Both Christmas and New Year completely went by me this year. Neither holiday is celebrated by the Chinese and there are not enough Westerners living in my neck of the woods to make a fuss about it. Only the very meagre Christmas tree in the local supermarket and scrolling through my Facebook feed reminded me of the celebrations at home. And to be honest, I was too cold to care. With New Year’s eve my classmate and I treated ourselves to a takeaway McDonalds. Don’t judge me, in the land of rice and noodles a burger is at times a piece of heaven. We had a couple of beers and watched Avatar: The Last Airbender. The next morning we trained as usual.
I’ve never been any good at structuring myself when it comes to goals or resolutions. I’ve never had a knack for organizing my time and have always either done things on a whim – or not at all. I don’t keep a diary and I don’t like to make appointments unless really necessary. New Year’s resolutions? Not really my thing.
But I’ll make an exception for kungfu
But this year is the exception because right now I am in China. I have just discovered the wondrous world of kungfu and after three months I feel that I’m slowly unveiling a little bit of her mystery. And man, there is SO MUCH I want to learn, to practice, to experience. There are so many aspects of the Wudang arts I am inspired by and would love to advance in. I feel that I faced a couple of demons the last two months while dealing with the ever present cold and adjusting to (at times lonely) life at the school. But now the weather is finally changing, spring is on her way and I feel re-energized and motivated and ready to focus my time and energy fully on my practice and to get as much out of it as I can in the time I have left.
So without further ado, here are my Chinese New Year’s resolutions
Begin a daily meditation practice
For focus, intent and chi cultivation. To quiet the ‘monkey mind’. To find calmth and quiet and stillness within. That’s my personal textbook description, because all though I have tried meditation in the past, I’ve never stuck with it long enough to notice any real changes within myself. I can’t speak from experience yet. But my ambitious aim for the next nine months is to meditate daily. Half an hour a day at least.
Start a daily Qi Gong routine
The practice of Qi Gong brings with it a plethora of amazing aspects – all to do with the cultivation of internal energy, health and longevity. Together with meditation, this forms the basis of my Wudang kungfu practice. Similar to meditation, I will start practicing my Qi Gong routine both morning and evening.
Practice Xing Yi outside of class
Every morning during our first hour of basics, we practice san ti shi (san qi bu), the main standing practice of Xing Yi Quan. And I’ve hated it from the beginning, because I couldn’t get the stance right, let alone the step. I just didn’t get the posture and it’s been a massive source of frustration during classes. It’s only now – over two months later – that I’m beginning to get a little bit of a feeling for the stance, the step and the practice of Xing Yi Quan as a whole.
Xing Yi Quan is an ancient style of Chinese ‘Neigong’ (internal) martial arts. It roughly translates to ‘mind intention boxing’. The underlying premise is that the internal state of the mind controls the body’s external manifestation. It focuses on the cultivation of internal power, as this is where her strength comes from. I’ve seen my Shifu at it putting practice into action and I am intrigued by the style.
Learn how to do the split (and improve overall flexibility)
Little pet peeve of mine. I’m not flexible by nature to the point where for most of my life I haven’t been able to touch my toes when bending down with legs extended. And that is precisely the reason I want to challenge myself to learn the split. Apparently it’s possible for all body types, so let’s put that statement to the test! Improved body flexibility will be a major plus to my overall practice, so I’ll focus on the rest of my body too.
Learn conversational Chinese
Learning Chinese is an absolute must for getting to know the Chinese culture and its people. There’s few english speakers here. Apart from that it’s a necessity for my practice. My Shifu speaks only Chinese and all though my coach speaks English, much gets lost in translation. Learning the pronunciation is daunting, but doable with enough practice I’m sure. I will spend one hour a day on this, no concessions. (And I’m lucky enough to have children at the school to practice with).
Miscellaneous
Apart from the above I will focus on my Tai Chi and my sword practice of course, but that is a given as I practice those in class daily. Both my improvement in Tai Chi and sword play tie together with my meditation and Qi Gong practice. The more unified my mind and body become, the better I will be able to consciously relax my body, the more fluid and balanced my forms will become naturally.
It’s going to be a lot of hard work, but I have no excuses.
新年快乐!
Credits: Winter photo created by freepik