Practice Mindfulness Through Aikido & Tea Ceremony

During her first Japanese tea ceremony Sachiko Knappman prepared tea and served it to her guest when Sachiko herself was ready. After much rigorous training, Sachiko realized that the person drinking the tea also needed to be ready and open to receive. The practice of Chado or tea ceremony took observation, timing, sensitivity and grace — all of which she learned later.
Usually this Japanese ritual which is centuries old, involves the guest, who observes the performance of the preparation and presentation of the tea, then eats traditional Japanese confections to enhance the taste of tea. After consuming the sweets the guest drinks green tea in a formalized manner. The untrained person makes the tea according to her own schedule, but part [...]

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Discover Your Inner Bond Girl: Stiletto Spy School

The second I chucked my Jimmy Choo shoes in favor of flats I read about Stiletto Spy School for Women. Power has always been an aphrodisiac — for men. But when a woman is called powerful it’s often code Bitch. Combining sexiness with power creates the potent combustion of a femme fatale, a woman who is feared and desired. Men may even delight being controlled by her while conspiring to take her down. Think Angelina Jolie in the movie Mr. & Mrs. Smith and the current film Salt. Of course, unlike most of us, Angelina Jolie, is sexy in sneakers.

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Martial Arts Mini Series on Powerful Women #12

Call me the reluctant aikidoka. I was a skeptic (not a cynic), a doubting Thomas (not a disbeliever), and a pragmatist (not a non-conformist). For a length of time Aikido was nothing to me but exercise. 30 years ago my sister dragged me into my first Aikido class. I was 18 ys old and knew nothing of the art, but such things happen for reasons for it was there that I met my future husband, #1 fan, and uke, Pete. Regardless of how it all began, Aikido has had a profound impact on my life.

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Martial Arts Mini Series on Powerful Women #11

I began my Aikido training in January 1982 at age thirty-three. I carry the rank of 6th degree black belt. I am the founder and director of Society of Aikido Centers since 2002.

Being an Aikido teacher has become my business career. It has helped me to focus on one thing at a time as we were taught in randori (freestyle). That being in a calm state helps us make better decisions. Whereas I was shy, I learned to be assertive.

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Martial Arts Mini Series on Powerful Women #9

A friend taught me some Aikido moves back when I was in my 20s – I did not have the money to study it formally then, but showed the moves to my boyfriend who was delighted with how a small woman could move a much larger man with almost no effort.

Long story short, my boyfriend became my husband and we both started studying Tai chi chuan back in the 1980s. Why Tai Chi? Because my husband was throwing out his neck doing plastering and the chiropractor told him to do some kind of exercise that would balance out the sides of his body. I took it up just for health and to help handle stress. My husband, Rick, studied intensively with Master William CC Chen in Manhattan. I did it once in a while.

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Martial Arts Mini Series on Powerful Women #8

I am a Ph.D. psychologist, 62 years old, female, and a second degree black belt in Shorin Ryu Karate. I walked into a karate dojo for the first time when I was 47 years old. It didn’t occur to me that I was too old, though when I was testing for my first degree black belt, and wondered why some of the other candidates were getting their kicks off a bit faster than I was, and then realized that next to me, the oldest of the bunch was 23 years younger than I and the youngest candidate was a 17 year old male, the thought went through my mind.

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Martial Arts Mini Series on Powerful Women #7

I’d like to hear dramatic, moving, profound before and after stories. Where you started, what training has taught you, where you are now and how it’s affected your image of yourself. I first started training right after I married my husband artist Pablo Solomon. He had trained since childhood and was a master of several styles ( he even did classes for the Queen’s Guard in the Netherlands). However, he felt that I would benefit more if I had a teacher other than him.

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Body Image Survey on Strategies to Love Your Body

One of the major goals of the 1997 Body Image Survey was to learn more about how people have remade their image. Though we anticipated receiving a few brief suggestions, we were inundated with your personal accounts of change. We have summarized your suggestions but kept your words. Try and discover what factors play a role in your struggle with your body. And be deliberate about creating a lifestyle that increases your chances for ending the war with your body.

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Today The World Told Me

Today the world told me that I should leave my aches and pains to someone who really knows. Someone who has cancer, or a brain tumor, or whose leg has been chewed off by a wolf.

Today the world told me to let up a little, to not push so hard at doing. I ask myself, “What is rest?” And I must say he’s a poor acquaintance, and often unwelcome at my door.

Today the world told me that perhaps what I wish for is something not so big. A little loosening around the waist and eyes could be good, to let in a little more seeing and a little less thinking.

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Aikido, Calligraphy and Kototama

This weekend John Stevens, a 7th dan Aikikai and Buddhist priest came to our dojo, Bay Marin Aikido. Stevens, who has written over thirty books on Buddhism, Aikido and Asian culture, is considered one of the foremost authorities on Aikido. The experience was enriching, wild-hearted and intense.

Beginners and experienced Aikidokas (Aikido practitioners) were challenged by Stevens’ examples of how to practice. He demonstrated eight ways of practicing the first pillar of Aikido, Shiho-Nage, 4-directions throw, which we were then to practice. A bit of chaos ensued. The mood of the dojo was filled with excitement, joy, bewilderment, a place of opening, which had us laughing and sometimes straining to understand.

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