~~Our Winter Training session ended a couple of weeks ago, and now that I'm back to my regular training routine I'm reminded of how much I not only enjoy, but benefit from any of these longer training periods, i.e. special trainings or summer camp.
~~After the first couple of days of longer classes, 3 and 4 classes a day (and after the initial whining body) my mind and body begin to breakdown in ways that allow them to open, thus learn. I think when I'm in my normal pattern of daily life, even training for two classes in a night as I do, it's still too easy to snap back to the habitual self without much change. Maybe that's why I'm a slow learner..? But when I'm immersed in training, even taking meals with these same people, something inside is allowed to shift and remain altered, instead of snapping right back into place when I bow off the matt an hour and a half later.
~~At one lunch I mentioned how much of Aikido training for me is to breakdown my barriers, the uptigh, unnatural, habitual ones that keep me from opening to people, learning, growth. My teacher commented that Aikido is about finding your limits and I thought, 'Okay, but I want to find them so that I can move them further out or at least move past them.' Also, attended every one of 9 long sessions in 3 days is a Will strengthening practice for me. Anyway, that's what longer, more intense training periods do for me. Was just wonder if others have similar experiences.
~~Best wishes to all in the New Year!