Did you notice I put the word “Meaningful” in there?
Repetition can take on both positive and negative connotations.
But ultimately, it is how someone develops and refines any skill set.
I think you already know this.
But do you know why?
You may be able to conjure up an explanation in the vein of neuroplasticity, which is your brain being able to change shape and form new connections. Plenty of neurological science on the topic.
Oh, but that’s not where I’m going with this!
I’m going into the MIND. Read carefully, I said the MIND. Do you think the MIND and the BRAIN are the same thing?
The way I asked the question probably leads you to the answer, “No.” And you’d be right! The brain is the physical structure. The mind is the sensational experience that is not tangible.
The mind is your everything.
All the decisions you’ve made, all of what you are is the result of your mind. Everything you see around you is the product of what was inside someone’s head. Even nature stuff! Someone made a decision to preserve it, or neglect it, or destroy it. Everything around you is the manifestation of the mind, that is, they are the results of decisions that were made by humans.
The power of the mind cannot be overstated.
Think of the mind as 2 components:
-A top layer of conscious thoughts.
-A bottom layer of SUBCONSCIOUS thoughts.
Fly with me for a moment here. Your conscious mind is your rational mind, your logical mind. Your subconscious mind is more your emotional mind. Any guesses on which one is more powerful? Your subconscious is WAY more powerful!
Your subconscious mind is not logical, yet, it is the very reason why you do or don’t do particular things.
The subconscious mind can interact with vivid imagination!
Think of the Wright Brothers, who invented the airplane. It did not make logical or rational sense to embark on the journey of flight, and they indeed had many, many doubters. But they had a very vivid imagination in their subconscious that would not accept the “rational” thinking pattern of “this is impossible, it’s never been done before.” They had a strong belief and imagination that this could happen, even though they had no evidence to back it up.
Now we live in a world where we can’t even imagine if flight were never possible. This is how important the subconscious mind is.
There are numerous other examples of how the subconscious mind had connected to a vivid imagination, that defies logic and convention. Think of Kennedy stating that the US will send a man on the moon, even though he had now idea how, and it’s never been done before. Think of Steve Jobs coming up with the concept of IPod/iPhones.
A vivid imagination and a connection to the subconscious mind believing that it is true is one of the most powerful forces in humanity.
Ok great, but what does this have to do with “Meaningful Repetition”?
Simply put, meaningful repetition is one of our ways to access the subconscious.
This is important, especially if the subconscious wiring is opposed to what your imagination conjures up. You see, we get bombarded by messages from school, family, friends, work, media, etc, about how to see the world and how to see ourselves. Those were the results of repetition. That repetition got into your mind, and is now your subconscious programming.
If you consciously tell yourself that you want to be successful at something, but deep down, you are doubtful, skeptical, and scared, your subconscious won’t believe it, and will most likely not allow you to succeed.
On the other end, if you continuously believe in your success, in a very honest way, and you keep it fresh in your head, this belief, you will eventually find your success.
So it is very important that not only do you say you want to achieve a particular result, but you have to convince your subconscious mind that you believe it in a very pure way, where you do not doubt or question it.
This is often difficult to do, because we have been programmed, in large part, to operate from a place of deficit. This is why meaningful repetition is so important. Keep repeating it until it becomes reflexive. Keep repeating it, so much, that the mind doesn’t have to do much effort to keep that feeling of achieving that goal isn’t too far away.
When training martial arts for self defense, we are wanting to train our reflexes to respond in pure adrenaline situations, where we just go with instinct and reflex, and no cognitive thought. So we repeat our techniques and responses over and over and over through thousands of repetitions, so that the techniques have entered into our subconscious, and our bodies know what to do, without us “telling” it what to do.
From my perspective, where my goal is to help students access and connect to their power, I want them to repeat their techniques over and over again, not for a physical self defense situation (although, I’m pretty confident, if their training has been consistent and dedicated, that they would handle themselves well), but from a standpoint of remembering their power. Remembering that they are powerful, and to be at your most powerful, you cannot be tense. You have to work to find that “sweet spot” between hard and soft to access your power potential. That work requires a lot of repetition to attain it, to maintain it, and ultimately, to drive it into your subconscious, so you can access it.
Let’s say a stressful situation has come up at work. You get triggered, and your body tenses up! But then, you go into your subconscious mind, and instantly drop your shoulders, lower your center of gravity, and get relaxed, because you know that is the way to be powerful.
In addition to martial arts techniques, you can apply this idea of things you would like to have happen in your life. You have to repeat what you want a lot in your mind, to make sure that your subconscious is connected to it, and not your fear of what if it doesn’t happen. If you have that seed of doubt, your subconscious picks up on that. So to erase those seeds of doubt, you have to repeat, repeat, repeat!
Think of your repetitions as a vibranium brick, and you are building a vibranium wall that will not give any doubts any chance to enter (vibranium is from the movie “Black Panther”. It’s a mystical metal). Build this wall, brick by brick - every single one counts!