Parkour holds clues on how to develop your mental attitude to reach great heights.
It's long been known that physical training helps tremendously with our mental development. Regular exercise has the ability to dramatically increase things such as self-esteem, self-confidence and even our personal integrity. Many people have also reported an increased ability to be creative and more flexible in their thinking as a direct result of regular physical exercise. But Parkour, a sport aimed at developing the fullest potential of human movement and skill, takes these things to a whole new level. By combining a discipline like Parkour with studies in mental and spiritual personal development, the effects can be incredible for pronounced human awakening.
I'd like to talk about something in particular in Parkour and Free Running which I have experienced, but let's quickly talking about normal old jogging first. Regular jogging, or riding a bicycle each day, or whatever exercise you choose, can increase our self worth. The reason for this is because we come to what Stephen Covey describes as a personal victory. Having had the discipline to take care of our bodies and push ourselves to do something about it on a regular basis gives us a sense of achievement. A sense of achievement we will not experience if we continually procrastinate about taking care of ourselves. In fact if we continually procrastinate about anything it has the effect of sending our self-esteem and self-confidence into the pits. We need that sense of personal victory. With it we feel as though we can have a go at other areas of life more freely.
I also mentioned that regular physical can increase our capacity for creativity. The reason for this is that as we become accustomed to the act of exercise and no longer need to think about it our mind is able to wonder freely. Many artists, scientists, and indeed anyone who needs to solve problems has reported having a-ha moments during exercise. The rhythm of the body in motion drawing us into a trance like state where creative ideas are allowed to germinate and grow without hindrance from everyday trivial concerns. The journey home from such an experience can be a very exciting time.
Parkour, though, seeks to take these aspects of physical exercise a lot further. Through regular training of the body to move skillfully through any physical environment, natural or urban, Parkour can provide it's practitioners with an enormous sense of achievement and helps people to overcome seemingly enormous obstacles. Real or imagined, physical, mental or spiritual.
Sometimes in life there are obstacles which appear to be insurmountable. Imagine for a moment the fear you would face if you had to jump from the rooftop of a 30 story building onto the rooftop of another building the same height right next to it. However, as you will see, if you have functioning legs, you are already well equipped to do it and have probably done something like it many times in your life before.
Let's take it back down to ground level. If you took a good run up on the ground and really concentrated on what you were doing, the average person could easily jump a couple of meters. Not a problem. But take that same horizontal distance jump and put it thirty floors up on the roof of a city and most people would not even to be able to contemplate the task. The level of fear would be so great they could barely bring themselves to even stand at the edge. Even though they know they are perfectly able to stand upright. It's an irrational fear that paralyzes us. And this same fear can stop us from achieving in all sorts of areas in life. Any sort of goal can seem unattainable when we allow ourselves to think about the how far we might fall if we dare to try.
But overcoming this fear is really quite simple. Practice at ground level first. Do those things which you need to consistently do in order to feel confident you can make the leap. Prepare by measuring out the goal, and then break it down into progressively greater and greater practice jumps until you know you can make the distance. Whatever the goal, the same principle applies. I urge you to have a look at the video link at the bottom of this article. Have a look at the incredible leaps and bounds the people in it are making. Watch them carefully. Each leap has been broken down into a series of skills they needed to learn in order to take the successful leap. Each part practiced over and over again until they felt confident enough to try it at great height. The real trick happens in their minds.
We can achieve anything we set our minds to if we are willing to do what it takes to learn the skills and develop ourselves toward that goal. I believe in you. I know you have within you the power to reach your goals. If you consistently do what needs to be done to develop the skill, whatever the skill, you can do it.
Go for it. I'm Cheering for you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jquXcwooV6A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPvH8iK4ysk
