Since I last wrote about my morning practice, I’ve stopped practicing Aikido, and started Chi Gong. Also, I’ve added some floor work to build my core strength and to stretch after moving.
- meditation – see what comes up
- meditation on my breath, still my mind
- state my intentions, know why I’m practicing
- Chi Gong
- Freeform Wing Tsun
- Wing Tsun forms
- Pilates and stretching
- Meditation – reflect on what I enjoyed and what I am thankful for.
I’m really enjoying my movement practice at the moment, here is what I do:
- start with a moment of stillness. Connect with my breath.
- state my intentions – why I practice and what values I intend to have while practising. At the moment I practice because I want mastery of mind and body and I want long term health. My values are presence, softness, strength and moving from my “one point”
- start moving with very small movements from my one point. Allow these movements to build up until they are very large and become stretches. Feel the waves through my body and identify blocks and tensions. Release these.
- do my Ki development exercises from Aikido.
- practice my Aikido forms.
- practice the Wing Chun first form (SNT) 3 times.
- practice the Wing Chun second form (CK) 3 times.
- improvise movement from my one point, with my arms “unbendable” and holding space – focus on legs.
- improvise movement from my one point, using the waves to power shapes that I form with my arms. I aim to use shapes from the SNT and CK.
- slowly come to a rest and do a bit of standing meditation
- at this point I usually feel a lot of love and excitement. I take time to feel gratitude and thank whatever comes to mind.
slacklines are like tightropes, but slack! The idea is very simple – you tie up a rope between 2 trees and then learn to balance on it. It’s great fun, a good workout for your core muscles, very meditative, and I meet lots of people out in the park!
Tight versus Slack
Most people seem to like to tie their ropes very tight, which I think has some disadvantages:
- you need a ratchet system or a few people
- if you fall it can catapult you
- for distance you need to have the rope VERY tight and quite high too
- if you fall with your legs either side…
I like it nice and loose because
- its easier to set up (one person, no special equipment)
- it looks like a smile!
- otherwise I’d have to call it a tight rope!
Equipment
All you need is a few metres of climbing tape. This shouldn’t cost more than £10 for 5 meters.
How to set it up
A good knot to use is the round turn and 2 half hitches. Use this on both ends of the rope around the trees. You can put in an extra turn to get more friction on the tree.
To make it easier to untie: while tieing the final hitch, put a loop through instead of the end of the rope. Then pull on the end of the rope to quick release.
Getting started
now you’ve got the rope up, move to the centre and put one foot on the rope (in the direction of the rope). You want to have your center of gravity directly over the rope. Slowly put weight down on that foot and you’ll probably find that your leg starts wobbling uncontrollably! Don’t worry, this is totally normal! This stage lasts a little while but stick with it. Soon you’ll have the control to put all your weight on that leg and then you can start balancing!
Going further
After you can balance, you can learn to
- walk forwards
- backwards
- not using your arms to help balancing
- turn
- stand perpendicular to the rope
- jump onto the rope
- jump while on the rope
- lie down
- do other things at the same time like yoga
, contact juggling or Wing Tsun…
