Shira's blogs

New experiences.  You cant achieve new things if you don't seek out different experiences that you not used to. Today I mowed our lawn for the first time and it was pretty fun. We have one of those lawnmowers that you sit on and like drive around. It was pretty scary at first because I kept feeling like I was going to fall over. But after when I finished I had felt really good and like I have achieved something really cool. This relates to doing the demo because I was extremely scared and didn't want to mess up. Last Thursday was actually the first "real" demo I have done. Plus I also participated in the lion dance with Noa which was really fun as well. So I find that if you do things that scare you the most you will end up feeling really good and happy after you have done them. So you should try and find new things to try as well to keep doing them so they can help you achieve greater things. 

I recently got a katana, which is the weapon for this year in the IHC. I have been just using a bokken up till this point. I personal think that it looks really cool and I'm excited to use it more. But I have been practising it lately and the weight is very different. It feels like the centre balance is leading more towards the blade. So the was one part in my form where I did a single hand articulation and now doing it with the katana I have found it has really hurt my wrist because of how heave it is. So I have been playing around with it and try to use both hands so I wont injure my wrist. It moves slower than before but I think it's better that I'm not hurting my wrist over speed. Also if I just keep practising it it will start to become faster and easier to do with both hands. 

I fined a big difference in my training if I can train with people I'm comfortable with. When you train more with people you feel like you can ask questions and not feel like they were stupid ones is a really good feeling. And in the end both of you can benefit because say I feel more comfortable I will go more out of my comfort zone to ask the questions.  Like your all trying to get to the same place and it seems that you are all one different boats by your selves but your all actually doing you own part to a big boat to help everyone get to the places they are trying to go as well. So when you can have a conversation with them and just feel more comfortable with them, I feel like you have a better experience learning kung fu.  I think that I probably have the IHC to thank for this, and I'm so happy I've joined because there are so many benefits that come out of being on the team.

Routine vs. Opportunity   For the last few months my routine would consist of me doing my push-ups and sit-ups in the morning before I really did anything else. This has benefits and it doesn't at the same time. Like I feel like when I start of doing them in the morning it just put me into a way better mood. But then if I don't wake up I will just say "oh I just don't have time now so I will just go back to sleep, I will just do it later." And even if I say I will do it later I never do because I normally just say I don't have enough time right now. I want to change this mindset because people can still be extremely busy and still get the things they want to done because they have the mindset that of I have 10 minuets I can just do something now. So start doing things whenever I have time or i'm bored or just feel up to something. So i'm going to try to change more to this mindset and try to actually achieve more then when just having set times. 

Over the last month I have been struggling with my mental health so my routine kinda died. Like there were some days that I would feel better and do the things I was supposed to but then there are other days where I sort of just laid in bed and didn't do anything. And the more I didn't do my routine the more I started to feel worse and it's just an endless loop. So I'm going to try to break out of this state and get my routine back. And realises that there will be days when I wont be feeling the best so I will just try to do something and not just say in bed because that will probably just make things worse. Also realize that there will be times when I will be needing a break and that is totally fine. But remember to take advantage of the days that I am in a better mode and do things I enjoy doing(ex. kung fu). 

 I am in training.  You should always be pushing to become and learn to be better, not just physically but mentally as well. So if you are at the top of your class you need to already be thinking about moving to the next class as you may not be challenging yourself enough and pushing yourself to strive to be better. So if you never end up challenging yourself you are just allowing mediocrity into your life. 

Lately I have been feeling like I have been just jumping thru hoops. I have been doing my situps and pushups but sort of just to mark them down saying I did them; but even then I was never really marking them down, so noun of them even counted which is sort of frustrating. I think I have to fix my mindset of why I'm doing them. To do them, not to just mark them down but to do them to improve me overall, to become a better me.