The Details:
It's 67 here at the house. The sunrise was at 7:04, high tide at 9:58. There was no discernible wind. The noseeums were bugging me. Luckily I had long pants, socks and a long sleeved top on but they still were biting my neck and face. The little buggers!!
The Practice:
The main thing I've been thinking about is how long term consistency feels. I believe it's the same paradigm no matter the endeavor. First it's new, that makes it easier to approach, next it becomes regular, familiar and occasionally more difficult to approach, finally it becomes so regular and consistent that it changes and becomes so ordinary that it is regularly more difficult to approach. The length of time that you've been able to consistently do something has an affect on how that practice feels. One of the things that will come up is questioning if it's working. The most common inner dialogue is "With this amount of effort I should be better than I am"! There's a tendency to then change lanes, or choose a different path that will be easier and quicker to the goal. Think of it like walking the Appalachian Trail, if you haven't seen a mile marker for awhile, you may think you're on the wrong trail and decide to backtrack and take a different route. That can waste a lot of time. This is very common in martial arts training. There are those that change paths every few years thinking that they are not making fast enough progress.
"Choose your path, follow it with heart" Don't give up and change paths easily, but don't stop studying and refining either.
I started with a combination of The 10+ and Master Ray's 30 warm ups tuned into consistency.
Next I did a Round (left side) tuned into longevity of practice (I'm in year 49) and consistency (I practice every day). With consistency comes questioning what you're doing and how you're doing it.
Don't think, just do!
Next I did a round of Anyo Isa tuned into consistency and longevity of practice. I learned this form in 1986 from Sifu Lee Lowry one of my mentors in Modern Arnis.
Next I did a round of Naihanchi Kata tuned into the changes that I'm making and full extension of techniques.
Next I did a round of Taiji Dao with my wooden broadsword.
I finished with Healing Qigong as I was heading back to the house.