Benefits of change and practice

This month the main focus on my training and requirements have been on forms, kicks, and of course the meat and potatoes of our training, push ups and sit ups. I slowed down abit on the push ups and sittups last month not due to laziness but rather I was getting bored with them. If things get boring you have to source motivation on something else to remain mindful but to also stay engaged on what you are doing and why. To me if your doing something because you feel you have to and your hearts not in it, your wasting your time. Plus, after a break you sometimes are better and more aware of what you might have been missing before and your even better from where you left off. Thats the great thing about kung fu, there is never a shortage of new sources to challenge and improve on, that is a never ending quest. You will never know it all and never perfect every aspect, but you can sure try. It seems the more you practice the more you have to build and improve and actually figure out what the heck your doing and why you have to do things a certain way in order to evolve and get that much closer to mastery.
I recently discovered a partial concept of center. While working on my stances, particularly my bo stance and straightening my back leg and engaging my hip while performing a technique, I visualized me throwing the punch from my hips. The power came from two directions going outward from my hips, out through my arm and down my leg out my back heel. Instead of throwing a punch and feeling the power coming from my shoulder or a kick fired from my leg I started to concentrate on executing all techniques from my abdomen and using it as the source. The more I practiced the more aware I became of what is really supposed to happen. All the times I heard Sifus say punch, kick, and block from the hip, incorporate the six harmonies, etc. Speaking of the six harmonies I now understand physically what they're about because I could feel my hands/feet, elbows/knees, shoulders/hips in sync, it was just too cool and alot more powerful techniques. The rest of the Six harmonies I'm still working on. Well thats where I am, and thats what I'm doing.

Where was I!?

Over the past 5 weeks or so my numbers and training have suffered a substantial hit. I wandered off the path and found myself trying to get back but all the trails were uphill and and it was very foggy. Only being able to get small amounts of repetitions and taking on too much leaves nothing but confusion and frustration. The sense of overwhelming was prevalent and left me asking myself, "what the heck was I thinking, taking this challenge on!" There is not enough time in a normal day to go over the curriculum to a sufficient level, nevermind 10,000 other things to complete and everything that goes along with everyday life. Then a thought blasted through and I remembered exactly why, to better my family, training, and my community. Since I have stopped trying to plan and set up specific times to train things have come back to where they should be. I am no longer feeling the stress or the guilt of not doing what I should because I am doing what I can whenever I can and the numbers are coming back and the great feeling of training is back full on. I haven't updated my Physout forever and my written journal was very, very vague. So as I started to write down numbers and thoughts the way it should be done, that feeling of where I was a month ago was starting to waken and my kung fu was coming back to me. Yes my training method may be alittle scattered to some and on some counts I have already failed this challenge but I am confident when I look back at the end of the year, my teammates and I will all be very proud of what we have all accomplished and perhaps learnt from what we haven't.
The month of June is going to be a catch up month for me for I have set a goal on what I am going to have completed and the challenge of a mindful diet thrown in and taken seriously should be enough for now.