I was impressed during the meditation class a monk was teaching in Pema Tsal where he would speak about confidence and power that could be achieved by Iddhipada Meditation.
In the case of the practice he prepared for it, the first one is related to mind-body coordination:
Link to original
- 5min Mind-Body Coordination exercises taken from martial arts like Tai Chi (see video below for the full exercise). 7 full-stretched poses interpolated by a connecting pose — half bent knees and pelvis retroversion. Breathing in an out must be coordinated with the movements and the exhalation involves bringing your lips together so to produce a wind-like sound.
What I loved is how he demonstrated the aspect of confidence in relation to mind-body coordination:
Rise your left arm. (students do without doubt) Rise your left arm. (students do without doubt). [Repeats: left arm, right arm, …] Now try to raise your left arm!.
When he said try to raise your left arm, it confused me, so I didn’t know what to do. Same with the rest of students. It was a great example to illustrate confusion that might arise between the link of body and mind.