Today I learned......

Today I learned to be quiet and speak about one really important thing instead of commenting or sharing my opinion about everything. I have learned this lesson before many many times but today for some reason, it really struck me how important it is to chose wisely if I want to share my knowledge with people. A long time ago when I was new at my job, I had a mentor that amazed me in his ability to stay quiet and not correct or comment on everything. I always wondered how can he not say something to add to or correct this very important moment? Today, I get it. Some of the things that the new people are so passionately discussing are the same things that I so passionately discussed when I was new. That is how he chose, he learned from many discussion and years what is important and what is something that everyone is discussing and that is okay. I think that I may be getting closer to being like that, kinda cool.
I think that it is a similar journey in my kung fu, when I was a new black belt, I was driven to share all that I learned with everyone. Mostly to spare them the pain and agony that I experienced on my journey but what I am learning is that everyone has to have their own journey and their own pain and agony, so they can learn their own lessons. I am finally understanding how my mentor can be quiet at times and redirecting at other times. He has learned the difference between lessons that I need to learn on my own and the ones that I need guidance with.
Pretty cool day, ended with an opportunity to train with some amazing peers :)

More radom thoughts than I originally intended

I have read some amazing blogs in the last couple of weeks, my teammates displaying insight, growth and progress. I feel like I don't have anything to contribute.
Each day I have to fight the fight to stay focused, stay on track and practice mindfully. I am not proud of this struggle, I am somewhat embarrassed.....I figured after all this trying really hard, I wouldn't have to try so hard everyday. I was wrong. I know that we all struggle in our own way, with different things (physical, mental and spiritual), and that I shouldn't be embarrassed about struggling with the same thing everyday for so long but I am.
I haven't been blogging because I feel like I don't have anything different to say.....today was hard but I got some stuff done! Tomorrow is a new day!!!!
I am trying really hard to stay positive and not give up, it is one of the hardest fights that I have had so far.
I did a lot of growing today, I am a better person than I was this morning - that is something.
Oh yeah, and I figured something out today! I am not embarrassed to bust out a form or some push ups but I am extremely shy about acts of kindness. That's my contribution to our conversation from Sat.

Positive in....positive out !

I have been doing a lot of practice with my friends over the past ten days and it has definitely had a positive effect on my training and on my outlook in general. I spend too much of my training time by myself and it is a treat that I get to hang with my friends and team mates. I loved being at open training on Saturday, there was so much positive energy in the room, it almost made you work harder and concentrate more.
Life has thrown me a couple of curve balls lately and I think that I am managing better than I could be because of the time I have spent training with my friends and re-introducing daily tai chi to my life. I have also shared many laughs with people at dinner, brunch and tea and that has also helped me to stay positive.

ps
I had a really good idea of what I was going to say earlier today but was not near my computer, now it is not really coming to me, sorry for not flowing blog :{

sometimes....

Sometimes life is hard.....good thing tomorrow is a new day :)

did you know????

This week is mental health awareness week!
We are all affected by mental health issues, even if we are not aware of it. Some have a friend or family member that struggles with every day living, some know folks that struggle during different seasons and some are affected by the people that they meet in their lives. I am not just talking about the obvious ones that you see and hear when you meet someone, I am talking about the ones that are silent. When someone suffers from depression or anxiety, you can't always tell by looking. They usual suffer in silent or share their struggles with those closest to them and appear well put together and confident when dealing with the rest of the world. They become experts at presenting themselves as cool and confident. I have met many people that society would label as "normal" that struggle everyday based on the chemicals in their brains.
We always talk about spreading awareness, being more accepting and not judging and I think that what we need to do is stop stereotyping and assuming that someone is a certain way based on what they look like and what they do. If we could possibly treat each person that we encounter in our everyday lives with dignity and respect that we would be a lot closer to that acceptance thing. We don't know by looking what a person is experiencing or dealing with, let's stop pretending that we do!