Well, the move is underway, no doubt I’ll find a few gremlins in the works, I’ll also have to clean up a few pages here to point onwards.

To recap Watercourse and it’s feeds are now at the following addresses:

blog: http://quietwatercourse.co.uk/
Posts: http://quietwatercourse.co.uk/feed
Comments: http://quietwatercourse.co.uk/comments/feed

You’ll see generic insanity as I play with options, but hey, what else do you expect?

One of the habits I have is a tendency to beat myself when I fall short of my own expectations. I dwell on it and brood on it and can get quite down.

However I was thinking the other day about the eightfold path, and the words of my Tai Chi teacher came to mind, “What I don’t say is as important as what I say”. He was talking about us limiting ourselves during practice to imagine “rules” when he hadn’t set any. This is a vitally important point, many times we limit ourselves through imagined limitations, without stopping and thinking about where these limitations come from.

So, coming back to the eightfold path, we take it as a set of guides to our relationship with the world. But nobody ever said it was one way, we are as much a part of the world as anything else, so by necessity we must apply the principles to ourselves. I take this to mean not browbeating ourselves overly, remembering moderation and not denying ourselves things just to be “spiritual”.  Remember to be gentle with yourself, don’t cling to failures (real or imagined), if you’re clinging to the pains in your head, how can you truly be alive in the moment?

I’ve started a process of change to the way things work at Watercourse recently. You can now find Watercourse at the address below. The general plan is to move Watercourse to new hosting as I wanted my own domain and WordPress make some aspects of that difficult (e.g. email forwarding), also I’d like to host all of my files and writings in one place rather than having them spread out over free hosting and I’d like a little more control of things than I get at WordPress.com.

The homepage and feeds are at the following addresses, though the old one still work for now:

blog: http://quietwatercourse.co.uk/
Posts: http://quietwatercourse.co.uk/feed
Comments: http://quietwatercourse.co.uk/comments/feed

Well, after a long absence I started back at my Tai Chi class last night.

It’s interesting to contrast Taijiquan and my usual Bodypump classes, as I do view them as different sides of the Taji symbol.  I used to consider the internal exercise superior, an attitude that I picked up from an ex-colleague, I’ve reconsidered my approach these days.

While I appreciate the external exercise I get in the Gym, I found Tajiquan provides a missing part of the exercise picture, I appreciate that more now that I’m doing both than I did when I was just doing Tai Chi or Gym classes by themselves.

I have a feeling that the two are going to compliment each other quite nicely, does anyone else have any experience with this?

I’ve been a little busy in the background for a while now, programming, refining, testing. The result is my first program written for Linux. It’s called Sitquietly, and it’s a simple meditation timer.

You can see its’ page along the top of my site, I’ve been using it for my own meditation sessions, I think it works well enough to be shared out. I hope to get it into Ubuntu Universe as soon as I can, and I’ll be continuing development of it as I have a few things planned, including selectable chime sounds and maybe even background music. I certainly need to develop the online help and may even throw in a few basic meditation exercises to get people started.

Please give me feedback and  let me know what you think, enjoy!

A post over at abarefootman started me thinking about our apparent inability to see what’s in front of us. This is true at any time, but more so in the field of exercise and the “body beautiful”, never did a term merit quotes so much!

We already have everything we need for fitness, we’re fully equipped. You have a body capable of exercising and, most importantly the willingness to do it. The fancy gyms are not really needed, they’re very nice to have, but not vital.

But going beyond that, I keep seeing new equipment, new supplements and nutrition bars, shakes and powders. It’s as if fitness has been turned from something to be enjoyed, into something chained down with a kind of performance anxiety, with the inference that you’re not doing it right unless you’re using this or that gadget or supplement. Part of my attitude stems from my old backstreet gym days, when it was just you and weight. But also from my time at Tai Chi, there can be no gimmickry there, it’s just you and the form.

Indulge me, try the following exercise with me. Close your eyes, allow yourself to breathe normally, be still for a few seconds and relax. Imagine your time in the gym, think of the machines, the supplement bars and drinks, the merchandising, all of it. Give yourself permission to let it go, one thing at a time, empty the gym in your mind.

Look at what’s left. Your motivation, the fact you enjoy it, your desire to improve yourself. Without these things, the rest of it is a lie.

Here’s an interesting article on BBC News. The idea of St Georges’ Day being a bank holiday seems to be gathering some steam. You can find a petition here on the Number 10 website.

I like the idea behind the petition:

“England needs a national day of celebration. A day when all the English – regardless of colour or religion – can recognise what binds us together.”

The author is right, we DO need a day that brings us together as one nation.  I’ve said before, it’s important for us to reach past our differences peacefully, I believe it’s the only way we’ll have a future worth living in.

After some thought I’ve turned on comment moderation on Quiet Watercourse.

This stems from a view of mine that it’s not enough to have Freedom of Speech, you have to acknowledge the responsibility that comes with it. This is what I’ve considered for some time to be just as desirable, “Responsibility of Speech”, Buddhism covers this as part of “Right Speech”.

Why do I consider this important? I’ve seen it in my personal life, someone exercises their “freedom” to speak and causes hurt and pain with absolutely no regard for the consequences, I’ve had to deal with the hurt (not just to others) and I know. So far there have been no problems, I couldn’t be happier, and I certainly won’t be making a habit of deleting comments. But I do consider making a stitch in time to be a good option and I really don’t want Watercourse to be a cause of hurt or pain to someone in the future if I can avoid it.

I went back to the gym today, for the first time in over week. I’m not completely recovered from my cold, which combined with my absence, hampered my performance.

I would fail on certain reps, and thinking about it later, I was reminded of something in Lawrence Leamers’ bio of Schwarzenegger. The notion is that a body like Arnies’ is built one rep at a time. Fair play, but I think to bring a little Buddhism in here, it’s also built by being in the moment.

You have to be present during each rep, not just doing them mechanically, but almost like a form of meditation. The middle path is the best way to take, not total balls to the wall but a more moderated approach, don’t rush. When I felt a tendon in one of my forearms complain during an exercise, I backed off on the weight. Buddhism teaches us to try to take a wider view, thinking about it fitness is also built outside the gym, diet and rest are critical factors and we forget them to our ruin.

The observation that both exercise and Buddhism happen in the moment is an interesting thought, I look forward to seeing where this leads!

Well, it’s been a gorgeous afternoon and I decided to do something I’ve been intending to do for some time, I took my camera and paid a local attraction a visit, in this case Haden Hill park. This is a local park in Old Hill, which includes Haden Hill House parts of which date from the Tudor period and also a newer nature reserve which is home to Pipistrell bats and Tawny Owls among other species.