Internal Awareness

• If you’re new to LMA, start with our table of contents

[FYI: I only do this internal exercise once or twice with practitioners or as needed. Even if the practitioner never does it on their own or ever again, having done it once is still enough to establish a scaffolding for awareness. Some LMA practitioners at the Learning Lab in Los Angeles independently choose to arrive early and conduct their own internal and external warm-ups. We encourage practitioners to self-organize their own warm-ups and rituals.]

This is technically a meditation, but we're going to do this with a clear aim, and that is to bring awareness to your body and breath and develop your internal awareness.

This isn't about emptying your mind or being aware of your surroundings. It's about knowing where your limbs are at all times without having to check in and recognizing when you're holding your breath. Part of the difficulty of learning athletic movements as an adult, especially in clinching, grappling, or falling, is being unaware of where any of your body parts are and what your breath is doing.

So understand your limbs are you; understand where you are in space.

You can be sitting for this exercise, but I'd prefer you don't sit on the floor. It's better to be sitting on a chair or bench where none of your limbs are stacked on top of each other. If you can, do it standing.

Close your eyes. Sense where your body is in space. Think of your body as actually taking up space. This is important not only for fighting or for your confidence but also in life—that you deserve to take up space. People can't just take your space without your consent. So there is no way for me to teach this exercise without having you consider the politics of the body and the politics of space and your ability to exist in space and take up space publicly, not just privately. Especially for marginalized groups, existing in public space is radical.