I'm doing much better at researching why I'm not losing the weight I want than I am actually losing it. The latest addition is this piece on how chronic stress and junk food stimulate the body to create biochemical messengers that cause fat to grow in all the wrong places. NPR has a good piece on it.
My modified goal is to exercise 12.5% more (which I've been doing), eating 12.5% less (which I'm not succeeding at but am inching toward), and now to find piece amidst my stressful life (which I'm also pretty much succeeding at). This will be my triple threat against being overweight, out of shape, and an unnecessarily shortened life (see previous post).
Part of calorie control, emphasized by this article on the role of junk food, is the elimination of junk food from the diet. That's an amazing "duh," I know. This research just serves as a reminder.
I've approached stress management in the past using relaxation and karate. I found that wasn't enough. The most significant change has been to adopt a bushido attitude. The bushido attitude says, I will not let others cause stress in me. The spirit is one of being indomitable in peace of mind; the application is situational. It comes down to asking, "Am I going to let this person in that situation cause me to feel that way? Why would I give them that power?" And then finding the spirit to shut out their malicious influence.
I'm on my way! Cheer me on!
Showing posts with label chi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chi. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Monday, June 4, 2007
Korean Dancing and Chi
I'm going to try this post, even thought the interface is in Korean.
My goal was to do some posting on Korean martial Arts. Instead, I went to a traditional Korean dance last night at the Korea House in Seoul. At the beginning of the evening there was a dancer performing movements remeniscent of kata.
The dancer made sweeping foot movements similar to unsu and bassai sho. These are often interpreted as bunkai for fighting in the dark, sending out your foot slowly from a strong position and then attacking when contact is made.
Her hand movements were reminiscent also of Tai Chi or other slower kata movements. And it was the hand movements that struck me most.
I was standing about 30 feet away. As she did the hand movements, long slow, sweeping gestrues, I could feel chi stirring in my body that was timed to her hand movements. It was not an eerie feeling, but one of connection. I am also not certain whether I was having sympathetic chi reaction, or a legitimate detection of her energy flowing at a distance. My scientific mind suspects it was my own chi flowing, but my romantic mind (is that a contradiction in terms?) wants to believe she was that powerful in her chi.
I have felt chi projections before, but never from so far away, and never so unexpectedly. We often do an exercise in our dojo where we close our eyes, stand in a circle of potential attackers, and one attacker is chosen by the sensei to project an attack, from chi only. I have been able to easily discriminate the one attacker, with eyes closed, from eight different possibilities. I have been able to do it repeatedly, and for the strongest, it is like being flooded with warmth.
For this experience, my eyes were open, and I was enjoying the show. A similar feeling of warmth, but not one of an attack, washed over me as the dancer moved her arms. It came unexpectedly. Not believing it, I waited, and it happened each time she manipulated chi with her hands and arms. I could have done a more scientific test, but didn't think to do that.
So far, that's the Korean report. I saw some kids running around in Tae Kwan Do uniforms, but other than the dancing, that's all.
My goal was to do some posting on Korean martial Arts. Instead, I went to a traditional Korean dance last night at the Korea House in Seoul. At the beginning of the evening there was a dancer performing movements remeniscent of kata.
The dancer made sweeping foot movements similar to unsu and bassai sho. These are often interpreted as bunkai for fighting in the dark, sending out your foot slowly from a strong position and then attacking when contact is made.
Her hand movements were reminiscent also of Tai Chi or other slower kata movements. And it was the hand movements that struck me most.
I was standing about 30 feet away. As she did the hand movements, long slow, sweeping gestrues, I could feel chi stirring in my body that was timed to her hand movements. It was not an eerie feeling, but one of connection. I am also not certain whether I was having sympathetic chi reaction, or a legitimate detection of her energy flowing at a distance. My scientific mind suspects it was my own chi flowing, but my romantic mind (is that a contradiction in terms?) wants to believe she was that powerful in her chi.
I have felt chi projections before, but never from so far away, and never so unexpectedly. We often do an exercise in our dojo where we close our eyes, stand in a circle of potential attackers, and one attacker is chosen by the sensei to project an attack, from chi only. I have been able to easily discriminate the one attacker, with eyes closed, from eight different possibilities. I have been able to do it repeatedly, and for the strongest, it is like being flooded with warmth.
For this experience, my eyes were open, and I was enjoying the show. A similar feeling of warmth, but not one of an attack, washed over me as the dancer moved her arms. It came unexpectedly. Not believing it, I waited, and it happened each time she manipulated chi with her hands and arms. I could have done a more scientific test, but didn't think to do that.
So far, that's the Korean report. I saw some kids running around in Tae Kwan Do uniforms, but other than the dancing, that's all.
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