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A Lighter, Leaner Pack

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helping you go further on an adventure, in everyday life and in martial arts.

Anyone who has had to carry a pack over any distance will know the value of making that pack as light and lean as possible.  Imagine this scenario:

You park up at the car park and check off the kit list: basha, bag, roll mat, hammock, stove… all done.  As you are closing it you see a spare set of trainers.  Better throw them in just in case, my feet might get wet or hot you think.  You also throw in a trusty top, an extra wooly jumper just in case it turns chilly; an extra pair of wooly socks, a couple of extra snack bars (not mars bars of course) and a light rain jacket for those occasional downpours.

Okay pack ready and I am now set for any eventuality you think.

You put the pack on and almost buckle under the weight.  You brace yourself and set off on the trail with the pack digging into your shoulders.  Its okay you say to yourself, I will get used to it.

The Fork in the Trail
However, ten miles in and the pack is really starting to weigh you down.  The straps are digging in, your back is covered in sweat, your feet have ‘hot spots’ and all that extra stuff that you put in is taking its toll.  And what’s worse?  You haven’t used any of it.  You come to a fork in the path.  You have heard about a glorious spot about 8 miles further up the trail to the left.  People have waxed lyrical about how stunning it is and how good they felt when returning from the spot. It is a small secluded glade by a pool at the bottom of a waterfall that almost no one goes to.  It is quite a steep path with some loose rock and all uphill.  Any other time you would do it but after walking so long with such a heavy pack you are thinking of taking the more traveled route down to the riverbank.  Not as spectacular, quiet or secluded but still nice and rewarding.

Then you catch yourself in mid thought.  When am I next going to be taking this trail?  The last time was over a year ago. No, I am going to do it.  You make the commitment and suddenly feel a surge of adrenalin and energy.  You move into the bushes and take out everything except what you will need for the trip.  Out come the spare shoes, rain jacket, wooly jumper, socks, extra snack bars and you hide them under a bush. You put the pack on and it feels so much lighter, almost half the weight.  Buoyed by your decision and commitment you step onto the trail again with a fire in the belly and a spirit of adventure.  The warriors spirit of knowing how fleeting and precious every experience and moment is.  This day will never come again and you have the knowledge that you are seizing life by the horns.

The principle of sufficiency
I know that this resonates with many of my experiences.  In the Army we would go to huge lengths to lessen the weight of the pack.  Cutting the bottom half off toothbrushes, cutting a roll mat in half, squeezing half the toothpaste out so that you only had what you needed.  Cutting towels in half, trimming the edges of the map.  It sounds crazy I know, but all of these things added up to a significant lessening of weight.  We were ruthless with it.  Take care of the ounces and the pounds will look after themselves was the maxim.  It was also mentally important to know that you were as lean as you could be.  When you know you have extra clutter it is not just the physical weight, but mentally every step reinforced in your mind that you were carrying more than you should be.

Lightening your pack in life.
The worries of everyday life can be seen in the same light.  Worrying about meeting the costs of our ever increasing outgoings for things that we know that we don’t really need.  Meeting the demands of commitments to friends, family or co-workers that we couldn’t say no to even though you know that you should have.  Wading through a life cluttered with stuff that we haven’t used in years. Items from old hobbies, an office and drawers overflowing with manuals for things we don’t even own anymore.  Go through them and ruthlessly de-clutter.  It will feel great afterwards.

Lightening your emotional pack
Then there is the mental fatigue of carrying anxiety, stress, worry, and tension. These mental things very quickly become physical.  Worries and fears quickly become physical tension.   Usually in the back, neck and shoulders.  These sap your energy levels, drive, motivation and enthusiasm.  They cause poor posture, knotted muscles, headaches and worse, and they rob you of your vital energy.  Spend just 10 minutes sat on a bench or at an airport watching people as they walk.  The majority won’t be walking naturally and at ease.  Most will be hunched in the shoulders, back, legs or hips.  Most of the time this will be worry or anxiety related tension rather than an actual physical injury.

A lighter pack for martial artists
Lightening our pack is vital as a martial artist.  It is possibly the most important aspect.  In training we work to create an environment where the training pushes our buttons.  It triggers our fears, tensions, anxieties, pride, ego, frustrations and other unwanted ‘heavy’ emotions.  It gives us the tools to be aware of these emotions and simple reliable methods of removing them.  In battle, be that a combat situation, self defence situation or a high pressure negotiation, we need to be free of these inhibiting emotions.  We need to be relaxed, fluid, loose and creative both physically and mentally.   We are often blissfully unaware of the fears and anxieties that are running constantly through our minds.  Our body and our movements are the physical barometer for them.  Unchecked these fears and tensions inhibit spontaneous, natural, creative movement and a response that is ‘just enough’ and appropriate to the threat.

Daily Ablutions
As well as normal cleaning, the warrior would need to ‘wash’ themselves daily of these unwanted emotions. The tightness, headaches and knots are the roadmap of the fears and thoughts of the mind.  Daily training and simple breathing exercises help you to firstly notice and then remove these tensions.  The amazing thing is that once you notice and remove the physical tensions, the mental ones go too.    Think of the body as your alarm clock.  Once you start to do this you will find yourself much more aware of the daily tensions and be able to drop them, leaving you with more energy, feeling more relaxed, moving more smoothly, being more creative and much, much healthier.

Attention to keeping your pack light whether for a trip, in daily life or in a martial situation will make a huge difference.

De-cluttering your pack is an on-going process.  It gets easier the more you do it, a bit like weeding a garden.  In the beginning the best advice would be to tackle one area at a time.  There are really 4 things to de-clutter:

1.     Your ‘stuff’ (old clothes, papers, manuals etc. for things you no longer need use, or even own)
2.     Your finances (BIG cause of anxiety.   The key thing for stuff you have is to ask yourself, do I need it, do I use it, and is it worth it?)
3.     Your schedule (is it filled with things that you should have said no to but couldn’t? Things that are not aligned with your key priorities?)
4.     And finally and most importantly your mind of fears, worries, anxieties and stresses that you don’t need.

Now watch your lighter leaner life fill with opportunities and adventures that truly matter to you.  The view from the waterfall is exhilarating.

I am organizing a trip to Sweden in September this year that will focus on two of these topics.  A lighter pack for an adventure and lightening the emotional weight of fears, tension and anxiety.  Let the stunning Swedish forests and some simple effective, reliable exercises melt away your tensions, worries, anxieties and stresses.

For the ideal chance to get a better understanding of the unique breathing exercises in a martial arts setting come and see the hugely talented Martin Wheeler in Melksham on August 10th and 11th.

Shinrin Yoku – The healing effect of Forests

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As our lives get busier, time seems to go quicker.  We have less time, more stress and seemingly ever greater responsibilities.

In 2008 we crossed the Rubicon.  For the first time in human history more people lived in towns and cities than in rural areas.  This is compounded by the fact that the average worker now spends 8 hours a day in front of a screen.  They then go home and relax by watching on average 3 hours TV or the Internet.

Research tells us this is not good for us, that this behaviour makes us more aggressive, more depressed, less patient, slower witted and fatter.  But we already know that.  What research hasn’t been able to tell us is why, or how we can fix it.

The answer really is simple and obvious.

If you knew of a simple, scientifically proven way to lift your mood, make you 50% more creative, increase your production of cancer fighting cells by 40% and keep all these levels high for a month afterwards, would you take it?  You bet.  Read on for the answer.

I’ve often wondered why I take such pleasure from being in nature.  I teach my classes outside whenever I can and get immense satisfaction from taking people into forests for weekend experiences.  What I couldn’t really explain was why people seemed to ‘get’ things so much quicker in an outdoor environment than they do in a dojo.  It is almost as if there is a secret accelerant in the air.

Why does a weekend in the woods would have such a profound impact on people?  I thank Japanese researchers for giving me the answer.

Miyazaki San, a Japanese physiological anthropologist and vice director of Chiba University’s Center for Environment, Health, and Field Sciences, located just outside Tokyo has been at the centre of Forest Therapy for the past decade.  In that time he has taken more than 600 people out into the woods and monitored their reaction to their surroundings.

The results are startling.

The findings show that leisurely forest walks, compared with city or town walks, yield a 12.4% decrease in the stress hormone cortisol, a 7% decrease in sympathetic nerve activity, a 1.4% decrease in blood pressure and a 5.8% decrease in heart rate.  On subjective tests, study participants also report better moods and lower anxiety.

Devon 2Is that really a surprise?  When you consider that we have spent 99.9% of our evolutionary journey in nature and we are still physiologically tuned to it.  The more time we spend there, the better we feel.  Consider how you would feel…

  •       Listening to the sound of running water and birds singing
  •       Smelling fresh pine, wild garlic, bluebells
  •       Feeling the sun on your back and the wind in your hair
  •       Seeing sunrays through a canopy or a beautiful waterfall
  •       And have you ever noticed that food tastes better outside – think barbeques and picnics or fresh fruit plucked straight from a tree.

As much as the forest gives us, it is also what it takes away that cleanses us.  The anxiety of checking your smart phone, sweating the little things and lack of perspective that every day life brings.

Japanese Doctors have been prescribing a cure for these ailments called ‘Shinrin Yoku’ or ‘forest bathing’.  Literally spending time in forests.  You don’t have to do anything else.  Researchers are building a body of evidence that proves at a cellular level what we already innately know.

So if we know it, why don’t we do more of it?

I think that it is too easy to stay comfortable and easily entertained.  I confess that I am as guilty of this as the next person.  I maintain numerous social network platforms, spend most of my day in front of a screen and yes, I relax in the evening in front of one too.

So how do I get my dose of forest medicine?  I try to build in to my life as many reasons as I can to go outside.  Building a business around the outdoors has been instrumental, as has having dogs and a family that loves the outdoors and wild swimming – so in no particular order:

  •       I have dogs,who LOVE walks in the forest.
  •       I have cultivated a love of wild swimming in my daughters and  have a wife who loves walking
  •       I make conscious decisions to live near woods.
  •       I teach my general classes outside whenever I can.
  •       I teach private lessons outdoors whenever I can
  •       I run woodlands experience courses where people literally rediscover the pleasures and benefits of being outdoors.
  •       If I have to choose a business hotel when travelling I will click the ‘countryside hotel’ option wherever possible.

I am sure that very little of what I’ve said will astound you.  You will have felt it yourselves I’m sure.

All I would say is try to find ways to get out into nature and just be there.

An afternoon or a long walk will bring you lasting benefits.  Even better would be a few days.  The Japanese prescribe 3 days.  If you would like to get some real benefits try a few days on a woodlands course and on top of the health benefits improve your martial arts capability way beyond where it is now.  You will be immersing in at least 6-7 hours of training a day and far from leaving you depleted you will be energised in a way you will have rarely if ever felt.

Three days of this gives you about 21 hours of training with more time spent in discussion with like-minded people.   Most people spend about 3 hours a week in training – 12 hours a month.  You will be getting about 2 months worth of training in a weekend.

Add to this the compound interest of the training being condensed into a short period. without the skills fade that comes between sessions.  You then have incredible value.

There are limited spaces for this years Devon Camp in June.  Click here to find out more

P.S If you fancy something even more thrilling There is a four day course in Sweden in some of the most beautiful forests and lakes that I have ever seen.  Once again spaces are filling fast for this so don’t wait too long to book.  Click here to see a video of it

If I was to leave you with one message from this it would be that If you want to feel better, spend more time in nature.  It really is that simple….

I hope to share some of those great forest experiences with you.

Stonehenge Course write up – Sensei and the Stones – by Karl Durrant

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Sensei and the Stones

It was a fresh morning, the journey to Stonehenge was certainly a lesson in night driving especially taking some unknown B roads. I arrived alert and excited it was 0530 Sunday 24 March 2013 I was here to watch the light come up and to practise aikido within the centre of this mystical site.

Being lead by Matt Hill of Wiltshire Martial arts the organisation of the event was very smooth and energising. Matt was on hand to liaise with the site staff and made sure all student attending the event had what they needed. This is an example of leader ship that is not commonly seen in martial arts, often it is the student serving the master. With this being my second course with Matt it is clear that his teaching to allows others to see themselves, not to see him.

From dark to light I began to see the face of fellow student clearly during the sunrise. The group stood in silence for a few moments in preparation to meet the stones.

Moving to the site car park, people adorned hakama and gathered weapons.  After a quick security briefing we ventured through a tunnel to the site of our morning practise, the inner circle of Stonehenge.

With a briefing from Matt, we opened practise with a few minutes of sitting meditation. With my eyes closed I focused on the background hum of wind and traffic. Then all of a sudden it stopped, like someone pressed the mute button, after a few seconds all that could be heard was bird song and the wings of resident crows. Reviewing this later I found it was mutually experienced by all.

After  meditation people had already began to feel the warmth that the stones provide. Moving onto tai-jitsu and awase practice the fresh weather was soon ignored for mindfulness, breathing and movement. Working with new people I felt nervous of my ability, this is common when stepping out of my comfort zone.  But here in the circle I was safe as I had the pleasure of sharing this experience with some helpful and patient fellow Aikido students.

Before we knew the final kokyo-ho exercise came, grabbing my camera to get some final pictures my plans soon changed as Matt wanted to practise with me. A great end to a fantastic practise session. The morning was not over yet.

Heading back to the car park everyone was buzzing about the session and discussing the “mute button” during meditation. Some could not stay for breakfast so after goodbyes, the remainder gathered their cooking equipment and lead by Matt,headed for the woods 1 mile away.

Walking and chatting with new faces and future friends I began to feel a positive commonality in our experience. Arriving at the woods people naturally sat in groups of 3 and 4. Getting their stoves out and pans ready, a number of people , including me, realised that  the wind was stopping their bacon from frying. I gave up on mine and settled for large mug of tea and some breakfast bars.

I noticed that Matt did not sit with any particular group while having his breakfast, once done, he made an successful effort to mingle with everyone. This demonstrated to me a key leadership ingredient, the ability to treat everyone equally allows for natural group cohesion.

Overall the experience will take a lot to equal, but the one thing I took was the lesson that a good leader stands behind ready to catch any who may fall.

KF Durrant.

Stonehenge 2013