The Human Benefits of Mindless Play
Mindfulness is a popular go-to term these days: “We need to be more mindful”. Maybe, but it’s grossly misunderstood.
Mindfulness is not a mind full of chatter, thoughts, worries, expectations, multi-tasking, distractions, perceptions, ego, and a thousand other things. That is overwhelming and most of us kind of live that way. We don’t “notice” it, because we think it’s normal, but it does take a detrimental toll.
So what then? Mindlessness?
That’s actually hilarious, but no. Mushin. In the movie, “The Last Samurai”, Tom Cruise’s character while being trained in the way of the sword, is getting thrown all over the place, no matter how hard he tries. After one of the hard falls, he’s approached by a fellow student, who tells him “Too many mind.”
“Too many mind?”
“Hai; you mind the sword, mind the people watching, mind your enemy. Too many mind. No mind.”
“… no mind.”
This is Mushin. Mushin is the Japanese concept of mind of no mind. When a person’s mind is free of thoughts, judgement, fears, ego, anger, and so on during combat, as well as everyday life. This is acting accordingly to the situation at hand, without the burden of conscious thought.
How do we do that? Mindfulness. Wait … what?
Mindfulness and Mushin are like yin and yang. YinYang is not about balance between opposing forces. It’s about interrelated harmony of those forces. This is the same with mindfulness and mind of no mind. We cannot be mindful, if our head is full of “too many mind”. Mindfulness is being in the moment, within reality in real time, as in unfolds dynamically. Mindful of being there in the now. Do this so well, we achieve Mushin.
We may not see it, but this is what happens in children as they play. Climbing a net, traversing a horizontal ladder, swinging, spinning, balancing, sliding, and running while interacting with others. No adulterated egos, worries, or outside distractions. They are there. Completely.
It calms the nervous system, we uptake and utilize oxygen better, our brains are more powerful (because they’re not clogged up), pain is reduced, sleep is better, concentration, balance, and emotional and psychological health is better. It keeps us more youthful.
This kind of play is harder for adults, because we have adult responsibilities, problems, and so on. True, but sometimes we can allow too much or blow things out of proportion. So we practice Yoga or Martial Arts, which both require Mushin/Mindfulness to do effectively. But even in pickleball, if our head isn’t in the game, we’re not going to do very well. Same with everyday life.
Mindfulness, yes. Mushin, yes.
Be there or be square.
Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash