When feeling depressed, the last thing that one wants to do is EXERCISE. How ironic, that exercise is one of the best antidotes to depression. When we exercise, we produce some chemicals that help reverse the malfunctioning serotonin uptake system in our bodies.
Norma, the amazing leader of my weightwatchers group, shared her personal struggles with us. A few years ago she was totally stressed out. Too busy and stressed out to exercise. And so she struggled along trying to rise above all the things that were bringing her down. Finally, one December, she said 'NEVER AGAIN'. Though her life continued to be busy and stressful, she moved her exercise priority way up the list, and committed to 40 minutes at least 4 times a week. She has to get up early in the morning to fit it in, and sometimes its hard to get started. But she knows how important it is. I should note, that Norma is one of the cheeriest, inspiring, optimistic persons I know.
I'm reading a really excellent book right now. 'Heft on Wheels", by Mike Magnuson. There's a picture on the front cover of this really fat guy, startk naked, on a Trek 5200 bicycle. Sweat pouring all over his lardy body. Face grimaced, leaning into the rain and wind. On the back cover, is a picture of the same guy, two years later, lean, toned, clothed in team road racing outfit, cool sunglasses, hammering his way up the side of a mountain on a sleek road bike. Looks alot like Lance, actually. Turns out this guy, the author of the book, was inspired by Lance. And turned his life around from cigarrete smoking, hard drinking, junk food ingesting, depressed, college professor, to what he is on the back cover of his book.
One of my UBBT7 goals is to do a whole pile of cycling this year. Of course, I'm not starting out where this professor/author started. But the path that I have plotted is very similar. So the book is inspiring. I joined spin classes in mid March so that I could start getting in shape for the riding season, and be able to handle a charity ride or something like that. The fellow running this class is and English bloke. Ten years younger, a little shorter than me. Incredibly fit. And NICE cyclist's legs. Always admired legs like that; slender yet defined. Even on a short guy, those legs seem to go forever and ever. ANYHOW, this guy is a bit of a 'British Bulldog". I think I hate his attitude so much, that I have to love him. He certainly gets me hammering away on my bike, with him yelling 'come on!! FAST legs!!" , or "EMPTY YOUR TANK!!!!!" His class is called, "the long hard Ride". One and half hours of sweat, pain, and this guy yelling in my ear. Hate him so much, I've signed up for two more of his classes in May and June.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
My favorite part of my kung fu year last year was the summer. It was then that I really got to know and enjoy my fellow Silent River students, because we were sharing kung fu experiences outside of our regular class room setting. Community parades, lion dances, competitions, community clean up projects, weapons and hand forms demo's: all of these events were opportunities to have fun getting to know young students, older students, students from the Onoway school, students from different belt level classes, young adult students returning from university studies, or studies abroad, older students returning from winter work up north, or down south.
The fact is that we are all a really interesting bunch. A microcosm of the community, the country, the world around us. Our advantage is that we share a common interests, similar personal goals, and empathy for eachother's personal journeys. You really can't get it much better than that. I see the summer, now, as an opportunity to enjoy the company of people I have come to respect and value. So as events come up, I find myself jumping in with enthusiasm.
This weekend was the beginning of what I anticipate as being a wonderful summer. A number of students participated in the trade show demo and lion dances. Some of my fellow participants are new faces, some familiar. I was glad to reconnect with Mr. Tymchuck, and as always, share a few laughs. And a little freindly rivalry from Onoway student, Sihing Lindstrom. I was awed by what Sifu Wilson has done for her small, but tight-knit children's class - what an amazing teacher she is. I was impressed by young Miss Prince as the Buddha in the lion dance. She clearly has talent in that area, and deserves some special mentorship from the likes of Sifu Robertson. I was proud of young Mr. Embury as the head in the young lion for the lion dance. He sets a great example for all his fellow young students, and he has a knack for adding a little special character to the whole show. It was wonderful and heartwarming to see students stepping forward for the first time in demo's: Mr. Estey continues to mature into and expemplary martial artist, and Krista Lowery's Lao Gar is truly amazing. I enjoyed watching our amazing young sifu Wonsiak herd her flock of tiny martial artists with such skill and confidence. And our leader - Sifu Playter was incredibly inspiring with his numchucks (did I spell that correctly?). Better than Bruce Lee . . . I'M SERIOUS!
Did I miss anyone?? Lots, I'm sure. There was the tall lady who watches her daughter in Sifu Wilson's class. It looks like she's finally decided to join up as well; she was wearing her white belt today. Excellent!! There were non-kung fu family members helping out. Honestly! They're around enough with us, they might as well join a class~! The Onoway gang, which are proving to be quite a defining force in our school. The sihings - wish them luck in their quest for black belt - the memory of my last summer also as a sihing is still fresh in my mind.
What a great bunch of people to be around. I am looking forward to the next summer event - THE TIGER CHALLENGE.
Claire Finnamore
Student Member - Silent River Kung Fu
The fact is that we are all a really interesting bunch. A microcosm of the community, the country, the world around us. Our advantage is that we share a common interests, similar personal goals, and empathy for eachother's personal journeys. You really can't get it much better than that. I see the summer, now, as an opportunity to enjoy the company of people I have come to respect and value. So as events come up, I find myself jumping in with enthusiasm.
This weekend was the beginning of what I anticipate as being a wonderful summer. A number of students participated in the trade show demo and lion dances. Some of my fellow participants are new faces, some familiar. I was glad to reconnect with Mr. Tymchuck, and as always, share a few laughs. And a little freindly rivalry from Onoway student, Sihing Lindstrom. I was awed by what Sifu Wilson has done for her small, but tight-knit children's class - what an amazing teacher she is. I was impressed by young Miss Prince as the Buddha in the lion dance. She clearly has talent in that area, and deserves some special mentorship from the likes of Sifu Robertson. I was proud of young Mr. Embury as the head in the young lion for the lion dance. He sets a great example for all his fellow young students, and he has a knack for adding a little special character to the whole show. It was wonderful and heartwarming to see students stepping forward for the first time in demo's: Mr. Estey continues to mature into and expemplary martial artist, and Krista Lowery's Lao Gar is truly amazing. I enjoyed watching our amazing young sifu Wonsiak herd her flock of tiny martial artists with such skill and confidence. And our leader - Sifu Playter was incredibly inspiring with his numchucks (did I spell that correctly?). Better than Bruce Lee . . . I'M SERIOUS!
Did I miss anyone?? Lots, I'm sure. There was the tall lady who watches her daughter in Sifu Wilson's class. It looks like she's finally decided to join up as well; she was wearing her white belt today. Excellent!! There were non-kung fu family members helping out. Honestly! They're around enough with us, they might as well join a class~! The Onoway gang, which are proving to be quite a defining force in our school. The sihings - wish them luck in their quest for black belt - the memory of my last summer also as a sihing is still fresh in my mind.
What a great bunch of people to be around. I am looking forward to the next summer event - THE TIGER CHALLENGE.
Claire Finnamore
Student Member - Silent River Kung Fu
Friday, April 9, 2010
UBBT7 - The year of solutions.
As I was driving down to Calgary this evening, I had time to reflect on my UBBT7 progresst thus far. I came to the conclusion that this UBBT thing is giving me a vehicle for coming up with solution to problems I had developed over the last year and a half. Without fully realizing it, I had designed my UBBT program to lead me down the path of developing solutions.
My chi kung requirement, for one, was a recognition that my body was screaming for a more internal practice of martial arts. I couldn't go on trying to cope with the injuries I was accruing with the external focus on martial arts. At 49, with osteoarthritis and other issues, I needed to ensure I took a step back and worked on alignment, corrections, stance, mobility, and flexibility. So good goal - and though it is not going well at the moment, I will hang on to it. There have been some stumbling blocks with the Chi Kung - first of all, I am the type of person that requires external motivation such as classes or periodic workshops; and these things are not as available to me as I had anticipated. I am presently working on finding a solution to that problem.
Another requirement - my daily meditation through knitting requirement was also a recognition that my life was unbalanced, crazy busy like. I needed to slow things down, in fact, I craved getting back in touch with simpler spaces in my life. The meditation is not going as I expected, but I am happy to say, I am on track in that I am sticking to the daily 20 minutes of knitting meditation - though I haven't really mastered the meditation end that well, but I'm just letting it happen how its going to happen.
Now, pushups are interesting. For all intents and purposes, it could be construed that my push-up requirement is not progressing well. But had a revelation somewhere between Airdrie, and Calgary. I AM PROGRESSING IN PUSHUPS!!! Here is my progress. Sometime in February I went to the doctor about incredible pain in my neck and numbness in my hands and what is termed 'neuropathic' pain in my arms. It turns out that I've got that osteo arthritis in several vertabrae down my spine, a number of 'bulging' discs, and a bunch of pinched nerves. I was pretty certain that the push ups aggravated this condition, and so I guiltily struggled away with the fact that I had stopped doing them during my treatment. You see, I was improving, and I felt so good for once in a long time, and I didn't want to ruin it by doing the pushups. Last week I noticed that for the first time in over a year, I could pull my t-shirt off over my head with both arms rather than one, and I could reach behind my back and unhook my bra. I could lie on my stomach and rest my chin on my arms. I reach forward and pick up a 7 pound object without shooting pain around my collar bone and down the left side of my neck. I could lift up a tea cup with my left arm and drink from it without pain in my shoulder and neck. This was so great, and when I started realizing that I was close to 80% improved from 2 months ago, I decided to ask my doctor about my UBBT7 push up requirement. He's going to monitor me and I will start with the ladies ones, and I have been advised to purchase those bars so that I don't dammage my wrists, and I've done that. I'm thinking, now, that the pushup path was not what I had envisioned for the UBBT7, but what I had envisioned - to just keep on doing it - would have eventually led to failure anyway. What I have done is taken alot of steps backward in order for healing to take place, and I am taking a wiser approach. No, I won't complete the numbers, but I will not give up. My only mistake on this front was, in planning my program, I had not been realistic.
Another requirement that is helping me find solutions, is the tai chi sword requirement. I have to do a few public performances of this form this summer. Thank goodness I put this one in, because it is forcing me to address the problem of 'balance'. Over the last year, as I prepared for black belt grading, my life got increasingly out of balance. It was all kung fu, kung fu, kung fu. Family and balance fell by the wayside. As soon as the chinese new year celebration was over, I raced out the door, totally focused on reclaiming the balance. As a result, I have been 'MIA'from Silent River Kung Fu. Well that's not balance either. Now the Tiger Challenge approaches, and the performance of the Tai Chi sword is calling my name - causing me to reflect on my current 'balance'. Yes, I've gone too far the other way; while its been fun, I stand to lose everything I have gained by being in kung fu.
I also have another very good requirement, and it is actually going well. In recognition of the fact that my osteoarthritis limits my running, I have to find another way to work my cardio/aerobic conditioning. I chose to commit to a certain amount of cycle/walk/kayak/spin for the year, and most of that will be occuring in the summer in the form of charity cycles, and other activities. The spin part of course is happening now for the training for the summer. I've joined a brutal spin class in St. Albert, run my a crazy British guy - one could say 'Hell on Wheels'. And its great.
Now, the journalling requirement was a surprise for me. Journalling once a week was easy peasy for me. So what happened? I think there is some logical reason for me not journalling - maybe it was an opposite reaction to last year of total focus on kung fu. Who knows, but it happened, and is an indication of something probably rather temporary. Unfortunately, this puts me in the FAILURE category for UBBT7. Fortunately, there is the NEVER GIVE UP requirement, the value of which is that this UBBT will be a year of solutions.
Claire Finnamore
Silent River Kung Fu
My chi kung requirement, for one, was a recognition that my body was screaming for a more internal practice of martial arts. I couldn't go on trying to cope with the injuries I was accruing with the external focus on martial arts. At 49, with osteoarthritis and other issues, I needed to ensure I took a step back and worked on alignment, corrections, stance, mobility, and flexibility. So good goal - and though it is not going well at the moment, I will hang on to it. There have been some stumbling blocks with the Chi Kung - first of all, I am the type of person that requires external motivation such as classes or periodic workshops; and these things are not as available to me as I had anticipated. I am presently working on finding a solution to that problem.
Another requirement - my daily meditation through knitting requirement was also a recognition that my life was unbalanced, crazy busy like. I needed to slow things down, in fact, I craved getting back in touch with simpler spaces in my life. The meditation is not going as I expected, but I am happy to say, I am on track in that I am sticking to the daily 20 minutes of knitting meditation - though I haven't really mastered the meditation end that well, but I'm just letting it happen how its going to happen.
Now, pushups are interesting. For all intents and purposes, it could be construed that my push-up requirement is not progressing well. But had a revelation somewhere between Airdrie, and Calgary. I AM PROGRESSING IN PUSHUPS!!! Here is my progress. Sometime in February I went to the doctor about incredible pain in my neck and numbness in my hands and what is termed 'neuropathic' pain in my arms. It turns out that I've got that osteo arthritis in several vertabrae down my spine, a number of 'bulging' discs, and a bunch of pinched nerves. I was pretty certain that the push ups aggravated this condition, and so I guiltily struggled away with the fact that I had stopped doing them during my treatment. You see, I was improving, and I felt so good for once in a long time, and I didn't want to ruin it by doing the pushups. Last week I noticed that for the first time in over a year, I could pull my t-shirt off over my head with both arms rather than one, and I could reach behind my back and unhook my bra. I could lie on my stomach and rest my chin on my arms. I reach forward and pick up a 7 pound object without shooting pain around my collar bone and down the left side of my neck. I could lift up a tea cup with my left arm and drink from it without pain in my shoulder and neck. This was so great, and when I started realizing that I was close to 80% improved from 2 months ago, I decided to ask my doctor about my UBBT7 push up requirement. He's going to monitor me and I will start with the ladies ones, and I have been advised to purchase those bars so that I don't dammage my wrists, and I've done that. I'm thinking, now, that the pushup path was not what I had envisioned for the UBBT7, but what I had envisioned - to just keep on doing it - would have eventually led to failure anyway. What I have done is taken alot of steps backward in order for healing to take place, and I am taking a wiser approach. No, I won't complete the numbers, but I will not give up. My only mistake on this front was, in planning my program, I had not been realistic.
Another requirement that is helping me find solutions, is the tai chi sword requirement. I have to do a few public performances of this form this summer. Thank goodness I put this one in, because it is forcing me to address the problem of 'balance'. Over the last year, as I prepared for black belt grading, my life got increasingly out of balance. It was all kung fu, kung fu, kung fu. Family and balance fell by the wayside. As soon as the chinese new year celebration was over, I raced out the door, totally focused on reclaiming the balance. As a result, I have been 'MIA'from Silent River Kung Fu. Well that's not balance either. Now the Tiger Challenge approaches, and the performance of the Tai Chi sword is calling my name - causing me to reflect on my current 'balance'. Yes, I've gone too far the other way; while its been fun, I stand to lose everything I have gained by being in kung fu.
I also have another very good requirement, and it is actually going well. In recognition of the fact that my osteoarthritis limits my running, I have to find another way to work my cardio/aerobic conditioning. I chose to commit to a certain amount of cycle/walk/kayak/spin for the year, and most of that will be occuring in the summer in the form of charity cycles, and other activities. The spin part of course is happening now for the training for the summer. I've joined a brutal spin class in St. Albert, run my a crazy British guy - one could say 'Hell on Wheels'. And its great.
Now, the journalling requirement was a surprise for me. Journalling once a week was easy peasy for me. So what happened? I think there is some logical reason for me not journalling - maybe it was an opposite reaction to last year of total focus on kung fu. Who knows, but it happened, and is an indication of something probably rather temporary. Unfortunately, this puts me in the FAILURE category for UBBT7. Fortunately, there is the NEVER GIVE UP requirement, the value of which is that this UBBT will be a year of solutions.
Claire Finnamore
Silent River Kung Fu
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