Good Morning,

Well we have two topics to talk briefly about today so let’s get started with topic number one. Environmental self defense. Like I have said before self defense is so much more than just the physical defense against an attacker physically trying to hurt you. Self Defense is preparing and preventing harm in all areas of life. Protecting the environment is one aspect of self defense. Way back when humans and animals use to live here. Quite beautiful I think.

Now some of us or a large part of the population lives in places that may or do like something like this. Not really my cup of green tea and hopefully not yours too.

I think since most of us cannot go back to living in the forrest we should place to live somewhere like this. I believe most of you would agree with me.

A way better alternative wouldn’t you say? But how can we prevent our local community from looking like the second picture? Well here is just a few simple tips we can all do today.

• Reduce the amount of garbage you create each week
• Recycle as much stuff as you can
• Re-use as much material as you can before it becomes no longer useful and in working order
• Do not litter or throw garbage out of the window of your car
• Pick up the odd little bit of trash lying on the ground
• Only buy products that come in recyclable packaging(if it comes in packaging)
• Volunteer to clean up a local park or beach

Just following the above tips alone will help reduce the negative effects we have on our local environment. Now for topic number two. Injury. Yes I said injury. No one likes them but we all at some point get one, two , or more. It happens. We try to prevent them as much as possible but they happen. They can happen in martial arts, sports, physical activities, at school, at work, or  simply walking down the street and getting hit by a elephant driving a motorcycle. Well maybe not that last example. But anyway what do we do if we do get injured? Well first off know your body and whether the injury is bad enough that you have to go see the doctor or health care professional. Once the injury is diagnosed  then you need to implement proper treatment for it. Okay now that you are doing that what about the things you use to do like Taekwondo? Do you just sit around and do nothing while you heal? No you do not have to do that unless the injury completely prevents you from training at all. For most minor injuries you can continue to do what you always have been doing but modify them. You need to continue to do the things you did before until you heal so you do not lose your conditioning, get out of shape, get tight from not moving, keep your mind fresh, prevent boredom, and prevent from being lazy.

Here’s a few examples of modifying while injured.

1. If you hurt one of your arms or hand and your sport or martial arts requires you to do push ups you can always do one arm push ups with the other arm.
2. Hurt you arm and you are a boxer, you simply train the other arm.
3. Let’s say you got a knee injury and you are a taekwondoist or kickboxer, you simply work kicks on the other leg or work your hand techniques instead.
4. If you are a runner have have injured a leg, foot, or knee you can take up swimming to help keep up your cardio training with very little impact on your lower body
5. If you have an injury that does prevent you from doing anything at all really then you can read books and meditate on your activity. Mental training is huge. Keep those neuro-pathways open and fresh.

I think you got the point. Keep training and keeping moving forward.

Hope you enjoyed today’s blog.

Master Jonathan Field

Cobourg Tae Kwon Do Ltd.