How to rebuild spirit?



I have been training kendo for about a year and a half now, and I still have a lot to learn.  However, I recently had to miss about a month's worth of training.

When I came back, I found that as difficult as it was to get the physical aspect back, my spirit just seems to be completely lacking.  Before I left, it felt like my spirit was at an all-time high, and now it feels like it’s at an all-time low.

Are there any techniques or methods to develop your spirit when training kendo, or are there ways to keep your spirit in kendo separate to everything outside of kendo?

Answer:  You are not alone. This happens to all of us! And also that is why we train.

Every day we feel different. One day we are pretty happy and the other day we feel pretty crappy. It happens to every one of us.

If you feel low in kendō, don’t let it take over you. Do kakari geiko and uchikomi a lot. Have a lot of kiai. In jigeiko, don’t wait. Just strike with a lot of kiai until you cannot move anymore.

These may not fix the problem right away but eventually you will find out your own way to bring your spirits up.

It is quite normal for people to think deeply when they have a problem. Nothing wrong with that. However, in kendō, when we have a problem, we strike with a lot of kiai because if we think too much in kendō, we tend to get stuck to the problem!

Hope this helps!

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