Thomas Osborn
12-17-2009, 08:20 AM
12/16/09 w [4s, 8v] I Moderate size class, no new people. Noticed an “evaporation” of vets between the time their morning meeting ends [usually late] and my class begins. An issue for when I meet with staff this Friday.
Worked on cross hand grasp [gyaku homni]. I was emphasizing breath, relaxing and welcoming the “attacker”,[uke]. One of the vets said he was having a lot of trouble doing that. We talked about that a little, and a couple of vets said when uke “came at them” they felt vulnerable and couldn’t relax, and in fact, usually tensed up and would go into an attack mode.. So their tensing up their shoulders and upper body can be more complicated than the typical male tendency to use upper body strength and to try to “muscle through” an attack. I think I will include this feeling of vulnerability and the way to respond in my emphasizing welcoming, breathing, and relaxing to center. This would also be one of the evaluative criteria if I ever get a regularized evaluation process going.
(Original blog post may be found here (http://ptsd-veterans.blogspot.com/2009/12/vulnerability.html).)