Harmonies

The Six Harmonies are as follows:

Hands-Feet

Knees-Elbows

Hips-Shoulders

Spirit-Intent

Intent-Chi

Chi-Strength

I’m not quite sure where in the Six Harmonies one should place the following but I’m certain that without fixing it there is a break in my Six Harmonies.

This year there was a significant change that happened in my life. Near the start of the school year the college I teach for informed all the instructors and students that they were taking a break from the program that I have a role in teaching. At first it seemed like bad news, especially for the students since it is a four year program. But for me personally it has turned into a blessing.

I decided that if the college did that then I was going to take a sabbatical from both the teaching and my own private clinical herbal practice. I’m so glad I did!

The past few months I have rested, a lot! Letting myself not feel guilt over doing that was hard. Yet, I didn’t realize how badly I needed it until I was doing it. So that’s what burnout feels like!

During these past few months I have not had the mental energy for much of anything. Barely felt like I had two brains cells to rub together. Once I allowed myself to let go it was like opening flood gates, I couldn’t help but let go of a lot of other stuff too!

About the only things I’ve maintained responsibility for (at some level) is showing up to Kung Fu, training with my dogs, and small steps in decluttering both internally and externally. Part of that mix was also some small creative outlet: sewing. Mostly just repairs but I did recently make a traditional style Japanese rice bag. Doing the Sashiko embroidery has been rather meditative.

Part of the internal decluttering is establishing what my core values are, which helps with figuring out priorities. So, I see that mine include Kung Fu, my family, my dogs, and always some sort of creative outlet.

I’m finding it interesting how much my internal clutter and my material clutter are connected.

All of this is why I decided to make next year’s I Ho Chuan personal goal to be decluttering. That’s my only personal goal for the year of the Dragon. That alone is a huge project for me. Timing of life events are what made me start early.

I feel that I have made some small amount of progress.

·       Creativity, especially design, takes a lot of mental energy, and I was finally able to make (no machine stitching) a small item that required that (the rice bag).

·       I finally feel like I have enough brain cells to do things like journal properly and blog again (also a creative process).

·       I was able to do my first silent meditation! Up until now I’ve always needed guided ones to help keep the mental chatter down to a minimum.

·       I’m finally starting to be able to enjoy being alone with my thoughts again and not requiring any background noise or white noise to cope.

There is a lot of balance being worked on here, and I probably have missed listing some of them, but I feel they are important components to my progress forward to mastery.

·       Internal and external

·       Mental and physical

·       Work and rest

·       Holding on and letting go

·       Flow of energy

·       Expanding and contracting

·       Fast and slow

How has this affected this years progress goals?

My original goal for meditation was to do it at least once per week. Sifu recommended I aim for once per day. I have done more than the 52 this year but nowhere near the once per day. With the goal for next year I am making room for that number to grow significantly.

The Great Coat project is stalled. I pulled all the items together so I could start, only to discover that the instructions were not with the pattern. I can’t find the instructions booklet anywhere, so far. Another thing decluttering should remedy.

It’s been a huge struggle to remember to write down my acts of kindness, so the numbers are not what they should be. Hopefully the work I’m doing on (and for) myself will make it easier to remember to do that.

My kilometres are great! Probably have the new dogs to thank for that. So far they are at 1947 kilometres.

As for the rest of my numbers… not so much. I have to gather together all my various notes and tally them up but I have no illusions that they are anywhere near what they should be. But I’m making space, both mentally and physically, for improving them next year. In this way I’m endeavouring to use my “ordinariness” to correct my errors and move towards mastery (thank you Stewart Emory).