Helene has a wonderful new obsession: Gincy!
Gincy Self Bucklin gave the keynote speech at the Centered Riding International Symposium last November in Vermont and while she impressed me greatly, I did not re-connect with her teachings until Helene began to speak of virtually nothing else during the several hours we spend in the car each week driving to our riding lessons. I knew I had to learn to speak “Gincy” fast, so I devoured all the essays on her website and quickly became a fan.
A portion of one essay really captured my attention (it is actually a quote from one of her students) as it beautifully describes the process of applying Alexander Technique thinking with the resultant hallmark effect – a sensation of lightness or buoyancy. It also provides insight as to what experiences from aikido training might be useful if (when) the moment comes that I find myself on a shying or bolting horse. The buoyant quality that allows sticking with a shying horse sounds a lot like the quality of connection needed to protect myself while taking ukemi (falling from a throw) in aikido. The essay is about overcoming fear and the student is talking about how the fear generated from a horse-riding “incident” spilled over into her next plane flight. How she directed her thinking to transform the experience is very interesting:
“. . . I occupied myself with trying to learn more about the fear, what it does that a horse could feel and how to release it. . . .What worked the best was a physical ‘lightness’ that had to do with surrendering control: a buoyant quality a bit like sticking with a shying horse. . . . recognizing that there's nothing I can do and forcing me to trust the pilot. This made my monkey (emotional) brain release so that the reptile (reflex) part actually came to terms with the natural alarms that were going off. I seemed to find a rightness in what was happening so there came to be a shred of fun, something like a curiosity for learning. . . . I thought I'd discovered something about what fearless people do on a bucking horse or one that is bolting zigzag through the woods . . . trusting the horse . . . turns on the ability to be in the zone where Michael Jordan can fly or I can rock-hop down a creek without looking. If you allow that buoyancy . . . suddenly the body has a celebratory response to challenge, kind of a natural high.”
Buoyancy can also describe personal qualities such as irrepressibility (being “unsinkable”), perkiness (cheerfulness that bubbles to the surface), liveliness and good spirit. Can these states of mind be encouraged by the release of tension in the physical body and, conversely, does the sensation of buoyancy foster a lighter emotional tone?
Seen above in a photo which expresses both grounding and a clear sense of her center, combined with liveliness and lightness of spirit – joie de vivre as Helene might say -- is my daughter, Maya, at age four, enjoying life to the fullest.
Gincy Self Bucklin gave the keynote speech at the Centered Riding International Symposium last November in Vermont and while she impressed me greatly, I did not re-connect with her teachings until Helene began to speak of virtually nothing else during the several hours we spend in the car each week driving to our riding lessons. I knew I had to learn to speak “Gincy” fast, so I devoured all the essays on her website and quickly became a fan.
A portion of one essay really captured my attention (it is actually a quote from one of her students) as it beautifully describes the process of applying Alexander Technique thinking with the resultant hallmark effect – a sensation of lightness or buoyancy. It also provides insight as to what experiences from aikido training might be useful if (when) the moment comes that I find myself on a shying or bolting horse. The buoyant quality that allows sticking with a shying horse sounds a lot like the quality of connection needed to protect myself while taking ukemi (falling from a throw) in aikido. The essay is about overcoming fear and the student is talking about how the fear generated from a horse-riding “incident” spilled over into her next plane flight. How she directed her thinking to transform the experience is very interesting:
“. . . I occupied myself with trying to learn more about the fear, what it does that a horse could feel and how to release it. . . .What worked the best was a physical ‘lightness’ that had to do with surrendering control: a buoyant quality a bit like sticking with a shying horse. . . . recognizing that there's nothing I can do and forcing me to trust the pilot. This made my monkey (emotional) brain release so that the reptile (reflex) part actually came to terms with the natural alarms that were going off. I seemed to find a rightness in what was happening so there came to be a shred of fun, something like a curiosity for learning. . . . I thought I'd discovered something about what fearless people do on a bucking horse or one that is bolting zigzag through the woods . . . trusting the horse . . . turns on the ability to be in the zone where Michael Jordan can fly or I can rock-hop down a creek without looking. If you allow that buoyancy . . . suddenly the body has a celebratory response to challenge, kind of a natural high.”
Buoyancy can also describe personal qualities such as irrepressibility (being “unsinkable”), perkiness (cheerfulness that bubbles to the surface), liveliness and good spirit. Can these states of mind be encouraged by the release of tension in the physical body and, conversely, does the sensation of buoyancy foster a lighter emotional tone?
Seen above in a photo which expresses both grounding and a clear sense of her center, combined with liveliness and lightness of spirit – joie de vivre as Helene might say -- is my daughter, Maya, at age four, enjoying life to the fullest.
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