A Minor Glitch

Oops, somehow I failed to realize the challenges of jet lag after returning home from my trip to China. A 14 hour time difference and all that time on a plane causes havoc with a person‘s system and internal clock. Approximately one day for every hour of time zone change is required for the body to readjust. 

I had pre planned and adjusted my training while in China, and had solid measurable results, but somehow completely missed what returning home might look like. In the past when I’ve travelled jet lag didn’t really affect me all that much. Maybe that is why I didn’t factor it into the equation. 

Getting back on track with a sleep routine has been ok, but what I’m finding surprising is how drained I feel throughout the day. And as I slowly began to feel a bit more like myself, something occurred with my left leg. It could be a combination of fatigue, Tuesdays kicks, and knees that have just been overdone with all the walking and stairs in the past few weeks. Any motivation I was able to muster up disappeared after adding in the unexpected pain/discomfort and reduced leg stability to the jet lag.

What I do have is great feedback/experience to draw on for my next trip. I will now factor in jet lag for future trips. Sometimes life has other plans, so it’s a great reminder to take care of myself and listen to my body. 

This is also another opportunity to practice an aspect of mastery that often gets overlooked - internal cultivation and embracing the moment. (I seem to be getting these reminders more and more.) This aspect of mastery tends to be less outwardly active or results driven, and harder to measure. It is also where a lot of clarity and personal growth can occur which is just as important, maybe even more so because it helps facilitate better responses to situations and guide us on our physical paths.

 I feel this relates very closely to the direction my physical forms training is taking me this year. Finding a way to apply more internal calmness and centeredness may help me to develop more flow and ease of movement within intentional action. 

Gratitude - Anchoring Moments

Practising gratitude has been part of my daily life for a few years now. I typically start my morning being grateful for the day ahead. And then I do a review of the things I’m grateful for before I go to bed in the evening. There are times when it can become a bit robotic and this is when I know I need to change things up a bit and refocus on why I practise gratitude.

There are times I’ll take a specific gratitude and expand on all the reason why I’m grateful for it. Other times I'll focus on being grateful for a challenging situation, the lesson presented and the potential opportunity to learn and grow. Practising gratitude when things don't go as planned or life's little challenges helps with perspective and gives me back some control of the situation. 

Recently, I’ve been working on applying awareness and and gratitude throughout the day. It is these moments of gratitude in real time that I find most powerful. I see them as anchoring moments that often fill my being with wonder, connection and reinforce a life well-lived. 

On my recent trip to China I experienced many moments of gratitude. Walking through the square amongst hundreds of Kung Fu students as they were training and then standing in the performance hall at the Shaolin Wushu Center was one of those profound anchoring moments. Many days later as we were heading back to our hotel at night, I was struck by the beauty of the colorful lights on the bridge we passed by, and I thought how beautiful China is. This led to some reflection and I was filled with gratitude for all I'd experienced. Something that came to mind in that moment was how much Kung Fu has shaped my life and empowered me to experience and travel the world. I've thought this many times in the past and still it is great to have that reinforcement and not take it for granted. 

Numbers Update

 Here are my numbers to the end of May

Pushups - 3740 modified + 585 full

*Up to 10 full pushups per set and working to increase full pushups every week or two.

Situps - 4325

Km's - 274

*Only tracking intentional Km's

AOK's - 284

Weapon - 234 reps + 385 min on individual techniques and learning form

H Form - 246 reps + 415 min on individual techniques and learning form

Blogs - 16

Sparring - 22

Kung Fu While Traveling

As I travel through China, the physical aspect of my kung fu looks quite a bit different. Time and space to do form reps has been almost nonexistent and yet there’s still a lot of Kung Fu happening. The great thing about Kung Fu is it so easily transferrable and applicable to every aspect of life. 

There has been many opportunities for mindful acts of kindness, practising awareness, a balance of eating healthy, and just eating for enjoyment as I try new foods and local sweets. I’m not adventurous when it comes to food, but I find myself trying something different most days.

Rather than stressing about what I can’t get done, my focus is on enjoying each moment, making new friends and stepping out of my comfort zone to experience and connect with the world around me. 

Push ups have been my anchor and doing a minimum of 1 set of 10 full pushups and at least 20 modified each day is helping me continue a degree of consistency. One would think this should be quite easy but with jet lag, 14 hour time difference and some very busy days, even this feels like a struggle at times. 

I have much gratitude and feel blessed to be traveling and experiencing this wonderful country of China!

Injury Without Ego

Being a student of Kung Fu there always seems to be someone dealing with an injury or chronic issue, myself included. Quite often these injuries or issues come with a degree of frustration when it comes to limitations, the ups and downs of recovery or a timeline that doesn’t fit our expectations. 

As martial artists we learn to adapt, expand our ability to listen to our bodies and even embrace the benefits of training differently, knowing there is much to be gained from the challenges we are faced with. Part of these challenges include learning to appreciate and take better care of our bodies. As students pursing a path towards mastery it becomes ingrained in us to push our limits. Because of this it can be challenging to not push too hard or to soon while navigating an injury, especially as we experience moments of impatience.

Hearing others talk about their injuries and areas of struggle is helping me to take a step back and consider my own chronic knee issues in a slightly different light. I think it comes down to being able to take ego out of the equation. When I remove ego it allows more space for joy, better equipping me to work with the injury instead of against it. 

 Joy brings a harmonious ease and spaciousness to life, it is a balanced expression with calm and tranquil energy. Joy creates openness and clarity helping to navigate a way forward. Going beyond our limits then becomes a natural way of being rather than a need to force or push our limits. Ego is removed.

So the challenge as I see it is to let go of ego and embrace joy in order to fully absorb and appreciate the path these lessons are tying to steer us towards. That is what will take us beyond our self imposed limits. Adaptation and anything else that matters will come naturally and the way forward will become clear.

China, here I come!

I have a trip to China coming up very quickly and will be gone from May 19 to June 4, back just in time for the Farmers Day parade. In addition to adapting to a very different training schedule I will need to think about and prepare for a demo after the parade. 

While away I know training will require adjustments to be made on a daily basis as I adapt to the time difference, lack of space and each days itinerary. I may not be able to do whole form reps, but I’m sure there will be opportunities to work on specific techniques or maybe at times sections of my forms. There may be days where all I can muster is some meditation at the end of the day. And that will be ok as long as I am being mindful and taking advantage of opportunities. In addition to experiencing and absorbing all that China has to offer my goal is to focus on aspects of Kung Fu on a daily basis to retain consistency. And if I can manage that, it will be easier to step back into a training routine when I arrive back home because the consistency will still be in place.

Access to Facebook and email may present some challenges. Hopefully my eSIM and VPN will help to provide access to these platforms so I can continue to share blogs and submit my numbers come June 1. And I’m hoping to be able to connect on FaceTime for our Saturday morning Classes. 

The time difference is 14 hours so 8 AM on Saturday morning will be 10 PM in China. ☝

Because I won’t be here for the Tiger Challenge, I will be posting a video of my hand form and my weapon form. I know it’s not the same as taking part in the tournament, but still applying effort. I'm not very comfortable with watching videos of myself and then to put it out there for all to see feels like a step into the great unknown. A good way to expand my bubble.

Setting the Bar Higher

The female population have a naturally harder time with push-ups. Adding in the aging body to the equation has increased the difficulty in regaining my ability to do multiple full push-ups. The year started off with being able to do 2-3 full push-ups and I've progressed carefully and slowly at this time to 6 full push-ups. Yes, it’s taking me a bit longer than I would’ve expected, but I’ve been happy with the results because there is progression and I’m not injuring myself in the process. 

It turns out that what first started as progressing wisely has now begun to limit me. I didn’t realize this was happening until having a conversation with Sifu Hayes about push-ups. He mentioned having a bigger or even unrealistic number in his head when doing his pushups. It’s like a little lightbulb went off in my brain. My focus had been to add one full push-up with good technique every week or two as I built up muscle strength. Progression yes, quality yes, and yet very slow. There was also mention of doing them faster or slower at different parts of the push-up, a way to trick the brain and body to be able to do more. 

I’ve since experimented with having a bigger number in my head as I set out to do my push-ups and wow, it works. Instead of just going from 6 to 7 push-ups I’ve been able to do eight and even 10 push-ups. It's interesting because when I thought about increasing by just 1 pushup, it felt like a struggle and suddenly I'm doing an extra 2-4 pushups. 

Mentally raising the bar while in the moment has helped me to move beyond the limits I had set for myself. The possibility for potential and progression expanded while still allowing me to listen to my body and train wisely. What I love about this as well is how I’m able to connect this experience to the lessons 'Mastery' by Stewart Emery endeavours to teach us. I see the relevance to my life and the untapped potential that we all hold when we we remove arbitrary limits.