Teaching

One of my theory questions is "teaching". I'm not sure what exactly how to answer this question but one of my recent experiences made me think about it. I spent some time this past few weeks teaching my 85 year old grandma how to use an iPad. For most of us it's a quick transition from one device to another and once someone shows us how to do something, after about 5 minutes we've got it. For her, this is brand new. I spent about an hour showing her what icons to touch, what icons were, what each thing meant, how to swipe, etc. etc. I spent an hour and 45 minutes teaching her how to enter an event into her calendar. For her, this was quite frustrating, the buttons were small and she couldn't remember what each thing did. I could empathize with this frustration. So I'd show her a few things, have her do it a few times while I was there for her to ask questions, then I'd walk away for a few minutes and let her do things on her own, then come back knowing she'd forget some of the things I showed her, go over them again, and repeat the above. At the end of the hour and forty five minutes she was entering our birthdays on her iPad. She hugged me, thanked me for being so patient and told me I should be a teacher.

I believe this is the same with kung fu. Some people already have a good fitness background when they start, so pushups, situps and running is easy for them. Some people have a different form of a martial arts background, some people have injuries, some people are more coordinated than others, etc, etc... when teaching, knowing a students abilities and knowing how far to push is important. Knowing when a student should be left alone to muddle through and knowing when to help is important too. We're all different, and learn in different ways and being able to adapt and empathize makes a good teacher. Not sure if this is the type of answer the question is looking for, but this is my answer, based on my experience.

Thanks!

Woke up this morning and saw that my car was more than buried in snow. I knew I had to get out and run a couple errands but was definitely not looking forward to shovelling. After breakfast I got ready and looked again outside to see what laid before me. My neighbour that I had helped just over a week ago was just finishing up shovelling me out and brushing off my car. Thanks Karma!

Still learning lots about foods and trying new things. Watermelon radishes are my new favourite vegetable. They're so good, they are a bit milder than regular radishes and about the size of an apple. I can just eat a whole one by itself. I also learned, I do NOT like spaghetti squash. EW! Next week I'm trying something called a white sunchoke. Never even heard of it before so we'll see how that goes.

I'm not on track with my training as I should be for various reasons but I know I'll catch up. I should hopefully be back able to participate in my classes again later this week.

See you at the kwoon!

Friday the 13th

13 has always been my lucky number. Not so much for one of my neighbours. I went to leave for I Ho Chaun class Friday night and noticed a whole bunch of smoke coming out of the hood of one of the cars in my lot. I knew who owned the car but didn't know where he lived. Long story short, I ran around my neighbourhood to see if I could find him, called the fire department, got blocked in by a fire truck. Turned out it ended up being some sort of hose that got a hole in it which was causing the smoke and my poor neighbour came out to 5 firemen surrounding his car. He was really stressed out because he was on his way to the west end to pick up his daughter so I told him I'd drive him to get her and to try to find the part he needed for his car. I wasn't going to make it to class now anyway. It ended up making for an interesting evening and I ended up meeting a few of the people who live by me.

I'm behind on my core requirements but have been making progress on my personal ones. Still waiting patiently for my doctor's appointment. MARCH 24TH!!!! Had my knee lock on me during last weeks class, saw a physio therapist and found out it was swollen and I twisted my meniscus probably when I fell down my front steps the day before the banquet that I ended up not being able to go to. I swear I don't like hurting myself I've just always been accident prone.

Definitely hard to stay engaged when you haven't been able to go to classes. I'm still staying positive though. Things don't last forever, bad or good. Plus, overall I'm still able to get more done in a day than I used to, so that's improvement.

In Like a Lamb and Out Like a Lion

It's pretty different learning broadsword. I kept holding it wrong and stabbing myself in the neck. Good thing it's not a live weapon or I'd be hooped. It felt like the first I Ho Chaun class went way faster than previous years. It's a lot different to have a person you've decided to train with, I like it. I just have to not put pressure on myself to learn everything all at once. I've never used a sword before and I'm a new green belt so there's going to be lots to learn and lots to practice. Plus I have to stay mindful of overusing my joints until I get my muscles more built up and stable to support them evenly. I'm looking forward to this year, I think it will be fun. I've learned my boundaries, my strengths and my weaknesses the past couple years and I just need to work with them to do what's right for me while following the program requirements.

I've managed to stay vegetarian. I feel like I have more of a grasp on it now. I'm finding my blood sugar is more stabilized for the most part and I don't have spikes and drops like I used to. I also seem to require a lot less food and I'm not craving carbs as much as I did at first. The only negative thing I'm finding is that my muscles get tired, sore and shaky a lot faster. I'm getting enough protein from plant sources, so I'm going to go to the doctor and ask them to check to make sure I'm getting enough other vitamins. My fridge is always filled with so many fruits and veggies now, it's weird. Never would've thought I'd know what brocollini was or that there was even such a thing.

Anyway, have a good week. Toodles.

Happy Thursday!

I have a very eclectic music collection but Xavier Rudd is my all time favourite musician so this won't be the last time I share his music with you.  Have a great day!

Brain vs Body

I was really sad to have missed the banquet last night. I've gone for the past 5 years and always find it so motivational. I always love the blackbelt ceremony and feel so happy for the people who worked so hard to finally earn it. Congratulations Sifu Tymchuck and Sifu Becket!!!

The past year has been a real struggle for me. I've missed work, occasions with family and friends and a lot of kung fu. Patiently waiting for doctors appointments have been beyond frustrating and trying to stay positive becomes darn near impossible some days. I miss out on things a lot. My new family doctor is pretty sure I have IBS which has some pretty embarrassing and unpredictable symptoms. I'll know more for sure when I have my specialist appointment. I turn red talking about it, in fact I'm pretty embarrassed just typing this. Things like stress, anxiety and diet can make the symptoms worse, and me being a naturally high anxiety person can make it pretty bad. I've been told I can be put on a mild anti depressant which has been proven to numb the pain in the abdomen but I'm determined not to rely on such a thing. I've basically been super conscious of what I'm eating to eliminate trigger foods and trying to reduce stress. Problem is, this causes stress, so it's kind of like a never ending circle of suck. I've been lying to people to get out of dinners with them because I don't really feel like explaining why there's barely anything on my plate and it bothers me a lot because I'm not a liar. I guess as I figure this out things will get easier, but for right now I spend a lot of nights in tears because I just want to feel better. The only reason I'm writing this blog is so now you know that when I'm not in class, it's definitely not because I've got something better to do and when you ask how I'm feeling and I seem like I'm blowing you off, I'm not, I'm just not wanting to lie to you because I'd really rather not talk about it because it's embarrassing. Now you know, if you didn't before, even if you didn't want to know, you do.

Anyway, enough of that. Still thinking if I actually want to publish this. Lets talk about something else.

I started something called Organic Box. I have a huge dislike for most vegetables and figured this would be a good way for me to try more of them and learn more about what kinds of different vegetables there are and how to cook them. So far I've received one order. The food looks a lot duller and less shiny than it does in a grocery store without all the chemicals but it's way more delicious. Plus, this has been forcing me to try to cook different things because I've spent my food budget so I'd better eat what's in my fridge. I made baked potatoes the other day with a bit of cheese, garlic and broccoli and it was delicious. Yep, I actually ate something with broccoli and enjoyed it. Plus the company focuses on local farmers which I love that my money is going to go back into the community and they support ethical treatment of animals. I find it a bit pricey. It's more farmers market prices than grocery store prices but I'm thinking it will balance out because I'm not walking down Superstore's aisles hungry after work adding a whole bunch of stuff I don't need in my cart. Josh also really seems to be enjoying having farm fresh milk and eggs in the house. He seems to like it too which is a win.

Anyway, I'm hoping the year of the sheep goes a lot better than the year of the horse did. I am a sheep, so it better!

See you at the kwoon.

I'm OK With Failing and Getting Up and Failing Again

I had so many goals this year and I didn't achieve any of them. It was really disheartening for me. I really, really wanted to learn lion dance this year so I could learn to drum, I wanted to be able to do 30 real pushups in a row, I wanted to become more comfortable with sparring and had so, so many other things to achieve. At first all I felt was frustration and guilt. Frustration because I wasn't able to achieve the things I wanted to do, and guilt because I wasn't doing the things I said I would. Usually I'm one of the most reliable people I know, and this year that all changed not only with my kung fu but with everything else too.

I had to try to work on letting the guilt go. It was eating at me. There was nothing I could do about my situation, so I tried to be productive in other ways. I've read a lot about meditation, I learned a lot about foods, I've changed times that I do things to avoid situations that anger me. I've learned to deal with anger a lot better than I used to. Don't get me wrong, things still really tick me off, but I'm learning to control how I react.
I've learned to be more empathetic, I'm learning to shut my mouth and listen, I've learned I need more experiences than things. I've learned to live in the moment, and although I can't do it all the time, I sure love it when I do. I've learned I'm not a quitter and I learned I'm mentally stronger than I thought.

I am also so grateful that I met a few people through kung fu this year that I can have really honest conversations with and for the people who have been compassionately honest with me. I have a lot of respect for you.

So, while this year was a total bust for me for a lot of my I Ho Chaun goals, I got a lot out of it I wasn't expecting. My favourite thing was probably the photo Sifu Lindstrom got of me throwing Sihing Tymchuk during my one and probably my only ever demo appearance. By the way Sifu, you still have to send me that photo!!!