It's really been way too long since I've blogged. I doubt anyone's bothering to check it anymore. I'm a sort of lost cause when it comes to journaling. I love the feeling of picking up a pen and writing down my thoughts, but for some reason typing just doesn't do it for me. It's part of my new years resolution this year so I'm really gonna work at it...
I came back to Wudang and my training feeling completely renewed. I know that I will continue to struggle a lot over this next year, but being back here really reminds me of the purpose of being here and of the commitment that I've made. I've been approaching my training with a different attitude. And I'm not saying that the training isn't as difficult but I've been enjoying it more. Admittedly we haven't started running again yet, but I'm going to try to keep a positive attitude about that as well. I've only been here for a couple weeks but already I've sprained my ankle. It's healing faster than I expected.
Meditation is going really well. I was able to sit through a one hour meditation 2 days in a row. I've never been able to do this before so it was big progress for me.
Today it snowed and so we had class indoors. I don't generally enjoy training inside because it seems to get repetitive, but today we did some weight training and I've never felt so strong in my life. I did about 15 shoulder presses with about 24kg. I recall the last time we did it, I couldn't even hardly do 5 (with assistance from some of my kung fu brothers). This was really exciting for me. I'm already incredibly sore even though it was only about 7 hours ago, but the feeling of success is worth all the pain.
This week we also started a new form Tai Yi Wu Xing Quan. It was quite a surprise to be learning this form already. On the program plan it's a third year form. I'm really excited though. Brandi and I learned this form on our first visit to the school but I'm learning a lot relearning some of the moves. We've also been practicing dragon claw every day. Today after doing all those shoulder presses it was like torture but my hands are noticeably stronger already. Can't wait until I can hold myself up on my CLAWS! Grrrrr............
