In both of my previous posts (TEAM CBT and Yan Shou Gong), I’ve mentioned “testing”.

Testing is also an extremely important discipline in software engineering. When making changes to software, we want to know, as quickly as possible, whether our change has had the desired effect. Software engineers put a lot of effort into minimising the amount of time before they receive meaningful feedback. We can call this shortening the feedback loop.

Since my teens, I have had an interest in the Martial Arts, and practiced Nanbudo for a few years back then. More recently, I took up Kung Fu. However, it was the internal aspect of Kung Fu that particularly interested me, and this was hard to pin down.

Time for something of a flurry of backlogged posts. Here goes with the first…

I have for some time been aware of the possibility of rapid change within humans. That dysfunctional traits can unravel in moments: if prediction error events cause the brain to restructure its predictions, almost instantly, then this can be used as a valuable therapeutic tool.

Contact Improvisation is a dance form that was developed in 1972 by Steve Paxton. He and his associates wanted to develop a form of dance that was in physical contact, yet improvised. Drawing inspiration from a range of sources, they originated ‘Contact’ - which is still going strong.

Once upon a time, there was a young man. His name was Siddhartha. He had a privileged upbringing, but wasn’t satisfied with life. Eventually, he left home in the middle of the night to find answers. He sought teachers who might know. He was taught meditation. He practiced asceticism (punishing the flesh to free the mind), but neither worked. Eventually, he decided enough was enough, and sat down under a tree to meditate.

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Continuing on the theme of describing methods for approaching Fundamental Wellbeing, the second I wish to mention is the Sedona Method, by Lester Levenson in the 1950s.

Focusing could be described as “a natural and gentle practice of listening to your body and your inner sense of knowing”.