Mojo, intent, presence....whatever you call it, it's real

In a previous entry I mentioned the issue of locking up the arms and how you might find that when you relax your arms, they collapse into your body. This is a result of where your attention is.

We often talk about presence, charisma, mojo and attitude to describe relaxed outward intent. It plays a big part in acting, dance, modeling, performance...actually most things and most definitely fighting.

On a simple level it is relaxing your body while you pay attention to what is around you. Your body will move based on how "big" your intent is around you.

If you imagine a person who is insecure, they direct their intent inward. The field of attention around them is very small so all their movements are close to the body. Imagine how that person dances. They take up as little space as possible, or if they make big movements, it is stiff and awkward.

Now, imagine a king, a confident person, a person with "mojo", or any personally powerful person. Their attention is directed outward while they are relaxed. They see and interact with what is going on around them. Their body uses a larger amount of space in a natural way.

Your body will make use of the space your give it. The bigger the sphere of your intent the more powerful and relaxed your body movements will be.

This "sphere of intent" is especially important in interaction. Interactions begin when your intent encounters something or someone. Before you even start to touch the person. If your intent is too small, the interaction won't begin even when you are touching someone.

When fighting, you need to have your intent pushed outward enough to encompass the opponent in order to fully interact with them.

All this may sound weird or esoteric, but it is easy to test and observe. I will talk more about this in other entries. For now, the best way to increase your field of intent is to relax and try to see, hear, smell and feel everything around you in as big an area as possible while you relax. Then continue doing it as you move around, then do other activities and try it for fighting. Don't let the doing of the activity get in the way of this process.