Feeling my forms

I'm really starting to feel my forms.  There were parts of yesterday's class that really clicked for me.  Loa Gar and 18 Temple motions are my two favorite forms and each part is fairly effortless. 

What I felt yesterday was "next level" stuff and it was pretty exciting. While performing my forms I started to feel that things weren't quite aligned.  Things didn't quite feel right.  When this happens I stop and reflect back on the "why?".  Is it my hips?  Are the six harmonies really harmonious in this part of the form?  I also am finding that the timing of the harmonies are becoming more noticable.  This was especially apparent with 18 Temple motions.  I could tell when my hands finished before my feet and vise versa. I'm really bringing to feel the form and when the six harmonies are harmonious the form feels incredible, kind of like silk.  

More repition is needed on the forms I don't like as much especially during the transitions in certain parts of Da Mu Sing.

Overall I personally like our forms. All of the "good stuff" is packed into them.

Mr. Repay  

 

#5 Favorite part of the day

This is an easy one for me, morning and in particular early mornings between 5:30 and 6 am.  I love the quietness of the morning. I like watching the sunrise and things begin to awaken. This is something that I didn't always enjoy but as I got older it changed from later evenings to earlier mornings. 

My dad used to like early mornings and when I was younger and living at home it didn't make sense to me, now it does.

Mr. Repay

#4 Cats Vs Dogs

Dogs all the way!!!! Dogs just love you and want nothing in life but to be with you.  I never really had dogs growing up as a kid, just a cat.  I never knew the realtiobships with dogs until I met my wife who's a huge dog lover. We have five dogs and a couple of cats.  I don't personally have anything against cats but they just don't bring the same.realtionships that my dogs do.

Mr. Repay

Snails are still moving forward.

I'm happy to update that things are moving in the right direction even more this past week. With the first class back at the Kwoon under my belt things are starting to feel even more "normal" if that's even a thing anymore?  

I've been taking a slower approach to my training these past couple of weeks. I'm aware of where I failed and the causes of that failure. So to avoid falling back I've decided that in order to develope a sustainable pace I need to ease back into things. This is tough because I'm so far behind on my personal requirements every bone in my body is screaming at me to push hard and catch up. This isn't realistic nor sustainable. What I'm focusing on is moving forward, even if it's at a snails pace.  That forward progression will generate the results that I'm looking for and the pace will increase. 

I'm focusing on a couple of key areas.  Blogging, class attendance and forms.  Each one of these things are feeding my engament.  The next phase that I'll be moving into is my I Ho Chuan requirements that I've been slack on.  Most of these are additional personal requirements but would include push ups, sit ups etc. 

Just being back in the Kwoon with all of my training mates has made a world of difference to my mental health. I traveled (and have resumed recently) extensively prior to the pandemic and I've always struggled when I was away for prolonged periods of time. The virtual environment that has been created is a improvement but for me can never replace the in person experience. 

Snails pace for now but still moving in that all important forward direction.  

Mr. Repay

#3 Return back to the kwoon

One word, ENERGY.  It was so amazing to be back with my team and to be able to feel the positive energy.  

I'm a person that needs to be in an environment where I give and take energy.  It was such a great recharge and I really hope that we are open for good now.

Mr. Repay

2 min blog #2 - Favourite Spot

 My favourite physical spot is by far my back yard and specifically on my back deck.  We’ve spent the past ten years developing this space to be private and tranquil.  I can’t wait for spring when I get out and enjoy some time in the sun and just enjoy the peace of the space along with the smells from my trees and flowers.  My other favorite place is anywhere that I am with my wife.  She is my best friend and anything we do together brings me immense joy and happiness.

Mr. Repay

2 min Blog challenge #1 Bucket List

 When I’m thinking of a bucket list I’m thinking of all the things that I want to do in my lifetime.  These are things like living in the US for a few years, car racing on a track, riding my motorcycle from Alaska to the tip of South America.  However I also think that my bucket list items can be modified to include things that would make other peoples lives that much better.  I never looked at it this way until recently and I think that has everything to with my maturity. 

Mr. Repay

Engagement

Engagement has been the key when I've seen the most progress and dis engement is the polar opposite in every regard.  

Engement is like trust, you have to work at it, feed it and nurture it. When you lose trust it requires so much more effort and time to rebuild it and the same thing applies when I've disengaged.  

So here I am re engaging and working on re building those habits that served my engagement. I still have that little voice in the back of my head that wants me to "take a night off" because I worked hard all day and I'm a little tired. If I listen to this voice even once I'm giving in and I'm on the road to disengagement. 

There truly is a time when this becomes easier and to a degree effortless, but for me it takes real effort and constant dedication.

Mr. Repay

Feeling better

 The last couple of days have been pretty awesome.  Things have gotten clearer for me and my attitude has improved.  I watched the last virtual lesson to prepare my self for my next class.  

I had a mentorship meeting with my company on Monday and we watched a pretty cool Ted talk about mentorship.  I’m currently enrolled in a year long mentorship program with my company that kicked off about two weeks ago.  After the Ted talk we had a group discussion where I talked a little bit about our school and the I Ho Chuan program.  I even talked about “table talk Tuesdays” and how that exercise helped people get to know each other, thanks Miss Ferris.  While I was talking about the I Ho Chuan program the moderator had her camera on, watching the look on her face was pretty interesting.  She was stunned that there’s a program out there like we have.  She was actually taken aback (in a good way) about why we have this mastery program and wanted to know so much more.  After that meeting I sat back and reflected upon how lucky I am that at this exact moment I have the opportunity to participate in the program and with such an amazing group of people.  

I’ve taken my Kung Fu and the I Ho Chuan program for granted at times over the years.  If you ever want to feel the awesomeness of what we’re doing try explaining it to a non martial artist.

Mr. Repay

Crawling

 It’s been a very difficult time recently for me.  I’ve struggled the most mentally than I have ever struggled in the past.  The past six weeks have been the most difficult as I’ve leaned far away and let the pandemic take a hold of me.  This was something that had been building slowly at first then hit me really hard.  I’m a person that really needs the interaction of others.  I fed off of and give energy and without an outlet to do this it’s been very hard on me mentally.  

I pulled back to the point that I almost quit.  Just typing that is difficult.  I almost quit because I felt an immense level of guilt.  I made promises when I joined the I Ho Chuan that I broke.  My personality is that of keeping my promises and doing what I say I’m going to do.  I felt because of these broken promises it was easier to just fade away.  However in the back of mind I kept telling myself if I fade away then truly what does that say about my character?  What kind of example would I be setting for my family?  

The biggest take away for me was realizing how important my thoughts are.  During this time, I was obviously down on myself.  Because of these thoughts they became my words.  Those words turned in actions (or no actions at all which is the same) which in turn influenced my behaviour.  I’ve realized that this lesson was taught to me many years ago by an informal mentor.  He tried to teach me how important this is in my life and how easily you can move through this process without even realizing it.

Today I have a great conversation with Sifu Brinker.  We talked about theses things and most importantly had some laughs.  Right now I’m crawling my way forward even if it’s just one cm.

Mr. Repay