Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Pieces

Last night was the first Tai Chi class I could attend in May. There is something written on every day of my planner. My daughter’s teachers are loading up on homework and projects. My husband decided to replace the garage roof and volunteered me as his helper. My shoulder hurts from ripping off roofing and pulling out nails. I decided to take time for myself and go to class.

I am glad I did. It was one hour. I did not think about homework, shingles to nail, thank you notes to send, phone calls to return, items to order, groceries to buy, bills to pay, train schedules to review or packages to mail. I did not worry that I was missing the last regular episode of Lost before the finale. (I recorded it!).

I realized quite early in May that I would not have time to practice. I can count on one hand the times I went to the gym. I needed to accept my schedule and not feel guilty about working out or training less. I decided to work on pieces: pieces of kata, pieces of the Yang long form and pieces of bunkai. I could work on these slivers when I had a few minutes. The pieces of the Yang form I chose were embrace the tiger and kicks. By choosing a small segment to work on, I was able to make some improvement despite my busy schedule.

How do you manage your busy schedule and training?

4 comments:

Rick Matz said...

How do I manage? Pretty much the same way.

A long time ago I heard the saying "if you wait for conditions to be perfect before practicing, you'll be waiting a long time indeed."

I'm opportunistic. When time and energy is short, I work on pieces as you've described. Sometimes I just practice standing stake, or just my warm ups. When doing everyday activities like vacuuming the house or cutting the grass, I try to find the internal movements in my motions.

The Lenten Challenge has helped nurture this attitude and way of training.

Sue C said...

I agree with 'little and often' training. Anything that doesn't require a training partner can be slotted into the day for a few minutes here and there. Funakoshi's advice to the karateka was to train for only ten minutes, three times a day. So if it was good enough for him it's good enough for me! :-)

Frank said...

Yep... Little and often. The pace of modern living is so fast, so busy, and so hectic, that it's difficult to squeeze it all in. If your practice is a top priority and you make it one of your top priorities, then you will always have time for it. If you let your practice slip to a lower priority level, then you will never have time to practice because something else will always seem more important.

Michele said...

Rick: Thank you for commenting. I also try to analyze my movement during daily activities. I look forward to the Lenten Challege. I may not have been able to train every day but...I try.

SueC: It's good enough for me too! I am facing a very busy weekend and I know I will not make it to the gym...again. I am going to try 10 minutes/3 times a day. Thank you for commenting.

Frank: So true...
I have been letting my knee strengthening exercises slip lately. I need to make it a priority. Thanks for commenting!