NWMAF Update April 2020

NWMAF Update April 2020 News for Our Members, Friends, and Supporters “Empowering women and girls to achieve personal and collective strength, safety, and well being through martial arts, healing arts, and self-defense education” Notes From the NWMAF Chair 2020 Conference Cancelled Due to Virus by Cathy Chapaty, NWMAF Board Chair Greetings from my shelter-at-home living room in Austin, Texas. On a beautiful spring day, I’m sadly mindful that it’s a tough time for so many of our members due to the spread of COVID-19. The National Women’s Martial Arts Federation (NWMAF) Board offers its condolences to those who have lost family, friends, and colleagues to this virus. As a result of the continued spread of COVID-19, in the interest of the health of its members, the NWMAF Board voted at its March 29 meeting to cancel the 2020 conference at Daemen College in Amherst, New York. It was not an easy decision—and at the same time, very simple and obvious: Our members’ health comes first. We are disappointed; I’m sure you are as well. We will miss seeing our friends and colleagues, sharing meals, exploring different martial arts and healing art styles, learning new self-defense skills, and discovering the latest Empowerment Self-Defense (ESD) research. However, this was the right decision in this dire, uncertain time. How will we proceed after this cancellation? • Refunds: Members who have already registered for the 2020 conference will have a variety of refund options. If you have already registered for this year’s conference, expect an email from Treasurer Cheryl VanHoosen ([email protected]) or Events Coordinator Natalie DeMaioribus ([email protected]) to discuss your options. continued on next page We will break through our obstacles and again have triumphant moments, as did these participants in Cathy Chapaty’s board breaking class during 2019 Camp BE BRAVE. Photo by Tih Penfil. Notes From the Chair continued from previous page • NWMAF Deposit with Deamen College: Deamen College has agreed to apply the NWMAF’s $10,000 deposit toward its 2021 conference—without penalties. • Virtual Training: Board members are exploring virtual training sessions in lieu of in-person conference classes. Stay tuned for details. • Trainers: We’ll be in touch soon about contracts and options. • Raffle Items: Development Coordinator Lindsey Ross is exploring online auction options for raffle donations the Federation has already received. All funds will still go to our General Scholarship Fund. • Memberships: Many members renew memberships to qualify for a discount on our conference. We expect that this will be a tough year for most members to afford memberships. But a few months ago, the NWMAF began offering a $25 Low-Cost Membership option. This option was created for times just like this: when you’re out of work or on a fixed income but still want to support the Federation. We invite you to take advantage of this option, especially this year. We will announce the date for the 2021 conference in the coming months. For now, know that the NWMAF Board sends its best wishes for the health and well-being of its members and their families and friends around the world. Send comments to [email protected]. NWMAF Chair Cathy Chapaty and everyone at the opening ceremony for 2019 Camp BE BRAVE. Let’s have faith that we will all be together in person again in the future. If the Dojo is Closed, Keep Training! by Tih Penfil, NWMAF Photographer Dojo closed or workout/training time being effected by the current health crisis? Get innovative! Take that same time frame you would’ve spent at the dojo and utilize it at home. Revisit some old forms that need to have the cobwebs shaken out of them. Try watching videos for some new ideas. Use yard work creatively—that rake can be swung, the shovel too. Look online for some creative ways to work out using household items. Experiment! Tih Penfil using her golf One of my first workshops attended umbrella on Sensei Heather at my first Special Training was Turnbull at our 2012 Camp. continued on next page Keep Training continued from previous page with Sensei Heather Turnbull on using home items as a needed weapon. I used my golf umbrella very effectively and have continued to practice with it. Climb stairs. Practice balance techniques. When I lead our aero- bics class, I have the group go up and down the floor doing techniques in slow motion, such as alternating horse stances. It gives one a new perspective on the technique and how the muscles work. These are just a few ideas. Post your own in our Facebook group for others to share. Keep training—it’s a good thing! Tih Penfil is a black belt at Mejishi Martial Arts in Ferndale, Mich. Mindful Living in a Chaotic World by Kyren Epperson, co-owner of Culture of Safety I’m someone who lives with a lot of anxiety more generally. As I half-jokingly tell my beginning students, it’s why I started meditating. It’s also why I started training in martial arts. But that’s not why I keep meditating; why I keep training. My experience is most people do not seek out a meditation practice or a martial arts practice because their life is already full and happy and Kyren Epperson all is well. That’s not generally how humans work. We hate change. Change is uncomfortable and often painful. We seek change only when we’re in enough suffering that the discomfort of change feels better than the discomfort (or pain) of the status quo. Suffering is a catalyst for change—some for the better and some for the worse. But what often happens as we continue in these practices—mindfulness, meditation, martial arts, yoga, psychotherapy, and so continued on next page Jessica Ponce performs a solo form in the 2019 Camp BE BRAVE demo. Photo by Tih Penfil. Mindful Living continued from previous page forth—is our lives get better. We start to feel better. Sometimes we take that as a sign that we no longer need these nourishing practices. We’ve somehow “outgrown” them. As someone who has spent decades noticing, feeling, and responding to my own anxiety through mindfulness practices— with varying success in the mindful bit—I suggest that we never really “outgrow” mindful practices. Like a wheel, suffering and pleasure alternate throughout the world and throughout our lives. Whether we are living in either a personal or a global moment of peace, or a personal or global moment of suffering, the mindfulness practices we’ve cultivated remain an important source of warmth, strength, and support. In some ways it’s much easier to practice mindfulness, and to train, when we already feel happy. Mindfulness is often—though not always—inherently pleasant and can feel like a reward in and of itself. But when we’re suffering, either individually or collectively, that is when mindful practices are hardest, and when they are the most important. It can be easy to forget that. When we practice in times of suffering, we may not experience the same rewarding positive feelings we remember from the past and this can feel disheartening. As fellow meditation teacher Chris Murray-Jones said recently, “[In moments of chaos], when we sit to meditate, we can hardly expect our minds to be undisturbed by feelings of anxiety, perhaps even anger, and stress. The advice is sometimes given that we should let such feelings go. This is good advice but, in my experience, we have to let them come first [emphasis added]. Trying to fight or resist those feelings only reinforces our attach- ment to them, and so makes them even stronger than before. “When feelings of confusion and distress arise, we allow them continued on next page Nancy Rothenberg performs her solo form in the 2019 BE BRAVE demo. Photo by Tih Penfil. Mindful Living continued from previous page to wash over and pass through us like a giant wave…. We don’t expect them to go away forever, of course. At least, not for a long time yet. But if we pay close attention, we begin to see that deep within this process—in the very middle of the in- and out- breath—there is a point or place of quiet, peace, and stillness…” So I’m here to urge you, whatever practice you do—be it meditation, yoga, karate, tai chi, aikido, jujitsu, Jen Para teaches use of Malay shiatsu, and so forth—during times weapons during 2019 BE BRAVE. Photo by Tih Penfil. of chaos, keep practicing. Find a way to practice at home. Even if you have to find more creative ways to explore your practice, this is what our practice is for. We train vigorously during the easy times to sustain us during the hard times. Just as important, we need to reframe our goals of our practices during times of chaos. If we expect to feel as happy or relieved as we do in times of peace, we set ourselves up for disappointment. Believe that your practice itself—whatever it is—will be sustaining in some way, and that even if you don’t immediately feel better, it is still worth it, and it will make a difference. Maybe your anxiety or panic won’t completely subside. But at the very least, you will be more mindful of it. And with mindfulness of our emotions, we have the capacity to change our responses to our emotions. And that becomes the basis for being kinder, more compassionate people in the world.

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