Recently, I answered a question on building internal energy for athletics for one of my readers. The reader asks:
What are the most POWERFUL or what exercises generate the most chi or vital energy that I can use to improve weight lifting and sports performance?
This person is already a consummate athlete who uses traditional as well as energy psychology and QiGong Meditation to maximize his performance. Although this site is about improvement of the mind, we need a healthy body to support that mind, therefore, I’m an advocate of athletics.
When we exercise the body, we build up the energy in the limbs, especially in martial arts where the exercises are geared towards Qi flow in the energy meridians. When we meditate, as in QiGong, we manipulate and focus that excess energy from the extremities to key points of energy storage in the body such as the DanTian, Governing, and Conception Vessels.
These areas of the body serve as psychically activated “capacitors” that allow us to focus our martial arts skills with greater precision and to deliver Qi or bioenergy to any predetermined location.
For example, the more internal or bioenergy we have from our athletic activities, the easier it is for us to have extreme clarity in our dreams and visions. Athletes are particularly able to visualize any event throughout the space / time continuum because they are able to focus that energy from their powerful extremities to the necessary areas of their visual neocortex or the upper DanTian. For this reason, athletes can visualize themselves winning an event given all the necessary parameters of the competition.
By the same token, a weaker person living a relatively sedentary life probably doesn’t recall his dreams very well because they lack clarity or they’re so discursive in nature (not focused). This is because weak, sedentary people are not used to calling upon their Qi in sleeping or waking states, whereas, calling upon the Qi comes naturally to an athlete.
For those of you who are living a sedentary lifestyle, this means that none of the tools that I provide for you at this site will ever work for you: You don’t have enough internal energy to be motivated to visualize your success. This is why I also have BioenergeticSpectrum.com to help heal those who are sick and weakly from chronic ailments, so they can join the ranks of the healthy and go forward with further psychic improvement at HealingMindN.com. You understand now why I have both these sites? Good.
Here is my response to that gifted athlete on increasing internal energy, rather focussing:
I believe you are building up your Chi enough during your waking hours already. What is equally important is focussing your Chi to the task at hand like a laser.
Here’s an example of how pro athletes focus their Chi through intense sensory visualization from my post, Heart Knowledge leads to Success:
“Misty Hyman, the gold medalist in the 100-meter breaststroke at Sidney (October 2000), practiced for the event by lying in bed with a stop watch and swimming the race in her mind stroke for stroke until she got her time down to where she wanted it. The next day she repeated her performance in water – exactly…”
Located at Heart Knowledge leads to Success
This is how we should take proper advantage of our resting/dreaming intervals. Thomas Nardi, author of The Mind in the Martial Arts: A key to winning, directs us to preprogram ourselves during that trance state between sleeping and waking intervals. We program ourselves with affirmations like, “I enjoy my weight training because I’m getting stronger,” but more precise like, “I enjoy full squats because I can do more reps at each set.”
A number of NLP practitioners agree that affirmational questions are even more effective than affirmations themselves, so in that trance state between sleeping and waking, evening and morning, you might repeat to yourself in the form of a question, “How can I enjoy doing more full squat reps at each set?”
In Harvard Medical School and Current Biology studies, people who practiced and focused on a problem, then napped were more capable of solving the problem upon waking. This is because people who got proper rest achieved theta rhythms wherein they were able to visualize how to solve a problem according to their own mind patterns.
http://www.mindpowernews.com/BrilliantDreams.htm
http://www.physorg.com/news191165716.htmlThis is most likely what Misty Hyman and other pro athletes, scientists, musicians and other professions requiring innovative mind patterns are doing. They all go into a trance while focussing on the task at hand, thus allowing a kind “remote viewing” experience to take place during theta rhythms.
Why not take advantage of that so called “dormant” 1/3 of our lives? Whereas most people don’t remember what their own minds are telling them, You can direct your energies through the power of your dreams into your waking life…
In a way, pro athletes are very different humans as opposed to sedentary people since they have always used intense sensory visualization to achieve greater realities for themselves. In fact, most people become successful when they are mentally AND physically in their prime.
No, this doesn’t mean that when we pass our prime, we pass our chances for success. What it means is we focus on problems mentally AND physically no matter where we are in life in order to achieve success.
To reiterate on this concept of using our dreams, I will copy over from a post at Way of the MindGate Newsletter:
As humans, we subconsciously solve problems and see the solutions in our dreams. We see the solutions in the form of symbols during altered states of consciousness as opposed to our animal counterparts because our problems are more complex.
Milton Erickson would ask his patients about their dreams because he knew they contained the solutions to their problems. He also knew that people needed help interpreting their dreams. Then he would reutilize their dream symbols when he hypnotized them because they were already anchored within their subconscious.
12 Famous Dreams of Creativity and Inventions and How Dreams Work contains famous, inspirational, and prophetic examples of how we solve problems in our dreams. Here’s an excerpt from a study:
..in a study at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Diedre Barrett had her students focus on a problem before going to sleep and found that it was certainly possible to come up with novel solutions in dreams that are both personally satisfying and reasonable to an outside observer. In her studies, two-thirds of participants had dreams that addressed their chosen problem, while one-third actually came up with solutions in their dreams…
The following article verifys further research of our problem solving abilities, demonstrated in a study within: To learn better, take a nap (and don’t forget to dream):
Researchers reporting online on April 22nd in Current Biology offer more evidence that successful study habits should include plenty of napping. They found that people who take a nap and dream about a task they’ve just learned perform it better upon waking than either those who don’t sleep at all or those who sleep but don’t report any associated dreams…
One third of our lives is invested in sleep wherein 10 – 30% of that time is devoted to dreaming – or problem solving depending on your perspective. Obviously, one of the reasons we dream is to solve our earthly problems.
Methodologies
If I recall correctly, I believe the Rex / Sikes NLP Home Study Course (an ebook gift for Way of the MindGate Subscribers) has an exercise wherein, instead of affirmations, we consume ourselves with a problem while asking ourselves specific problem solving questions right before sleeping like “How do I improve the response rate from my emails?” Therein, we wake up with the answer.
The Mind in the Martial Arts: A key to winning
The Current Biology study suggests a nap right after a long, focused study session on a problem. In turn, this suggests simply reaching a theta rhythm state wherein our visions occur, which is 10 to 30% of our total sleep patterns. The basis of Theta Meditation is to have problem solving visions.
OceanScape GhostShip, Altered States is a vivid theta brainwave entrainment experience with gamma bursts for intense sensory visualisation. The main reason I created it is to help us solve problems. Within theta rhythms, the visualisations / solutions come to us in flashes.
What? Did you believe OceanScape GhostShip, Altered States‘ only purpose is to help us contact the spirit world? The reason we contact the spirit world is to solve problems! What other reason is there?
The common threads between all these methods are to study hard before dreaming and make detailed notes, thereafter. We need expert level type focussing – no distractions allowed. After the dream or vision, make notes of the dream symbols as soon as possible while they are fresh in our minds. Therein, we experiment with the dream symbols as they relate to solving the problem / creating the solution.
People throughout history/herstory are considered great because of their innovative solutions and creations. Certain people are considered great minds because they focused on a problem and trusted in their dreams to provide a solution. You can too…
I hope this post helps you in solving your waking problems. Sweet Dreams.
Healing Thoughts,
Randolph Fabian Directo