Keeping Busy, Always More to Learn

It's been an interesting week. I've been doing even more martial arts writing, and so I've become a writer for Examiner.com. Please check out my first short article here. (You can sign up to be notified whenever I publish a new article!) I welcome your comments, feedback, and suggestions for future pieces.

I've jumped into my Anger Management Educator certification course, and I'm exploring opportunities to give MADDCAP diabetes awareness and prevention presentations at local schools.

My training has been going very well, both in the dojo (Shinkendo sword training!) and on my own with Clubbells and challenging bodyweight exercises. My diet has been improving, too, although I'm definitely not getting adequate sleep and recovery time. I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend!

And this week, I surprised even myself this week by picking up a book that has nothing to do with the martial arts: I'm currently reading Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee. Who knew that coffee and coffee production was so interconnected with politics, ecology, and global culture? Well, I didn't! Color me ignorant, I guess — But the first few pages have REALLY opened my eyes. There's always more to learn, appreciate, and grow from!

Some Bullet Points for the Week:

• At the dojo tomorrow night, we'll be holding our very first Black Belt ceremony at the dojo for three of our adult students who have reached the rank of Shodan. The ceremony will consist of a brief demonstration, followed by belt and certificate presentations. I'm very much looking forward to the event!
  
  
• Personally, I've been training hard in the mornings: While out walking the dog, I've been getting in lots of calisthenics, ab training, and weight work -- all before my first cup of coffee. I'm enjoying the solo training, and I hope to keep up the discipline when the weather turns cold.
  
  
• I've been taking a weekly Shinkendo class with some of my students, fulfilling a long-standing goal of mine to learn more about the Japanese sword.
  
  
• I also signed up this week to gain certification as an Anger Management Educator. I hope to offer anger management classes at the dojo and in the community, and I plan to incorporate some of the lessons about emotional awareness into our dojo curriculum.

A Walk to Remember, and Other Good Things

On Sunday, September 27, members of Boston's Emerald Necklace Martial Arts will participate in the 2009 Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk, the nation's largest event to raise awareness and funds to fight Alzheimer's disease. The team of karate students will be led by Sierra Koral, a Yellow Belt member of the dojo, who is collecting donations and walking in memory of her father Bill Kenney, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and passed away in 2003. To date, Koral has raised nearly $1,000 for the walk, far surpassing her original goal to collect $500.

The students at Emerald Necklace Martial Arts are required to organize and lead community service projects as part of their Black Belt training, and the dojo often sponsors several projects simultaneously: Ayisha Knight-Shaw, an Orange Belt student at the dojo, is currently running a Fall food drive to benefit the Greater Boston Food Bank. In less than two weeks, Knight-Shaw has raised enough money to provide nearly 400 meals to people in need. Donations of non-perishable food items are currently being accepted at the dojo, which is located at 95 Everett Street in Allston.

For more information about these projects or to learn more about Emerald Necklace Martial Arts, please contact Sensei Jason Gould at 617-202-3856 or visit the dojo's website, www.karateinboston.com.

Peace Is More Important Than Punches

School is back in session this week, so I'm back to teaching karate to 4th and 5th graders on Friday mornings before I head off to work. Today, I taught striking basics to a group of about 20 kids for about 40 minutes: We practiced jabs, right crosses, left hooks, and uppercuts with lots of enthusiastic counting and yelling. We finished up the class with a one-minute silent meditation followed by a five-minute mat chat on the subject of PEACE using the "Peace is More Important than Punches" flash cards. It was a good way to end the lesson, and I thought the discussion was helpful in transitioning the kids out of a high-energy activity so that they could focus for the rest of the day.

And, after spending the better part of an hour showing kids the right way to punch one another, I think a few minutes of showing them how to appreciate one another was very much in order!

The Black Belt Attitude

This week, the national jobless rate hit 9.7%. Nearly one in 10 Americans are out of work!

I've endured and survived a series of staff reductions at my day job (wave upon wave in and endless sea of waves, it seems). And this week, the company I work for announced across-the-board paycuts for those of us that remain. Ouch.

Now, I'm not exactly thrilled to get less for doing more (who is?) but I'm trying my best to keep my attitude in check, and I remain grateful that I can still count myself among the gainfully employed — even if it's not as "gainful" as it was last week. For many around me have lost their jobs and are still out of work — and they are finding it difficult to stay afloat. So in the big picture, I realize that I'm lucky.

People everywhere are tightening their belts. So consequently, things are tight at the dojo, too — enrollments are down; my stress level is up.

It's a call for me to remain in an attitude of gratitude. It's also a call for me to re-evaluate my needs, my priorities, and my spending and consumption habits. But most of all, today I'm inspired to redouble my efforts at "making my own luck."

The universal rule is "you must give more to get more." So today, I'm mindfully asking, "How may I serve?" and "What value can I add?" and "What more can I give?"