Rest and Relax

This past week has been challenging for me because I have been sick again! I have slept a lot, read a lot, knitted a lot and rediscovered that I love to build puzzles. I don't sit still well but that is the only way I can get better is to rest and relax. When I build a puzzle, I totally zone out and let my mind go, could this be like meditating? I like moving mediation the best but could building a puzzle and letting your mind go receive similar benefits? I will continue to practice and report my results.
Until next week, stay healthy and don't forget to look after yourself

Excitement and Frustration

I am super excited about doing my forms! I think that I have had a break through and I am excited to explore it more. I think that I have been on the verge of this discovery for a while now but I just needed to let it happen. I have had glimpses of awareness in my movements when I have been training really hard but it always seemed slightly out of reach and it seemed to have taken a lot of work and concentration to get to that moment. The other day I was working on Kempo 1 and suddenly I could feel exactly what I needed to change. On another day, I was doing Hung 1 & Hung 2 and could feel where the flow was and where it definitely was not. I have been pushing myself for this insight for a while and until now have only had a glimpse of it. I think now I can correct the parts of my forms that I have been trying to figure out. I just needed to let it happen. Now the work begins! I think that I am going to do all my forms really slow (like Tai Chi) but still try and maintain the same moves so that I can figure out how to change things. I have already started with Kempo and although there is tons of work to do,I am happy to have a direction.
Now for the frustrating part, my bronchitis is almost all gone and all that is left is the damage. I am still having a hard time breathing when I try to do anything cardio and I get tired easily. Last night, we did some drills and I pushed myself until I had no strength left (which felt really good!) but that left me so short of breath, I couldn't believe it. So I am left with the challenge of pushing myself a little but not so much that I halt the healing process. It seems like it has been a while since I had to take it easy while I heal and had forgotten how much I disliked it. (okay, it makes me kinda cranky!) The positive side is that I will improve my forms immensely as I do them slowly and focus on the details.
That is what is happening in my little world this week,

A better life...

http://www.highexistence.com/life-secrets-and-tips/comment-page-1/
I stumbled upon this site today and was pleasantly surprised to read the 50 tips and secrets to a better life. They are very similar to the list of things that we are trying to accomplish on the I Ho Chuan team, I hope that you take a moment and enjoy them.
Those are my thoughts for this week.......

9 Things to Think About Before You Give Up

If you feel like you’re at the end the road with nowhere to go, realize you are lying to yourself.  You have imprisoned yourself in your own mind by telling self-defeating stories – stories about what your life should be like, what you should have already accomplished, and so forth.  By doing this you’ve created a tiny space in your mind and you’ve begun to believe you are actually living in it.
But you are NOT.  You are alive in a vast world with infinite destinations.  Take a moment to remind yourself of this.  Go outside.  Look at the sky and the clouds.  THIS is the space in which you really live.  Breathe it in.  Then look at your current situation again.
Here are some things you need to consider before you give up:

1. You never fail until you’re satisfied with failure. – Failure is not falling down; failure is staying down when you have the choice to get back up.  Sometimes you have to fail a thousand times to succeed.  Which means you haven’t really failed yet; you’ve just found a bunch of ways that don’t work.  So don’t get so hung up on a few failed attempts that you miss every new opportunity coming your way.  All of your ideas that don’t work are simply stepping stones on your way to the one idea that does.  As Winston Churchill once said, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”  Read Awaken the Giant Within.
2. What you have learned is what’s important. – Life always offers you a second chance – it’s called tomorrow.  But this second chance doesn’t mean anything if you haven’t learned from the events of today.  You have to acknowledge your troubles but gather strength from them, and laugh at your mistakes but learn from them.  Getting a second chance in life is about giving yourself the opportunity to grow beyond your past failures.  It’s about learning as you go and positively adjusting your attitude and efforts toward future possibilities.
3. Tough times are just part of life’s natural balance. – Life lives, life dies.  Life laughs, life cries.  Life gives up and life tries.  And life looks different through everyone’s eyes.  In fact, who you were, who you are, and who you will become are three completely different people.  And as you gradually grow beyond the person you were yesterday, keep life’s challenges in perspective.  Hear life’s harmony, and notice the delicate balance.  Realize that life is like playing a grand piano.  The white keys create your happiness and the black keys denote your troubles.  But as you go through life’s journey, remember that the black keys also create music.
4. Pain helps you grow. – Sometimes things must change so you can change.  Sometimes you must break a little so you can get a peek inside to see what an awesome powerhouse you are.  Sometimes mistakes must be made so wisdom can be earned.  Sometimes you must overcome heartache so you can begin to follow your heart again.
5. Success is a way of living. – Don’t let your struggles become your identity.  Not everything in your life will go as you expect it to.  This is why you need to drop expectations, live in the present, and go with the flow, rather than against it.  Remind yourself that it’s perfectly okay not to be perfect.  Ultimately, success is not something you achieve, it is what you learn and how you grow as you deal with the realities of life – it is a way of living and being.  Read As a Man Thinketh.
6. You can choose differently. – The difference between a mountain and a molehill is your perspective.  And in many cases, the only thing in life you have control over is your perspective.  No matter what happens, YOU control what the meaning is, and what to do with the meaning you give to the circumstance.  Choose to react in a way that motivates happiness, love, or forgiveness, even when circumstances make that choice difficult.
7. It’s not supposed to be easy. – Just because you’re not where you want to be today doesn’t mean you won’t be there someday.  Again, success is tied to long-term determination.  Successful people keep moving and trying.  They make mistakes, but they do not quit.  If things in your life aren’t happening as planned right now, that’s okay.  It just means it’s not the right time.  Life’s brick walls are not there to keep you out, they’re there to give you a chance to show how badly you want something.  They’re there to stop the people who don’t want it as bad as you do.
8. Simplify, simplify, simplify. – Like all magnificent things, life is quite simple.  Its simplicity is found not in seeing how little you can get by with – that’s poverty – but how efficiently you can conquer your biggest difficulties.  Remember, the greatest wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.  Your most significant ideas and accomplishments will be genius in their simplicity.  One day you will find the right words, the right decisions, and the right solutions that will lead you to victory, and they will be far simpler than they seem right now.  Read The Power of Less.
9. Life is still good. – You may have seen better days, but you have also seen worse.  You might not have all your wants, but you do have all your needs.  You woke up with a few aches and pains, but you woke up.  Your life may not be perfect, but it is good.  And more good things are coming down the road as long as you keep moving forward.

 http://www.marcandangel.com/2012/11/02/9-things-to-think-about-before-you-give-up/#more-528