A child grabbing at my ankles... insisting on hitching a ride with my gongfu stepping legs and body. I dragged him along the mats with me undeterred from my traditional Chinese gongfu practice. His weight was a test for my correct alignment, posture, stepping, strength and focus. I was reminded of the gongfu master who was imprisoned and perfected stepping with a ball and chain around his legs. He created the half-step method of practice. Because his cell was small and the leg irons didn't allow a full step for his five elements practice, he found a new way to practice. Undaunted. Well maybe he was a little....
The constraints which would have stopped many people from practicing fostered a firm resolve in him and unleashed the creativity to make gongfu practice work in a small space with limited leg movement and dragging a heavy ball with each step. Without the obstacles would he have reached this creative level?
If weights were not heavy, how could our muscles grow? It is the resistance, the tension, that builds muscle. Just as long-term space travel contends with muscle atrophy from the lack of gravity pulling our bodies toward the ground. In the same way, an easy life is not a gift. It creates laziness and atrophies our creative fire and strength of will. In contrast, focusing on how hard each step is distracts us from seeing the opportunities, the gifts folded into the obstacles. To level up our game.
Photo by Johan Fredriksson, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27724401