Linda Eskin - Grab My Wrist

I write, practice Aikido, and coach people for lifelong well-being, health, and fitness.
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Soft eyes, quiet mind.
Notice thoughts and let them go.
There! Feel it and move.

Great seminar today, about getting off balance, returning to center, discovering what’s possible now, and acting on that. How wonderfully appropriate (and enjoyable). I’m left with noticing when I’m thinking, planning, and trying to direct, rather than just seeing what’s in front of me, and doing what’s available.

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I can’t resist sharing this video. This is the technique we worked on tonight in class. First time I’d seen it “live”, as best I can recall*. Our versions were a little less dramatic, but still fun to do.

Watching this reminds me all over again how excited I am that I’ll be participating in a seminar with Tissier Shihan next month. He has been practicing Aikido since the same year I was born. I am not a young ‘un. It’s hard to imagine the level of expertise one could develop in Aikido, or anything, by practicing it for my entire lifetime.

*Please see another post, updating this statement: “Iriminage – A Duh Moment”.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)
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In tonight’s class we played with being relaxed, staying unified, and flowing. It was a wonderfully focused and pleasant class, actually very relaxed, unified, and flowing in its own right. What was particularly nice was the effect it had on my energy.

I’ve been in a sort of mysterious “energetic funk” for the past few days. Not tired, not sick, but feeling sort of physically and energetically closed and guarded about something, the way one’s muscles can be tight to guard a painful joint. In class on Friday I was really stiff, nothing felt smooth, and simple movements eluded me. I felt ungrounded, off balance… I found myself holding my breath and scrunching my eyebrows. It was evident enough that I got feedback twice in class (as Uke) about relaxing into the technique instead of fighting it. Saturday was a little more fun, but still with something “stuck” that I could not identify. I sort of lived in the question over the weekend, of what “it” might be that was keeping my gut and my energy in knots, but I never happened upon an answer.

Whatever the cause, tonight’s class was the cure. I found myself breathing freely, standing solidly, moving smoothly, and smiling easily again. What a relief! And when I find myself feeling off balance next time, now I have some things I can play with to try to get back in sync with myself. :)

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“Learning by Feel” – My first column on AikiWeb

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“Learning by Feel” – My first column on AikiWeb

A few months ago I was very flattered to be invited to join a group of writers who collectively write “The Mirror” – one of several monthly columns on AikiWeb. This month was my turn, and the column was published today. :-) (Click the heading of this post to jump to it.)

A little about the group who write the column:

“The Mirror” is a collaborative column written by a group of women who describe themselves as:
We comprise mothers, spouses, scientists, artists, teachers, healers, and yes, of course, writers. We range in age from 30s through 50s, we are kyu ranked and yudansha and from various parts of the United States and styles of aikido. What we have in common is a love for budo that keeps it an integral part of our busy lives, both curiosity about and a commonsense approach to life and aikido, and an inveterate tendency to write about these explorations.

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