Wait. Are you serious??!!

Someone was giving away fish?!

Eep, sorry to hear! Be well, and take care of yourself. :)

Incredible tactician we've got here. :P

Reminds me of some of the encounters in FTL.

The attached photo is I guess what one could term "too much enthusiasm about hitting the gym" or as I prefer to think of it, a complete misinterpretation of Monty Python's Knights Who Say "Ni!". I don't bruise easily so didn't bother adding the photo of my elbow or left "Ni" :P

A mentor recently said to me "in budo we die and are reborn a thousand times in each training session" and I didn't fully comprehend his meaning until yesterday. I let out a lot of inner crap on that bag yesterday. As my hand is broken, I was sensible enough not to use my left arm, but let that bag have everything I had with one elbow and two knees. I screamed and swore with rage with every strike until I collapsed from exhaustion, cried(cathartic release), felt my anger and energy resurface and repeated the exercise multiple times until I felt peace and could not strike anymore.

This battle is with myself and every time the enemy(my thoughts) rose I fought them with action rather than thought. So metaphorically speaking, I changed my strategy and can foresee where continuing this exercise will lead to in a manner that other strategies such as avoidance, displacement and misdirection of energies have previously failed.

I did this because my first response to getting some upsetting news(an offer to pay for much needed oral surgery has been changed and won't cover it now) was to turn to my 'old friend' alcohol. I know well and truly from experience that it would do nothing to solve the issue at hand, and rather than limit myself due to a broken hand I found another Way. The release from the bag was far healthier and was inspired by a story my partner's father told me.

He told me that the Japanese military hierarchy had realised that due to the rigid structure of their society, soldiers needed an outlet for their pent up rage. So they would have a training room with pictures of the officer's faces on their sparring equipment. That is basically what I did yesterday whilst letting out my own frustration and anger. As I mentioned, I realise that this 'enemy' is no-one but myself. I awoke today feeling far more peaceful, looked at the issue at hand in a different light and was surprisingly far less sore than I thought I would have been.

Thanks for that laugh :) I learned something from clicking that link, that Hitler was a woman :P

I woke up today at 7:00 am to find out that my backup failed. But I also found out that I won!
Thank you very much Tarnicus! You're very generous!

I almost forgot that this thread was a giveaway because I was sad to see you go. Hopefully things are going better for you now, and as others have said, get well soon! :)

Thank you very much for the awesome gift, Tarnicus! :)

^This!

So you're saying it was just a flesh wound? ; D

I'm very much on the same wavelength as you here, though I'm glad to say my life hasn't been very turbulent lately. I've been getting a lot of that negative energy out through yoga. It's the same idea of pushing through that inner crap with your physicality. You can let go of all that tension and think clearly again. It's especially nice to be able to be inspired and start fresh, like tackling a problem from a new angle.

Here's hoping you can avoid breaking anything else before your next epiphany. Also, I'm glad you were able to free yourself of some of those burdens. Remember to treat yourself well, too.

That was some cathartic release, indeed. Just be careful not to get too excited and break your other hand too. :P

Stormcrow, gotta say thanks here too for Arcanum, much appreciated!
Get better, hopefully you will, soon. All the blessings.

Hope you're feeling better and the hand isn't too sore.

also thank you for the FTL code :)

I had actually meant to link that Monty Python clip too and say it was just a flesh wound, so thanks for adding that comment. Definitely on the same wavelength in more ways than one :)

My father is (maybe was) a yoga instructor as well a surgeon and I used to do yoga with him and meditate as a child. I stopped doing it at a time when I needed it the most, and that was when I grew almost a foot between the ages of 14 and 15 and still have very tight hamstrings and poor lower back flexibility as a result. Lifestyle since then hasn't helped and can make me prone to injury due to being so "tightly wound".

One of my current goals is to get back into yoga by doing a gentle form to start with. Given the cold mountains I live in, I generally do my stretching when I can remember in the shower, bath or sauna(last time I mentioned yoga to my dad he was doing Bikram yoga which is definitely something that interests me.

At this stage of life, I am getting the very strong urge to get back into mixed martial arts although I realise that my body would be far too injury prone if I was to start again now. I've got to take a few baby steps first rather than start sprinting towards that goal. Meditation and breathing work wonders for my overall mental health but I found that by engaging in full contact sparring I was far calmer, less reactive and my fight or fight response(yes not fight or flight) was the most in control that it has ever been.

Many I have spoken to do not understand the peace and joy I get from such a "violent" activity, and I do not see it as violence. It is two consensual adults engaging in an activity that has a set of rules and is never trained at 100%, unlike violence(something I'd like to avoid more of this lifetime). I can "see" in every moment during sparring where I could damage my opponent, quite detrimentally, and having those safer full contact experiences on some level heal the powerlessness of the violence I experienced when I was younger and enable me to practise greater self control in preparation for possible confrontations. I'll tell a story later of where such training has really come in handy in diffusing potentially life threatening situations for myself and others :)

I prefer to train with those far stronger and more skilled than myself(the skill is the most important factor) as I feel safe in that environment and it is a wonderful release. My concern is not myself being injured but of letting go(like I did with the punching bag) and snapping and unleashing that which is within upon another, as I have done in the past. I'm not sure how others have felt in such situations, but afterwards I have felt horrid for some of the violence I have let out on other people.

I've gotta cut this short or I'll miss my dental appointment where I need to discuss alternative options to the surgery I was about to be booked in for :)