BE IN THE MOMENT.

Try to remember the FIRST time that you did something that you enjoy.  Going to the movies, your favorite birthday, seeing Mickey Mouse at Disney, whatever.  Close your eyes and go back there...

It's probably a very vivid memory.  You can remember the color of the light, the smells, the sounds, everything.

Now try to remember waking up this morning.  Chances are you draw a blank.

We tend to take a lot of the information around us for granted and fill in the blanks.

undrstnd?

Filled in the missing vowels without skipping a beat.  This can be useful for moving quickly through tasks and the tedium of the day, since we take what we learn to streamline our everyday experiences.  Because it would be difficult to deal with every experience as a new experience every time.

But on the flip side, every experience is slightly new every time.  Every morning is different.  Every time you meet a friend, they're slightly different.  If we gloss over the total experience by not using all of our senses, we handicap ourselves.

When it rains, feel the raindrops.

Now you don't need to go frolicking around in a thunderstorm to do this.  Just be mindful of your experiences.  In martial terms this would be considered "heightened awareness".  Feel your body, your breath, heartbeat, balance, air temperature, perspiration.  The weight of your limbs, the space around you, the terrain.

Now feel the opponent.  Their breath, smell, stance, vibration, proximity, intensity.  It is necessary for one to take in all this information to maximize combat efficiency. It's akin to a lawyer collecting all available evidence from as many witnesses and sources before presenting a case.  There is so much information about a situation available to our senses that we overlook. Outside of conflict, an averted eye, a pause in speech, a shift in seat, raised elbows.  All these things are non-verbal cues that build one's "case" in daily interaction.  

Once you process the physical elements of the moment, go deeper.  How do you feel? (see previous post) Are you anxious, excited? Sad? Angry? Jealous? Happy? All these states of mind guide your actions, accept them so you can (later) evaluate their effect on your performance.  So in short, if you're happy, be happy.

Once you have all this info, you can make an informed decision on course of action.

“The great mistake is to anticipate the outcome of the engagement; you ought not to be thinking of whether it ends in victory or in defeat. Let nature take its course, and your tools will strike at the right moment..”

                                                                                                              - Bruce Lee

Do not try to predict the actions of your opponent, you'll probably be wrong.  Rather, use all the information at your disposal to act and react with minimal delay.  A weight shift, sharp inhale, eyelash flutter, all these "tells" give you moment-by-moment information on your opponents intentions.  So when you can read intentions (thanks Yusuf) it will bestow upon you a seeming precognitive ability.

So in conclusion, each moment in time is a discreet unit of information.  Utilize these to their fullest.  You will find the world around you to be saturated with experiences available only to the mindful.  Hopefully all situations, both confrontational and cordial, will leave you all the richer.

-Lonewolf