Three options

Pre-Corona I taught a Slow Release masterclass every six weeks. The class is a little different to most and always opens with instructions of what you can’t do for the following two hours.

The first 10 or so seconds in a posture are for you to work out where you need to be. After that don’t move. Don’t adjust. Don’t even make small movements you think can’t be seen.

The similarity between this and how we’ve been instructed to deal with the current global circumstance now seem striking.

ScoMo’s directions to us. Get yourself home, from international travel, from interstate travel, from Corona-infested cruise ship travel. Once you work out your home and your immediate circle of people, don’t move. Don’t adjust. Don’t change the parameters. Settle in for the long haul.

After delivering this list of what you can’t do in a Slow Release, I spend the next two hours unveiling, uncomfortable posture by uncomfortable posture, the options you do have at your disposal.

Option 1. Change the way you’re breathing. During a Slow Release each posture is held for exactly three minutes. If you get control of your breath and slow it down to a count of seven, all you need to do is take around 12 slow breaths in each posture.

Option 2. Change what you’re choosing to focus on. I’m going to quote myself here for maximum effect. “How the f*ck is it helpful to focus on what is uncomfortable right now? Scan your body, find some part of you that is happy in this sh*tty position and focus on that. Even if the only part you find is your nose, then focus on that for 12 slow breaths.”

Option 3. Surrender to what is happening. It’s out of your control. It’s going to happen regardless. Surrender is often seen as a weak option but in fact surrender is the most powerful thing you can do. To get yourself in a position where you are not affected by the comings and goings of discomfort. To stay steady.

Generally in life we have a desire to continually improve, to build more knowledge, to increase wealth, to increase career prospects, to keep ourselves and our family moving forward. Insert a global pandemic and this desire is severely impacted.

Look at the pandemic through the lens of Slow Release. The class is not about improving the technical aspect of postures, it’s not about improving anatomical deficiencies. The sweet spot in a Slow Release is getting yourself in a position where you can hold steady and weather the discomfort that will surely arise over three minutes.

During this pandemic, none of our house prices are going to increase. None of us are going to build wealth. Our fitness is not likely to improve leaps and bounds. Our mental health will not likely become rock solid.

We can however position ourselves to hold steady. Forget about building wealth and instead how can you hold onto the money you have. Let go of improving mental health and instead how can you retain the tools and techniques you used pre-pandemic. Release the burden of your child’s education and instead how can you help position them to come out of this no worse than when they went into it.

Three options. Progress. Go backwards. Hold steady.

The other Slow Release options also come in handy. Change the way you’re breathing and change what you’re choosing to focus on.