The Hills are Alive

Welcome again to the realms of Chaos Training. I hope you are enjoying the lunacy of life outside your comfort zone. Issue 30 of Chaos brings us to the topic of music in training.

We all love it. Putting on our favourite CDs or donning our iPods and blasting some of our favourite tunes as we train ourselves into the ground. I like to begin by listening to some stand up comedy to get me relaxed, in particular Guido Hatsis’ ‘The Plumber’. Then, it’s time for some 70’s disco to establish a happy rhythm in the warm up. But then things speed up and get heavy, really heavy. Frankenbok, RATM and Pantera set the stage for a brutal session. So much fun. Then it’s some metal ballads to cool down and some Tibetan Bowls for meditation.

Even the Spartans believed,

“Rhythmical movement was considered good training, not for the body alone, but also for the character. War songs were chanted by bands of boys in a musical drill. Every Spartan was expected to be able to sing; great stress was laid on the cultivation of memory, and all learned by heart the ballads of their patriot-poet Tyrtaeus.”

But when it comes to Chaos Training we are seeking to use music as a training tool beyond cultivation rhythm and focus.

Rhythmical Conflict

We are going to deliberatly create conflict with our internal rhythm in order to learn focus and practice detachment. Be it line dancing music, Kylie Minogue or the evil that is Country and Western, find music that really makes you cringe.

Now train to it.

Since we are working toward the realisation of truth through training I am not going to divulge any experiences to avoid creating expectation. The experience is to be yours but you are encouraged to write about it on our forum and share the insights you’ve developed. I won’t tell you what to look for but only that you’ll grow from the experience of training within an environment that rattles your internal rhythm.

Good luck and don’t be afraid of playing endless hours of grown up men singing baby songs to infants. That’s real training.