Just keep breathing

To say I have the jitters is a massive understatement. The Tiger Challenge invokes anxiety and breakdowns and I had both on Saturday at the I Ho Chuan meeting. It’s hard to put into words what the big deal is though. I just know I am able to perform in a demo, in a lion dance, and I can teach without any real issues. I talked to Sifu Brinker about it and he suggested that I find a partner to do forms with, and that seemed like that might be a possibility for me.

Fast forward to last night, when I was talking to a student and her mom. Last week, this student was devastated that she couldn’t enter the tournament with her mom as she was going to be out of town. Well, last night she told me that she was going to enter on her own. So I looked at her thought, well if she can do it with her anxiety, then I guess I need to push myself a little harder and do it too. (even though I want to hide under a blanket just thinking about it).

So on the 28th, if you see me softly singing, “just keep breathing, just keep breathing” you’ll know why.