Diet & love of food

I have always had a love of food. Up until recently my career was based in the food industry.  Food to me is one of life's pleasures.  To be enjoyed, savored and relished in with good friends and family.  To me it shouldn't be just fuel for the body.  I'm never going to be that person that is so extremely regimented that I would only eat steamed chicken breast with steamed brown rice and raw broccoli, BLECK!!!  I grew up in a house where my mother and both of my grandmothers were excellent cooks and take out or fast foods was a once a month "treat".

I have found as I get older that I need to take a look at what I'm eating.  I have found that my diet is affecting how I feel both mentally and obviously physically.  I do eat more fast food than I would like to admit and mostly because its convenient and also because I like the taste.  I have found that when I take the time to properly plan my meals and cook myself that I feel better because I'm eating better.  As I'm starting to increase my training at the kwoon, I can see a definite coloration between what I eat and how I feel while I'm training and after I'm done.  I have noticed that when I don't eat well, I can't focus well on what is being taught.  I also find that I lack the appropriate amount of energy that would help me perform at the level that I want to be at.

This morning as I write this, I'm enjoying a cup of black espresso and a bowl of hot cooked grains with milk and a touch of brown sugar.  This is my happy place when it comes to breakfast on a Sunday morning.

Mr. Ian Repay
Student Of Silent River Kung Fu
Stony Plain, Alberta

All about priorities

This is has been a struggle for as long as I can remember.  What is a priority to me?  This kind of comes and goes depending on where I am mentally.  I tend way to often to lower my priorities too much.  I know that I perform the best when I am under immense pressure.  However I think I perform this way because I have left myself no other choice.

When it come to ranking priorities in my life I tend to rank those that have immediate gratification close to the top.  Ones that take too much time to achieve get pushed lower down.  For example, writing my blogs at times seem like a chore and there isn't anything that I can "touch" that will tell me there is gratification for doing this.  It goes back to my current mental state.  Right now, mentally I'm in a good place and I see value in pushing this blog toward the top of my list.  Why is that?  It's because I can "feel" the value of this mentally not only for my self but those of my teammates.  It's kind of hard to explain but this is how I'm currently seeing it.  Secondly, physically I'm getting back to a better place and that helps me mentally.  Yesterday Sifu Lindstom instructed the fitness class and he did a great job pushing me very hard.  I needed it and he didn't let me stop.  I forgot how good it feels when it was all over and your body has that wonderful "tingly" feeling.  I feel mentally better about myself because I'm pushing my body physically to get back to where I want to go.

So all of this is helping me re focus my priorities and I'm pushing my Kung Fu back closer to the top of my priority list.  Now the challenge will be not to let my Kung Fu slide down the priority list, any suggestions?

Mr. Ian Repay
Student Of Silent River Kung Fu

The Journey

We had our monthly I Ho Chuan meeting yesterday and it was great to see everyone again.  Its been almost two months since I have been at the kwoon due to work and its been wearing on me.

We discussed mastery as the path and not so much the destination.  I have always had a difficult time realizing something as abstract as a black belt or building something like a shed or a chicken coup (if you don't believe me come over and see my coup).  I see this very large end goal and I don't see the small ones that mark progress along the way.  I get distracted and disengaged from projects if I can't achieve some level of success along the way. 

With my kung Fu this is exactly the same.  Early on I had lots of success as the knowledge was all new and the belt promotions were closer together.  Now where I am the successes are farther apart and I'm getting distracted and discouraged.  I do look back on where I have been and when I do I become motivated again.  Its just hard to force myself to look behind when I have always looked ahead and to a certain extent been programmed that way. 

I'm working on getting back to enjoying the journey and celebrating the little successes as they come.  I'm now focusing on my next stripe (black) then the next and then my brown belt.  Little by little I'm back on the path and little by little I'm starting to enjoy the journey again.

Mr. Ian Repay
Student of Silent River Kung Fu

A work in progress

I'm sitting in my hotel room in Fort McMurray and not in the kwoon training.  It seems like such a long time ago that I had any consistency in my training.  It seems all that I can do these days is get a couple of days of training at the kwoon before I'm called away by work. It's not the ideal situation but I'm trying to take it in stride as best that I can. 

I'm looking at this as an opportunity to train differently.  I'm training on my own and am getting my form reps in.  I have even started to run (anyone that knows me knows how I hate this!) every couple of days I to try and get some cardio in.  In the past I would have become very frustrated with this and would be in a very low place.  However this time around this isn't bothering me near as much as it used to.  Now I am looking at things differently, I am looking at the opportunity that is in front of me. 

The one thing that I still struggle with is sharing what I'm doing.  I have a hard time with as I'm a very private person.  I always felt that what I do with my life is for me and me only.  I'm now realizing that my failures and or successes affect those around me such as my family and my team mates.  I am starting to realize that by sharing these things with others is making me a better person.  A work in progress.

Can't wait to see everyone!

Mr. Ian Repay
Student of Silent River Kung Fu.
Stony Plain, Alberta

Golf & Kung Fu

I was reading Mr. Sands blog regarding golf a couple of weeks ago.  It was an interesting read and this year I have played more golf than I have ever played in the last couple of years.  However this past Friday was the first time that I realized the connection between the two.

First off to be really good at either you need to practice and or train a lot and more importantly consistently.  Secondly both require a large amount of mental training/discipline.  Many times have I said "nine holes aren't enough and 18 is too many.  They need to make a 13 hole course".  The reason that I have said this is not that I'm tired physically but it's the mental side of the game that is hard to maintain through 18 holes of golf.

Finally the last and the most important similarity would have to be the six harmonies.  Shoulders & hips, elbows & knees & hands and feet all are important in both golf and Kung Fu.  I played with a guy that was the same size and make up as me but he could consistently hit the ball far and straighter than me.  What I noticed was how effortlessly he hit the ball.  Some guys use all shoulders and arms when they hit the ball and it's very easy to see.  The guys that can hit the ball far and straight with out too much effort are the ones that are employing the "six harmonies" and most of them don't even know it.

This past Friday was one of those moments when you realize what you are learning in the Kwoon is applicable in other areas of life.  When I slowed my swing down and really focused on the six harmonies the ball traveled farther and straighter and there was much much less touqure in my upper body.  I really noticed that when my hips where moving in harmony with my shoulders that I really felt a nice swing.  It's moments like this, that's gets me more and more excited to keep coming back to the Kwoon!

Ian Repay
Student of Silent River Kung Fu
Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada.

Lineage

Had a good I Ho Chaun meeting yesterday with the team and our team's mentor's.  Very candid discussions surrounding lineage in the martial arts and what it means to be a black belt.  Not only to be a black belt but to live a black belt life.  My goal is still to attain my black belt and when I do my further goal is to live the life of a SRKF black belt.  Lineage has always been important to me especially in regards to family.  This is how most of us can relate to lineage.  Who is in the family tree is important to me and it represents who came before me.  There are always individuals that are are in the family tree that perhaps we are not the most proud of.  The same can be said in the martial artist lineage.  Whatever your opinion is of these individuals they are still part of who the family is and who the martial artist is.

I am proud to be part of my families lineage as well as SRKF's lineage.

Ian Repay
Student Of Silent River Kung Fu
ianrepay@blogspot.ca

Mumble jumble and everything in between

This is a tough blog to write.  When I joined SRKF I joined because I wanted to get into shape and to become a black belt in kung fu.  When I think back what I thought a black belt was or what it represented is very interesting.  I can honestly tell you that I thought a black belt meant that you could fight and that you had "arrived".  There was ego in my mind when I think back to that time, "look at me, I'm a black belt thus I'm better than you".  Wow has a lot changed in the past four years.

I no longer think that earning a black belt means you have "arrived" rather it means you have reached a starting point.  A starting point for the rest of your life. 

This brings me to where I'm now.  I'm not sure where I am to be completely honest.  I have almost lost faith in what I am trying to achieve.  What I mean by this is that I'm no longer motivated by achieving my kung fu black belt.  I'm no longer wanting to work as I have in the past years to get to that point.  Why is this?  I don't really know and I can't put my finger on it.  However I do think that I haven't fully recovered from my failure last year.  I know that I haven't come to terms with where I am physically and where I was before I left to SC.  They may seem trivial to some but I know how difficult it was to get to that point and what I have to go through again just to get back there.  I know that I have not mentally prepared myself to want to go through that again. 

When I joined SRKF I was looking for a lifestyle, a way to live my life through my martial arts and my kung fu.  For the past four years I have loved this part of the martial arts.  Why now am I feeling like this lifestyle is no longer serving me?  Why am I looking at my kung fu in this way?

So what to do, where do I go from here?  Do I throw away four years of my life and quit?  I attended another school recently just to see what it would be like.  I will share with you that in some ways I liked it better.  In other ways not as much.  I have decided to continue with my kung fu and to see my journey continue.  For how long?  I'm not sure but one thing I am sure of is that I made a commitment to the I Ho Chuan Team.  There is no quitting the team and I refuse to break that commitment.  If there is only one thing that I can say that I achieved this year then I can at least say that I didn't quit.

I want to ask something of my team, if you don't hear from me or see me please reach out to me.  I will do the same for you.  It means a lot to know that the team still wants you as a team mate.

Ian Repay
Student Of Silent River Kung Fu
Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada
ianrepay@blogspot.com