Feeling Old? Try This Samurai Technique

It’s time to rewatch The Last Samurai. There’s nothing like a good movie to shed light into forgotten concepts. Maybe you’re not a Tom Cruise fan and that’s ok. The scene I want to draw attention to is when he is sparring with Hiroyuki Sanada (the Japanese guy in every movie ever). He gets beaten by a wooden katana several rounds when an actor playing the soldier, Nobutada, tries to give him some advice: 

“Mind the sword, mind the people watch, mind enemy– too many mind. No mind.” 

That’s the samurai secret. No mind. Sometimes we have to dissolve our focus from the negative concepts of age. By focusing on the negative aspects of aging, it’s easy to let ourselves fall into a belief system of what it means to be old. Like Tony Robbins like to say, “Where focus goes, energy flows”. When we focus our energy into a negative image of our mind, our body acts as an instant feedback device. It will start to subconsciously take actions to bring that image into physical reality. Luckily, we can use this to our advantage by focusing in the opposite direction.

People say we should meditate. It wasn’t until much later in life that I found the reason why. I know some of us have a hard time even having eyes close for one minute but start with 15 seconds and increase by 15 seconds each time until you get to that minute. Once you can get to 20 minutes you’ll discover a secret I learned. The point of meditation is learning how to stop and unfocus. It is a transitory step in all things relating to focus. Our minds are like a supercomputer that loves to process a million synaptic connections at the speed of light and it’s really good at doing that. Sometimes, we can force it to work at even higher levels to a point where we are using close to our mind’s limit. The problem that can occur is that you get brain working and thinking all the time about things. These thoughts pervade our minds and it thinks of everything several times a day and this hyperactivity is unhealthy for extended periods. It’s like trying to sprint a marathon. That’s why meditation comes in. Meditation is training how to stop this activity and bring myself back to zero. Once my mind is back to zero, I can refocus the direction of my thoughts.

Thoughts flow like a river current. If I’m trying to swim against the current, it will be impossible. However, if I can bring the current to a stop, being swimming in the opposite direction, eventually my movements will change the current of the river as I build momentum. It’s maintaining a focus and forcing thoughts in a certain direction that I can change the focus of my mind. It’s best to practice this every day. I try to focus my thoughts about age with wisdom, experience, strength, and leadership. Doing things to keep myself feeling young is definitely there too. Forget society’s definitions of what it means to be old. It’s what you think that really matters.