As to my work, please remember that each class would have about 70% new members. Those who were there on a regular basis were awaiting trial on felony charges. Each session, therefore, required an introduction. We would meet in an open space, much like a volleyball court, myself and about fifteen to twenty youth. After a brief introduction, invariably, one young man would ask, “So, you are going to teach us to kick ass?”
My reply, “You don’t know how to do that? You need some old man to teach you?” I would say this with a smile, so the youth was teased by his comrades, not shamed. I would then continue: “You really think I would teach you anything that would make you a better fighter? I am doing this for a living. This is my job. I don’t even know you guys. If I teach you something that makes you a better fighter and you get out and use it, then what’s the paper going to say? ‘Youth taught martial arts at Thomas Abernathy Youth Center, arrested in assault.’ I’d lose my job. I’m not going to lose my job over you guys!”
This would break the ice. Some kids would laugh. Most would smile. Then, “So let me ask you a question. Don’t you hate it when someone makes you mad? There you were, minding your own business, having a good day, and someone makes you mad, you lose your temper, and maybe you end up doing something you didn’t plan to do, maybe not even want to do. Maybe that’s why you ended up here. Well, I’m going to teach you some exercises that have the possibility of altering your mind, so that other people won’t be able to make you mad. You’ll only get mad when you want to be mad.” And then we would begin.
Perhaps the reader might ask why I didn’t explain the negative consequences of anger in one’s life, or how these techniques would help one control one’s temper and not get angry at all. This would be naïve. These youth lived in a world of power, obsessively focused on dominance hierarchies within their own small societies, both out of the detention facility and within it as well. Any admission that they needed help being less angry would appear to others as weakness. As one young man said to a therapist-associate of mine, “Ma’am, that sounds really nice, what you are saying about anger. But if I tried what you are saying—and it worked—I wouldn’t last a week in my neighborhood.”
Every once in a while, a young man would test me. He would start clowning around, bothering other youth, maybe posturing up to me. I’d send him away from the group, calmly, without rancor, saying something like, “We’re here to work. You aren’t working here. You have to go back to your cell. Tell the counselor over there.” This was very important for all the young people in the group. That youth was the emissary of all the kids, whether he knew it or not, because everyone there had a question: “Could we make you mad?” If they could, then nothing I presented offered them a thing—they would see me as just another version of them—a full-grown wolf lying to a pack of wolf-cubs. I wanted to show them something else, that a fully developed human possesses his or her emotions, rather than emotions possessing him or her.
The results of this training were clear. Ms. Schmid and I were told that after a year of the program, critical incidents were down fifty percent, even though no other changes had been made within the facility. Was it the baduanjin? Or the yoga? Or both? Or was it something else as well—Ms. Schmid and I embodying, literally, calm and dignity in the context of powerful trained movement. This combination was something that the young people could attach to as a exemplar of something they wished to become. It is my best guess that Ms. Schmid and I had a synergistic effect, at least with the inmates who attended both of our classes. She is a powerful but kind woman, and treats people in a very similar way as my own: frank and direct, never ingratiating herself to be liked. I think that, for the youth, getting the same ‘model of adulthood’ from a powerful man and a powerful woman was very positive.
However, beyond modeling, what specifically did baduanjin offer these young people? There are many ways to execute these exercises—I deliberately taught them in a way that required the practitioner to tense to the degree that they were ‘intolerable.’ Then, they would continue the movement progressively relaxing. Then, when relaxation became ‘intolerable,’ the practitioner continues the cycle of the movements, incrementally increasing the tension.
My intention was that these youth would have the experience of managing tension and release within their bodies, according to their will. Theoretically, the mind and body being intertwined in an inextricable braid of experience, this would reverberate into ‘tension’ and ‘release’ within their thinking processes and emotional reactions. For example, if, in the middle of an exercise, a young person had a troubling thought, giving rise to a troubling emotion, he or she could change his or her somatic state, at will, and notice the ebb and flow of his or her cognitive and emotional processes. By doing this by himself or herself, the young person was not dependent on another person for his or her sense of well-being or threat. Finally, because these exercises were associated with martial arts practice, these young people, obsessed with power, were able to separate this from other activities that might offer the same benefits, but were unacceptable due to their culture (that of youth who saw themselves as outlaws).
Let me conclude this section with one poignant story which illustrate the effective of baduanjin as a vehicle to perceive another way of being. [3]
Angel
There was a young man who attended my classes for a span of some months. He was golden-skinned, tall and lean, with long raven-black hair. His name was Angel. He never spoke to any of the other boys, walking through them like a panther through a mob of yard dogs. He always took a position at the periphery of the group, as far away from me as he could be—but he never took his eyes off of me, and he did the exercises meticulously. After some weeks, I asked staff about him. “He beat a man nearly to death—he was in a coma for months—and Angel was tried as an adult. He got twenty-five years. They are just waiting for a bed to open in the youth offender wing of the prison where he’ll be kept until he is eighteen—then he’ll be transferred to general population. Be careful of him—he’s the most dangerous kid in here.”
One day I arrived and one of the staff told me, “Angel is going up today.” I nodded and went to class. Angel was there, silent, doing the exercises, meticulous as always. When the class ended, contrary to his habit, he lingered until everyone else had left. Then he walked towards me, slowly, his eyes fixed on mine. It looked like he was preparing to confront me physically, but at the proper distance, he veered off at an angle and paused, still looking me in the eyes. I said to him, “Where you are going, control of your emotions is the only thing that will save your life. Do your time and get home.” He walked past me, and over his shoulder, he whispered, “I wish you were my dad.”
Footnotes
[1] Cheng, Fung Kei, PhD, (2015) Effects of Baduanjin on Mental Health: A Comprehensive Review, Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies 19, 138-149
[2] It is obvious that Ms. Schmid’s involvement complicates this account, in terms of making definitive pronouncements as to baduanjin’s effectiveness alone (or Astanga Yoga, for that matter). Hence the need for more research.
[3] A more extensive version of this paper, with a second story/case account, will be a contribution to the forthcoming Open Access Online Anthology about (Asian) Martial (and Movement) Arts and (Psycho-)therapy. The anthology will be published and hosted by the European Academy of Biopsychosocial Health (Germany), a state recognized professional training academy for psychosocial professionals and psychotherapists in Germany under the lead of Prof. em. (VU Amsterdam) Dr. Dr. Dr. Hilarion G. Petzold. The main focus of the anthology will be Martial Arts and Clinical Therapy/Psychotherapy and Martial Arts, Pedagogics and Personal Development. In addition, there will also be articles on Martial Arts History, Philosophy and Culture. More than 100 academic or clinical experts and martial arts practitioners from around the world will contribute to this project. The anthology will be published in 2022.
Reference
Cheng, Fung Kei, PhD, (2015) Effects of Baduanjin on Mental Health: A Comprehensive Review, Journal of Bodywork & Movement Therapies 19, 138-149
Reply With Quote