Now I know that it is not just me. We all have varying levels of chaos going on in our lives and the amount of chaos simply depends on the day. So how do you manage the chaos? It simply comes down to your own internal center. By that I mean your ability to handle a stressful situation calmly. Like everything, this takes practice. How do you practice this? It is called Chi Kung and I have been training it for many years. Over the years I have had the opportunity to train with several Chi Kung…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on September 16, 2010 at 2:38pm —
No Comments
Training should be changed from time to time if for no other reason than to keep you from getting bored. The half marathon training was fun but it took so much time that most of my other training had to take a back seat. This morning I went up the mountain with Rocky, our dog, and spent an hour doing free flow. It felt great. It was a good time to leave the world behind and get in touch with my inner self through deep meditation in the moment. When free flow is done properly, with the right…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on September 7, 2010 at 8:10pm —
No Comments
How is your emotional state of being? Life does not come without stress. My life has seen it's share and the situations that wish to cause stress just keep coming down the road and hitting me head on no matter what I do. If this is not the case for you then you are either the luckiest person in the world or you are in between stress situations. So, if stress is going to come our way whether we seek it or not then what do we do about it?
The answer lies in the emotional…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on September 4, 2010 at 2:36pm —
No Comments
I'm not just talking about training for the half marathon with my wife and son. I'm talking about all of life. I'm a warrior/philosopher and I have been on this journey since I was 7 yrs. old. I have been working most of my life at understanding how the journey of being a warrior affected the rest of my life. Without this connection the activity of studying the martial arts has much less meaning.
As long as you are alive you are on this journey. Whether you know it or not.…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on August 31, 2010 at 11:34am —
No Comments
The journey is everything. Destination gives us something to aim for. It is important to have destination in mind otherwise the journey would seem futile. But when we hold the destination to be more important than the journey we end up loosing 98% of the experience. Are you paying attention to your journey? What are you doing each and every day to improve yourself along the way? I ask these questions of all of my students because I ask these questions of myself. Today I went up the mountain…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on August 27, 2010 at 5:55pm —
No Comments
This morning I was all prepared for a seven mile run. Then at the beginning of the run my wife tells me that she is going to go for ten miles since she missed our last ten mile run. Me, being the great husband that I am, decided that I would do my first seven miles and then turn around and encourage my wife for another three miles. So my surprise this morning was thinking that I would do seven miles and instead it turned into ten + miles. It felt good. We will be doing a practice half marathon…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on August 18, 2010 at 12:29pm —
No Comments
Did 2 miles this morning in preparation for the 7 mile run that we have planned for tomorrow. The half marathon is coming up fast. The date for it is Sunday Sept. 5th This morning I really pushed myself on the 2 miles and I made it in just under 16 min. That is a little better than 8 min. miles. This is the first time that I have ran under 8 min. miles since we started this training. I have come close one other time but this time I made it. It felt as hard as some of the longer runs because…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on August 17, 2010 at 9:14am —
No Comments
Years ago I was running up misery ridge at Smith Rock State Park in central Oregon. I was in training for another kickboxing match. This particular morning I had a friend running with me that had been a very hard training partner for a while and he was getting ready for his first kickboxing match. I was ahead of him by a considerable distance when I stopped to take a rest. The run is very hard. There is a reason why it is called misery ridge. So, while I was catching my breath he caught up to…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on August 16, 2010 at 9:27am —
No Comments
Today Dakota and I made our first 10 mile run in preparation for the half marathon coming up. I believe it is the farthest that I have ever ran at one time. As part of my training I have ran most of my life. But, in shorter distances. I do not believe that I have ever ran over 8 miles at one time. Added to my other kung fu training that is still quite a lot.…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on August 15, 2010 at 1:17pm —
No Comments
This is the day before the big run. We will be doing our first 10 mile run tomorrow morning in preparation for the half marathon. This morning I did 2 miles just to keep things loose. Half of it was hard uphill and I still almost made the 8 min. per mile mark. Awesome. I will be going slow tomorrow just to get a feel for ten miles. It should be a great challenge.
What is your challenge. Blog about it and let others know what it is that you are doing to live Kung Fu.
Added by Joseph Bronson on August 14, 2010 at 8:46am —
No Comments
Sue and I lead a very active life. Along with our normally active life we work out hard. Training for this half marathon has added an extra push that is staining the body, in good ways, that must be dealt with effectively. Today we are a little extra sore and the muscles feel fatigued. So it is a day off to rest the body and get ready for our 10 mile run on Sunday. Monday I should feel great. The run on Sunday will be the farthest that I have ever ran at one time.
What is…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on August 13, 2010 at 9:40am —
No Comments
I have never grown or seen any growth without the associated pain that must come with the expanding of oneself. I mean this on every level of life. Mentally, Emotionally, Physically, you can not get away from the fact that you are not going to get the growth that you desire without pain. I say all of this because of my pain in helping Sue and Dakota train for the half marathon. It feels great, not the pain, but the results. I train hard all of the time but this long distance running is…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on August 12, 2010 at 9:03am —
No Comments
In this case I mean my wife (just kidding honey). She mapped out a 5 mile course that was killer hard. Even though I shaved some time off of my last run this one tore me up. The big uphill climb that we call the grapevine felt like the grape vine coming out of LA. This hill was tough and Sue had us doing it twice in a row. Ouch. Yes, Your humble Sifu has been complaining all morning.The 45 min. stretch was not enough and I feel like I could stretch for 2 or 3 hrs. and still not get enough…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on August 11, 2010 at 12:06pm —
No Comments
Sue just had a birthday, I will not tell her age but she is in better shape than most women half her age. I will be turning 46 this next month and can out work most young men half my age. Why? Because we do not give up on ourselves. This morning we are running another 5 miles in preparation for the Carlton half marathon. What are you doing to challenge yourself? This has been a push for me because even though I think running is great and have done quite a bit of it over the years. I have never…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on August 11, 2010 at 7:01am —
No Comments
I have asked my students to blog about their Kung Fu journey. So as an example I feel that I must blog as well. The reason that I have given myself in the past for not blogging is that I am standing up in front of everyone every class talking about ideals that I hold on to every day and work at implementing into my life on a constant basis. I have decided that my example in class is not enough and that I need to share a little more of my personal journey with you. So get ready. I will be taking…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on August 10, 2010 at 9:10am —
No Comments
World pesticide use exceeded 5.0 billion lbs in both 2000 and 2001 (total cost, $64.5 billion) with the United States accounting for 1.2 billion lbs per year at an annual cost of $11 billion. While the totals are staggering, so too is the infinitesimal amount of those five billion pounds a year that actually make it to the target pest - less than 0.1 percent.
No one has accounted for where the other 99.9 percent ends up, and it is known these compounds can travel thousands of miles around… Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on April 28, 2010 at 2:06pm —
No Comments
As I am sure many of you already know I am a member of an international martial arts organization that is called the new way network. But I realy think that it should be called the old way network because the values that are being expressed are the values of the past. The head of the organization is a master teacher named Tom Callos. His vision is to have the martial arts come back to the meaning that it once had in ancient times. I have worked for many years on this same path. Integrity is…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on February 19, 2010 at 11:00am —
No Comments
OK I am on a little bit of a rant this evening. I am so very tired of so many people looking at me like I am from Mars when I talk about eating Organic. You would think that I was talking about growing another nose or something else equaly ridiculous.
So I would very much like to see my students get off the sofa. Turn off the tele. go to the library and start doing a little research.
True organic food is much more than being more healthy for you. It is also much more…
Continue
Added by Joseph Bronson on December 18, 2009 at 5:57pm —
No Comments
