The Center of everything

 We practice, and talk about our center all the time. I have practiced many, many hours on concentrating, and ‘feeling’ my center. As of late I am feeling the effects of not being mindful of just that. 

Injuries can have multiple impacts on our training, and it can be a continual adjustment. I have found that now that I am working on incorporating more back into my training, I am losing my center. It can be a challenge when your lower half doesn’t connect correctly with your top half. I have to adjust almost all of my lower body movements to not further injure myself. In doing this, I am coming out of my center, and ‘pulling’ everything up. 

I have certainly noticed this in the last couple of weeks, as my neck and shoulders have been extremely sore. Yes, I have been sitting in front of a computer for long days, but after concentrating and really slowing down my forms and techniques, I found the culprit is coming out of my center. I am protecting my lower half, and probably a bit of fear is there, and I’m over compensating. 

Mastery doesn’t care. I need to always evaluate and pay attention. When I stop doing that, my body tells me. I can proceed, and progress with my injury, but I need to be more mindful to not lose the path in getting there. Continuous evaluation, adjustment, and attention is imperative for me to progress. 

Proactive

 Lately with learning how far I can go and adjusting with an injury, I’ve also realized I can be more proactive. I thought I was doing okay with practicing and pushing myself, but then I had an instructor point out something that should have been  painfully obvious to me. 

As I was going through the last few techniques and moves in my weapon form, which I am still trying to nail down, he gave me some golden advice. A piece of advice that changed the way I perceived how I am training. He stated he knew I was hurting, but the moves I am able to do should be crisp, and completed. I was not doing this. 

This brought clarity on a couple of things. First, even though I was concentrating on getting the last sequence corrected, I shouldn’t have let the moves leading up to that point be soft, or unfinished. The second, as always, is how valuable the information we are provided from our instructors is. This was something that I try to mindful of doing, but was not. The little reminders, and knowledge shared with us, really are golden nuggets. Especially when trying to work through, and with an injury, it does not affect everything I am doing. So thank you Sihing Csillag for taking the time to work with me, and providing much needed guidance.

Training and Learning

 It has been a productive week. I’ve been off work this week, and have made a lot of progress with my training. The swelling has finally come down in my knee, and I’m able to feel things a little better. 

I am up to 20 minute intervals with forms now. I know this doesn’t sound like a lot, but it has come a long way from 4 weeks ago. I am learning how to move a little differently where needed, and feel when I am over taxing, before I create any further damage. This has definitely been a learning experience, but I finally feel as though I am healing and making progress. 

I wasn’t able to get into my doctor for a month, so I have an appointment April 17th to book an MRI, and we’ll see how long that takes lol. Physio weekly, and now twice a week has helped tremendously with my progression, as well as consistent training, stretching, icing, and rest in between. 

I’m really looking forward to being back on the mats this week. My training will look a little different for a while yet, but healing completely is the goal.