Focus

I was recently asked what my theme or focus when training here in Japan. I normally have a theme or at least something I focus on when I am training at home, but here I had forgotten all about that in all the new environment. So I have decided that I will have focus on my posture and center when I am here in Japan. This is something that many Japanese people already have from before so it is easy to spot and I always get reminded about this when sitting in restaurants or anywhere other than just on the tatami. This is of course due to the lack of what we would call a normal chair. Mostly you sit on benches or in chairs with no support for your back. In this way I am constantly reminded that I should sit straight and relax. If I find my center it is much easier to sit straight and I feel that it releases the tension in my shoulders. I should mention that in the first three days here I was so stiff in my right shoulder and the right side of the neck. I thought it must be the bed or something, but suddenly it dawned on me that this was actually due to the tension I got in my right shoulder when using the chopsticks. So after the fourth day I have focused on relaxing while using the chopsticks and sit straight while eating. I have almost no tension left in my shoulders.

Let us hope that focusing on my posture and centering will give results.