Mindful steps

Tonight my wife and I returned from a holiday skiing to Sunshine Village.  While we were in Banff we drove to Johnson’s Canyon.  In short, it is a trail that sees over 1 million tourists every year, and as such the snow pack that falls on the catwalk’s that stretch along the edges of the canyon are more ice than snow.  Most people travelling it do so with crampons or snow cleats at the very minimum.  We didn’t have this luxury so we took our time to get to the waterfall. 

On one of the sections we were walking, Stephanie asked why I wasn’t slipping as often, and my automatic response was, because I walk with intent.  (In reality it had everything to do with footwear but I didn’t tell her that!)

In Kung Fu training, we often hear Sifu mention about training with intent.  Mindful practice of Kung Fu, to me means something more than getting in my repetitions.  I think sometimes when we are faced with the goals of the I Ho Chuan we get number focused and forget the reason for the numbers. Slapping in several repetitions of a form in a day without being mindful of what we are doing can be slow and painful.

Time is very precious, and this week, I am going to focus on quality, not quantity in my training.  At the end of this I Ho Chuan year, I do not want to pat myself on the back for time I wasted in mindless practice.

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