Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Perpetual Motion

Lately I've been learning the value of momentum. I know that when you're kicking, doing moves, you should use your muscles and not rely on momentum to carry you through. That's not the kind I mean. I'm talking about the benefit of not slowing down. Take back stretch, at the end of class what I'd love to do is just lie there on my stomach, but if I keep going, I make it to the end. Whenever I lose my rhythm or stop, even for a split second, it becomes a 100 times harder. Or when we do jumps. If I just keep running and jumping and keeping that flow of chi going, it's actually much easier than when we have that much longed for, but ill-advised few moments to stand and wait. Stopping, then trying to mentally re-start is the worst. On a larger scale, this is the same for training as a whole. When you come more and more and more it's easier every time. But as soon as you stop and take a few days off, it becomes harder to make yourself go back. It's understandably easy to see work and your personal life as too consuming to let you go, when they are actually no more consuming than when you were training 5 times a week.


I've found this to be true in my regular life as well. When I'm at work or at home, if I keep doing tasks straight through to the end of the day without a break, I get much more accomplished than if I stop for a minute. The moment I stop to look at what's in front of me everything seems much more daunting than when I charge through. Not to say you shouldn't look at what's in front of you; otherwise you might kick someone.