Tao Thoughts and Losing Flexibility

好看的湖泊 (húpō)

Normal Life 生活

This week was normal where I had to watch my family's kid and work throughout the week. This week was different as our team at work now has only two people instead of our normal 3 people because one person quit.

柔韧性越来越不好...

Training 培训

My training has been lacking this month but I've started to incorporate more physical exercises to improve my strength. Things like different pushups, mason twists, situps, pull ups and the like. My goal is to build up more muscle strength this way as well as my normal kung fu exercises to improve my tendon strength along with stretching to improve my flexibility.

Standing and lifting all day at work has made my legs stiff as a board but I still keep the battle going to keep my flexibility slowly improving as recently it has been getting worse and worse. I can still kick to my head but not effectively like a couple weeks ago. I must keep practicing!

Another thing I did was buy a nice 80 pound punching bag to use for conditioning my body similarly to a makiwara board of karate. It was cheap as it was a clearance so I took the chance and bought it. The only thing I need to do is buy a anchor for it so it is more stable.

我不好的拳击

Taoism 道教

I'm still reading various pages from "365 Day Tao" and recently I've read a few things that I like as they correspond with the ideas of Christianity. It's neat to study different religions and see all the connections that are out there. Its just like martial arts, different ways of expressing fighting but religion is different ways of attaining divinity.

One day's meditation covered "Fields" and how cultivation of these 9 fields can make a person have godlike qualities within themselves.

Diet: Learning how to eat properly will improve not only your body but can also help your mood as well. Also learning to appreciate the foods that you eat can help you become more humble.

I believe that I'm doing good with my diet as I try to make most of my food and eat a healthy balance of fruits, veggies, meats and breads. 3-4 meals a day sounds like a lot but with training and work it makes my body eat through a lot. Every one is different.

Herbs (Medicine): Though the book talked about herbs I believe that his also includes learning what modern medicines can help you along with real natural remedies. I believe this can also include learning how to forage out in the wild to help your survival skills too!

Clothing: This talked about dressing in moderation. For this I always picture what the monks and prophets are pictured wearing as they always dressed in simple clothing. I've never been the one to buy too fancy of clothing or a lot of name brand stuff.

Recitation: This aspect talked about expressing your "spirit" through recitation. At first I thought I would disagree with this as I've never like remembering "set prayers" but it talked about how you can also express your spirit through songs, stories, and other vocal "recitations" which is one way I've never thought about expressing your spirit through.

I think for me "The Lord's Prayer" is the recitation I use the most but I feel I listen to songs more to express my spirit through recitation.

Stretching: This aspect I fully agree with, it talked about stretching, working out and improving your physical strength and health in different ways.

Everyday I try to workout or stretch so that I improve my body and mind.

Meditation: Meditation has always been difficult for me as I've never fully understood how to do it but the passage talked about trying to meditate two times every day to tap into the "Tao". Meditation is supposed to help you connect with that "other sense" that is beyond the physical and goes into the spiritual/mythical. I'd say this is one of the hardest things for me to do.

Though I have troubles with meditation and haven't really tapped into my "other sense" I do think a lot at work. Usually I solve most of my "mental battles" at work and to me this is a form of meditation.

Creativity: This one talked about how you need to be creative in whatever you do, which I fully agree on as I believe to be a good martial artist you also need to be creative; whether in sparring, forms or demonstration. I believe everyone can be creative, they just have to find what they like being creative in. For some its drawing, animation, martial arts, performing or even at their work. Creativity and fun is what keeps us young and is a way to tap into that youthful spirit.

I believe that this blog is a way for me to be creative but I also think about stories a lot and I long for the weekends where my friends and I would play Dungeons and Dragons late into the night. My martial arts I'm also creative as I'm trying to combine different styles into what fits for me.

Teaching (Education): Though this aspect was written as teaching it talked more about learning as much as you can through education like a schooling and then using it to truly understand your knowledge and finally, after understanding, you teach it to others so that others may expand their knowledge and we all benefit.

I try to teach my niece and nephew martial arts and help my sister learn different ways of exercising.

Compassionate: The final aspect was to be compassionate and forgiving throughout your life. To avoid bad moods like violence, anger and hate so that your presence improves the lives of others.

Another day's meditation was "Unyielding". This one is complex as it is good to be unyielding in your beliefs and morals but it is also alright to change if you discover that you truly are wrong in your way. But even Christianity makes many mentions of having a strong unyielding spirit as everyday your spirit will be tested but every day that you stick to your morals and beliefs you get stronger spiritually. You can be unyielding in many ways and only you can get yourself through these daily challenges.

Today's meditation was "Searching" which I feel can be related to everyone, not just various religions, as many are looking for their purpose, goal, meaning and more in life. Everyone has something, whether good or bad, that keeps them going throughout life and it is in this search for our "goal" that we learn a lot about ourselves. Sometimes we discover that our goal isn't what we really want and that thing that drives us can change. While searching you learn a lot about yourself.

This has been my week, though troublesome mentally I believe that every weekend that arrives I realize I've done pretty good.

How are you doing?

-Johnny