Update/Reflection

So this post is going to be a long one. Today I attended one of the more intense karate classes. It was a regular class that happened to have a lot of intense combinations and challenges which was a good test of my endurance. The first part of class was devoted to making my mind explode. We practiced several hand techniques in one order and then the teacher told us to practice those same techniques again but in a different order. This happened several times. Towards the end of class, we had to repeatedly perform combinations involving kicks and hand techniques. And then we had to do squats as fast as we could.

After that class, I attended a meditation class. It was a fairly relaxing class and helped me to focus and center myself. After the breathing, and walking meditation, my teacher read one of Kaicho Nakamura's meditation lectures. It was very applicable to my project. The lecture spoke about how people often underestimate themselves. Kaicho Nakamura specifically mentioned how people often deprecate themselves and believe that they can't accomplish a task. He also mentions that people often jump between deprecating themselves and having a very large ego.

After my teacher finished the lecture, everyone who attended the class reflected upon and discussed what they had heard. One of the major ideas that was mentioned was that of achieving balance in life. I mentioned how I used to work out and push myself beyond what was safe. I used to have such an ego in the way that I believed that I could push myself beyond my "limits" without putting in the work beforehand and I learned that that was not true because I now carry several injuries in my shoulders and elbows.

Because of this lecture, I have begun to rethink my project, or at least my goals and how I approach them. I feel that I need to do a lot more work in order to meet all of my goals. My training is still lacking and I am currently falling behind with my research. I will have a post about my research by the end of the week. Also I have done the math, and realized that my last two week outline post was later than I thought and will have another two week outline by the end of the day tomorrow.