Offering The Best of Yourself

Wow... as I am composing this blog, I experienced an aha moment! I find that this happens quite often while blogging. One of the numerous benefits. The knowledge was already there rattling around in my brain. What was missing was the ability to relate the thoughts to our Kung Fu training. 

Offering the best of yourself can begin with a simple act of kindness! A genuine smile, a helping hand or a warm hello. The list is endless and can provide a much needed lift in spirit. I see these acts of kindness as external. This is what we present to the world.

In between these external acts of kindness, I have this little voice in my head that has become accomplished at unkind chatter. The type of chatter that judges. Judgements of self, others and situations as I go about my day. I've come to see this as an opportunity for growth. An opportunity for self awareness, to change thought patterns and create internal acts of kindness towards myself and others.

Balancing the internal with the external creates an optimum environment to achieve the greatest success!

Namaste!

Progressing Wisely

Having decided to join the team again back in October, I knew that I would need to get a head start in order to increase the quality and number of push ups that I could do in a set. In previous years I had been able to build up to 20 - 30 decent push ups, but that was no longer the case. I also knew that my push ups had gotten a bit lazy. The quality was not where it needed to be. 

It is surprising how quickly everything gained can be lost without the proper attention. After about 4 weeks time I was able to build up to 10 proper push ups. Now I just needed to slowly add until I could again do 20 reps of proper push ups. This was much harder than I thought it would be and was also taking much longer. I was able to add an extra push up here and there but not consistently. 

Finally I was able to do 11 push ups at a time every day for 1 week. The following week I added one more for a total of 12 per set. Slow, but consistent results. After some initial frustration, I was finally feeling some momentum. By the second week in February I was up to 13 per set and then on February 12th as I finished my first set of the day, something tweaked on my right side. It didn't feel too bad, but I listened to my body and took it easy for the remainder of the day. The following day things felt worse and so no push ups again. Instead I focused on gentle stretching as I felt the momentum sliding away. 

After doing a bit of research my best guess is that the injury is in the pectoralis minor muscle. I am back to doing only 10 pushups at a time with some soreness and still being very careful. Most of my push ups are done on the counter or wall and still with caution. I know that I can regain my momentum and look forward to when I can do a set of 20 push ups again.

This year will be about taking time to listen to my body, progressing wisely to hopefully avoid injury, and progressing wisely during and after an injury.

Namaste

Dance Like No One is Watching!

Dance Like No One is Watching!

My personal goals may seem somewhat simple at a quick glance. They are however chosen with much thought and purpose. The goal that I want to discuss today is 10 minutes of dance done consecutively for 100 days. Known as a 100 day challenge. I have a few of these 100 day challenges planned for the Year of the Ox. 

This particular goal was chosen to add some joy and fun into the year and to also add some feminine energy to help balance all the goals for the year. Dance is also being used as a means to developing increased body awareness, flow, rhythm and freedom of movement, with the desire to transfer and apply all of this to my forms in Kung Fu.

Something that I struggle with in Kung Fu is awareness of my body and trusting what feels right and what doesn't. In my world something can feel good, but I am still unsure whether it is correct? This is partially because I over analyze most everything. I've also realized very recently that an even bigger issue stems from a comment made many many years ago. Two people very close to me made a critical comment about my dancing. I remember being surprised and hurt at the time. For someone that had always been shy and lacked a bit of self confidence, this was damaging. I became much more self conscious when dancing and no longer trusted myself in how I moved. I have managed over the years to gain some of that confidence back, but definitely struggle with trusting what feels right. 

Words have tremendous power and that power can boost us up when needed or bring us down and have long term effects. Especially when at the time you don't even realize how much damage has been done. At least now I know the root cause and can work on building up my body awareness while having fun.

When I'm dancing at home I move freely and feel the music. I play with movements and enjoy myself, not worrying what anyone may think. I dance for me. I dance like no one is watching!

Namaste!

Mastery - Part 1

 Up until recently I had been finding myself reluctant to jump in and start blogging. Initially I had lots of excuses such as the Year of the Ox hasn't officially started yet, etc., etc. I did however start push ups, and sit ups and reading other team members blogs, but then I started to feel overwhelmed by the volume, the time commitment needed to read all the posts, and most of all the greatness I found in each post. 

I found myself starting to question my decision to become a member of the team again and continue my journey towards mastery. The ego works in mysterious ways and can be unpredictable. It can serve to boost you up or bring you down. My mind started to play it's games and tell stories. Stories that don't serve me in a positive way. Stories about all the hard work ahead, the extra anxiety and sacrifices etc. These stories completely left out any successes in past years, the rewards that come from failure, the ability to reflect and thus stretch time, how easy it can be to fit most of the requirements into a day and so much more. 

In order to move forward I needed something that would help me get started and help me to continue  while on this journey. This is where "Mastery" by Stuart Emery comes into play. Although I had not memorized "Mastery" when last on the team, I was familiar enough with the messaging to recognize it as a valuable tool. The 3rd paragraph and the line that states: "Develop compassion for yourself so that you can be in the presence of masters and grow from the experience." was applicable to what I was experiencing.

In January I started reading "Mastery" at least once per day and will continue to do so throughout the year. I think of it as a way to ground myself. Reminding myself everyday of why I've joined the team and that I am not alone in my journey. I know from previous years many team members wait too long and leave this requirement/goal until later in the year, thus loosing out on many of it's benefits. I don't want to just memorize "Mastery", I want to understand and embrace the concepts contained within those words. And whenever I'm feeling like I am not enough or overwhelmed I can read it over and over again to help nourish the seeds within. 

Namaste!

1/12 of a Teaspoon

I opened a great email at work today that was informative and thought provoking. Did you know that the life of a worker bee is 6 to 20 weeks depending on the time of year? Most of that time is spent gathering nectar. And in their lifetime they will only make 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey. All their work is done for the colony, helping future generations and not the individual bee. I've included the link so that you can read the entire article.

Our team requirements and the goals that we set for ourselves are comprised of fractions of a teaspoon all adding up to greatness. It can be difficult sometimes to see the results that we are building at any given moment, but they are there none the less. 

Whether we are working as an individual, a part of a team or a community every small step we take is part of a larger picture that provides benefits to ourselves and those around us. The benefits may not always be noticeable, but they are real and build into a ripple effect. 

There are always going to be those that shine brightly. produce amazing results and are directly responsible for greatness.  However, never discount your own effort and contribution, whatever the size. It all matters! Every 1/12 of a teaspoon counts! 

https://ideas.ted.com/if-you-want-to-tackle-big-problems-try-thinking-like-a-bee/

Namaste,

Michele Ward