Overcoming Limitations

It is Sunday afternoon and I have finished teaching at our New Rochelle school. The distracting thoughts of hunger and fatigue plague my mind and body as I drive to Tarrytown for our monthly training. As I arrive, I feel my limitations physically and mentally. We begin training and slowly those distracting thoughts and feelings are replaced with a sense of joy and rising surge of energy. 

Training begins with stretching and other warmups. As I lay on the matts pushing my split further, I feel joy in my physical pain because it is pushing away my weakness. As we continue to our Ki Gong poomse, I enjoy the mental stimulation from the focus needed in the intricate and precise movements needed for the poomse even as I struggle memorizing a few movements. We continue with kicking combinations, and I greatly enjoy the cardio stimulation because this is where my preference lies. I use my strength and speed to push my body to do its best. I can afford no distracting thoughts while my body focuses on kicking repeatedly. Following our kicking combinations, we enjoy some zig zag jogging with our peers. I couldn’t help but smile as we all gave a hearty Ki Gong yell with our jog.

In our final training our physical limitations are pushed hard with the monkey holding posture. I struggle after a minute and repeatedly drop my legs and continue to raise them and try again. At the end we lay back and meditate, and I feel a cool and calm sensation fall over me as the tension and heat leave my body. I feel happy having come and finished today’s training despite feeling fatigued and hungry at the start. I have overcome today’s limitations. 

– written by: Master Jorge L. Delgado