Go Fly a Kite

I have been thinking about stress and how we deal with it. When you meet someone who is experiencing stress in their life, one of the first things that they will tell you is that they do not have time for their usual stress relievers.

I have what is considered a high stress job and at times I have found myself falling into the trap of "not enough time to stress relieve". Well , I have learned that if I take care of myself everyday then IT(stress) doesn't get out of control. So I was pretty confident that I had IT under control and if anyone had asked I would have smugly let them know how to control their daily stress. Recently, I have had to eat a bit of crow because I thought I could recognize stress in myself. I returned from work a couple of days ago to find my daughter and husband preparing to go and fly their kites. I was invited along and accepted quickly, thinking that it would be fun to tag along. So we get to the field and instructions are given and we are off, it took several attempts but I managed to get my kite in the air and do a few tricks while it was up there. Wow, what a relaxing, stress free way to spend half an hour. I was not even fully aware that I was carrying around that much stress until it was gone. It was such a simple, basic, enjoyable thing to do and it did such a big job including making me realize stress can hide.

The lesson I learned was to appreciate the smaller joys in life, and that stress relieving doesn't have to be a large gesture, as long as it is affective. I have made a promise to myself to try to be more compassionate to those that share their life stressors with me and try to help them find simple, doable solutions to their issues.

Intensity.....What is it????

This is my brother when he was in Afghanistan. When I think of intensity I think of him, doing his job in a combat zone.

in·ten·si·ty (in’tensitee)

- Exceptionally great concentration, power, or force.

It all starts with your mind, how you think, what you think and when you think. If you are thinking of other things while you are doing kung fu, you will not be intense. You need to focus your mind on the task at hand and think of nothing else. This will translate into your limbs, when you are intense, you portray this with your entire being. It is evident in your breathing, it will be calming breathes that go all the way to your abdomen and from your abdomen, all the way out. Your body will move with purpose and awareness, with focus and fluidity. You will feel totally in tune with your body's movements, your mind will be completely focused on what you are doing.
Intensity for me is when I'm in the zone, I am what I'm doing, thats all I'm thinking and feeling, the moment of the form, kick or punch.