React or respond?
Published: Thu, 09/04/14
Stav Camp has come and gone for this year. I am very grateful to
Ivar for coming to Somerset and teaching. There was martial arts
training for several hours each morning. In the afternoons quite
long question and answer sessions when we dug into the origins of
Stav and the culture it comes from. Afterwards Ivar sent me a
message and I think it is okay to quote a part of it.
"I did enjoy the course, and I have a feeling that a lot of
you (including yourself) have made a kind of breakthrough in the
last year. "
It is hard to see any progress for one's self, so it is good to
have the feedback.
One thing I have been thinking about in the past year is the
difference between reacting and responding. At a simple level
reacting is taking action without conscious thought and responding
it taking action after some degree of deliberation. If you find
yourself touching a very hot surface then the reaction is to pull
away instantly and your lizard brain will make sure that happens.
Withdrawing your hand is a perfectly fine reaction, but what comes
next? If your reaction is to grab the nearest liquid and fling it
over the hot surface then you may be doing some good but there are
plenty of situations where you may make the situation much worse.
However if you are responding rather than reacting you will take a
moment to assess the situation and deal with it as appropriately as
you can. If the source of the heat is electrical then throwing
liquid on it could be disastrous so you need to turn off the power.
If a normal fire then dousing it with liquid may well be best,
once you have assessed what the available liquid is.
I was reminded at camp that Stav teaches appropriate responses
rather than mindless reactions. If caught completely by surprise
then the best thing is to instantly withdraw from the situation.
This is what we call the Trel response and it may well be the
action which keeps you alive. Hopefully actual violence occurs
very rarely in your life but it will be a common experience for
someone to try to maneuver you into a position which may be to
their advantage but not necessarily to yours. In this situation
withdrawal to give yourself space to consider your position may
well be the best thing to do. Don't just say yes because you
were taught as a child that it is rude to say no. Yes our
unconscious programming can be as basic and dangerous as that!
Ivar has always said that Stav is an education programme for life.
The runes provide archetypes of situations and behavior, the web
shows how all things are connected in time and space and the five
principles provide strategies for appropriate responses in any
situation.
So does knowing Stav make life easier? Not really, in fact it
makes it much harder because you realise that you can think for
yourself and you don't need to bumble through life reacting
unconsciously to everything that happens to you. Thinking for
yourself means responding to life and therefore having to take
responsibility for your actions and the consequences. Perhaps Stav
shouldn't be taught at all since I get the impression most
people are much happier going though life reacting unconsciously
and not having to think seriously about anything much at all.
However I have booked dates for Saturday training this Autumn on
the 13th September in Salisbury and on the 4th of October in
Crewkerne. Yes, it will be Martial Arts training but I will put
the emphasis on developing conscious responses over automatic
reactions. Dangerous stuff actually, so don't come unless you
want to risk seeing the world and your life in a new way. Here is
the link anyway http://www.iceandfire.org.uk/train.html
regards
Graham
PS I have an idea for Stav Camp next year but I have to check some
dates etc before I announce anything. Will have some details soon.