What am I doing?

 Currently in bed, sleep eluding me. 

Many thoughts and questions running through my mind. Am I ready? Am I ready for where this journey leads? Who am I doing this for? Why do I want this? Am I misunderstood? Why can the words not come out as they sound in my head, or are indended? Am I a better person than I was yesterday? This morning?

A few of the ones currently swirling around. I always try to reflect, and with reflecting comes question. I hope for answers to the questions. They don’t always come quickly. I’d be lying if I said the questions don’t bring doubt. Dig deeper. Find a way. Be better than yesterday, and even this morning. Only I can lead this path. 

Where Am I?

 Seems a straightforward question. But more often than not, checks and balances need to happen. I like to use the analogy - leave it at the door. Whether I am going into work, or visits with my mom, and especially in my training. No matter what is going on in life, I need to check it at the door, and focus on the task in front of me. 

Focus and intent. I try to clear my mind of all else going on. When I walk through the Kwoon doors, through the lobby at work, or even in my basement, or back yard to practice, the intent must be true. If it isn’t, I am only cheating myself. 

See you on the mats! 

Responsibility

 We all have responsibilities. We all have different responsibilities. Some may have children, spouses, family, jobs; and we have Kung Fu.

We take our responsibilities seriously, right? Yes, some take more of our time and energy than others, but one responsibility should not suffer because of the other. We need to be adaptable, flexible, and willing to sacrifice at times. This includes our training as well. We all chose to be here. We all walk through the doors of SRKF and want to learn. But it is our responsibility on how far that will take us. We have amazing people around us, that contribute time, knowledge, and energy, selflessly given for the taking. 

Our instructors are there to help, guide, and even motivate, but they cannot make us progress forward. That is our responsibility. To me, 50,000 is one of the most important lessons I have learned. If I practice mindfully, and keep this responsibility in my mind at all times, my progress will come. My responsibility. 

See you all on the mats! (I feel like I’ve waited so long to say that!!)

Weekend for a Recharge

 This weekend was spent in Banff, as an anniversary getaway. It had been postponed originally, but was decided to just do it this weekend, instead of postponing again. 

It was a great weekend! It was meant to relax, recharge, and ground myself again. All of that and so much more became of the weekend. 

We decided to get a bit of a cool background for our push up and sit up videos for the IHC demo. So we found a nice little space with a beautiful mountain backdrop. In doing that we actually ended up doing a bit of a demo ourselves, with a bunch of onlookers enjoying their breakfast. We also decided to take it a bit further and do our forms as well. I hope they enjoyed the show lol. 

Some great discoveries were made by doing this though. I’ve never been one to ‘enjoy’ performing in front of crowd. The usual nervousness is there, and the fear of making an idiot of myself. When we do our demos with IHC, we are with our team, which seems to make it a bit easier for me. But this time, Don and I just found a great spot, and I didn’t really let the thought of people watching us bother me. I just did my thing. Once I started my form, it was me and my form. I was focused on where I was and what I was doing in that moment. It was peaceful, and purposeful. 

I also finally learned how to blog on my phone! This will be a useful tool for me (and I took way too long to learn, I know!) as now it does not matter where I am, No excuse to not blog!! 

Return to class has been fabulous! Back in the kwoon, with everyone in person is fantastic. I am very thankful for all that online kung fu has taught me, and the discoveries it has helped me to reveal as well though. I believe we are a very special group to have gotten this very unique training experience. But I also do hope we stay back in the kwoon for good now! 

My favorite Thing in Kung Fu

 This is tough, as I enjoy all parts of Kung Fu, mental and physical. So to pick one, I will say forms. Hard to pick one form, but probably 18 Temple Motions I guess. Forms provide our foundation, and building blocks for our martial art, which is why I enjoy them so much. 

Physical Challenge

 The first thing that comes to mind is my wrists. With carpal tunnel in both wrists, it can limit certain things. The worst is push ups, that position is very painful, so I do mostly wall push ups. I also have a bad ankle, but Tai Chi is helping with that a lot! 

Favorite Time of Day

 I think my favorite time of day is first thing in the morning. The day is new and fresh. I’ve hopefully had a good sleep, and endless possibilities are in front of me. This has changed as I’ve gotten older, as nights used to be my favorite.