes through your mind, you will actually not be able to move. I can see the same reaction when I instruct professional athletes.
“It is possible that I might fail!”
If such an idea goes through their mind, they will actually fail.
The issue is the difficulty of controlling this kind of idea by ourselves. More important the point here is that such an idea goes through our mind in the first place. Therefore, in order to control this, what we have to do is to “change our subconscious mind”.
When I just started training as an Uchideshi, I often had a particular dream of Ki-Aikido training while sleeping. In this dream a powerful opponent held a part of my body and I was not able to move at all. You can understand what this might be like to have such a dream as an instructor. It was a nightmare.
One time, I consulted with Koichi Tohei Sensei and he replied simply,
“You have such a dream because your subconscious mind is minus”
The conscious mind is the content of mind that we are usually aware of, and the subconscious mind is the content of mind that we are usually unaware of. The subconscious mind is like a storehouse of mind and the materials stored in the subconscious mind form the conscious mind. If the subconscious mind is plus, naturally the conscious mind is also plus, but if the subconscious mind is minus, then naturally the conscious mind is also minus. If your subconscious mind is minus, it will not be possible to make only your conscious mind plus.
The reason why it is often difficult to put “plus thinking” (so-called positive thinking) into practice, is because people tend to attempt to make only the conscious mind plus, while ignoring the subconscious mind.
The subconscious mind functions primarily while we are sleeping. Therefore, dreams we have while sleeping are related to the subconscious mind. My subconscious mind was minus at the time that I had that nightmare.
Therefore I started training to change my subconscious mind.
One method of changing the subconscious mind is to continue practicing one Ki-Aikido technique until we become finally able to do.
Sometimes a person will end the Ki-Aikido training for the day, even though he has one technique that he still cannot do. This leads to the idea that “I cannot do this particular technique” regrettably entering into his subconscious mind. No matter how hard it is, it is absolutely important to continue training until being able to perform the technique, even if it is unspectacular work. It is necessary to finish with a plus (positive) image in the mind.
Another training method is to change the words that we use in our daily life.
At that time I used to say, “no I cannot”, even though I did not know whether I was able to do something or not. There may be things we are not actually able to do, however, it is a bad habit to say, “no, I cannot” before we start to do something. If we use words like this in our daily life, naturally the idea that “I cannot” goes through our mind during Ki-Aikido training. So I stopped saying the phrase, “I cannot”, and I gained a new habit to maintain the idea that I will always be able to do the thing.
By continuing the above two training methods, I have not had the nightmare since then. Still now, I sometimes have a dream of Ki-Aikido training, but it is not a minus dream such as “I cannot do the particular technique”. It is a plus dream, such as, “I can do this technique”. Also in actual Ki-Aikido training, I have become able to do any Ki-Aikido techniques since then.
There are people who are unimaginably strong in this world. I do not know whether I can do a Ki-Aikido technique on such a person. But it is important for us to be able to think “I can do this” even facing such a person. It is necessary to change the subconscious mind in order to become able to think “I can do this” anywhere at any time.
This is important not only for our Ki-Aikido training, but also for business persons, athletes, and artists. As for the specific training of keeping subconscious mind plus, it is explained in detail in my book “Kokoro wo Shizumeru (Calm your mind)”, so please make the best use of it.
The following is the practice and validation for this month.
[Point of practice]
・ Choose one of the training methods for keeping subconscious mind plus, then continue for one month. (Make use of “Kokoro wo Shizumeru (Calm your mind)”)
[Point of validation]
・Observe how your idea, thoughts and point of view changes.