Practising with a blindfold. During a weekend seminar for Haidong Gumdo this November, a few of the exercises we did were executed with our eyes closed/blindfolded, to help sharpen our senses. It was an interesting and enriching experience. Removing sight from the equation tells you exactly where you are ‘at’, training-wise. It slows you right… Read More Sharpening the Senses
I learned today – while skipping ropes – how much our state of mind really influences how we move. For the past few weeks I had noticed that I wasn’t able to keep my rope-skip rhythm as steady as I used to. During summer, after just a few weeks of practise, I was able to… Read More Untangling the Ropes
…They rise and fall like vaporous civilizations. Today’s book recommendation – the book I mentioned this week in my ode to the clouds – and one of the books I am currently reading, is The Invention of Clouds by Richard Hamblyn. It’s about the life and work of Luke Howard – or – as Goethe himself used to call him… Read More The Invention of Clouds
For this week’s Flexibility Friday, check out the links below for a series of free(!) follow-along stretching videos by the fantastic Stacey Nemour. These videos are great to work with throughout the day. Note: Use code ‘D4C’ on checkout for 10% off all Stacey’s paid online flexibility courses, course packages and stretching/posture support props/straps Lower… Read More Free Flexibility Videos
Clouds are moving poetry. They’ve inspired countless artists in the course of history (and – I’d bet – beyond!) I remember being an avid cloudspotter as a youngster. It gave me immense peace and inspiration just to lie down in the grass for a while and watch the sky-cotton shift shapes and float by. As… Read More Cloud Poetry
Mr. E and I were lucky enough to visit this magnificent ancient chestnut tree in Ryedale (in Cumbria/the UK’s Lake District) in early fall. It is estimated to be about 500-600 years old. Age is but a number. In the early 1800‘s, when the tree was about 300-400 years old, romantic poet William Wordsworth lived very… Read More The Sweet Chestnut of Ryedale
I have just now – in collaboration with Dance4Children, my favourite non-profit charity team, set up a special D4C Gumroad Channel. All sales of it’s dance instructional videos (very soon the ‘Shimmy Sessions’ series will be re-released there in full, and hopefully new videos will follow in the coming year!) will go directly and completely… Read More Dance and Do Good
In Haidong Gumdo (Korean Sword Art), most of the training is done with a Mok Gum, a double handed hard wood sword – like Spot and Freckles – our practise swords, the ones you can see in the picture below. Mok Gum are used for: practising basic cuts (Begi) and stances (Se) two-handed sword forms (Ssang-Soo Gumbub)… Read More Meet Spot and Freckles
Resilience. One of my favourite expressions of (inner as well as outer) strength. According to the Oxford dictionary it has the following meanings: resilience /rɪˈzɪlɪəns/ noun The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. The ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity. We all have it. This tree has it.… Read More Resilience
The mystical grey Heron, said to be messenger of the Gods. A symbol of grace, patience, dignity, precision, independence, self-knowlegdge, wisdom, discipline, light, and rebirth. This image (taken this weekend behind our home, during the 2-day fog) reminded me of the saying that our senses are only designed to perceive a fraction of reality. Good… Read More Perception