Tag Archives: wow

Recap of New Habits for the New Year

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Wow, I can’t believe it’s already the end of January! Instead of making New Year resolutions, I decided to just add small new habits throughout the year. Every evening, I have a very limited amount of time to squeeze in activities. In between family time and bed time, I have at most 2 hours.  Not a whole lot of time, but by putting in the big rocks first, I have been pretty successful in fostering new habits.

One of the big rocks in my life include taking care of household tasks like bills and financial planning. I am one of those guys that used to track spending down to the cent during college.  This habit has stayed with me and I will touchbase and process my inbox every other day. This includes taking care of any bills, balancing finances and any other household need.  When I am finished with these tasks, I will work on progressing one of my projects or just chill out (surf the web, read email, watch a TV episode, etc) depending on my energy level.

The other big rock I have if general fitness, which includes heading to the gym.  I will do my workout on my ‘off’ household tasks days.  This habit actually started towards the last quarter of 2008, but has been solidifying itself in January.  My workout includes cardio exercise to increase my overall cardiovascular health and conditioning as well as some light weight and body exercises.  I have definitely noticed a shift in my energy level and I am getting physical feedback from the conditioning as I am more tone in areas that were not as tone before ;)

The 2 big rocks above usually take a bit over 1 hour to complete which leaves me with less than an hour for other habits. Starting this year, I wanted to regularly meditate, whether it be sitting (zazen) or standing meditation (zhan zhuang).  I have been quite successful in making this a habit, though it was difficult at first. Before, I would try to set a lot of goals concurrently but by focusing my energy on the creation of one new habit at a time, the success rate is much higher. I must give some kudos to the Zen Habits blog for this approach!

By the time I am done with meditation, it’s bedtime! That’s it.  Well, you may think that doesn’t sound like a lot is being done.  You’re right, while it’s not a lot, it is what I can accomplish in my limited amount of time!  However, I did want to squeeze in another new habit and that is doing Yoga.  Instead of doing Yoga during the evening, I incorporated the Sun Salutation into my morning routine and it has worked out beautifully!

I was talking with a buddy of mine on the phone recently and he commented on how it looks like I am keeping to my New Year resolutions.  I told him the answer was quite simple.  All I did was set limits on what was essential and remove the fluff.  For me, this meant removing video games, more specifically World of Warcraft (WoW) from my daily routine. For those not in the know, World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that can really drain a lot of time if one is not careful.  Before, I would spend roughly and hour or so a night playing WoW, which left very little time for anything else and would often affect my rest time.  I still have a lot of friends who play WoW in real life and while they are having fun in the game, my own priorities have shifted a bit and I am feeling much happier and healthier with my new habits.

What’s next? For the month of February, I want to make a new habit of doing taiji silk reeling exercises or some type foundational training exercise on a regular basis. This could include things like Chen taiji single/double handed silk reeling or Hong Practical Method positive/negative circle or even Yang style movement. In other words, incorporate jibengong (foundational exercises) into my daily routine.  Wish me luck ;)

The Ebb and Flow of Taiji Practice

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The ebb and flow of something is the continually changing character of something (source).  In this statement, the changing character is myself.  A lot has happened over the past 3-4 months and things are finally starting to stabilize. 

One of the major changes in my free time was I decided to basically stop playing massively multiple online games (MMOs).  I basically stopped playing World of Warcraft about 4 or so months ago, but just when feeling of playing an MMO subsided, I picked things back up with Warhammer Online. I can say that I have been pretty much MMO-free for the past month and a half or so and I have to admit that I like having the extra time.  For those not in the know, a MMO game can easily take 3-4 hours of one’s time A NIGHT without missing a blink.  My own gaming time was more along the lines of 2 hours a night, but that’s still 2 hours where I could be doing something else more productive.

Additionally, we signed up for a family pass at the local recreation center. This means I now have access to an indoor swimming pool AND weight/cardio facilities.  I have been going quite regularly and I feel great. I can already feel and see a difference!

But what about taiji? I am sad to admit that taiji has taken a massive back burner in terms of priority.  First of all, MMO gaming really dug into my taiji time. Secondly, we had some major real life changes take place and things are finally starting to settle on that front.  And thirdly, my mind has just not been on taiji and/or meditation.  In fact, I cannot even remember the last time I went through a whole taiji form set, however I can remember the last couple of times where I have engaged in zhan zhuang standing practice.  With all the ups and down, the only thing that is somewhat stable is my zhan zhuang training. While I haven’t been doing it everyday, I do it at least 2-3 times a week.  I feel it helps to stabilize and ground myself.

When things are in disarray, sometimes is best to go back to the basics. For me, that has been focusing on my breath.  Another thing that has sparked my interest again is seeing a short video of a taiji practice session on John’s Tai-Blog.  What I liked about John’s video was he basically showed you can practice however you like. For example, when he went to turn on the music, I was thinking he would put on some type of meditative flute music or something, but I was wrong!  Additionally, he showed how someone could easily practice basic drills with common taiji movements (ward off, repulse monkey, cloud hands, etc, etc).  I used to do a lot of drills in the past, but somehow became fixated that I *must* complete the whole form.  At this point in my journey, something is definitely better than nothing.