I mentioned to a very senior Systema Instructor way back at the start of the year, that one Sunday in December, I passed an old horse being ridden on a woodland track, and immediately was so drawn to the horse and it’s feelings of sadness that I felt as ‘one’ with it albeit for a very short moment in time. So much so I felt rather frustrated not to have been able to comfort it.

Similarly with trees we cannot tell their + / – but can sense their spirit – whether happy, content or sad. Equally with the bees and birds – yes you can hear them buzz & chirp, but the resonance they emit allows one to enter their world briefly and feel their fragility, contentment & so forth.

With people I also try to focus on their rhythms or resonance. It’s like you look at someone in the street and can sense (not physically seeing), that they are either ill, happy, anxious etc. – like going inside them but in a fleeting sense – affectively walking with them internally. What has this to do with Systema you may ask – quite simply one word – Intuition.

With intuition or a sixth sense, we are able to gauge reaction even prompting reaction. This is key to Systema and works far, far more affectively if one is calm & relaxed. If the mind & body is focussed on anger, aggression, worry, resentment etc., this clouds our ability to ‘sense‘. Systema amongst many things builds on intuitiveness.

Walking into a pub and feeling the atmosphere might persuade you to leave immediately – something not quite right. Equally standing next to someone who you might sense is ‘on edge’ makes you feel it is necessary to move away.

Systema is not all about dealing with an event as it unfolds, but potentially being ahead of it!