I love watching Jackie Chan movies. Obviously the plot and acting are not the main draws of the movie for me. No, it is the way he moves and the things he does. Often the stunts that amaze me the most are the throw away ones he does rather the big, seen from multiple angles, stunt he finishes his movies with. For example, in one movie he is walking towards a gate and rather than open it, he leaps to one side then the other and then over it. A quick little stunt that shows how in control of his body he is.

The other thing I like to watch on his movies are the out takes because I then realize that although he is amazing, he doesn’t always get it right. I find that to be reassuring. I mean here is somebody who has trained their entire life to do what he does and still he does not always get it right. And neither will I.

Watching Jackie Chan jump and twist his body so he lands correctly shows me how in control of his movements he is. If he twisted a little too far during a fall, he would twist the other way to be sure he landed correctly (usually). The few times I’ve done anything remotely gymnastic, once my body was in the sky it would just fall where it wanted to and I had no hope of changing that. Jackie Chan is flexibly balanced.

I want to be flexibly balanced as well. Not physically, although that would be nice, but rather emotionally. I want to be able to note when things are changing and then adjust myself in midstream to accommodate the change and stay balanced. I want to learn how to “go with the flow” if you were.

The first step in doing this is to first be aware that there is a change coming. I mentioned how when I launch myself in the air, my brain and body are no longer in control, whereas when Jackie Chan does it, he maneuvers gracefully. He has trained himself to understand what his body is doing at all times and adjust. He knows when he is off balance and makes the appropriate adjustments. Similarly realizing that an issue is on its way allows me to make preparations and adjustments and should lessen its impact on me.

Similarly, by preparing a few common responses to the stress that comes at me, I’ll be better prepared to deal with them and consequently they will cause less stress. I’m sure Jackie Chan has different types of flips and rolls that he has practiced over the years and he uses them as he needs to. Same idea here. For instance, there will come a time when something expensive and necessary will break. A car, air conditioner, refrigerator, me, whatever. Having created an emergency fund for just such an occurrence dramatically lowers the stress it causes because I already know how to pay for it, now I just need to get it fixed. When it comes to something like that, I’m flexibly balanced.

Of course you can’t predict everything that will happen and these are the things that cause me the most stress and are also the most difficult for me to respond correctly to. It is a learning process for me and each time an unexpected incident occurs, I try to handle it just a little better than the last one. It does not always work, but slowly I am becoming flexibly balanced.