Amy Poehler's Smart Girls at the Party

I've been in the process of writing this post about training, but it's not finished and I've been inspired by something else.

So I'm sure that I'm a lot older than the target audience for this website, but I just randomly came across this site today and I got really excited about it.

This is a website targeted to young women, to inspire them to be themselves, and pursue their passions. Whatever that may be. So cool.

http://sgatp.net/smart-girls-at-the-party/

Gratitude

I've been thinking this week about all the things in my life here that make me grateful. This has been a hard week. Lots of long hot days. So these are 10 things that helped me this week.

1) Skype - so I can talk to my parents every week.
2) Jasmine - a friend here that really helps me keep life in perspective.
3) My kung fu brothers - I never had a brother, now I have 10.
4) Mangoes - I love eating messy fruit and having the juice run all over my hands. It feels barbaric, and totally awesome.
5) Cold water - on a really hot day, nothing quenches the thirst better, or feels more refreshing in the shower.
6) Chocolate - this is something that I'm grateful for pretty much every day.
7) Facebook - helps me feel like I'm still a part of my friends' and family's life.
8) Sunscreen - to keep me from baking (literally) out in the sun
9) My guitar - love to just sit, play, and sing.
10) Tulsi a.k.a Holy Basil - an Indian herb that helps me get through the roughest days, and makes me feel like I'm not actually losing my mind.

"When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude." ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

Acts of Kindness

I was reading lists of people's daily acts of kindness. Sometimes the smallest act, can really change the way someone is feeling, and in turn, may encourage them to do something kind for someone else. This is a very basic principle, most of us have heard this before.

One of the greatest things about living here is that I can spend so much time every day cultivating my body, my spirit, and my emotions. I feel as though I've really begun to know who I am. But also while being here, I've made so many friends, and met so many amazing people.

I feel as though I've become a bit jaded, a bit cynical, while living in China, and it really bothers me. I'm sure this happens to many people as they get older. I know it's due to experience, but lately I've been forgetting to focus on all the great things going on around me. There's plenty to be thankful for. I've been so busy thinking of ways to improve my body, that I've forgotten that I'm also here to cultivate my character. In some ways, it's really difficult to put so much effort into relationships with all the people around me. But it's amazingly rewarding, if I just open my heart and remember.

"The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear" ~Daniel Defoe

Encouragement From a Young Woman

As I was reading the blog of a friend of mine, I realized why I like to follow her. She doesn't write much, and we don't keep in close touch, but I find her very inspiring. You know the funny thing is, that we're very different people, going through very different things at this point in our lives. But I guess that's one of the reasons I find it so exciting to read what's going on in her life. I often try to remember what I was like through different stages in my life. I find that looking back can sometimes help me move forwards.

We had a group of German tourists come through the temple a couple of months ago, and after we got past all the regular conversation pieces (where are you from, what are you doing here, etc.) they asked me some really great questions. Questions that I've never had a tourist ask me before. "Do you feel different than before you came here?" I answered very candidly that I couldn't possibly compare the person I was 5 years ago to the person I am now. And I really believe this to be true. When I think back to myself at 23, I look back at a totally different person than I am today, and it really encourages me.

This is why my friend is so inspiring. She's in grade 9, and she's awesome. So when I think about the person she might be when she's my age, or even by the time she reaches 20, it gives me something to look forward to. Some hope for her future, and my own.

Daring Greatly

     "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."
   ~Theodore Roosevelt

I had never heard this quote, until I watched a lecture on TED talks. Something the speaker said really made me think about the way I think about myself, and to myself. She said, "It's seductive to stand outside the arena and think to myself I'm gonna go in there and kick some ass, when I'm bullet proof, and when I'm perfect. But the truth is, that never happens."

I was thinking about how this applies to my training. How could I ever improve, if I never tried because I was afraid of failure. I think about some of the people I know from home, and also some of the people I've met here, and how much they hold themselves back because they're afraid. And also how often I've held myself back for the same reasons. It was a great talk, I'm posting the link.

http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_listening_to_shame.html

Euphoric Exhuastion

This has been a pretty tough week for me. You know when you get that feeling after training to your maximum, where you're completely exhausted, but once it's over you can swear you feel amazing. I'm sure there are people out there that have never experience this, but to them, all I can say is that you don't know what you're missing. I've realized since being here how far I can push myself. There's sometimes I'm sure I couldn't do another thing, and then Shifu shows up and he's like practice this form 10 times and I swear I'm gonna die. But  I don't. Thankfully.

There's something to be said for being too tired to even think about stuff. I'm a thinker, you know my brain's constantly running through ideas of some kind, and I generally struggle to turn that part of me off. But not today. Today I can just bask in the glory of complete and utter collapse. This post might have a few run-on sentences, but try to give me a break. I'm beat.

A Summary

It's been ages since my last post, and as I was explaining to my mom this morning, once I miss this much time it's so hard to start writing again because it seems like so much and so little has happened all at the same time. So I decided to write a few notes on the things I've been doing or feeling etc.

I turned 28. That number sounds crazy to me, because I still feel like I'm 20 years old. I spent the night in a hotel on the mountain and got up at 3am to start walking up the mountain to be there in time for sunrise. I am usually up for the sunrise here anyways. but being as we're in the mountains I don't generally get to see much. It was an amazing experience, although I don't think I've ever been so cold and so sweaty all at the same time.

We're almost finished learning the dadao form, which is crazy because that pretty much completes the list of forms outside of the internal qi gongs. I don't know what's coming next which makes me apprehensive and excited at the same time.

I touched my head to my foot for the first time this week. I had an interesting realization in regards to my stretching since I've been back from break. I didn't know before how hard I should or could be stretching. It's a balance between pushing yourself and hurting yourself. I now know that my threshold is much farther than I thought and my stretching has really been dramatically improving for the first time in 3 years. No one could have told this to me, it was something I had to work out for myself.

On a totally non-kungfu related note. I started taking kind of 'hip-hop' dancing lessons from another student here. It's been really fun. Looking forward to learning some more moves today.