Physical vs Mental

One week in to my personal challenge for the Year of the Ox. I didn't want to start easy, so I chose the longest form I know. Da Mu Hsing. The longest, and with a great deal of the techniques that I know as well. 

Something very interesting happened to me with this challenge, and my physical abilities vs my mental abilities really shone through. This is one of the forms that I learned early on in my kung fu training, so I have been learning, practicing, and critiquing for several years now. When we do forms in class, we generally spend a good portion of time learning the form, and then we move on to something else. It is up to me to continue to practice, and hone my form. We do revisit in class, but not with the amount of time spent learning it, understandably so.

And this particular form was changed, to help the flow of the form. I have been having a bit of a mental block with the changes from the start. One of the reasons for this was because my mind was trying to tell my body to do something that my muscle memory said - no, that is not the next step! Continuous repetition for a week on this form has helped me immensely. And another neat thing happened by about mid week - my muscle memory was now telling my mind that it wasn't the next step when my mind went back to the old steps in the form. 50,000, I get it.

We learn our martial art to help us become well rounded. We practice our Kung Fu to strive to be better. We live our Kung Fu to become Masters. Will I ever achieve my form masterfully? Maybe, but that is my journey, and I will strive for greatness, and embrace change along the way, and never stop learning and growing.