A Knight’s Tale - Technique For Living

A Knight’s Tale


Fear is a physical, mental and spiritual experience. When you are able to prevent it, you give yourself confidence, success and faith. Knights jousting in medieval times used to wear face guards that would slant from their chin up to their eye line. They would come in all shapes and sizes. Most of them would have these face guards. So when they were jousting, at the point of impact they could tip their heads backwards to avoid getting splinters in their eyes.

Without Fear?

It would be considered an act of bravery or “without fear” if a rider at the moment of impact, the critical moment, did not pull their heads back to protect their eyes. It was also more practical to be able to see what was happening at the critical moment. And you would give yourself a better chance of not being knocked off your horse! Or winning, depending on how you look at it.

So why do I mention this today?

Although I doubt many people are jousting, they are pulling their heads back and down at certain critical moments in their lives. To get any grasp over this kind of habit you must decide to stop. You have to stop to get any control over this form of fear or startle pattern. Now that is very different from forcing your head to stay in place. Forcing your head to stay in place or fixing is easy and can be done in less than a second. 

It's not easy to stop

Stopping is much harder. Stopping requires you to give yourself time and you may feel more vulnerable. However, when you are able to give yourself time you can exercise a great deal more choice. I’m afraid that our choices become more narrowed when we have to rush. We tend to make decisions form tenser and shorter perspectives when we do.

You need to stop at the critical moment

If we want to stop fear based thinking and gain confidence we have to really take a moment and give ourselves time. It has to become your first response. It doesn’t mean that your going to say no to everything. But it does mean you are able to take time over it, before you do something. Now you don’t need to wait for a knighthood or take up jousting to do that. 

You can give yourself time when you are about to get on a train by allowing the others to get off first. Keep saying to yourself “I give myself time” if you still feel the desire to rush on. Just my opinion, but I think that it's a form of chivalry or respect. Others will appreciate this, although a knighthood is unlikely. And for those who are still rushing you can be an example to them. 

About the Author Edward Fisher

Hi, I'm Edward Fisher and I believe that everyone can have a life free from back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain and many other musculoskeletal pain related conditions. I recovered from slipped discs and sciatica. I spent 10 months being unable to walk. After 3 months of Alexander Technique I was walking again. Now I show others how to overcome their own pain related conditions for themselves.

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