Flexible Mind, Flexible Body

Yoga is synonymously affiliated with being flexible.  Practicing yogis and naturally flexible people are able to contour their body into various poses that seem to be impossible for the average person.  But in reality, we all can get our bodies into most of the asanas (poses).  With practice!

Asanas being merely one aspect of yoga, allows one to see what can be done in the physical can also be done in the mental.  However, it’s in the mental where we can first see what we can do.  And what we cannot do!

You’re as flexible as your mind allows you to be.  When a person who has never practiced or new to yoga states that they are not flexible, they have just revealed something about themselves.  And it’s not the mere statement of their body’s limits, but the perceived limits they have for their mental body, extending into other areas of their lives.

Thoughts of our flexibility in our body only reflect the way we are flexible in our life. The state of flexibility in our mind allows us the ability to maneuver and adjust to the many events that life brings.  We see how adaptable we are to the changes that occur and our recovery time to stabilize. 

A feeling of inflexibility is a good reason to incorporate a yoga practice into your daily routine.  It will assist in the discovery of your flexible body, but more important your flexible mind limits.  We need to be pliable and fluid to remain centered and balance to any of our life altering events.  A yoga practice will assist in giving your confidence in your flexibility in your body and in all the other areas of your life.

Liv Your Truth!

I’ll Change on Monday

Is there ever a good time for change? Oh yeah, every Monday, next month and the beginning of the year.


When people point out stuff you need to change, is it their issue with you, or a true assessment of what everyone is seeing of you? It’s really hard to judge because most times, it’s someone you could point out a few needed changes to that is telling you about your stuff…really. Dr. Wayne Dryer suggest our teachers maybe disguised as petty tyrants, so there’s a lesson to learn even from those we don’t think can teach us.

The hardest thing to change about one’s self is when you don’t see anything wrong. But the discomfort in your relationships, your finances and your career may state otherwise. However, for whatever reason, we are blind to the discomfort and don’t see or believe that we may have anything to do with it.

What if we simply believed whatever error that was pointed out to us is really something about ourselves we really need fixing? And not only did we believe it needed to be changed; we actually started on Monday to change it to make ourselves better. Along with a side of, don’t retort with what they need to change, just focus on you.

Thank your enemy for the kind lesson for improvement. Meet the change with an open heart and an open mind. Don’t spend your time trying to make someone else better, spend your time trying to make you better!

Liv your truth!

Life Without Limits

“You never asked us if we were beginners?” said Ileana Salinas.  She is one of the participants in the Live Project 12 week – achieve your goals/dreams through yoga.  She continued to tell the group that she liked that she wasn't given basic yoga instruction as if she were in a beginning yoga class, even if she was still new to incorporating a yoga practice into her routine.  Ileana enjoyed being pushed passed her perceived limits.

We’re in our 4^th week of yoga and our group goal support sessions.  And what I teach in the yoga classes are meant to be used off the mat in their everyday life.  I don’t teach super challenging poses, but I do lead them to poses that encourage balance, confidence, courage, flexibility and strength…all the tools that we need in our everyday life to achieve our goals/dreams.

During the Live Project Group Goal Support Sessions, the participants discuss the feelings they had before, during and after asanas (poses).  To date they have shared feelings of stress prior to yoga, feelings during yoga from relaxation to rebellion, and calmness, achievement and confidence after yoga.  And learning to use conscious breathing as the most chosen method to regroup and refocus on and off the mat.

Also in the Live Project Group Goal Support Sessions, they've been required to journal their dreams/goals, organize, and visualize them.  Using the tools they are learning from the yoga classes, they are really beginning to reshape their perceived vision of what they thought they could accomplish to what they know they can achieve.  They are seeing our connection with one another in our goals/dreams - we all want to make a living doing what we enjoy, have loving relationships with friend/family and make a difference in the world.

There aren't limits to the dreams/goals we set out to achieve for ourselves.  So we shouldn't allow our perceived vision of a pose, a situation or circumstance limit us either.  Know that there is always a work around over, through and under as long as you remain balanced, confident, courageous, flexible, strong and keep breathing along the way!

To learn more about the Live Project or get involved (click here).

Liv your truth!

Writing Your Life’s Best Work

Writing is a skill, a talent, an innate gift…you posses it!

You begin to write…you stop, you start over, you delete.

Writing is creative, revealing, healing...for your life!

Journaling your thoughts, feelings and dreams can lead you to writing your life’s best work.  

Here are 3 ways to begin your journaling process of achieving your dreams and goals.

1. Understanding yourself through self exploration and asking questions - 6 Ways Journaling Will Change Your Life (click here).

                                                                                                                 

2. A creative approach to expressing your words with Art Journaling (click here).

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                          3. 10 Journaling Tips to Help You Heal, Grow and Thrive (click here)

                                                                                                                                                             May you write all of your dreams true. Liv your truth!

Stress Quotes: 8 Celebrities On How They De-Stress

With yoga and Transcendental Meditation becoming popular Hollywood trends, more and more stars are opening up about what stresses them out -- and, most importantly, how they calm down, whether it's meditation, breathing exercises or just a little time at home alone.

From Michelle Obama's go-to advice for decompressing to Brad Pitt's secret stress remedy, click through the slideshow below to see what 8 celebrities have to say about stress.

[Via http://huff.to/11ZvAOA]

Putting the Pieces Together

Every day is a chance for us to recreate the person we want to be. A life that we fully create! So how do we create something from scratch?

By seeing the bigger picture at the end. Because it’s the starting point that sometimes become overwhelming. But then I think about a puzzle.

Puzzles come in all these little pieces and you don’t know exactly which pieces fit where. Like life, you don’t always nowhere to start and you try different combination's of pieces that you think will match until you get two fitting pieces. And just that little win, can give you the encouragement to keep working that puzzle. Some puzzles are so intricate that it takes days on end to put it together to completion.

Creating life can bring about those same challenges, keep going, work it every day. Know that even when you don’t see how the pieces will fit together that there is a bigger picture that is just waiting for you to complete it.

Forrest Gump said, “Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.” And while I definitely think it’s true, I also think life is just like a puzzle. There’s a big picture that you can look from the end and start with little matching pieces to create it. Liv your truth!

Challenges Exist, Can You Overcome Them?

There will always be a new challenge or the same ole challenge that reoccurs in our lives. No one is immune to them. The movie Groundhogs Day plays in my mind repeatedly, as I am all too aware when I can see situation in my life that resembles that of one I had faced before. And normally it’s a situation that I didn’t handle well or didn’t have the courage to commit to seeing the outcome through.

Facing our fears and obstacles one by one can give us the strengthen to face the next challenge and see us through. Problems don’t exist unless you recognize them. Ignoring them doesn’t mean that they don’t exits, it just minimizes the affect they have on us. Liv your truth!

A Leisurely Life

How many of us can say that we live a leisurely life? A life that entails us the ability to do exactly what we want to do when we want to do it. Oh, this is what we commonly refer to as retirement!

What if we have retirement figured out all wrong? Why do we have to wait until we have worked a lifetime to then rest and enjoy life? What if we could incorporate retirement into our daily everyday life?

As retirement is defined as the point where people stop employment completely, leisure is the point where time is taken away from activities we don’t want to do. In our society, it’s generally employment that we want to retire from to enjoy a leisurely life. But what if employment could be a part of a leisurely life?

Timothy Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour Work Week, suggest how it can be done based off of his real life experiences. In his book, some of the things he teaches is:
• How to outsource your life and do whatever you want for a year, only to return to a bank account 50% larger than before you left
• How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it's beyond repair
• How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”
• How to fill the void and creating meaning after removing work and the office

Today, more and more, without having read this book or even knowing that it exist, many of my family and friends have begun changing the course of their life from future retirement to leisurely life now. Leisurely life for them includes having retired from a job at the age of 50, quitting their jobs to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams or part time enjoyable work. For me it’s focusing on activities I love to earn a living, writing, speaking and teaching yoga. What does your leisurely life look like? Liv your truth!

Trimming the Fat - Part 2

I love getting rid of items. I have to say, I do not possess the hoarding gene. However, I do have much more than I actually need, like eating more of that dessert when you know your stomach is full to capacity…push away!

Because of that, I’ve been thoroughly going through my closet taking out the additional items that don’t fit my style or the style I want to pursue any longer. And due to yoga, I’ve lost weight and inches, so clothes I love have also become the enemy, being too big. So what to do?

Normally in the past I would give my clothes to the Good Will, but a friend suggested a resale shop. I tried it and made some money off my clothes. Why hadn’t I thought about that before?

Well, I liked making money off selling my clothes. So guess what? That’s right, I found some more stuff to get rid of in my closet.

Well, well, well, it’s becoming easier to get rid of what I thought I loved so dearly after all! So now, not only I’m I trimming the fat in my closet, I’m making money and I get to use it to buy some new stuff. Yea!

I have actually managed to reduce my clothes to less than half of what I had before, increasing the free space in my closet, which actually has had an effect on clearing my mind (yoga talk!). And I’m not buying more clothes to fill it up either, just a few key pieces.

Last year I was very taken with getting 6 key items and making that your entire wardrobe. I’m not exactly there yet, okay, not at all, I counted at least 40 items I have (even though that does include several of the same color white and black t-shirts), but I want to. Well, maybe. But I definitely want to keep reducing.

It’s actually becoming fun! I think about what I can get rid of before I get to bring something new in. For instance, I wanted to new pair of boots. I sold two pair that I already had, getting rid of them and making money towards my new boots. Win, win!

I also find that trying to work with less makes me
more creative with my style. I’m checking out the latest fashions, I’ve never been a fashionista, learning how to mix and match, layer and get the most out of one item of clothing, all while finding my style. This creativity is leaking into other areas of my life as well (more yoga talk!).

See what you can experiment with. What do you have to lose? Try it out and tell me your experience.

Liv your truth!

Expert of My Day

There are many things that we have the ability to become experts in money matter, tennis, knitting, you name it. Some experts say it can take 10,000 hours or 10 years to become an expert in your desired field of interest. That’s a lot of time, I’m just saying.

Becoming an expert can apparently take a lot of time. So where do we find this time to dedicate to becoming an expert in your noted interested? This is where time management comes in to play.

You have a day job, but you really want to be an artist (jewelry, painter, writing, musician, etc). How do you make this work when there is a laundry list of exercise, eat well, work, pick up kids, homework, pay bills, make money, clean up, make dinner, friends/family social time and blah, blah, blah? At the end of that one can feel like there is no hope for them to take on an additional project to invest into the 10,000 hours to become an expert.

So don’t become an expert in your field of interest, become an expert in managing your day. Given a routine in any one’s day, work, eat, sleep, there is always the unexpected that creeps up into our day. Your day can’t be controlled due to the unexpected, but maybe you can step out in front of it to beat it, before it beats you.

Finding some time in our day that’s quiet, for me, it’s the early morning. No one I know, well one person, is up and I don’t have to worry about anyone or anything interrupting my time. If I wait until after 8am or 9am, people are stirring and the unexpected has become the expected.

Managing my day is committing to creating the time to actively practice my area of interest (writing and wellness), I make it part of my lifestyle. If I don’t commit to it, it won’t commit to me. Then I schedule the rest of my obligations around my areas of interest to fulfill to the best of my ability.

Committing to your area of interest may require you to actively practice it for only 1 hour or it may be more. Whichever the case, I know it may sound silly to reschedule your entire day around an hour, but to transform to what you want to be isn’t. Liv your truth!

Trimming the Fat

Many say the heart of the home is the kitchen. If the kitchen is the heart of the home, I would say the closet is the where the fat is stored. Take a moment to either look or think about your closets, your drawers or any place else that you store your belongings or someone else’s for that matter.

Would you say that you absolutely needed everything that you have placed, pushed or shoved in there? My guess, the answer would be no, but. And this is where gaining those extra pounds in our homes start.

No, but…

What if I need this one day? This may come back in style. They might want it when they get older. I just haven’t had time to really go through it the way I would like. All excuses used to hold on to things that we really don’t need, let alone even use.

What if you don’t ever use it for years? Yes styles repeat, can you fit it? And they don’t want it.

Let’s face it we hold onto a lot of things we don’t use, need or even like anymore. Consider what it would feel like to shed some unwanted pounds, how much lighter would you feel, how much more energy you would have to give to something else. You could feel good creating some space in your home, freeing up those areas that are suffocating from an overabundance of stuff.

Push away from the table when you are full, don’t loosen the belt. Like committing to a weight management lifestyle, find some time to commit to a less is more management lifestyle. Not only will you feel good when you start seeing openness in your home, you can feel good about loving those things and letting them go off into the world to be loved by another.

And when you finally find it in your heart to relax, relate, release and let go, please don’t find more things to bring in the house to replace what you just got rid of. Open up your heart and closets to a leaner and better you. Liv your truth!

Handwritten Art

For whatever reason, writing on paper is the most natural thing for me to do. Yes it is way easier to type your thoughts directly to the computer, but there is some connection with the pen hitting the paper and communicating the thoughts that are inside my head. Maybe it’s the personality of the penmanship that gives the words a better look.

The computer typing is standard, dry and sterile, even with the many fonts. Or could it be the mistakes that get crossed out, the inserted lines drawn or the words written sideways outside the margins that make handwriting more of a piece of art rather than a piece of paper with black ink. An old book is nice but with the authors hand written signature is valuable. A typed letter or poem is nice, but a handwritten poem or letter is a collectible.

Thoughts must be expressed written or typed, but the imperfections of misspelled words, scratched out words or fragmented sentences can sometimes give the written expression depth. The thought may not come into existence as perfect and neither is handwritten art. But as we work the wording, arrange the patterns of the thoughts and cross those t’s and dot those i’s, a handwritten master piece can be made.

I write by hand, then I type and sometimes I only type, however, thankful for my options. Every once in a while, let’s just get back to basics. Liv your truth!

Making Sh*t Happen

I’m a black woman. I have black friends and family. I grew up in Chicago in a black neighborhood for 23 years.

I went to an all black grammar school. I went to a diverse College Prep Magnet High School that was actually predominately black. I went to a diverse state college that was heavily white.

I graduated with an accounting degree and worked at jobs in the accounting department where I made up 1 to 5 of the minority population, in a majority white population. I also lived in a majority white suburb for 12 years of my adult life.

My life experience started me off being solely exposed to how a variety of black people may view the world based of their financial situation, their level of education and exposure to more than what was happening on their block. However, through my mother, I was also exposed to diversity at a young age with the various types of ethnic dishes she would prepare, going to her diverse work environment and taking me places and introducing me to people that were different than what I saw every day (even if we were the only two black people). I didn’t realize it then, but I was balanced.

My balance allowed me the ability to be in and around any type of environment and feel like I belonged, I was a part and I deserved. Whatever it was, I never felt excluded. I always feel welcomed.

I enjoy being around diverse mixes of people because it has allowed me to learn about other people’s beliefs, traditions and lifestyles. And the thing I have learned most of all, is that we are truly all the same. We want the same happiness, health and freedom.

There are times, plenty of times, when I may hear my black counterparts commenting on situations that may involve a white person. Their statement my reflect a belief that a white person is more privilege or can get away with something because they are white or white people do certain actives and the list goes on. In my listening, I hear my black counterparts continually perpetuate a reality for themselves that somehow they feel like white people are better (a statement that I don’t agree with, I feel we are all the same).

When I bring to their attention the statements that are made, they defend them by stating that is the world we live in. A world were white people run the world (hell I thought girls ran the world, per Beyonce…who knew?). So let’s just say for argument sake that that is the current reality of the state of the world, let’s just say. However, if it were true, why would a black person assist and insist in keeping that stream of thought/conscious alive? We can only change reality, when we change our thoughts about them.

Lady Gaga stated that life isn’t real, it’s theatre! I would encourage you to not hold onto a reality you don’t agree with. Change it! Change it by putting awareness on your contribution to keeping life status quo. Change your consciousness, your reality.

Liv your truth!

Freedom of Expression

A part of being a writer is telling the truth, telling the facts with integrity as I see it. As I see it? What is as I see it?


As I see it, whatever it may be, maybe different than the way you see it. Why? Because we (me, you, him, her and them) have a set of filters that have developed from birth and/or possibly before.

Filters, the set of judgments, or we may like to call it our belief system or ideals, that cause us to agree or disagree with the facts that are being presented in front of us, whether they are my facts, your facts or another person’s facts.

These facts may come in the form of age, weight, sex, home address, the car you drive, etc., concrete data that we can all agree to when given the information. Then there are some facts rich/poor, good/bad, Christianity/Muslim and so on that can based up ones interpretation of that subject matter. It is a fact that I drive a Volvo. Someone can also make an assessment or judgment, their filter, of the type of person I may be because I drive a Volvo, which may or may not be a fact or my version of the truth about me.

Where do these filters come from? Are they right? Are they wrong?

Our belief system comes from our family base. It comes from what we learn in school and through experiences. Our ideals can come from our internal feeling about something. One maybe an adult Christian because they grew up Christian and believed in the teachings of this religion. Another may choose not to be an adult Christian because they too grew up with it, but felt no connection with it.

As a writer, I believe that it is my responsibility to inspire, encourage and entertain. I want to inspire you to belief you can do anything. I want to encourage you to have an open mind, freeing you up from so much judgment. And make you feel good by delivering the information in an entertaining manner.

That said, there will be times I will offend you, there will be times that what I say won’t resonate and there will be times that you may feel I could have kept my opinion to myself. In any case, I’m thankful for the opportunity of full expression and more thankful that maybe one or all of you receive the intentions of my work.

Liv your truth!

Tao Te Ching Chapter 34

Life presents us with a series of events. We develop thoughts around how we perceive our life’s events. These thoughts become stored as memories in our bodies.

The body represents the most physical form of identification of who we think ourselves to be. We could suppose that our bodies are the manifested and the thoughts are the unmanifested actions that make up who we are. Through our body is where we are allowed to take external action of the internal thoughts that run through us.

Our body being a reflection of thought, when we look in a mirror or observe how our bodies feel, can tell us a story about the thoughts that reside inside of us. The reflection may be one which you are satisfied with or one you are not. By the way society is so image conscious could be a good representation that we are not very satisfied with what we see or really what we think.

As a society we are in a constant continuum to change our outside, the body. We rarely spend the same effort to change the inside, the thoughts of our mind. I would ask you to consider the idea, if you worked to change the thoughts inside, that it could have a tremendous affect on how the body will change on the outside.

The Tao Te Ching is a manual that attempts to provide guidance on a way of living that is harmoniously beneficial to you, your loved ones, your enemies and the entire community as a whole. A document that expresses a manner which we can all have without wanting more or taking from another to have it. This is a confusing concept since we live in a society where we are taught that I need more to be better and in order for me to have, someone else can’t have.

As the Tao Te Ching contains many antidotes to personal and societal life challenges summed up in eighty-one very short chapters, I would like to explore Chapter 34 to bring awareness to some of the great words of its teachings:

The great Tao flows everywhere.
All things are born from it, yet it doesn’t create them.
It pours itself into its work, yet it makes no claim.
It nourishes infinite worlds, yet it doesn’t hold on to them.
Since it is merged with all things and hidden in their hearts, it can be called humble.
Since all things vanish into it and it alone endures, it can be called great.
It isn’t aware of its greatness; thus it is truly great.

We can spend a good eighteen or more years of our lives learning reading, writing and arithmetic. While this is definitely useful information, what if the skill of living were taught to us, how much better could we be? Liv your truth!

Living Life on Your Terms

Today I received an email from a former Yoga Teacher Trainee (YTT) classmate. It was a goodbye email to his colleagues, friends and family announcing his last day of work at the fitness club he was a facilities manager. He had just completed getting his Master’s Degree in Engineering, so of course the thought was he got some new fabulous job.

Living Life on Your Terms
Instead of this new job in the same field, his announcement was he was leaving his current job to pursue his dream of becoming a chiropractor. What??!!!....my first thought. He didn’t mention that during YTT. My second thought, YTT changed us. Changed us from what life has been for us to creating the possibilities of what life could be for us living life on our own terms.

I am so excited for my dear friend! I wish him all the best in his new endeavor. He was such an amazing yoga teacher trainee. So I know he is going to be an amazing chiropractor.

Purpose of Your Being
There’s a voice inside of all of us that talks all the time. There’s also a feeling we feel that creates an interest, attraction or desire inside of us. We may hear the voice or feel the feeling calling us to the purpose for our being.

Some of us pay attention to it and some of never give in. Our purpose for being is simply that, our purpose for being! And our purpose for being is to express something of ourselves that will deliver more happiness and joy to others, but especially to ourselves.

Joy & Happiness
Three words sum joy & happiness all up, be, do and have. We have to be the dream we want for ourselves. Being it will help us do whatever it takes to create the unmanifested to the manifested. And finally the have. We want to have it all, money, fame, but most of all we want the happiness and freedom that living life on our terms can bring. Liv your truth!

Living Life by Your Rules

Bending the rules always seem much more fun than living by them. So why are we always taught that you have to live by these make believed rules in order to succeed? For instance, you know if you don’t get a college degree, you will never get a job…thanks Bill Gates for dropping out of college and proving that point right! Mr. Richie Rich, didn’t get the job, he created it.

No w being the richest in the world doesn’t have to be the goal, but living life by your rules should be.

There are a lot of rules that have already been created for us. And by the way, I’m definitely down with not texting while driving, as I did have a car accident because of this, but I’m not down with there is only this one straight and narrow course to reach the goal. The straight and narrow is usually coupled with hard work pays off or you have to wait until you retire to finally get that corvette you’ve wanted since you were 16.

Who wants to wait or work hard?

Living life by your rules and getting what you want now:
• Pick your goal
• Stick with the goal and don’t sway
• Don’t listen to anyone who says you can’t
• Live your life like you already accomplished the goal
And if all else fails, make Snooky from Jersey Shore your role model. If she can, so can you. Live your truth!

Fear of Success

Often as a teenager and young adult, I would hear my mother ask me, “Why are you afraid of success?” I would often reply, in anger, “I’m not afraid of anything!” Typical response from a young person who feels they have no fears and that they can conquer anything.

The reality is that I was afraid. But I didn’t know this consciously. All I knew was that I didn’t want to fail, which by the way is the opposite of success.

My mother knew me better than I knew myself. Not only did she know me, as a product of her, but also she had been around for a while. She had had her own experiences with successes and failures, and was clearly able to see my fear of success characteristics better than I could.

Knowing Thyself
I always had some creative idea that I would start and not complete. There was a test that I might have the next day and if I didn’t feel confident that I could master and retain all of the information from the test, I just wouldn’t study. I was starting many things in my life and not finishing.

However, in my mind, I wasn’t quitting because I was afraid. I was quitting because I was tired, I didn’t have enough time, or what if I didn’t do well enough. I fooled myself into believing that it wasn’t fear at all. It was just that…

The truth was I was sabotaging myself. Was I really that afraid to do well? What would happen if that creative idea turned into some moneymaking fortune? Or, I was a straight A student, instead of settling for being a B student?

An incomplete life was starting to trail me. This wasn’t me. I wasn’t born to fail or be mediocre. I was born for success.

Steps to Success
Therefore, to get over my fear, first I began to complete small projects that could be completed in a day or less. Next, I started working on old outstanding projects rather they could currently benefit me then or not. Then I started to tackle the hard stuff, facing my fears dead on.

I wrote out my goals and steps it would take to accomplish them. I broke them down in to small bits. I found that I could better digest handling small projects at a time.

I actually started aligning my goals with my actions. Something I hadn’t done before. Before I just said I wanted to be rich, wanted to have the best grades, or wanted to be an entrepreneur in my early twenties. But the reality was, I wasn’t doing anything to make that happen. My plans, goals and dreams were not successful.

However, when I stopped being afraid to succeed, I accomplish more. I began to feel good about myself, and began to accomplish a lot more. Then one day, I looked back and saw trail of success.

We’re Just Babies Man

I recently took my first Karate class. From the time I decided to take the class up to the actual first class, I had been most excited! I decided to take the Karate class because I have a membership at the community center and wanted to take a class I had never taken before.

Karate was an easy selection because it’s teachings of self-defense. My mom had always wanted me to take a self-defense course. In addition, I felt it would be a great complement to my current yoga practice.

Crawl Before You Walk
So here I was, early and waiting. The youth Karate class is before the adult Karate class. Most of the children and their parents disseminated and went on their merry way, but there were some hanger ons. Maybe the children were with the adults that were staying for the adult Karate class and so they were just playing around until the adult class started, so I thought.

So cool, I’m sitting and waiting. It’s time for the class to begin. An instructor calls for the class to begin. I only see little people lining up and one other adult besides the two instructors. I must be in the wrong class!

One of the instructors breaks the class up into groups. I catch his attention. I inquire about being in the “right” class.

He assures me that I am in the “right” class that the children I see around me are very advanced in the practice and I am the beginner of this class. Well all right!

The instructor paired me with another young lady, around eleven or twelve. He showed me ten basic stances and a few other moves. After showing me, he watched and assisted as the young girl and I practiced.

Look, Listen & Learn
I expected handouts and literature on the language and the poses I had practiced, so I could study at home. The Sensei informed me that the practice was in my mind. I would learn through seeing it and then doing it.

In that one night I learned that, we are always just babies in some aspect of our lives. Babies don’t know our language, they learn it by hearing it repeatedly, and they don’t study a handout. Babies don’t know how to crawl or walk, they learn it by simply doing it over and over until they do it right. Again, they don’t study handouts.

It was a most humbling experience. I expected to see adults because it was an adult Karate class, but it wasn’t about age, it was about mastery. These children were mastering an art and were far more advanced than I was.