Skidoosh!

I watched Kung Fu Panda again last night. I really love that movie, as it never fails to both entertain me and inspire me.

I have started physiotherapy for my ankle. However it may help, I find that a lot of the exercises I am supposed to be doing, I actually do in Kung Fu. Tai Chi requires me to use balance and control on both feet/ legs, and in the kids classes, by throwing kicks with my left leg, I can work on some strength and balance in the right ankle.

I am still frustrated with it however, but feel better about accepting where I am at. I have been able to adapt my training, and while I still need reminders to be careful, I am more at peace with the injury. Not completely, but more than I have been. I do long to go harder in class, and push myself, but that will come with time.

It is interesting to see how injuries change your approach. You never realize how much you take your body for granted until it forces you to step back.

I have been reading a little on overuse injuries, and sports injuries. And of course the way to prevent and treat them. Obviously a main treatment is rest. Most of the time, that is easier said than done. You need to have a sensible approach to your training, and you need to be aware of your body and what it is telling you. Stretching mindfully is important, as is training mindfully.

Without that awareness, it is easy to push yourself too far and find yourself dealing with an injury. Not all injuries are preventable (such as getting tangled in a lion cloth during a head stack dismount), but using awareness and mindfulness is vital in recovery. That is something I am still learning. I still want to push my limits, and I have a difficult time babying my injuries.

But it was cool the other night that I was able to throw a few really weak kicks, with about 5% contact to a shield. That rocked, and made me happy. It might not have been smart, but I made sure I used extra care.

Skidoosh!

Sneezy

We are sick. I haven’t had a cold in quite a while, and the last one I had early in the summer was barely noticeable. Now all three of us are under the weather, and it has been challenging for me to keep up with things.

I actually felt pretty good this past couple of days, but today I just feel yucky. No matter, this blog must be done. We were fitted for masks at work a little while ago for the H1N1 virus. But now I am reading that they might not even help. And it seems to me, that all the same precautions as the normal flu season are what they are recommending as well. (Who are "they" anyway?). I have no doubts that this is a serious problem, and I welcome the precautions. I just hope that our healthcare system can handle this pandemic.

At a loss

I have no idea what to blog about today. It is important to me that I do it whether or not I have anything to say. I just went through some of my pictures, and I found one from last weekend, that made me smile.

I took it at my friends house. She got married in her yard last Sunday, and it was beautiful. This flower was not part of the ceremony, it was simply in her garden. The colour and the fullness of it make my whole being smile. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

I am fascinated with the life cycle of flowers. How delicately they start out as buds, and then the full bloom (whether explosive like this one or not), and then the slow fade, as the cycle begins again.

It made me think about my cycles in Kung Fu. How my passion and drive seems to sometimes be in hibernation, and then it slowly builds until I am eating, sleeping and breathing Kung Fu. And then it tends to slow down for one reason or another, and the cycle builds again.

But what gets me through the slow parts, is simply going to my classes. I know that if I didn't, it probably wouldn't be too hard to completely fall off the wagon. Kung Fu is a part of my life, and it has always been something to help me through the harder parts.