Just recently I went on my 2nd Chi Kung, Meditation and Kung Fu retreat. Basically we packed lots of warm clothes and headed up to the Pocono mountains for a weekend.  Once there, we kept busy training, meditating, journaling and sitting in the woods to reconnect with nature.

There were points when we would spend time with others walking or sitting in meditation outside in complete silence. If you think about it, how often do people spend time together as a group without having the need to constantly be saying something. I found those moments to be a rare pleasure.

Knowing you are all there for a common purpose, sharing an experience without exchanging any words is a refreshing change from every day life. It was in those quiet moments when it felt like it was a true retreat experience for me – a chance to recharge. The unhurried pace, the utter lack of the usual demands and pressures. Even being told when to move on to the next thing meant leaving the worry about time and schedules to someone else. I got to just ‘be”. That was a gift.

Fully engaged with a heightened awareness is the only way to describe one particular experience I had on that retreat. I can’t get into the details unfortunately, but suffice it it say that it was an eye opening experience.

If you’ve never gone a retreat like this I strongly recommend that you do. It is wonderful experience and doing it for the weekend really helps you to “get it” in a way that just a few hours outside does not.

Happy Trails.

We hear about people dying needlessly everyday but I was truly taken aback to read a story in the newspaper today about a temporary Walmart employee being trampled to death by the Black Friday shopping crowd out in Long Island, NY.

Apparently, these shoppers were so hungry for their bargains that they actually broke down the doors of the store and trampled this maintenance worker. I wonder if the following day or on Christmas morning these shoppers will look at around at all their worldly goods and feel it was worth it? Knowing that a 34 year old man’s life was traded for what exactly? A video game? A new coat? A Hannah Montana doll?

What was it that caused these people to cast all sense of humanity aside and knock this man to the ground? The scene was later described by police as “utter chaos” and employees said the customers were “acting like savages”. Even after it was announced that they must leave because an employee was killed, it is reported that people were yelling in protest saying that they were on line since yesterday. These people wanted to keep shopping!!

If this is not one of the most saddest commentaries of how greed and want have taken over our society today, I’m not sure what is.  I honestly believe that if more people were exposed to traditional martial arts education where things like self control, patience, awareness and meditation are taught and valued over things like material things and a “me first” mentality something like this would not have taken place.

Rather than getting caught up in the chaos and frenzy, people would have the clarity of thought to recognize the fact that the acquisition of things does not equate with true happiness. Our value in this society cannot be measured by the amount of stuff we have. A clear mind would not have not been so easily seduced.

Just imagine for a moment the reaction of family getting the phone call being told that their loved one died in a throng of people out to get a “bargain”.  Such an avoidable, senseless death.  It saddens me to think of what kind of holiday season they will be having this year and each one following.

If there is growth to be had in face of tragedy, then one can only hope that this event and the attention it receives will serve as a giant wake up call. 

I see the economic situation we are in as just that. A wake up call. Our society is led astray. We are placing too much value and time on the wrong things. I am hoping that this distress will eventually lead to a shift of consciousness. As our material possessions get stripped away we will be forced to realize what is truly important and that it is not found on the shelves of a store.

Helping us to look within -that is what martial arts training at its best is really about. It provides each of us with a road map. It points us to the areas where we need to work on ourselves. In doing so, we benefit everyone around us.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. A special day for giving thanks. But I wonder why we need a special day on the calendar to remind us to be thankful?  So much to be grateful for every day when we stop and think about it.

I don’t come from a “glass is always half full” upbringing.  So remembering to really focus on the good in a situation rather than the bad is a learned behavior for me. One that takes practice. But as with anything with enough practice it wil become habit over time.

Just the other day I was driving my kids home from school using my husband’s uncle car while my car was in the shop.  None of us really enjoy being in that car because it is rarely used and so has a pretty stale smell to it. My daughter complains each time she is in it. So as I drove home she brings up how much she dislikes riding in it - again.  She wanted to know when I could get my car back because this one smelled so bad. You know what? I was on the verge of agreeing with her and then caught myself. 

Instead, I decided to point out how bitter cold it was out that day and how their school is a pretty far walk from our house. Would she rather be walking home with her ridiculously heavy backpack that contains everything just short of the kitchen sink?

I told her I was grateful for the car because without it I’d be in a bind. How would I get to get to work, to their school, to kung fu class etc.  I told her I, for one, was grateful to have this car to use in the meantime. Wasn’t it better to focus on that that rather than complain?

Did she get it? No, but over time…she will… if I keep instilling it . One day, she will look at her glass and see it is half full.  She will learn to look up at the sky, not just to check for rain, but to give thanks. Thanks for the brilliant colors in the leaves of fall, thanks for the mittens on her cold hands, thanks for sun helping to warm her face.  

One day she will look around and see many things to be thankful for… and it won’t even have to be Thanksgiving.

Well I just got back yesterday from a really great experience. I went on a retreat with my kung fu classmates and teacher for the weekend.  We started out the evening going into the woods to find a spot that “called” to us and got sat for awhile. Our mission was to really take note of our surroundings including sounds, smells, sights how we felt while sitting completely quietly. We also needed to explain why we picked that particular spot and needed be able to find it again as we would be returning there early the next morning.  Each time we did this we wrote about our experience. So after that first afternoon, it was then onto a quiet dinner and then working out for a couple of hours. We did some great partner work that got our blood going and did some really good focused, repetitive kung fu. Loved it. We then went to sit quietly outside on some benches in the dark. It was COLD let me tell you.  After a while, body temperature cools down and you felt it.  I had to do the breathing techniques I was taught that I know also helps me to keep warm to keep warm. It worked though. I was cold but never shivering.

Up at 5:45 and awoke to very cold morning. Not easy to sit at our spots for an hour but we all did it. It was worthwhile in a way that is difficult to convey if you never really sat in nature listening to the natural rhythms.  Really tuning in to the animals, the change from dark to light the sound of your own breath. It is not my intention to get overly personal here with what my own thoughts were while I sat. I can only encourage you to try it and discover what it is like to fully plug in to your senses. You see we did have periods where we did meditation on the retreat but this was more about awareness training. Fully engaging your mind.  More on the kung fu retreat to come…