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Old 01-18-2010, 03:21 PM   #23
tarik
 
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Dojo: Iwae Dojo
Location: Boulder Creek, CA
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 568
United_States
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Re: What's your daily practice?

My daily practice should be a set of basic movement exercises and it sort of is, however, I don't always do all of them formally, although I do parts of them whenever I am standing and waiting.

I do spend much of my time when sitting, moving, and walking even when at work trying to put attention into my posture and the individual muscles I am using to do everything and to try to use fewer and fewer of those muscles to sustain my posture and movement.

I am constantly finding extra unnecessary tension in my structure, typically in the hips and shoulders, that is held habitually and when released, reduces the effort needed (and in some cases, pain) to achieve the same posture during movement or stillness and this also increases my freedom of movement and ability to affect my surroundings with significantly less effort.

Right now I'm working extra hard (soft) on relaxing my hips.

I guess you could sum this up as a process of learning zanshin and and correct posture and movement (ki ken tai icchi).

I also put the same type of efforts and practice into how I deal with my emotional state, particularly when under stress from work and family and look for better solutions. The process and internal emotional experiences seem similar.

I do see all of this as directly related to my practice in the dojo and have been having some eye opening experiences lately to validate that for myself.

Best,

Tarik Ghbeish
Jiyūshin-ryū AikiBudō - Iwae Dojo

MASAKATSU AGATSU -- "The true victory of self-mastery."
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