My Aikido Sensei in the UK, Sensei Kolesnikov, sometimes reminds us that: if a picture is worth 1000 words, then an experience is worth 1000 pictures.

I think that is a great saying and certainly I’ve experienced some pretty amazing things through my Aikido training, and no amount of retelling or photos could ever give someone else the same feeling as the actual experience. The same could be said for watching your children being born – those of you who have done that know how amazing it is, more amazing than any descriptions you may have heard before.

I moved to Vancouver from England for the “Experience”. There was nothing wrong with my life in England, it was great in fact, but I thought that it would be a pretty interesting experience moving here – and I was right! New pathways must be forming in my brain every day. I sometimes feel like my brain is on fire with all the new inputs that it’s receiving and ideas that are being generated – it’s pretty crazy! I guess that this will settle down over time though unless I keep seeking new experiences (which I plan to to). For example, I have been to some beginner Tango lessons recently with Helen and that was very interesting indeed – it felt like whole new areas of my brain switched on. Also I plan to learn skiing and take up swimming again. I’ve recently started learning ice skating too and now I can go round the rink in circles without painfully fall on my ass.

So basically I’m saying seek out new experiences! Not just ones sitting at your computer. Go out and do something new and different. Even if you don’t like it, that’s a valid experience. But hopefully you’ll find something pretty crazy that cranks your brain into overdrive. Go for it!

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 1st, 2009 at 2:49 pm and is filed under Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.