Correcting my Centre

 Females have naturally lower centres of balance!   Well that may be for most females but it was not the case for me.  I always carried my centre high and I have worked hard in my stances to lower that centre.  I knew it was lowering but I wasn't sure of the progress until this morning.  During today's morning walk, I became mindful of how I was moving and noticed my gait was smoother, my hips moved easily and my transition from one foot to the other was steadier.  I realized all of this was because my centre of balance was lower without me having to think about it.  How did that occur?  Was it just because I had been working on it during my forms?  

The answer is yes and no.  Working on my forms helped show me how a lower centre felt especially during transitions.  In Tai Chi, when we "sit in our high chair" I focus on lowering my centre and feel it.  When we are working on our techniques and I notice my centre has creeped up, I stop, take a deep breath, lower my centre and continue on.  But Kung Fu extends beyond the Kwoon, during my morning walks I try to be mindful on my centring.  Before it would not be until near the end of the walk that a low centre felt natural.  Today it was at the beginning of the walk and it was now becoming my normal.

We are reminded of the 50,000 rule.  We need to do something 50,000 times for it to become routine, for it to be natural, for it to be cemented in.  But it must be 50,000 repetitions with the correct form.  This means that the first 100 all need to be extremely mindful, then the next 100, and so forth until you can do a few reps with correct technique without having to focus so hard on each one.  Eventually you can increase your reps between checkins and if you find that you have reverted back to old habits you are back to square 1, needing to be mindful of each and every repetition.  Even after 50,000 you need to make sure you are always checking in, being mindful, otherwise bad habits will form and you know where that leads.  Yep, back to square 1.

Over the years I have had many things to correct that are so basic.  Walking (how I place my foot when I move forward - I use to step toe first), breathing (I use to be a shallow fast breather, still working on slower deeper breaths), posture (my shoulders were always raised and hunched forward but now they are down and back) and my centre just to name a few.  All of these were brought up in Kung Fu.  Not because I was doing something so obviously wrong that it had to be fixed at that moment, it was because Kung Fu helps us correct.  "Correction is essential to power and mastery..... You must be able to correct yourself without invalidating or condemning yourself, to accept results and improve upon them."  There is always something for me to correct, something to improve upon and there alway will be. 

See you on the mats!