What is this?

• Firm & Flexibility (F2 theorem) is my philosophy for tackling challenges, which I have learnt to identify, face up to & resolve properly

Why the need for such?

• Many a time I face many disturbances in the form of:

1. Physiological: bodily pain, ache, discomfort, sickness
2. Mind: sloppiness, clumsiness, fatigue, distraction, stiffness, constraint
3. Feeling: sadness, ecstatic, anger, humorous, pain, worry, fear, nervous
4. Surroundings: weather, pollution, comfort
5. People: relationships, coupling

• In order to deal with these effectively, so the need to innovate suitable way according to my wishes

How to go about finding that method?

• This is similar to business & research strategies & plan:

1. Identify the needs
2. Goals & objectives
3. Identify the resources & constraints, strengths & weaknesses of self & the other
4. Feasibility studies
5. Innovation, formulation & design
6. Experiment & analysis
7. Feedback, decisions & refinement
8. Finalising of structure & narrowing of scope
9. Fine-tuning
10. Implementation

• That is the general outline of the process of discovery
• I do it subconsciously using my physiological feelings & people’s reactions as feedback
• As I intend this to be a lifelong process, a free hand is given to the need to meet the urge to resolve it

What is the method that has evolved?

• The way of firm & flexibility has been adapted by my physiological system, as it is the dominant method for lasting retention within the body & consciousness
• This method has the two basic components of firm & flexibility, which in my view, sums up the coupling relationships between the three realms of consciousness, body & environment
• Firm & flexibility are intrinsically conflicting in nature just like push & pull in body motion, the tension & compression in mechanics, sound & unsound in structures, favourable & unfavourable in business, reliable & unreliable in research, fun & stern in mannerism, solid & fluid in states
• Through varying the proportions of firmness & flexibility, strike a balance between the two components to meet my needs & reach well-being

Why firm?

• Firmness or steadiness provides strength, support & substructure for my body & mind
• It represents taking a stand, persistence & perseverance to overcome physiological drags as well as determination & vigilance to deal with external threats & challenges
• It is solid, static, hard, tough, well-formed, male, proactive & yang in nature
• The physiological feeling is anger

Why flexible?

• Flexibility or fluidity gives absorption, understanding & superstructure for my body & mind
• It represents softness, subtlety, dampening, adaptation for survival, nourishment & real-time, in-the-moment sensation-action
• It is fluid, dynamic, soft, gentle, unformed, female, passive & yin in nature
• The physiological feeling is humour

What happens when firm & flexibility mix?

• Interesting phenomena
• This is akin to adjusting the volume of the radio to our wishes & in the range allowed by the equipment & the environment (HDB law prohibits disturbance to neighbours, lest flats be retrieved by HDB)
• If firm & flexibility can be understood by their physiological feelings, the mixture of anger with humour is quite intriguing
• Anger is often stiff, unyielding & proactive, thus resulting in the benefit of a firm stand & confidence, but also in the detriment of senseless arguments, fights, injuries & losses
• Humour is often relaxing, yielding & subtle, thus giving the good of release, creation, understanding & harmony, but also in the bad of indecisiveness, inertia & the-jack-of-all-trades-&-master-of-none consequence
• The harmonious merger of firmness & flexibility requires concentration on the relaxation positioning centres
• Like prestress concrete, by combining the advantages of anger (concrete) & humour (steel tendons) which mutually make up for their respective weaknesses, the overall result is better than the sum of the individual

How’s the feeling of firm & flexibility?

• It is a state of equilibrium – balance of the destabilising loads & the stabilising capacities
• Actually, I feel nothing special, just that there seems to be resultant disturbances
• In fact, I can feel either good or bad or both at the time, but this might disturb the balance, similar to fidgeting on the balanced seesaw
• There may be pain or discomfort, but I feel I can cope & no worry or fear results
• It can be described as lasting or contended provided I’m not concentrating on the balance itself, but slightly off it
• This is best summed by the Chinese sayings:
• 剛柔並行
• 以不變應萬變
• 膽大心細
• 無為: 順其自然