I don’t care about marvellous sights! I only want to be in your presence.
Rumi
If a woodchuck
Could chuck
Wood,
How much wood
Would a woodchuck
Chuck,
If a woodchuck
Could chuck
Wood?
Children’s Rhyme
When you notice your mind wandering, just bring yourself back to some physical sensation.
Hear the farthest away sound that you can hear….. (pause); now hear the closest sound that you can hear.
Let go of any thoughts you might be having……
Shirzad Chamine, PQ Gym Exercise `Moving´
A woodpecker can tap twenty times on a thousand trees and get nowhere but stay busy. Or he can tap twenty-thousand times on one tree and get dinner.
Seth
As January stretches out, my inner seismograph feels the first faint vibrations of spring. As you may know, I enjoy regular runs along the sylvan bank of the Rhein, which flows two fields distance from my beautiful home, halfway between Bonn and Cologne.
On today’s run, my thoughts drifted to Ireland, and the upcoming feast of St. Brigid on February 1st . St. Brigid is the matriarchal figure of pagan times in Irish folklore, the `mother saint´ gladly later embraced and claimed by the Christian religion. St. Brigid’s Day is the first day of Spring in the Celtic calendar and will be celebrated this year as a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland for the very first time.
The following day, known stateside (and especially in Hollywood) as `Groundhog Day´ we call Candlemas this side of the Atlantic. Also referred to as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ, it is a Christian holiday commemorating the presentation of Jesus in the Temple.
Records exist from as early as the fourth century, describing the festivities in Jerusalem; describing how many Christians bring their candles to their local church, where they are blessed and then used for the rest of the year. For these Christians, the blessed candles serve as a symbol of Jesus Christ, the Light of the World.
The symbolism is stark. Exactly forty days after Christmas, as we emerge from the depths of the northern hemisphere winter, a celebration of the victory of light over darkness.
My memories from my Irish childhood are of a burst of colour at this time of year, in the form of snowdrops, crocuses, winter aconites, daffodils, hyacinths, tulips, and lots more. Not so, here in the continental climate of Germany. We must wait four to six weeks longer for the carpet of vibrant colours to emerge. Indeed, we have here the original farmers’ lore which forms the basis of the Groundhog Day tradition in the United States.
It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog (in our case a badger) emerges from its burrow on this day and sees its own shadow, due to sunny weather, it will retreat to its den, and winter will continue for six more weeks; if it does not see its shadow, i.e., if this day is cloudy, spring will arrive early.
What did strike me this morning was the cacophony of the woodpeckers. This is the natural phenomenon I associate with the stretching of the days at this time of year. Almost as if every note of the xylophone had been incorporated in the poplars, willows, plane trees, and grand oaks that line the riverbank, the music of their incessant endeavours was delightful. My heart warmed as I listened, and my mind calmed.
This was assisted by the PQ Exercise in which I was engaged while running. Just as is the case in a regular fitness studio or gym, the mental fitness gym (PQ-App) on my Android device contains a selection of different `training machines´, body-based exercises designed to get us to disengage from our endless stream of thinking in order to rest in the present moment, one moment at a time.
The `Moving Exercise´ in question is a twelve-minute guided meditation in which our different senses (vision, haptic, listening, etc.) are engaged sequentially, and when we notice that our mind has wandered off once again, as it surely will, we return to the momentary sensation. The woodpeckers took up my full awareness during the listening section, and, after the exercise was over, I took a break from the running and simply listened, enjoying the sense of gratitude and serenity.
Why such exercises? The general idea is that, unchecked, our wandering mind becomes our master, and we, its slave; falling prey to the many erroneous beliefs which formed early in life. These might include things like: `I am not good enough, not worthy of love, will not make it, need to be hyper-vigilant all the time, am either in control or out of control,´ and the like.
In PQ we refer to the Saboteurs that developed over time. The main culprit we all have is the Judge, who is supported by Accomplice Saboteurs such as, in my case, the Controller, the Hyper-Rational, and the Stickler. The full cast of ten includes others such as the Pleaser, Victim, Avoider, the Hyper-Achiever, Hyper-Vigilant, and the Restless. Each person has the unique constellation of Saboteurs which reflect our personal predisposition and how we responded to the nurturing we received, or did not receive, in our childhood.
While the Saboteurs reside in the left-brain hemisphere, the so-called Sage Powers (Empathise, Explore, Innovate, Navigate, and Activate) reside in the right hemisphere. Switching hemispheres is a skill which is generally underdeveloped – it may even be chronically impeded – and can be cultivated by engaging a mental muscle we could call the `Self-Command´ muscle.
Ergo these PQ Exercises. It is precisely the Self-Command muscle that is trained when we practice embodiment (using all our senses) and reel in the mind each time it has wandered off.
The `Saboteur Interceptor´ and `Sage Enhancer´ are the other two muscles that require training. PQ is exceptionally effective thanks to its simplicity (only three muscles to be trained) and the emphasis on practice.
The PQ-App, an integral part of the coaching package, provides video tutorials on a weekly basis and five short (2- to 3-minute) exercises, spread out throughout the day, as well as the mental fitness studio from which we can select the exercises we like best, their frequency and duration.
Years of experience have shown me that the beneficial effects of most training and coaching fizzle out after a matter of weeks. This is because they deliver insights only. Every transformation comprises 20% insights and 80% practice, however. PQ, with its focus on both insights and guided practice, delivers exceptionally good, sustained results.
Like the woodpecker in the quote above, coaching participants who tap twenty times on a thousand trees may get nowhere but stay busy. Those of us who tap twenty-thousand times on one tree, get dinner. The PQ Programme supports us in staying the course until the benefits of our efforts can be truly experienced. We then find ourselves on the path of cultivating Mental Fitness for life and reap the benefits of improved personal and professional outcomes.
