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"Your guide for newbies covers vastly all the points that worry me the most ... I read it eagerly the minute I received it, and several times more after. ... I wonder how people used to prepare for their first gradings in the olden days, before you guys wrote this guide ... In general, I like the understanding and friendly style of yours, and the tricks to gain a few secs in case you feel too tired! ..." Patricia, London
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It's been a while since I last wrote to this blog, which has several reasons. One is that I have been busy with work and (almost) all my thoughts were centred around teaching and preparation for teaching. I learned a lot of lessons from students, but now I want to explore how this non-writing is related to my aikido practice.
I was thinking a bit more about the 7th point of the previous post while cutting a couple of shomenuchis in our room: "Do something that makes you feel better". If this is part of a pattern that is associated with negative thinking and with - wrongly - focusing on what we don't want then there should be at least two types of activities that make us feel better.
I spend a lot of my time on thinking who I am, why I am, what is my purpose in this world, why I do things the way I do them. Depending on what my actual thoughts are my aikido trainings are also different. If I'm in a good mood then training goes with ease, if I'm having some negative thoughts then training is more like struggling.
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