Sustainabiltity

Before Jonathan and Malory Senseis went to Hawaii, Jonathan left me with a single word to think about, which I would need to come back to him and elaborate on.

Sustainability. 

There were a number of different ways to go with this, in decreasing concentric circles:

• Environmental sustainability in general (I was pretty sure this wasn't what he was asking about)
• Aikido as a martial art (Also, probably not)
• The dojo (maybe)
• The deshi program (very probably)
• My own aikido practice and me in the deshi program

So I fumbled through talking about it in very general terms, and later tried to get at what Jonathan was after. He was after a discussion about my personal sustainability within the deshi program. I asked him if it would be okay to write about it rather than have a conversation, because after practice I am not articulate at all. Well, never articulate, but less so after a workout.

SO, there are three mutually reinforcing parts to sustainability:

1. Economic development
2. Social development 
3. Environmental protection

Here's all the defining stuff (blah blah blah):
We need healthy ecosystems in order to survive. Each ecosystem has a carrying capacity (how many hours I can train without injury). Healthy ecosystems deliver goods and services (aikido on the mat practice). Renewable resources (time, endurance) should provide a sustainable yield (hours training on the mat), and waste generation (injury, burnout) should not exceed the capacity of the environment to assimilate it. The environmental impact of a community depends on the population and impact per person. This depends on how many resources are being used, whether or not they are renewable, and the scale of the activity being undertaken. The impact can be reduced by environmental management, management of human consumption.

tl;dr: I'm after growth (train more, learn more, grow) without waste (injury and burnout), use of renewable resources (time, endurance) without depleting them.

My renewable resources are:

1. Time (reasonable expectation of 8 hours per week, given work and home needs)
2. Endurance (the more I train consistently, the easier it will be to train harder consistently)
3. Money (non-issue)

1. Time: Time is in a good place, since I have prioritized my time to exclude anything other than work and aikido. My husband has a reasonable expectation that I will be home at 8:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, and be out Saturday until about 1pm. The only thing that might impact Time is work, which provides the ability for me to do anything. But work cycles are predictable, and I've been trying to shift my hours earlier in order to get more work done, and work from home at times.

2. Endurance: Non-renewable resources are things like physical well-being, which can be influenced by injuries that would not get better with rest (knees, for example). So my "environmental management" should include things which will prevent those injuries, such as:

• Strength training
• Crossfit twice a week, Tuesdays and Fridays
• Skill building 
• Improving breakfalls so that they are lower impact
• Learning to follow better
• Learning how to read nage's intent better
• More seminars, when possible
• Regular bodywork (Rolfing)
• Very careful attention to where I put myself 
• Attention to my health (Kelly is helping me to avoid my occasional cigarette, which Jonathan has seen and chastised me for)
• Personal practice
• This journal
• Stretching practice

I plan to start strength training when I return from Spain.