the core of the method

the inward formula

INWARD
concentrate the mind inward
STILLNESS
calibrate to gravity
FLOW
relax instantly, surrender center of mass to gravity, lower intrinsic resistance

1.
INWARD

Make sure none of the joints are locked and that there is no posting, leaning or bracing in the structure. open the joints up down to the ground as if you are preparing for a jump. When seated, make sure there is no drop of ‘dead weight’ due to leaning/posting on your bones. Try to sit on the front of the seating bones and on the thigh (femur) bones. Balance the head (top pole) on top of the seating bones and thigh bones.

If standing feel the feet, feel the top of the head, feel the center in between.

Feel how the skin touches your clothes, the air around you and how the hairs interact with the air. Feel how the perception of the edge of your skin becomes translucent.

Feel the muscles, organs, fascia. Feel how the muscles hang inside the skin, around the bones. Feel the heavier, denser quality than previously with the skin.

Feel beyond the muscle into the space underneath. However it may seem a strange idea to feel the bones, give it some time and you can judge whether you feel something different you didn’t feel before :)

SIGNS OF SUCCESS

You will notice that the internal monolog demands less of your attention. It is toned down and you feel calmer.

2.
NEUTRAL
2.1 STILLNESS

The Center is located about an inch below the navel, halfway into the body in its actual physical middle.

Place the mind in the center and hold it still. Imagine a small bowl in the center. The bowl is about halfway filled with water. Aim to keep the water as flat and smooth as possible, keeping it from spilling.

SIGNS OF SUCCESS

You will experience a sense of stillness throughout the body (and mind). This is directly connected to the quality of your balance. It may feel a little odd in the beginning, as you may realise your mind has never truly been still in one place before.

Your perception of body weight will change once you are balanced and still. The weight is equally distributed and vertically organised. You can experience a sense of weightlessness and inflation or swelling. Imagine balancing a broom stick on the open palm of your hand. When the stick is perfectly vertical, its weight seems to disappear. When it tilts, even ever so slightly, the pressure of the weight on your hand increases fast. Image ‘standing like a stake’.

2.2 FLOW – Relax, Loosen, Open & Unlock

While maintaining the stillness and not allowing the body to move at all, completely let go of any form of holding, contraction, closing or fixation, instantaneously.

 

The first time you fully Relax without moving the body, all the tension drops with gravity at once. After that, you will need to continuously repeat the same act of loosening to maintain this Neutral Quality by maintaining this never ending ‘Current’.

Imagine standing on the edge of a tall cliff. Hold out a 10 pound rock over the edge with a straight arm. Now drop the rock, and pay special attention to what happens inside your own body at the very moment you release the rock. This exact same mechanism, this drop of tension, can be repeated over and over again, without holding an external ball. This can be done to the tensions inside your own body, getting to deeper levels over time and this ‘opening’ can be renewed every present moment, as we tend to ‘close’ in response to the ever changing present moment.

Imagine standing in an elevator about to go up. As it begins to ascend, you notice it is much faster than a normal elevator. Feel how you are gently pressed onto the floor of the elevator, with Gravity reaching up your body, pulling down. While both these scenarios engage the exact opposite direction of the sensation of relaxation, they activate the same body reflex. Try to feel this state of complete surrender from either or both scenarios while still and suspended in space.

Imagine that you are standing on a 4 meters or so high cliff, with your toes curled over the edge about to jump into the water. Make the jump and pay attention to how you feel when you are mid air. There is a letting go of a base tension or holding, a feeling of surrender to what is happening. This scenario is the exact opposite of when you are in an elevator going up.

SIGNS OF SUCCESS

Flow is the physical presence of the mind in the body. Flow is fluid. When you focus on the right index finger and feel it, your mind ‘arrives’ and you feel subtle sensations that you didn’t feel before, when you were not focusing on your hand. Yet your hand was always attached to you and fully functional, once you focus on the hand something changes. It is this subtle presence of the mind in the body that we grow and cultivate with the Inward Method. When you relax without losing the stillness of the balance in the center, the released motion can express and transform. The next layer of tension then becomes available for release. This process turns into a Flow. A constant presence of mental awareness inside the stillness of the body.

Once the complete abolishment of holding is done correctly as described above, one feels instantly pain free, or in severe cases at least a significant drop in pain levels.
3.
NEUTRALISE

HOW

Now that we have configured our system in a neutral harmony with gravity, we have created a repeatable starting point. Now the challenge is to maintain this configuration in life and change. To do this, to put the stillness in motion, we need to do only that which allows us to remain in this state of ‘non-doing’. We must neutralise any reflex we might have, that could disrupt our configuration. This process leads to health, balance and fortress in body, emotion and mind.

SIGNS OF SUCCESS

You will notice a much greater mental flexibility. Things will not weigh as heavy, you put things in perspective and you will gradually lose fear of death. You start embodying the realisation that the only constant is change, and that all is impermanent.

You experience a great reducing of suffering. Be it physical, emotional or mental, you begin to develop a sense of self. You begin to see through things, that they are not ‘truth’. Gradually you will self realise and neutralise the faulty image of what you think you are.

Once successfully implementing the Inward Formula, they naturally begin to inform your practice(s). As you implement and maintain Neutral, the quality of your yoga, breath work, prayer, meditation and martial arts will substantially increase in a short amount of time.