Aikido

Aikido Advice for Women…and a Few Men
The Way of Harmony, Peace & Power

Susan Harrow and Ginny Breeland 5th Dan Aikidoka

I’m Susan Harrow, a newbie Aikidoka who just passed my 5th Kyu (the first level of Aikido). Aikido is a peaceful martial art and we’d love to have more women training with us in California and throughout the world. I knew Aikido was for me the second I saw a Shodan (first black belt) test. But it was the actual experience of training that made me know for Aikido symbol sure, in my body, that I was on the right road for me at this time in my life, age 52.

The training is rigorous, challenging and confronting not just for the body, but for the mind and spirit. It is also invigorating, enlivening, and absorbing. It’s a practice that gives us the opportunity to recognize patterns, habits, and tendencies that both strengthen and weaken us – to shift what isn’t working and to deepen what does. It is a profound path on many levels and I wanted to share some of Ginny’s Breeland’s wisdom with you because al Aikido mountain l of it is transferable to life, to our position as women in the world.

Every week I’ll be interviewing Ginny Breeland, 5th Dan (Godan) who has been training for over 30 years. Each interview we’ll focus on some aspect of Aikido training for those who want to deepen their Aikido practice. Ginny teaches and trains in Aikido at Bay Marin Aikido and in at the Cotati Rec Center.

Even if you never step into a martial arts dojo I invite you to engage with Ginny and I here and take what you will from our sessions.