Tai Chi Inspired Training Day 14,15 July 3,4

Tai Chi Inspired Training Day 14 July 3

I led the warmup in class this morning and started with something a little different: Awakening The Dragon. The reason I started with this form is to bring both the breathing into the belly and to bring the focus into the here and now and onto the mats. The "yay" for  me is that I sat in the kneeling position almost comfortably, almost. I also had the class do a couple of Lung 1 reps and go deeper into the stances. I have found that even though Lung is a slower paced form, it still gets the heart pumping and the legs shaking.

During the class I was working bell blocks and right away the thought of 2-handedness kicked in as well as the finishing rotation. This tells me that I am looking at things more intricately and that is good.

Chiropractor visit today to adjust my shoulder as my ac joint was a bit high and my shoulder was more sore. As the Doc said, heeling isn't a continuous straight line forward, it's both forward and back with the back part becoming less and less. What caused the extra pain? Not sure and could be a part of the heeling process. Argh!! There's that patience thing again.

Tai Chi Inspired Training Day 15 July 4

I actually did not train at all today to give my body rest after the chiropractic adjustment from yesterday. My shoulder is still crabby and my SI area is tender as it got adjusted back into place. The side to side pelvic tilt on the Swiss ball is good for the SI area and I have been encouraged to keep that exercise as well as train with the Swiss ball for core.

Last week I mentioned that I journaled 5 things that I like about the I Ho Chuan Snake team. Well, this has been a daily practice not only to keep the tone upbeat, but also to see where an opportunity is revealing itself. I once heard a quote that said "opportunities are often missed because they are often dressed in overalls and look like work." I can also add that an opportunity may not look like what I think it should look like or give the results I think it should give. My case in point is that my shoulder injury is a really good opportunity to learn, practice, and develop patience, compassion, and self care. Also a reminder of who really is in charge and it's not "me".

As for my glass art, the Gypsy Chicks in Stony Plain carry my pieces. All new stock has been put in today and the pieces that can be hung will be coming in shortly as soon as I invent how to hang them on the display. I have also been contemplating what to do with my Etsy store while I get my glass art website online. My website will tell my story and my journey while my Etsy store is, well, an online store to buy. Once my website is invented, what will happen to my Etsy store, I'm not sure and regardless I will still have an avenue for online purchase. As for now, I will load up my Etsy store and have that live while I work on my website. Even though I don't know how it will all unfold, one thing that I do know is that I can't sell something if it's in a box and no one sees it.
Sherri Donohue
My Blog

Brain or Arms???

Not much to write about this week. Still processing things. Feeling better and the Duracell seems to be working quite well. Might not need the brain back after all. 

Flying solo this weekend as Yitzik is off to complete one of this challenges. Already tired and already missing him.

Started my NEW job this week which is exciting. Looking forward to closing my dayhome soon – 15 more days. Need more time and hands. Maybe I should exchange my brain for more arms… that would make an impressive weapon form too.

http://sharidactyl.wordpress.com

The Live effect

I finally watched the demo video tonight. I have been staying away from this for a few reasons. Of course the main reason is I don't like to see my self on video or pictures when it comes to Kung Fu. Not because I don't like to actually look at myself and see what I'm doing. Nor am I against its huge contribution to better yourself and fix your problems by actually seeing the mistakes you feel when you can't see yourself. If that makes any sense at all. The problem is I go to extreme criticism on myself and never seem to be satisfied with what I see. The first thing I seen right away was not breaking the first board. Man, how could I possibly have missed that one. But as I watched I seen the board go up instead of recoiling back and snapping effortlessly. Which tells me the board was too high and I was too far away. I see my leg is almost fully extended at the contact point instead of completing the kick through the board. Watching my sais form was not a good feeling at all. I practiced my form many times before the demo and did that ankle hook and release spin over a 100 times and seldom missed. I haven't felt good about dropping my weapon at all. All my stances were cut short and incomplete, especially the changing of the open x's 180 degrees. When I went from the right lead to the left, instead of a left lead open x I came up into almost a bow stance and then the rest just kind of fell apart from there. There is just something about a live demo that seems to make me go way too fast and not complete parts of the form. Similar things happened at the Chinese new year. Incomplete stances and techniques. Then I feel like I let everyone down and put a blemish on all they're hard work. Just a perspective anyways, I'm sure we all feel that way at one time or another. I don't really feel overly nervous but perhaps that must be the case. Something else to work on I guess. That and continue to work on my form and get in more reps until I can do it in my sleep. Well enough about that, I could go on but I'll keep that to myself.

On a happier note, tonight Eva and I biked 7 km and once we arrived home we did push ups and hsieh chein together. I really enjoy getting out and biking down the trails and listening to my little one talk non stop the whole time telling me what's what and following it up with a thousand questions. I wouldn't trade it for the world. See you at the kwoon.

Dragon dance and candidacy

It's been nice this week not going to practices Tuesdays and Thursdays. I was able to spend some time with my Dad tonight which was nice. 

Next week dragon practice starts up again full force. We have to start getting 2 dragons rolling. I hope we get enough people. I think if we start the hard work now, we can avoid the stressful crunch later on. That would be a lot better. 

I've also started studying for my candidacy exam. It's not for a year or so, but it's the biggest exam of my academic carrier so I want to be ready. Trying not to stress about it. Same thing as the dragon dance...start early and avoid stressful crunch time.

Basic numbers: 204 pushups, 202 crunches, 208 kicks, 4 reps tai chi, 4 reps broadsword

Acts of kindness: made Mike lunch and breakfast, made dinner for my Dad, took Julia to the park.

Today I consumed: a bowl of oatmeal (actually more like half a bowl after Julia stole a bunch of bites:), an apple, some macaroni and cheese, some cheese and crackers and some beef casserole with biscuits.

Summer Time

We are now into the summer months of our year and with that there are no Kung Fu classes in Onoway because the elementary school where we train is closed for the summer. I hope that we see some if not all of the Onoway Students continue their training at the Stony Plain Kwoon for the summer, and if not I hope they are at least practicing at home. I also hope they all return in the fall with a renewed thirst for learning.

Where am I? What am I doing?

Strawberries and songbirds

I don't miss TV anymore. 

When I got home from class tonight Julia and I went and picked strawberries and watched the birds at the bird feeder. That's become a typical evening for us. Before I Ho Chuan started this year, I would have come home, flopped on the couch and turned on the television. Julia would have spent tonight listening to commercials and not-that-great dramas. Instead she got to see where her fruit comes from and enjoy it. She also got to enjoy the beautiful birds. 

In the beginning it was really difficult to give it up, but now I'm seeing the benefits. To be honest, I don't know how I had the time to watch TV before. It's seems like I'm always doing something now which is a nice change. Before I just watched other people do stuff.

Change for the better.

Basic numbers: 202 crunches, 204 pushups, 208 kicks, 4 reps tai chi, 4 reps broadsword

Acts of kindness: made Mike breakfast and lunch, gave the dog a belly rub, gave the cat and dog treats, picked strawberries for Julia, filled the bird feeder.

Today I consumed: 2 pieces of peanut butter and jam toast, a turkey and cheese sandwich, an apple, an orange, 2 chicken fajitas, a cup of coffee and 8 glasses of water.

Roadtrip

Well, as most roadtrips go, any sort of healthy eating completely fell off the wagon.  Stopping at fast food restaurants with my family and loading up on snack food took its toll.  My iron stomach definitely doesn't accept these things as it did 6 months ago.  I can't believe this stuff used to be a majority of my diet.  We got back into Edmonton around 7:30ish Sunday night and Josh and I went to BPs to get something to eat before going home.  I looked at him and said "I'm craving a salad"...I never in a billion years would have imagined those words coming out of my mouth.  What's even more astonishing is that I chose a salad over bacon wrapped steak...Who knew that would happen?!

I haven't yet watched the demo but I know how hard you've all been working and I know everyone did awesome.  I'm hoping to be able to watch it later today.  Good job Sifu Wetter!