Thursday 6 May 2010

Karate Island...

My daughter and I joined a dojo, today. Well, I suppose officially we join in three weeks' time, when the introductory period ends, but to all intents and purposes...

I feel rather less impressive than Spongebob looks, to be honest - I'd forgotten how out of shape I was. After warming up, we did a minute of quickfire roundhouse kicks, and I feel like I need hip replacements, right now. The rest of the session passed in a haze.

To add insult to injury, all the kids (at least half the contingent), my daughter included, looked like they could have done another couple of hours! It was good, though: a good atmosphere.

8 comments:

soulful sepulcher said...

Try being 50 LOL

Great class to do with my name sake! :)

Radagast said...

50? Well, it's only 7 years away... It's easier to stay fit than to get fit in the first place, so I think I'm going to try to maintain this as a hobby/passtime/whatever-one-calls-it.

I'm actually quite pleased, because this morning, I don't feel much worse than I did last night - I was expecting everything to have seized up, especially my shoulders, back, quads, hams, calves, upper arms... So, everything, I suppose; and it's hasn't (seized up)!

Matt

soulful sepulcher said...

LOL that's how I felt when i hiked to the top of that mountain in september, i was shocked i was able to move the next morning!

it's why i cannot ever stop the long walks with the dog up and down hills, because that agony of getting my knees back last year was enough!

my 2 older daughters took kickboxing lessons when they were in their teens, i think it looks like a good outlet as does your new sport!

i also think it's really great that you are taking the class with your daughter, what a very good Dad.

Radagast said...

You're very kind to say to; although, it was actually her idea - the dojo distributed flyers at her school, and she said she wanted to do it.

Matt

Sairs said...

I wanted to say a huge huge thank you to you for all your comments over the last few days/week. I have found all of them interesting. Yes I have see KPAX and I thougth it was awesome, I have it downstairs. I got a whole of heap of movies like that as I started a PhD and my topic was the representation of mental illnes in hollywood cinema, but I just kinda got sick of studying and working is better when you are in a job you know and you dont have to take it home with you.

I used to do tae-kwon-do and I loved it and I do remember my first few weeks and it nearly killed me! I'm glad you get to do something that you and your daughter can do together!

Sarah

Radagast said...

Sairs: You're welcome (for the comments)... As it happens, it's therapeutic, for me; I may not be "on the money," every time, but sometimes just the thought that somebody has applied themselves to one's problem can be helpful, I think.

Sounds like an interesting PhD - I'm just trying to think of even one other movie where a mentally ill person is depicted as anything other than a psychopath (whatever that is)! Spacey's got that ethereal quality that allows him to portray Prot/Porter completely convincingly. My favourite part is when Bessie (who had been mute, to that point), tells Prot "I know who you are; you're the bluebird [of happiness]." I've never read the books (Gene Brewer, wasn't it?), so I don't know how true to the original text the movie is, but it's unusually insightful, when it comes to understanding how people's minds work, and how change is brought about (like Howie, and the bluebird task).

Anyway, at the moment I'm nursing a badly bruised toe on my left foot, courtesy of those roundhouses. Hopefully it'll have sorted itself out by next Wednesday. Stephanie's the best, though - she reminds me what's real.

Matt

Sairs said...

Matt, I thinkt he reason for my 'treatment team' for want of a better word don't want me to blog, is when I am feeling vulnerable and I get triggered by other peoples blogs. Because I also have an eating disorder and as you know self harming issues, if I am not doing too well, I may want to write but reading can actually lead me in away to copy cat (not even meaning to) behaviours that others are experiencing. I have got the journal blog that when I just can't cope with even posting for people to reply or just want to say something that I know will offend someone or a lot of people, I can do it there and then I am still writing but doing it with the safety of myself or others in mind.

Radagast said...

Hmmm. Yes, I can see the logic in that. Have you ever read Penny Parks' work on Inner Child Therapy?

The reason I ask is that, in the counsellor-orientated edition of her work, she suggests a whole bunch of exercizes, which involve setting down one's "traumatic" experiences in writing. What tends to happen is that a person will revisit an event in full effect, and their language (and their handwriting, if that's the medium they use), will become childlike as they experience the event as they did at the time the incident happened. Whether or not one's problems can actually be traced to childhood experiences, or whether one has merely chosen to fix one's problems on those events is perhaps a moot point.

The key thing is that, having written down one's experience, one is able to evaluate it, and one begins to use more descriptive language, metaphors, and so on. And as one refines one's position, the incident tends to have less impact to the extent that "it doesn't seem to matter, anymore," as Parks puts it. This is achieved by using a mentor - "adult you" - to evaluate what "child you" wrote. In this way, the incident is being observed by the "child" experiencing the event, and also the "adult" viewing it from a distance, and with more authority and experience. These two perspectives assimilate one another (my observation), and become one. This phenomenon is also tied in with what is known as "parts theory", where parts of oneself have become disconnected, but are drawn back together by this, and other methods.

I can see the issue your counsellor/psychiatrist have - if you remembered something that was particularly traumatic, you might trigger somebody with a similar issue, or you might just get mired in the traumatic event, looking at it in more and more detail, as some do. At this point, one needs a methodology to interrupt one's own pattern, which is why Parks' is so efficient.

Others' perspectives can be useful, though - if somebody else has found something that works for them, then they may be able to offer something of value, which they won't be able to, if you're writing your stuff down privately.

I think it's a decision that you've got to make. My personal preference is to set out the problem, identify a solution, and then try to make a logical connect between the current position, and the goal.

Matt