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04-16-2004, 06:42 PM
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#2
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Dojo: Senshin Center
Location: Dojo Address: 193 Turnpike Rd. Santa Barbara, CA.
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,474
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If one's opinion can be seen as a feeling of their own heart - please allow me to say that I found this article to be excellent. Thank you for the article and for the feeling.
dmv
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04-17-2004, 03:42 AM
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#3
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Join Date: Sep 2001
Posts: 890
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Very nice article.
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04-17-2004, 05:53 AM
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#4
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Dojo: Aikidog Aikikai
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 199
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What a wonderful article. I do pretty well looking out for myself in the "real" world, having learned back in the 4th grade how to cope with nasty classmates; but I do find that aikido has helped me with the really big conflicts. I stay calmer when someone attacks me (physically on the mat or verbally in local politics or whatever), and it doesn't throw me off-balance like it used to.
The hardest part of my aikido training right now is kuzushi done by bumping into uke, because I was taught growing up that you just don't DO things like that. It's funny which things bump up against my "programming." Before this, I couldn't manage to make contact doing atemi because "girls don't hit." It's amazing what I can learn to do when I
put my mind to it!
I have a feeling "This is MY mat!" would do me a world of good; I believe I'll think that to myself in class next time we're swapping throws.
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04-20-2004, 04:53 AM
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#5
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Dojo: Greensboro Kodokan
Location: Greensboro
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 346
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Re: Article: This is MY Mat! by "The Mirror"
Thanks David, Aleksey, and Wendy, for your kind comments. Interesting, isn't it, that aikido can help aggressive folks become more gentle and aware; at the same time helping passive people learn to enter. I admit I'm no where close to the point where I can geniunely thank this man for the lessons he helped me learn, but I do see they were very valuable lessons.
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04-20-2004, 11:52 AM
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#6
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Location: Left Coast
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 4,339
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Re: Article: This is MY Mat! by "The Mirror"
Susan, the column is wonderful.
It makes me think of how we model what we want to be, even if it feels like a fake and a fraud inside, to help us change and "really mean (be) it."
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Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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04-20-2004, 12:14 PM
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#7
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Dojo: Jiyushinkan
Location: Monroe, Washington
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 1,134
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Re: Article: This is MY Mat! by "The Mirror"
Susan,
I enjoyed your offering in "The Mirror" this month a lot. I have seen many people make changes in their lives through budo practice. It continues to delight me to see these changes because, as a teacher, I get to learn from their changes as well. As one of my teachers used to say, "We all have much to learn from each other." Thanks for sharing.
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04-20-2004, 12:51 PM
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#8
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Dojo: Aikido of Midland
Location: Midland, Texas
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 597
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Re: Article: This is MY Mat! by "The Mirror"
Susan,
Could you elaborate a little more about "fake aikido" and what your Sensei meant by that? I think I understand, but I would like to hear more about that from you; what do you come to realize; what reason is there to thank the boss; what is the difference in "aikido" and what you were actually doing?
Thanks! I look forward to reading your answer and further articles from "The Mirror."
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04-24-2004, 05:35 AM
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#9
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Dojo: Greensboro Kodokan
Location: Greensboro
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 346
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Re: Article: This is MY Mat! by "The Mirror"
Dear John,
I've thought quite a bit about what my sensei said to me. I think he meant I was still "caught". Although I could breathe and relax and maintain my center enough so I didn't cry during interactions with this man, afterward I was obsessing and complaining about him. I still saw myself as a victim and him as the big bad guy-- I gave him far too much of my energy.
What changed with the second interaction was I did what I did and it was over. Of course this situation is much different because I have no history with this person and don't interact with him daily. Still, it represents a major change in my thinking. Probably a few years earlier I would have found out this person's name and his dojo--I would have seen him as a bully and myself as a victim. And I probably would have created drama--either in my mind or in reality. However, I don't know his name and I wouldn't recognize him if I saw him again--I can't remember much about him except he gave me the opportunity to practice, and I learned something about myself and what all those hours of aikido practice put into my body.
Susan
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04-24-2004, 05:37 AM
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#10
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Dojo: Greensboro Kodokan
Location: Greensboro
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 346
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Re: Article: This is MY Mat! by "The Mirror"
Quote:
Janet Rosen wrote:
Susan, the column is wonderful.
It makes me think of how we model what we want to be, even if it feels like a fake and a fraud inside, to help us change and "really mean (be) it."
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John,
What Janet said is another way to explain what I think my sensei meant. Thanks, Janet.
Susan
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04-24-2004, 05:44 AM
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#11
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Dojo: Greensboro Kodokan
Location: Greensboro
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 346
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Re: Article: This is MY Mat! by "The Mirror"
Quote:
Chuck Clark wrote:
Susan,
I enjoyed your offering in "The Mirror" this month a lot. I have seen many people make changes in their lives through budo practice. It continues to delight me to see these changes because, as a teacher, I get to learn from their changes as well. As one of my teachers used to say, "We all have much to learn from each other." Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you, Sensei. Aikido has been a very poweful force of change in my life. ( I have to be careful not to think it's what everyone needs.) In the beginning, I tended to think, "Everyone else gets this and I'm the only one who struggles." Now I understand that we all have different struggles.
Susan
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05-14-2004, 06:22 AM
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#12
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Dojo: Berkshire Hills Aikido
Location: Massachusetts
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 824
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Re: Article: This is MY Mat! by "The Mirror"
This article should be required reading for everyone posting on the 'Size matters' thread.
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08-30-2004, 07:39 PM
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#13
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 47
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Re: Article: This is MY Mat! by "The Mirror"
Hello Ms. Dalton
This is a tardy response to your esay, but I would just like to say that it just represents, for me, "the real thing" and won I can identify with too. Thanking somebody for something like you describe is as hard as "turning the other cheek" as they say. Something I'm a long way from. To me, that state of "being thankful" and practicing it is one of the best things about doing Aikido I discovered and learned about my own deficiencies with regard to it. It's just hard work, I guess.
Anyway, it seems to me, without a strong healthy ego structure to begin with it's hard to even get to that "place of thanksgiving" where one KNOWS why it's important.
And Thank You!
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Respectfully, Richard
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08-31-2004, 08:56 AM
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#14
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Dojo: Doshinkan dojo in Roxborough, Pa
Location: Phila. Pa
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 4,615
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Re: Article: This is MY Mat! by "The Mirror"
Nice article! I have an easier time on the mat than in the real world. Still working on that one...
Ron
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Ron Tisdale
-----------------------
"The higher a monkey climbs, the more you see of his behind."
St. Bonaventure (ca. 1221-1274)
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