Nala’s whisper

I remember talking about making conscious efforts to move out of our comfort zones just to be able to live your life to the fullest…just thinking about it…makes me feel so tired.

I guess I just had a little change of heart…

Growing is effortless.

It just happens.

Whether you like it or not…

I think that we are just placed under the sun…then situations and opportunities just fall into our lap…sometimes these situations force us to be uncomfortable and there we end up growing…not because we strived for it but because…because…it just came into our lives.

Does this mean..living life to the fullest is effortless..?? I don’t think so..

I think it’s a choice.

I don’t know how to explain but I know that there are some things in life that really matter. More than anything else..it matters to you…no logic can ever explain it but something does matter..these things make you take that big jump and big leap that makes you scream out loud whether you suffer or be in pain that IT IS ALL WORTH IT.

In my life, I was placed in that position:

I had this rubber shoes that I love so much. I had it when I was fourteen and I have been using it since last year. When I got older, I am not sure what happened but when I used it for playing basketball..it killed my toe nails…ahem ahem..not just one. It took a year to have these nails grow back to how it was when it was alive and kicking. It took a lot of effort to hide those toes..no sandals for months for a slippers lovin kind of girl like me.

With that, I have always known that that rubbershoes will kill my toes. One time, I was about to join a badminton tournament and I was not able to buy new shoes for it. It came to a point where I had to make a choice. It was the morning of the tournament…

Should I wear those rubber shoes again? Or wear comfortable sneakers for badminton?

….

Sneakers for badminton??? never..

…

No trophies..and 4 dead but it was all worth it…

Tennis is tough.

I am not really the tennis girl material..my height and my upper body strenght cannot keep up with the usual tennis jocks. I had lots of moments where I really wanted give it all up.

The challenge for me is no longer to be a professional (of course) but this:

I have a great coach that tells me how to do it, how to strike, how each stroke should appear…but these things just jumble up in my head. Its hard to apply. However,  I really had to take it upon myself to just let it flow all the way to my body..until I finally get each advice and deliver not just by how the coach tells me but how it just naturally flows into me.. as if the advices becomes a form of kinetic energy which I use up to the fullest in playing tennis. I’d be satisfied when I get to own each stroke that I make..and when I just get that natural tennis form as if your whole body and heart understands what your mind is doing.

The trickiest thing for me in tennis has a lot to do with how you attack a ball. That drives me crazy because you may know the right stroke but a perfect stroke does not mean anything if the bounce and the stroke do not marry (marriage).

It got me thinking if there is really one perfect stroke..your stroke. It seems to me though that the stroke adjusts every new bounce..so in the end..the stroke changes all the time. Bottom line there’s no one signature stroke for you. This means that for every stroke and bounce marriage (hahahah) the stroke should adjust.

I was wrong..this is because I used to just go to where the ball bounces, then adjust the stroke as to how it appeared to me when I am near the ball. Its like me charging the bounce with my whole battalion of energy. In the end, my form is weird because of the adjustment and most of the time the ball flies to the heavens or I don’t get to hit the ball at all.

I tried something different. I made an effort to wait for the ball to come to me and be conscious of not making forward or charging movements all the time every bounce. While waiting, I try to position my self in such a way where in I can deliver my own stroke in the exact moment when the ball rises up after its bounce (total anticipation of the direction of the ball). When it goes up, I am not way too forward but the swing just hits the ball as it comes to me.  I think with that I was able to hit more consistently than my charging like a wild bull strategy. 

This tennis challenge for me has a lot to do with my life challenges. With this, I learned two things : 

Even in tennis, there’s really magic in also learning to make things come for you and not just take charge in making things happen for you all the time. 

I have the best teachers, best friends and best experience to help me understand things that I go through in my life right now. Believe me, they are all in my head..jumbled up and not taken forgranted. Still, I would like to come up with choices that are truly mine.

To quote myself:

” I’d be satisfied when I get to own each stroke that I make..and when I just get that natural tennis form as if your whole body and heart understands what your mind is doing.”

hAla..mga 15 years pang tennis session yata kailangan ko ha…HAYYYY!