I've got a lot going on at the moment. All good things. But still, sometimes it can be a lot to sift through. And sometimes it feels like even though I'm "sifting," I'm somehow just sifting everything straight back onto the same pile.
The advice I got was to stop focusing so hard on the specific "thing" and instead figure out the underlying core lesson...the "universal truth" it belongs to.
If I can take a piece of feedback and categorize it into one of those truths (or maybe discover that it needs a whole new category I haven't found yet!), it suddenly seems much more manageable. More importantly, the lesson becomes something I can apply elsewhere. Instead of fixing one single piece of feedback, maybe I can fix a whole collection of things across the board.
I've been using this strategy with some feedback I got in Tai Chi.
In our last class, I was having trouble with a particular transition, and Sifu reminded me about "tucking in" or "sitting on my highchair." I had to apologize in that moment because I know she's told me this before...and I promised she'd only have to tell me about 4 billion more times.
Using that as my focus, I definitely felt smoother through my transitions and more grounded. I also felt some pressure alleviated in my knee. So something was definitely working and I wanted to take it further.
I started asking myself, how does this translate to my Lu Ping An? I tried to "tuck in" during my bow stance and cat stance. And to a degree, I could play with it, but it didn't really translate. Then I started questioning everything.
Why does it work there and not here?
Should I be doing it this way? Or that way?
Which way was right?
And there really was no answer, because I was asking the wrong questions. I was being too literal and too specific.
Once I challenged myself, with some prompting, to ask why Sifu had given me that advice in the first place, things started to make more sense.
What core lesson was she trying to emphasize?
What was she trying to get me to see?
Those questions actually had some real answers.
It's not a matter of taking one piece of feedback and translating it directly and exactly into every other area of my Kung Fu.
It's about finding the lesson inside the feedback. Figuring out which "truth" it belongs to, and then applying that truth appropriately to whatever I'm doing.
Btw...the lesson I landed on was to stay grounded and maintain my skeletal alignment throughout. In 10 years I'll probably realize there was even more to it. But for now, this is where I've landed. And that's a much easier lesson to apply across my Kung Fu than trying to literally "tuck in" everywhere. lol
And a big thank you to Sihing Ward for giving me a poke. You were right — I hadn't posted last week. I had written another entry but kept it private, so it felt like I had blogged...when I actually hadn't. So thank you again! I already had this one started, so thankfully I was able to get it up quickly.
