The kids and I went to taekwondo class on Thursday night after a long holiday break. Class was awesome as usual, we did way too many push ups though. Jonathan and I began learning our first black belt form, Kwang-Gae. Master Holloway showed us the first fourteen moves, if my count is correct, of the form and it was awesome. They are all awesome, but what was even more exciting to me was that we were learning something new after a year or two of perfecting Choong Moo, our red belt form. It had been a long time since we had learned a new move, or kick or form. Jonathan and I went through the new moves of the form over and over again, letting our bodies get used to the new rhythm and patterns. It was fantastic.
It is nice to practice in our comfort zones, easier really. The moves and kicks and forms we had practiced for our black belt test for the last many years became familiar and we worked on perfecting them, getting them into our body memory, and then fine tuning the details. The more comfortable you are with a move or pattern, the less you “think” about it and just do it. Your body takes over.
Getting out of the comfort zone feels uneasy at first. A little threatening. Awkward. And it is just what we need to grow. Nobody learns and grows in their comfort zone. Being outside of your comfort zone demands more focus, presence, and also openness to what you are learning.
I smiled to myself on Thursday night because I felt strangely like I did in my very first taekwondo class six years ago…like I loved it! Did then, and do today. Can’t wait to keep learning and sharing and teaching what I have learned.
What new thing would you like to learn? What is stopping you?
