Thomas Osborn
07-29-2010, 12:10 PM
7/29/10 w [0s, 3v] B Small group. All new people, although four guys made it a point to see me before class to let me know they had some kind of appointment or an injury really bothering them, but they would be at the next class.
Of the three new people, two expressed doubts about taking the class as they had real problems with anger and reacted “badly” in stressful situations. One vet said he “was a real bull in a china shop”. I told them that I thought that Aikido could give them a very viable way to use that anger as a source of energy to deal effectively, but non-violently with stressful situations. I only asked them to be aware of when they initially began to sense those feelings and use the relaxing to center technique I would be showing them, or to let me know when they began to feel they might be losing control. At the end of class, one of them said that he thought this might actually help him. He’ll see at the end of the six weeks.
The other vet said he didn’t know if he could do it as he was pretty old, 65 [a mere youth]. I talked about moving smoothly, doing warmups, not stretches, and how relaxing to center allows you to be more sensitiva to your own body, as well as partners energy. At the end of the class he said, “I love this stuff. Can I do it when I go back home?” Since he lives in Framingham, I will direct him to Farrell Sensei’s dojo.
(Original blog post may be found here (http://ptsd-veterans.blogspot.com/2010/07/too-angry-and-too-old.html).)