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Corey Hopp Returns From China and Will Teach Classes at BLS

Corey Hopp in Yuxugong Temple

Corey Hopp is a full time student of kung fu.

Eight hours a day, six days a week, ten or eleven months of the year, he can be found punching, kicking, and jumping on the paving stones of Yuxugong temple in rural Wudang Mountain, Hubei Province, China. However, in January and February of 2012, Corey will be at Balanced Life Skills Martial Arts here in Annapolis, sharing some of his experiences with the local community.

Corey is a student of Master Yuan Xiu Gang of the Wudang Daoist Traditional Internal Kungfu Academy. Wudang Mountain has its own special style and tradition of martial arts, emphasizing softness and sensitivity, flexibility and balance. Students of Master Yuan’s school learn a variety of disciplines, including Tai Chi, that are intended to impart not only the ability to defend oneself, but also to protect and nourish one’s spirit and vitality.

Though he had been studying martial arts for a few years beforehand, Corey’s kung fu training truly began in January 2008. He had been teaching English at a small university near Nanjing for the fall semester. During his Chinese New Year holiday, he decided to follow his interest in martial arts and visit one of the ancient homes of Chinese kung fu. That first dark, cold January visit left its mark of snow, sweat, and muscle pain, and the determination to learn more about Wudang’s unique art.

Corey is now part of the traditional program at Master Yuan’s school. It is a rare and demanding opportunity for non-Chinese martial artists to be immersed in the same physical and mental training that has been handed down through many generations of kung fu practitioners.

Having grown up in southern Anne Arundel County, Corey returns here every year to spend the holidays with his friends and family and save money for another year of training. For six weeks in January and February, he will be offering seminars in the basic health practice called Qigong. Qigong combines breathing, stretching, and meditation to strengthen and relax mind and body.

I would like to invite all of our students and others in our community to meet Corey and practice with him for the short time he is here in Annapolis.  You can then follow his studies next year right here on our site.

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Life Skills: Acceptance of Others Without Judging Them

Teaching character and life skills to students

This post is especially for our children, helping them to respect the differences that they can see when meeting someone new, but as an adult we can examine how we act or react when we meet someone new too.  It is said that when meeting someone new we draw a conclusion about that person within 10 seconds of meeting them, whether they are equal to, greater than or less than ourselves.

Having said that we have all heard the expression, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.”  Teaching our children not to look at someones clothes, how they look or act and decide if we are going to like them or not.  Some people are going to be taller or shorter, darker skin or lighter skin, blue eyes or brown eyes, dress in one way or a different way.  They may be in a wheelchair or able to walk, have a happy disposition or there may be reasons that they are not as happy.  We do not know them without getting to know who they are, what they like, and how they will behave when they are with friends.   It is only after we have spent some time with them and see how they will treat us and what we have in common as well as what we can learn from them – before we know if we like them or not.

Rejecting someone as a friend because of the way they look- is not showing acceptance and may leave us with fewer friends.


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Holiday Greetings and a New Year is Coming

Thank you to everyone that has contributed to the Balanced Life Skills Community this past year of 2012.  Our school has provided costumes, jump ropes, food for those in need here in our community and in other parts of the world.  Our students stepped up and did much to support USA troops stationed around the world.  Support for the teens in foster care this holiday season was the best ever.  With the support of our students we now have one of the most complete collection of books on the subject of bullying and relationships for students, parents and teachers.

Our Grants 4 Teachers fund has now given almost $30,000 to teachers in Anne Arundel County.  This year we started Bully Prevention Partners with the goal of creating a culture of peace in our schools and helping every child to feel safe in school and their community.  We have continued to support the Youth Suicide Awareness Task Force here in Anne Arundel County and this year with the help of one our students will be offering training right here in our school.

Upcoming this year will be a growing emphasis on Bully Prevention Partners and reaching out to the community.  In addition, we will be holding Safety Seminars for parents and young students to address how parents can talk to their children about safety including “good touch, bad touch”.  There will be guest instructors invited to the studio this year starting with Corey Hopp in January, Gerald Dawson in February and Keenan Cornelius in the spring.  I am planning on more nature hikes for students and in the spring (date to be announced very soon) BLS very first testing for black belt.  This will be an event you do not want to miss.

I am so proud of our students, young instructors and all of our families.  I promise to be here to continue to work on character building, physical growth in strength and skill, and teaching self defense in its most global meaning.  Working together we can have an impact on our community in a most meaningful way.

 

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Life Skills: Acceptance – Starting With Ourselves

Teaching character and life skills to students

One of the hardest things to accept for many is themselves.  Have you ever noticed how hard we can be on ourselves?  We come down on ourselves for not being good enough, strong enough, organized enough or something.  Usually we are comparing ourselves to others who excel in an activity that we would like to improve on. Is it really fair to talk to ourselves that way?

Lets start with questions to ourselves like:

What is something that I like about myself?

What is unique about me?

What is one thing I am really good at?

What is one thing I enjoy doing?

Learning to accept and appreciate who we are, what our strengths are, and what we enjoy doing allows us to accept that others are very good at other activities that are not our strong points.  When we see others as ‘strong’ in some areas, we will be more willing to accept them for those areas of strength.

It is important as we work on creating a culture of peace in our homes and community to accept ourselves and others for our strengths knowing that both of us are OK.

 

 

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Back in Maryland

Wudang improvised Christmas Tree

Just a quick post to let everyone know I am back in Maryland for the holidays. This is very exciting and refreshing for me. I get to see old friends, eat familiar foods, and bask in the comfort of familiar culture. There is a joy here that can’t be captured in words, when despite having learned to accept adversity in everyday life, there is little adversity on hand to test me. That is what coming home from China means to me.

It also means I’ll be around to talk, teach, and demonstrate on what I’ve been doing in Wudang. I have scheduled classes on Saturday mornings in North Beach through Calvert County Parks and Rec. I hope they will be a hit. Though I am still working out the details of my schedule at Balanced Life Skills, I am sure you will be seeing me around. Particularly, look for demonstrations in the first week or so of January.

Happy Holidays to you all

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Bully Prevention Requires Proactive Intervention

There have been a number of events that have taken place in my life or very close to me that has had me stop and think about being proactive. Many times the solutions to problems and the antidote to issues are prescribed after a bad event, but those very solutions and antidotes are very effective to never having the problem in the first place. Let me show a couple of examples.

If you go to the doctor and find that you are pre-diabetic or have diabetes, what do they do? They may put you on medications, but they will for sure instruct you on changing your diet and getting more exercise. So why do we wait till something happens, disaster is ready to strike and then start making changes, when we know that a healthy diet and good exercise routine can result in good health, with lowered risk of these kinds of diseases?

Recently someone close to me that suffers from depression, anxiety and bi-polar disorder after getting the chemicals balanced out was encouraged to take the time to learn and practice meditation. In fact at the hospital, the encouragement was talking to someone (social therapist), physical activity, and learning peace with meditation. These are all recommendations that are good for all of us. Why do we wait to practice some alone and quiet time, simply sitting with ourselves, and allowing our minds to rest – till we are stressed out or even worst have a complete breakdown? Should we not practice good mental health on a daily basis?

I have really started thinking about this in light of the work I am doing on bully prevention. To be honest it is hard to find individuals interested in the work that needs to be done – unless of course they are being bullied or their child is being picked on or worst yet someone is thinking of harming themselves. Then the subject is quite important to them.

Please do not wait till your child is being harmed in some manner, or until you find out that they are being hurt, before you take proactive steps to help them. Do not wait till they are in a fight and you admit that there are anger management issues that should have been dealt with a long time ago. Friendships, relationships and the way we deal with one another is not something that we wait till a bad destructive event. Do not wait to learn about verbal self defense, anger management, relational aggression, or the boy code – until there is an emergency situation in your life.

If you want to help me put the information together, find ways to help others and create a curriculum for all of us to study please contact me and I will tell you where I am at this time and we can discuss solutions to creating a culture of peace in our schools and community.