Tis the Season

... to be busy! I have unfortunately been slacking on both the aikido
and blogging fronts as we begin the hectic holiday season.

Stan was visiting the dojo a couple of weeks ago, and I was fortunate to
get a "redo" on kokyudosa with him. He said I had gotten better and had
loosened up since we last worked together. It's like there are
thousands of lessons, and you get bits and pieces as you go along.
Every class I hope to take something away that "sticks". Sometimes it
feels like instead of progress I am backsliding in some respects, but
this can be an illusion. Of course, "progress" can also be an illusion.

One thing about loosening up is that it is completely counter to the
fight or flight response--adrenalin creates very quick, but very tense
responses to an attack. I imagine this is the natural state of human
reflexes. We need to train our responses to instead channel the energy
properly, remaining relaxed, attentive, and ready to accept the attack
properly.