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Jan. 14th, 2011 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylik"what inspired you to get so serious about sparring and exercise?"
The shortest version is that I had a pretty serious spine injury, one that was possibly going to prevent me from working (or doing much else interesting) ever again, and Taiji helped more than anything else. So I milked it for all it was worth.
It's more involved than that. I've always done something active - karate, back in my teens, hiking, biking, swimming, gymnastics, belly dance for some years... but my self image was pretty resolutely unathletic. OTOH, if I wasn't doing something, I felt like crap. Not to say that I didn't sometimes ignore feeling like crap, but the lethargy then was pretty awful.
When my spine really fell apart, Chen Taiji was my lifeline. I could do it even when I hurt to much to think. (Which was immensely comforting, as I kind of freak out when the cognition drops.) It helped. I could throw myself into it.* So I just kept doing more of it. And added various other martial arts.
These days... my body generally works pretty well, but there isn't a lot of slack in the system. (Certainly not if I want to keep to my schedule.) So I train because I enjoy it, and train even more because it makes me feel good, and because things fall apart pretty badly if I don't.
* I usually have a few things in my life I'm pursuing vigorously, at any given time. It's kind of like where all the obsessive went when I didn't end up a classical musician.
The shortest version is that I had a pretty serious spine injury, one that was possibly going to prevent me from working (or doing much else interesting) ever again, and Taiji helped more than anything else. So I milked it for all it was worth.
It's more involved than that. I've always done something active - karate, back in my teens, hiking, biking, swimming, gymnastics, belly dance for some years... but my self image was pretty resolutely unathletic. OTOH, if I wasn't doing something, I felt like crap. Not to say that I didn't sometimes ignore feeling like crap, but the lethargy then was pretty awful.
When my spine really fell apart, Chen Taiji was my lifeline. I could do it even when I hurt to much to think. (Which was immensely comforting, as I kind of freak out when the cognition drops.) It helped. I could throw myself into it.* So I just kept doing more of it. And added various other martial arts.
These days... my body generally works pretty well, but there isn't a lot of slack in the system. (Certainly not if I want to keep to my schedule.) So I train because I enjoy it, and train even more because it makes me feel good, and because things fall apart pretty badly if I don't.
* I usually have a few things in my life I'm pursuing vigorously, at any given time. It's kind of like where all the obsessive went when I didn't end up a classical musician.
