Stand Your Ground 2

The bruises on and around my knees are starting to turn to lovely shade of yellow-green, the bruises on my knuckles have disappeared but the scabs remain and are healing and the marks on my shoulders are also fading. To look at the marks on my limbs it looks like I've been in a bit of a fight, and to some extents its true.

On Saturday I attended Stand Your Ground Workshop 2. These workshops are run by Emma from Emazon Chronicles. Some of you may remember me writing this blog post back in July about Stand Your Ground. At the time I didn't even know there was a second workshop and even if I did it wouldn't have mattered. Even up until attending the second session bits and pieces of information from that session continued to make themselves clear.  I've been asked numerous times about what the workshops do, or what do you learn and its different for everyone and something that can't really be explained. The best explanation is that these workshops help you understand your mind, and get "your shit together" by using fight training as the catalyst.

I still can't explain Saturday's session to someone that didn't attend it, and even to the other seven women that attended it may not understand my own explanation of the session. The way I felt after SYG 1 and 2 were almost polar opposites. After 1 I didn't really want to talk to anyone, I had to let things sit and absorb what I had learnt.  I started to understand why I had fallen in love with running. Light bulbs were going off but I was silent.

In contrast as I walked out of SYG2 my hands were still shaking, most likely from the adrenaline still running through my veins.  Even as the darkness of the night took over, my heart felt light, I felt like singing from the top of the tallest building.  During the evening I came across this quote by Marianne Williamson which struck a chord with me:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

By morning I no longer felt like singing or dancing on the roof tops but I felt a strange sense of peace.  I'd come to a place of better knowing and understanding and I felt strong.