At Work (1/5/09)
Well, its Monday. Like many people I'm back at work after a bit of a break. This marks the official end of "Gauntlet Week" as Neil and I were calling it. We had intended to hit it hard and attend class each morning that the gym was open leading up to new years day and to do open mat the following Saturday. We both had issues that kept us from action during that week...his sausage toe for a day and my Migraine for one, but we made a good run at it.
I did realize one thing during this time when I wasn't working and was able to attend BJJ without putting in a full work day first. I wasn't nearly as stressed or feeling the same mat anxiety as normal. Could there be a pattern here? I'll try to be cognizant of this for a while and see if there is in fact a correlation.
I know that BJJ is an excellent method for relieving my stress from work, but on the other hand is all that stress from work inhibiting my BJJ? I never thought of that pickle before. That feeds right into my underlying theory....STRESS IS BAD.
Perhaps instead of getting an MBA, I should have studied psychology. It seems I have the knack (on vinyl none the less). Well, like I espoused in my post about goals for 2009; Relax. Easier said than done I know. So, I'll take it one day at a time and see how it goes. I'll start with tonight. I'll hit the mats at 6:00 and consciously try not to be conscious about anything. I will just be. Man, I'm sounding like some kinda granola eating, Birkenstock wearing, patchouli stinkin hippie. Hey, if it helps my Jiu Jitsu, pass the beads.
Please don't take any of that too seriously. I guess that's the point isn't it? don't take it too seriously. Relax, flow, let the learning happen. Stress only stops the progression. So stressing about stressing can only doubly inhibit performance. Stress tenses up muscles, inflames blood vessels and drains energy. All the things that lead to flat out poor grappling.
Like I said in my thesis above: STRESS IS BAD
2 comments:
It is the most natural thing in the world for me to attend BJJ classes in the morning. However, when I have to attend night classes I have to apply extra discipline and force myself to go due to the natural stressors I deal with throughout the day.
Coupled with the fact that night classes run from 8-9:30 (which I consider late for my tastes)doesn't help.
Now that I've been back on the mats after being back at work I can see just how my work stress interferes with my BJJ. It's yet another paradox, that while BJJ does wonders to relieve the stress created by my job; the stress created by my job inhibits my BJJ!
And I agree, 8-9:30 is very late for my taste as well. That makes me thankful for my 6:00-7:00.
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