7 Bruce Lee mental exercises for everyday life
Bruce Lee's mental exercises were daily practices that he carried out to keep up with his enormous capacities as a philosopher and as a teacher in martial arts. Although the world knew him above all as an action film actor, Lee was always much more than that. He was actually a master of the art of living.
Bruce Lee is considered the first great exponent of martial arts in the West. Before him, little was known in the hemisphere about those ancient combat practices that involved the mind more than the body. It was Bruce who made them popular and fascinated by them around the world.
“If you want to learn to swim, jump into the water. In dry land, no state of mind is going to help you. "
-Bruce Lee-
Bruce Lee's mental exercises were routines that allowed him to strengthen the body, spirit and lifestyle according to his arts. He used to carry a notebook with him where he wrote down his thoughts and the data that he wanted to remember. It was that notebook that allowed us to learn about Bruce Lee's mental exercises. They are as follows.
1. About the will
The most important of Bruce Lee's mental exercises was the one he did daily to strengthen his will. The latter he called "the supreme court of all departments of the mind." That is, the force that determined everything else.
To work his will, the martial artist set a daily goal of action. Although he does not give many details about it, it is interpreted as the origin and fulfillment of a purpose that will not be so pleasant.
2. Bruce Lee's mental exercises on emotion
Bruce Lee knew the powerful effect of emotions on behavior. He knew that positive emotions strengthen the spirit, while negative emotions weaken it. That is why one of the mental exercises that he performed was aimed at transforming what he felt.
His goal was to dilute negative emotions or turn them into something that contributed positively to his development. In turn, he cultivated positive emotions more and more deeply, since they inhabit personal strength.
3. The reason
Bruce Lee's mental exercises on reason were aimed at making it the fundamental guide of life. That is, to make thought and reasoning a filter, a base on which to build actions.
Bruce Lee says "I am going to place all my desires, my objectives and purposes under the faculties of reason." With this he declares that this is a superior function, which orients and gives a north towards which to go.
4. The imagination
Imagination is that faculty that allows us to design and project mental scenarios. Sometimes it is wasted and is only used to feed fears or to dream ambitions. In this case, it is of little use.
For Bruce Lee, imagination is the basic nutrient of action plans. Reason provides a purpose, or an objective towards which to direct ourselves. Imagination makes us see the multiple ways and means that can lead us to achieve it.
5. The memory
The fundamental thing in the mental exercises of Bruce Lee is to concentrate the will, the emotions, the reason, the imagination and all the personal resources towards the achievement of a goal that has already been defined previously.
Memory operates within this scheme as a complement that allows us to frequently bring to mind those objectives for which we are striving. Also the paths that lead to them and the emotions and thoughts that must accompany them.
6. The unconscious
For Bruce Lee there is a major goal in life, a major purpose that must become the lynchpin of all minor goals. This central purpose is born from the deepest part of ourselves: from the unconscious.
Hence, one of Bruce Lee's mental exercises was to navigate in that unconscious to reveal that intuitive image that contains the main purpose. Bringing that image to mind every day is essential to concentrate all personal resources.
7. Consciousness
For Bruce Lee, conscience had to do primarily with the ethics of action. In his notes it is read that one of his wishes is "to combine justice with mercy in my judgments." This would be what would allow you to discern what is correct and what is not.
He also indicates that one of his purposes is to hold tightly to those dictates of conscience. Once he has figured out what is good and what is not, he promises himself to stick to that verdict regardless of the consequences.
Bruce Lee's mental exercises are a kind of guidelines or parameters that, according to him, should be worked on daily. There will be a lot of truth in this, because they were the fruit of one of the most exceptional characters that the world of martial arts has given.
