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We've all had those days when it seems like an uphill battle simply to get out of bed or the day has completely sucked out loud and now it's time to train. Sometimes, it's simply hard to work up the mojo to go train. This could be your daily workout or your karate training or simply your personal practice time. What do you do to overcome these times?

Whether we're talking anger and frustration, PMS (defined either as premenstrual syndrome or putting up with men's...well, you get the point ), or other emotions....these emotions can certainly affect your training. If they are cyclical in nature, that makes it even tougher, as you have to deal with them on a regular basis. What helps you get the lead out and simply do it?

Do you set the emotions aside when you step into the dojo or gym, or do you use those emotions to focus your workout to a higher level?

Is there a point, where you should simply take a bow and walk away for a bit?

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Live True, Laugh often
Shana

Hi Shana ,

we all tend to have our own unique patterns ,you need to understand yours ,this takes effort to know in a better way .
If we train once or twice per week this should not be a great problem ,if you work out five times we will tire ,but we have two full days rest ,this is similar to a job ,a nice rest period at the weekend .

Personally I have gradually over 42years built my stamina up to be capable of doing my craft mason/bricklayer then doing training afterwards ,my body as adapted to this type of demand ,but rest is essential ,I tend to be sport specific I focus all my training time to the movements of uechi-ryu ,I have taught myself to relax into daily life ,so I don't get stressed to quickly [in other words this saves mass energy,this is were I am.

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max ainley

martial arts is no different than anything else is life. i remember two phrases.

"SUCCESS IS FOR THOSE WILLING TO DO WHAT OTHERS WILL NOT"

"99% OF ALL FAILURE COMES FROM QUITING"

steve
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Maxwell, I seem to remember a past post where you talked about learning the bricklayer craft and how certain positions really do work..if you give them time. For some reason, that has really stuck with me. We don't always know, intially, the reason for certain actions, and sometimes just have to stick with it, so to speak.

Thank you for your and Steve's input! That said, I agree with both of you that we all need to find our personal rhythm/optimal training schedule for us and we all must find our own personal reasons to keep doing what we do...our motivations must be our own or they will not last.. However, I think I may have failed to clearly state my question.

There are times, whether due to one time emotions/events, sickness, or - -this is more specifically, but not exclusively a female issue- - cyclical emotional states that affect us mentally and physically. On the last, some women have very little impact to thier daily lives, some have huge impact, and some....it varies.

In those situations, what techniques do you use to get yourself motivated? Also, are there times when you really should allow yourself a...."this time" break. A good example of the last is when you are feeling honest rage, not just irritation and anger. If you cannot put that aside in your training, that could make you dangerous. Hopefully, your discipline will allow you to redirect, but I ask this question in all honesty.

My personal technique is the "5-10 minute rule". Which is basically show up and give it 5-10 minutes of honest focused effort. If at the end of that time, you still feel that rage, misery, etc...then "something may be trying to tell you somebody" as I say.

This has worked well for me in the past, and usually the 5-10 minutes is enough time for you to remember why this is important, feels good, or get your focuse back. I have actually only packed up and gone home once using this technique..turns out I was coming down with a serious case of the flu and was too busy to notice.

So what techniques do folks use to get back on track? and is there a point where you should take that day/night off, for whatever reason?

_________________
Live True, Laugh often
Shana

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I think I may have failed to clearly state my question.
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actually Shana your question to me was quite understandable.
as for the "cyclical states" being a guy i cant help you on that..

but my old Zen teacher used to say that we ALL have "circumstances" we all think this "stuff" only happens to us alone. that we have particular issues. in truth we all have circumstances but some of us are able to keep going like the energizer bunny. this is true for martial arts as well as business and the success we have, or not have in our lives.
i always say the hardest part of martial arts is just showing up.
the only time i would suggest not participating in class would be due to an injury that would get worse from doing so. example i once tore my hamstring very badly. i would advise others to take the time off to recoupe. i however did not follow this and limped around on the dojo floor but the difference was i was teaching rather then being a student.
as for techniques to get us there ....well every reason would have a different response from me.
if your feeling is one of procastination that usually comes from being overwelmed so i would say take baby steps. focus on small tasks *( just pack your Gi....just eat something ...just get in the car )

however on the overall i would say just make it a habit to go. but i think must of us know that.

Question ... does or would these emotional reasons keep you from brushing your teeth or taking a shower ??? going to work???
probably not because we focus on the physical parts /steps or getting it done. however when we start to focus on the "should we go" ??? "do i really feel like it?" the longer we entertain these thoughts the more the answer is usually ....NO...

so i would say do not entertain these thoughts ,,,try to regulate your mind and just "GET THERE"
then leave these thoughts at the door when you get there.

steve
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From my point of view, there is nothing wrong with retreat when it is advisable.

It's not a reason to feel guilty and it might even balance out some of the overdoing we all sometimes engage in.

When I hear a woman honestly enquire about rage, training and being dangerous in the same sentence, I think I wouldn't want to be part of that experiment.

Sometimes we all, male and female, have to return to our caves and figure out what's going on, before we rejoin our playmates. (and show them what's up).

When I was with larger groups , I always encouraged folks to watch if they didnt feel like training .

watching your peers can be a bigger learning curve sometimes than training itself .

you also get the break you were craving .

and watching others train is very motivating , it`s hard to watch and not want to join in .

having said that , if your hearts not in it , dont train .

Shana,
I gave myself a big motivater donkeys years ago [self mastery] and the choice of practice was UECHI-RYU in which it could be acheived ,this is were I concentrated my focus ,what spilled out of this focus went into life ,but I was into mastery also in my craft so I saw similar things involved in mastery ,and all the ins and outs that go with it to certain levels .
Any one who sets out on such a focus will feel ups and downs enroute,with time you can learn to ride these ups and downs ,so I would say thats were I am now ,obviously it as not always been like that .
In true self mastery there will be a struggle involved similar to Sanchins conflicts ,so upon this struggle/conflict reasoning I focused all my training energy to sanchin ,and totally laid to oneside other needs ,to do this requires stamina which I already was developing in my struggle to learn the craft .

So developing a single minded focus is a first step [ there is no days of here ] I have acheived devotion ,thats how I feel [ this is a stage of mastery in the first stages of struggle ,when this point is reached you start to learn to ride out your specific ups and downs ,or you will develop a different type of pattern were ups ,then the downs knock you back.

I learnt to seek out rest periods and put them to my advantage all through the day ,this becomes a new pattern which can be further explored ,in similar fashion to your uechi practice .

I had a student who was going through a bad patch [ they had just had a baby etc ,he stopped coming for a month then he wrang one night explaining his problem this specfic night ,his wife had a night out ,so i went to his home to help get the baby to sleep who had been suffering with wind , then we trained at his home.

Max.

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max ainley

We all tend to speak from our individual patterns ,yet in our individual hindsight if we have any , this is really were I speak from ,this why I brought in the mastery concept in its early developing stages ,for starters the way one feels will undergo change ,this really means you get into a mastery mood about all things ,not a coping mood ,or a series of mood swings .
Mastery means in these early states ,a sort of settling into things ,this new feeling comes from a practice of single minded involvement ,I used Sanchin only as my single minded example ,many other programs are valid ,so I am not saying which one would be the best for anyone .

If mastery is the prime objective ,the same struggles will have to be faced and mastered in one way or another , we are dealing with the doing ,the act of doing ,we need to test this doing ,so with this doing we need to establish a first goal [single mindedness ] with this single minded state ones true health will be shown ,quite simply one is not the victim of negative states ,you will feel very different ,were as all around ones self people tend to be all over the place from highs to lows ,living in a sort of revolving door ,and obviously within this revolving door concept there will be good examples of certain levels of some type of mastery , as a example it could be a golf swing or the handling of a horse etc , but in most cases they are not masters of them selves .

True mastery starts with a singleness of purpose ,but it can't expand if we insist on only that specific purpose that as not spilled over into all other areas we come into contact with, what this means is if I go to golf I approach if only for one hour, a motivation thats in sinc with a new learning struggle and if must be I can stay put all day long in this learning capacity and my developed mastery over single mindedness will not falter.

The train is late enroute to Edinburgh tensions start to appear up and down the platform ,I just wait in a very patient manner internally there is not a sign of irritation ,I am not coping with this specific situation nor am I engulfed by it , the true element that is mastery within me remains present , take this or leave it as true the choice is yours .

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max ainley

I always held the thought in the back of my mind that those days I struggled at the dojo, struggled to get into the gi, heck even struggled to get in the car were the days when I was learning the most.

I understand the "cyclical" state and equate it to most things in life - you always have up days and down days but that wheel keeps spinning. When you are down the wheel has to come back up and (unfortunately sometimes) when things are at a high they tend to go down.

Some days the motivation came from my sensi, from my fellow students and sometimes I just had to stop and realize that it came from within. For me, if there was something that frustrated me (at the dojo karate-wise) I would break it down and then build it back up.

Mary, can you elaborate on this idea?

I'm also finding your conversation on mastery, Maxwell, interesting in this conversation.

Good posts guys!

_________________
Live True, Laugh often
Shana

I've pretty much conquered those training "blues" that cause many to "take a day or two or a hundred off"!

We all have those days and what separate those who "give up" and those who "jump back" is discipline and the ability to treat our training goals the same way we treat other important goals.

We push through those negative feelings and the voice that tells us to "watch TV and train "tomorrow" and we work out!!

Next time you get feeling like skipping a class or other workout, focus your attention on how you physically/emotionally feel "right now" and how you are going to feel after your class/workout. . . and how that feeling will last for the rest of the day and evening.

It works for me!!

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GEM
"Do or do not. there is no try!"

Sure Shana. I'll give you an example.

Sanchin

If I found I was having difficulty in my sanchin I would break it down. I would work on various parts of it. I wouldn't get frustrated because I know deep down that sanchin changes as you go.

I'd start with my connection with the ground, my tuck, my turns. I would leave everything else in my sanchin and concentrate on that. I would work my steps, my turns, my legs, my muscles, my balance and my foot placement. I would work on starting with the base or foundation of it. I would sometimes spend a lot of time just sanchin stepping.

Then I would work on my abs and lats, focusing on keeping them connected, down and strong, my breathing. I concentrated on how they were connected to my legs, my feet, even my toes.

I would tear apart my sanchin thrusts, working on getting the power to come from my body and the connection with the floor, not just flailing my arms out from my body. I would focus on them coming from my body straight and true like an arrow. I would concentrate on the strength in my wrists and my fingers, the connection between them to my arms to my shoulders, my abs and lats.

I would concentrate on my posture, my glare, my intent and my power and purpose.

I would then start to link them all together and the parts helped a great deal to create the whole. Sometimes it would be just one little thing that I needed to work on (hahah...sometimes it would be the whole thing!)

Hope that's a bit of an answer.

Mary S: "Sure Shana, I'll give you an example. "

"I would concentrate on my posture, my glare, my intent and my power and purpose."

Dammit, I will be rightfully labeled an ass for posting this, but you are so intelligent, earthy, and all of your posts I have ever read speak of an incredibly attractive and amazing woman.

Ahhh Christ...

Thanks!

I'm very lucky to have had incredible instruction on my journey.