Month: March 2018

Twenty five tips on preventative self defense

Sometimes,

Almost always,

your brain can avoid a situation your fists will find hard to crack…

 

  1. Drink only from safe looking containers you opened (water bottles, alcohol ) and only if saw the drink being brewed in a safe looking establishment in front of you (coffee, tea, beer).
  2. Give your details to no one – the taxi driver does not need your life story, your dating status and whether or not you lock your window at night.
  3. Carry some money in your pockets so you do not take your wallet out at small purchases – Void if you live in the Emirates…
  4. Carry a RFID resistant wallet and passport cover or at least carry the cards in RFID resistant envelopes.
  5. Place the minimum amount of personal information on luggage tags and in filling forms online and in hotels.
  6. Do not post revealing details about yourself and close ones online and limit the spread of personal data as possible.
  7. Use WIFI and computers that do not belong to you with care to not type account numbers and private information.
  8. Use a code to lock your mobile device and not your fingerprint and cover your self as you open your device in public or avoid it.
  9. Avoid as much as possible walking and talking on the phone.
  10. Avoid standing and looking in one direction all the time. Look around yourself casually as you stand or walk outside and use reflective surfaces to help see around you.
  11. Make friends slowly – it is not wise to trust too much too fast. Especially when traveling or when coming to a new place.
  12. Note local customs and adhere to local norms when possible and moral.
  13. Carry a small first aid kit and learn how to use it. It is time well spent.
  14. Use a dummy cord when packaging your gear and important items. It is good to go through airport security without loosing gear and deter pick pockets and snatchers on the street.
  15. Mark all your products when traveling. It is annoying but helps in avoiding misunderstanding and shoddy people with authority.
  16. Play mental chess with yourself in making the next two moves in your head before you encounter the need to make a pin point decision.
  17. Check your location fully when you enter and when you leave. Never leave a hotel door or window open and do not leave information and valuables in display.
  18. Assume people are listening to your conversations. Avoid giving details as addresses, codes and the like with company.
  19. Carry a cheap pen or something of the like for use as a self defense tool. Keep in mind that a backpack is a shield to some extent.
  20. Place yourself with your front or side to the opening where you move around with your vision when you have multiple entrances to a location
  21. Find out ahead of time where the fire escapes and general exits.
  22. Carry a small flashlight. Darkness is a big factor in finding your way or just finding your keys in the dark parking lot as you listen to the scary music playing in your head…
  23. Have copies of keys and documents (encrypted Disk on key for example) for use in case of an accident and theft
  24. Check out the local currency and how to spot fakes. It is even interesting to note the methods organizations use to create a hard to duplicate item.
  25. Listen to your gut and act when uncomfortable. Getting out of the way of a train, figuratively speaking, is easier than stopping it when it plows you.

 

Healing breath

Meditation is good for you. So is getting something to eat once in a while. In order to incorporate the two, we must find a path which gives us the benefits of both while allowing us to keep going through our day.

  1. Tense and relax (neural layers of actuation if you like big words) – I spend a few hours a week in vehicles. I can make use of the time when driving or driven to further my awareness to the network of tension in my body. Through becoming more aware of myself I allow the body to rid itself of excess and flow better inward and outward. Start by tensing a part of you on the inhale which is a tensing of a muscle in itself. Release within the exhale and repeat until you cover the entire body. Next time repeat the work using smaller body parts until you reach an end, Later on you will find deeper and deeper ways to release what keeps you from your optimum.
  2. Pulse – Your heart is working. Your awareness of it is lacking.  Start at the skin depth and feel your pulse around your heart and further on until you cover your surface. Go deeper and feel your pulse in your stomach and in your muscles. Feel it in your head and see your pulse in your eyes. When you have such awareness, your movement and health will bloom further.
  3. Fear – Do you know your own fear ? Do you have some dark figure at the back of the head, whispering as you tire ? Breathe in and hold onto it. Count your heartbeats and note them getting swifter. Feel the tension in your body build and your pulse through the body (I built to that in the previous points as you can see 🙂 ) Exhale as you reach your current end and repeat the process in the reverse (exhaling and holding) once your pulse and tension releases.

 

Simple is not easy.

Deep is not twisted.

Keep your mind free of the troubles of the moment. It has past. Keep your mind in pursuit of or the knowledge of now.

 

Quality movement

Patterns of movement are everywhere. Do this and get the outcome you want.

We get this everywhere but what stands behind the Kata and drills ?

Focus on the full body motion and freedom that lies behind the pattern.

Step one: Move as one piece

Step two: Move yourself instead of pushing and pulling

 

Your mind governs your body to an extent. Give it a goal but do not limit how to get there to one route. Freedom lies in letting yourself see things as they are.

Training while under the weather

Illness and weakness makes us all aware of our mortality. It is no reason to stop improving and understanding ourselves. It is a reason to adept and learn with a differnet focus. Our health and ability will improve much by giving these methods a chance so we may stay mortal, a bit longer.

  1. Full body pulse: feel your own pulse at the side of the neck or anywhere else. Use pressing your fingers to the skin and your own focus to spread the awareness to your own pulse to a greater and greater area of the body. In time, you will feel a grand pulse throughout your entire system. There is a great affect of integration in that and a helping hand in letting the body heal itself.
  2. Full contact awareness: lie down and pay attention to every bit of you that is touching anything other than the air. Note the bed covers or earth, note the fabric of your clothes as they touch your skin and how they move as you breathe and shift. Contact awareness will help you be gentle with yourself and allow a greater harmony within.
  3. Noise awareness: We drink a cup of tea or that terrible substance called coffee. We take the cup from the table, we place it back on it and seldom listen to the noise we are making. Aim to create zero levels of noise in your movement and contact. This will take the focus from the action and bring it back to you. A deeper level of that is listening to the body inner noises. The tendons and stomach and the bones if you reach them. Listening both outside and inside will create a level of smoothness that will help a lot in letting things mend.You will also strike much better.
  4. Body breath awareness: lie down on your back and just relax your musles by tensing them and letting of on the exhale. Go through the entire body including the toes. Exhale and wait for the body to breathe at this relaxed state. This will help using less and less excess in your breathing and through that, in any other tasking. Less excess equals more energy for good movement and growth.
  5. Digital awareness: Relax your body and start moving your fingers one by one. Use your breath to lead motion and work with care to move each joint with freedom from mirror movement in other joints of the hand. Work your hands together and reach greater control by paying attention to what your nervous system is telling you. This will allow you to release more excess and direct your energy to where you want it. Especially if you have less than normal at the moment.

You are, what you make of yourself.

Make it a good one.

 

 

 

 

Ten ways to be a better teacher

  1. Aim to learn during each class. We teach better when we are a part of the process
  2. Give honest feedback by changing the process instead of just do this or that. Understanding is key to continuous learning.
  3. Look for slight adjustments to the perception of ability instead of leaps and bounds so people can grow instead of developing a crust.
  4. Do the work for the climb instead of making it about the work itself. Doing pushups well will only get you so far.
  5. Appreciate your students as people. Aim to free them instead of guiding them in your way.
  6. We are not linear creatures. Give your students a chance to be comfortable not knowing. It is indeed a state of mind.
  7. Aim to give your students the nourishment they need instead of what you wish to give.
  8. Love what you teach so it is not work but devotion in practice.
  9. Practice your strengths and your weaknesses in your own practice and with your students.  Be honest.
  10. The basics make up everything. Keep going back to them to find new deeper understanding. Going away from the basics ends up in being lost in the work.

It is a great privilege to teach.