Daily Wellbeing Through Wing Chun

 

Whether online training, attending classes or studying books,

How you approach your Wing Chun makes all the difference

 

I often write blogs regarding personal experiences and how these daily experiences have then, in my opinion, been connected with Wing Chun, either through their similarities with the style or as a way of perhaps improving your technique within the style, in this blog, of course there is that same idea and connection but this one, is probably one of the most tenuous links I have used to date!

Here goes…

 

The other day I was thinking about the movie ‘The Three Amigos’, the 1986 film starring Chevy Chase, Steve Martin and Martin Short, a very funny film as I recall, BUT the issue here is this, I do not remember seeing it at that time.

‘Rocky’, this was another great movie but it’s now over 45 years old!

‘Rambo’, over 40 years old!

 

The point is:

 

“Where does the time go?”

 

I have no doubt that many of you, if not all of you, will have had similar experiences, remembering something in the past and almost enjoying it more now, through reflection, than you actually did during the experience itself.

 

The 1990’s for instance was a remarkable decade for me personally, in particular, the early 90’s:

My early years training in Hong Kong, every day at Master Ip Chun’s home for hours on end,

Training at the VTAA alongside such great Sifu’s as Wong Shun Leung, Ip Ching, Chu Shong Ting and many more,

Opening my school in Leeds,

Recovering from cancer,

Oh and all backed with some banging tunes too!

Now the reason I think that this era may have been so good to me, is that I allowed myself to experience that time more than any other.

 

Happy days.

 

There were highs and lows, as there are in all decades, but why was this one so important to me as the one which stood out, and what do I mean by, ‘allowing myself to experience that time more than any other’?

 

Probably because this was an enjoyable time where I tried to see the good in everything, even during the bad times, but we need to think like that constantly, every day and every hour of every day, and that’s how you get the most out of life, and the same is said for playing Chi Sau, by staying in the moment

 

This is what happened to all those lost decades, we switched off rather than staying in the moment, and only when we look back do we realise what a missed opportunity that was and how we probably wish we could be there again, possibly even thinking to do things better this time?

 

Grandmaster Ip Chun said to think of your Siu Lim Tau as primary school, to think of Chum Kiu as secondary school and to think of your Wooden Dummy Form (Muk Yan Jong Fat) as university.

But if this is the case:

 

Which form then should we say is the most important?

 

Answer:

 

Whichever Form you are training at that time.

 

So stay in the moment, in training and in life, and try to see the good in everything, life is too short to dwell on what we could have done, let’s look at what we still can do.

 

Happy training everyone!