Author: ginajkd

I am from JKD Sweden /Jeet Kune Do Sweden, Bruce Lee´s martial Art. Only authorized training Group in Sweden under Bruce Lee´s private student Ted Wong.

A Pause in the Flow

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On Pause, But Not Forgotten

I have been training Jeet Kune Do with ups and downs since 2004. Over the years, it has become more than just a way to move , it has shaped how I think, how I push myself and how I face challenges.

Lately though, my journey has been on hold. A string of injuries has forced me to step back and the truth is, I am still not back on the mats. It is frustrating, it makes you feel like you are losing your rhythm, your momentum, even a part of yourself.

Still, I have been learning that breaks, even unwanted ones, are part of the journey. They force you to slow down, to reflect and to focus on what really matters, not just the techniques, but the mindset behind the art. I have started revisiting the basics in my head, planning small drills for when I can physically train again and reminding myself why I started in the first place.

Motivation does not just snap back after a long break. Right now, I am working on rebuilding it mentally, even if my body is not ready. Every day I remind myself that progress is not only measured on the mat. Patience, reflection and careful recovery are all part of the process.

I don’t know exactly when I will be fully back, but I do know this: the love for the art has not faded and when the time comes to train again, I want to be back stronger, wiser and more focused than ever. Until then, I am practicing in every way I can in body, mind and spirit.

Bruce Lee once said “walk on” and right now that’s exactly what I am trying to do, even if it doesn’t look like much from the outside. My body is not ready to train yet, in fact, I can’t even walk properly right now because of a foot injury but I am learning that “walking on” is not just about movement on the mats. It is about staying committed, keeping the mindset alive and slowly rebuilding strength, patience and focus. Every small step in recovery, every bit of reflection, is part of walking on, continuing the journey, even when it is paused.

Hacking and Robots

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Oh well, I guess I’m starting to get used to this — it’s the second time it’s happened now. Someone with the name “Koala something” managed to take over my blog again, and poof — all my settings were gone. WordPress support? Don’t even get me started. It’s like talking to a wall. You go in circles, get the same copy-paste replies, and end up fixing everything yourself anyway.

I’ll admit, I lost it for a bit there. Technology’s great and all, but there’s nothing like dealing with an actual person who gets what you’re saying. Feels like everything’s getting more automated by the day, and we’re slowly running out of humans to talk to.

Anyway, just popping in to say the blog’s finally back up — after a long and ridiculously frustrating battle with the system.

Happy 2025… to be continued!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2024

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I wish everyone a very Happy New year , let this year be a good and positive one.

There is something special about this year, any bruce Lee fan would know this, on February 10th starts the Chinese New Year and this is the year of the Dragon. The Dragon is “the only mythical and most powerful animal of the 12 in the chinese zodiac”. Bruce Lee was born in 1940, year of the Metal Dragon.

I am a water Rat, not the most glamorous animal but I am water my friend ! 🙂

The Rat is the first of the 12 Chinese zodiac signs and represents wisdom, creativity, and resourcefulness. I use to read my chinese zodiac every year, there is always some truth in it and this year is supposed to be special considering it is the Dragon Year.

So I am hopeful for this year, 2023 was a difficult one for me, I had a lot of challenges at work , I lost some members of my family and I did not have the greatest training year. I see 2024 as a new beginning , work is getting better and I hope it will play a role in how I feel mentally because I want to see some positivity this year.

Let´s celebrate the power of the Dragon, I wish everyone a great year and as Sylvester Stallone would say: “Keep Punching” 🙂

One more in heaven

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I wanted to talk about my cousin Christophe, who was 51 and just took his own life.

There is no reason why I should go into the details of this tragedy , what I want to talk about is the impact he had on my life and how to deal with depression.

First let´s go back some years, I was already born when my aunt Michele who  was my mother´s best friend,  introduced her brother, and this is how my family was formed.

The first cousin I knew on that side of the family was my cousin Christophe and later his sister Natasha.  

Christophe trained karate and was very good at it, the particularity of his personality was that he was a big fan of Bruce Lee, I remember it was always a subject to talk about or refer to .

The years passed and we lost contact but I have always been thinking about him one day or another because of that connection with Bruce . A few years ago we reconnected on Facebook and I remember he was very happy that I had reached out.

I knew about his personal struggles, and it had been going on for a while but when I got the call a few days ago I could not handle it.

What made me not ask him how he was doing in time, and would this have changed anything? Probably not , but how do I know that now that it is too late?

I do not know how to deal with this, I am really having a hard time.

I have been reading our interactions on Facebook again and what he had posted under the years on his page, it is pretty clear that he did not feel good for a very long time, I just wish I had said something. I never would have thought it could end like this.

How are we supposed to know that it could go so far? I know of other people that are always negative and post dark stuff from time to time but in his case it was all the time and I did not recognize the difference.

He had his family around and adored his sister so I know that if they could not do anything , nobody could.

So how do we deal with this? As I said the connection with Bruce is why I have been thinking about this particular cousin my whole life, he was so serious and funny about it. Not so long ago he commented a post of mine about Bruce and Brandon, and he wrote : “these two men are exceptional,  I have the deepest respect for them. ”

So, I will finish this post with a wish:

Dear cousin,  I wish with all my heart that you cross their path up there and finally find some peace in your heart ❤

JKD Sweden Reunion

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Time passes, covid came by and as a result , we have not been able to meet for a couple of years.

Coshe took the initiative to invite us for a dinner tonight, we met down town Stockholm for a lovely dinner at Helenes Krog och Bar Restaurant where the food and the atmosphere are amazing. It was such a joy to meet some members of our original team again, Coshe and Michel. We had only good memories to share and we spent the evening remembering some good times together, Coshe also surprised Mikael with a birthday celebration.

As we all agreed, we need to keep in touch and meet more often and plan for a session , not only is it a priviledge to train JKD together but it is a much needed feel good moment. We all appreciate the teachings of Mikael and the time he spent on our training and we all agree that he gave us all the tools and the basis for us to evolve and find our own path.

As I have written many times before, JKD changed my life , not only the art but the team and the people we met through it. We have travelled and met some amazing people within the JKD and Bruce Lee family and friends, this is precious to me and will always be one of the best things that happenned to me. Meeting with Coshe and Michel tonight revived the feeling and made me think about all this again and how important it is to keep it alive.

We are the original JKD training team in Sweden under Ted Wong and this is very important to me. Our members are genuine people , we are not about fame or recognition, we appreciate each other greatly and have always been a solid and serious team, we simply are who we are and we have created our own path.

Although we do not have the structure or possibility to start with new students and regular training right now, we all agreed that this should not stop us from meeting and train together whenever it is possible, because again, this team is amazing !

Thank you all for this great dinner and see you all very soon !

Thank you also Savannah, my step daughter ( Mikael´s daughter ) our beautiful ballerina who knows so well what hard training is and who is such an inspiration for her dedication and talent. She is such a good example of what you can do when you put your mind and body into it and dedicate yourself to succeed.

Jkd for stress control

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There are a lot of things you can do to manage your stress level, for me going outside and breathe the fresh air especially around water, is the thing I like to do the most. Right now in Sweden the weather is really not funny, it’s grey cold and very dark and I still work from home after one and a half year. I am having a very stressful time at work and I think the weather and the time of the year are playing a big part in my stress level right now.

So what do you do if you don’t feel like going out taking a break and try to slow down ? Well the answer to the question is the heavy bag, this is for me an instant stress reliever! I am not concentrating on punching or kicking hard because I don’t want to mess my shoulder up again but I actually can punch again and that feels very good. I have also noticed that when I train on the bag now, I’m thinking a little less than I used to. During a training session I was thinking so much about the technique that it didn’t feel very natural and it didn’t flow so good. Now after a long time of not being able to train, I realize that I am more relaxed in my technique which is good because I feel it flows better, but to be honest I really need to work on it!

My body is very stiff I lost a lot of flexibility, strength and muscle mass, so the way back is going to be tough but I still have the muscle memory and I still have the technique memory, so overall I’m very happy with the more relaxed style that I got.

Back on track and back to JKD training, this is my winter plan.

Thank you for reading 😊

COVID 19

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It Started in January 2020 in Sweden. Until now May 2021 I was lucky enough to have avoided being infected and I was always careful, worked from home , avoided contact and followed all the rules about restrictions and still one and a half year after, I got infected.
It started 12 days ago I got very sick,  spent three nights and days in my bed and after that it was up-and-down with difficulties breathing, fortunately I didn’t require hospital care and I’m very thankful for it but believe me, this will make you think you are dying, the only fact that you cannot breathe normally,  the slight feeling of not being able to breathe fully is very difficult to deal with.
Still today After 12 days, my throat is still hurting, I am very tired and I feel very weak but the breathing is normal which lifts a very big load on how I feel in general.  I think that what is worse is not the fact that you’re sick, it feels like a very bad flu and everything in the body is hurting but the breathing is making you think that you’re gonna die or not wake up or need to call an ambulance in the middle of the night, this is the true horrible feeling of that virus.

A lot of people are in need of emergency care and that could happen to you very easily, knowing that , the panic and the depression are adding to the mix. 

Like any other serious medical condition, it makes you think about your life and what is important ,the difference with this virus is the isolation, the fact that you are so isolated that you cannot meet anybody, you cannot go out, it makes you feel very alone and if you end up at the hospital you know that nobody would be able to visit,  this is a horrible feeling.


During those days I could think a lot about things, about what I’ve done in my life before, the experiences that I had, the things that I am very happy about and of course my JKD time , my experience,  my trips to the States,  the people that I’ve met.

So for you people out there, don´t think you are safe because you have not had it yet and even if some people have a mild version of it, please know that it can give you long term problems and get back even months later.

I feel better now but still I am not back to normal , I still can´t go out I still don´t feel well at all, some people have gotten better and all of a sudden several months after, they get symptoms back, some even have been sick for a year , so I am taking this seriously and I feel sad because there is nothing different I have done from the past year, I have been careful all the time and I still got it, that makes me feel very helpless.

be safe everyone out there

I´ll Be Back !

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Last time I wrote was about the topic that has haunted me for a year , PAIN ! I have not spent a single day without it since then. Only now it seems doctors finally sent me to the right treatment process , just had an MRI and a new physician working deeper on muscle level. So all this to say, I can´t wait to start training again and we will get back with some news about summer training real soon.

Mikael has already talked to our guys and hopefully we can meet outside in a couple of months.

It is no surprise that we miss our training but also because of this Covid situation, it is more obvious that we miss contacts and people we used to train with.

So even if I won´t be able to be my usual crazy self at training, I will be very happy to do whatever I can during the next training session.

Welcome back JKD Sweden, see you in the summer

PAIN

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Training martial arts has taught me to deal with pain, we train hard and hard means until it hurts , until you can´t stand anymore.

I miss that! That kind of pain is so rewarding, it means you have tested your body, it means you have harden your body and your mind. Hard training is  improvement  and a part of the journey .

Pain from injury is playing with your mind if you let it win it will destroy your spirit and your life! This is what I feel right now, I am so tired of it , I feel sad and helpless. I have not been pain free since December 26th , my tolerance level is getting lower , I know I can´t let this put me down but right now frankly all I want is go to bed and sleep it off.

I met with my physiotherapist yesterday and she warned me that I would feel more pain today , I have inflamed muscles in the back of my shoulder and in the neck and today everything hurts,  I can almost not stand at work.

I know it is worse today , only to get better later but it is very difficult to deal with and I need to be stronger and get my spirit up .

I know that a positive attitude will speed up the healing process, the mind plays a part in it of course  but it is also OK to let the body handle some of it, doing stupid things won´t help either.

I am listening to my physiotherapist who told me to move as much as possible but not to the point I hurt myself.

I will meet her twice a week  and she said I already did a good job with the rotation exercises I have done by myself before my appointment,  so it is very positive.

For what I feel right now I just have to suck it up and “walk on “ , just like Bruce did when he hurt his back .

Here is some much needed motivation, this is From Bruce Lee.Com:

 

“Walk on.” There’s a story behind this famous quote. In 1969, Bruce severely injured his back during a routine training session because he didn’t warm up properly. He was told he could never practice martial arts again and may never walk normally. Devastated by this news, Bruce became a researcher of his injury, his body and ultimately created his own path to healing. The journey was long and there were many ups and downs. At one point he took one of his business cards and wrote “Walk on” on the back. He put this card where he could see it to remind him every day to move forward with his recovery. No matter what anyone else said, he would always “Walk on.”

 

 

2020 !

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Happy New Year 2020

Let 2020 start strong ! well 2019 did not end well,  I was diagnosed with a frozen shoulder*  on christmas day,  this is the least to say a VERY painful state !

I did not do anything special it came just like that all of a sudden.The pain started  in the evening of christmas day and the next  morning it was still there and  it went from bad to worse during the day  so at the end of it I could not move my arm anymore. I could not sit or stand or lay down, I could not sleep and I could not do anything with one arm as it is of course affecting my right arm. The emergency doctor told me the shoulder was inflammed and I got some serious painkillers and anti inflamation medicine for that, which my stomac rejected almost immediately , so I went  back and got new medicine which worked better.

 

Now  14 days went by, I can move my arm and use it to some extend but I cannot train for a while. I was so pleased last year with my training and was looking forward to some more improvements, now this puts a stop to it for an unknown period of time.

I have physiotherapy sessions to improve the movement in my shoulder, it is very important to use it as much as possible to provide the inflamation from coming back.  I am also looking for possible causes  and will change some things about my training at the gym, my position at work and even at home. Good news is that the light is on its way back to Sweden now,  this makes the days longer and the possibility to go out more. Moving is the key,  if I can´t train JKD or lift weights I can do something else, walking is one of them , the arm pendles on the side and makes the shoulder joint rotate and move gently, running is not recommended for me right now.

So 2020 started with a problem but I won´t let that be the theme of this year ! the theme will be  “if you knock me down I will get back up !!!”

Happy New Year to my readers , all the Best for you and your families .

 

*Some facts about frozen shoulder :

Frozen Shoulder is a condition that affects your shoulder joint. It usually involves pain and stiffness that develops gradually, gets worse and then finally goes away. This can take anywhere from a year to 3 years.

The main symptoms of a frozen shoulder are pain and stiffness that make it difficult or impossible to move it.

You’ll typically go through three phases with a frozen shoulder. Each has its own unique symptoms and timeline.

Freezing stage:

  • You develop a pain (sometimes severe) in your shoulder any time you move it.
  • It slowly gets worse over time and may hurt more at night.
  • This can last anywhere from 6 to 9 months.
  • You’re limited in how far you can move your shoulder.

Frozen stage:

  • Your pain might get better but your stiffness gets worse.
  • Moving your shoulder becomes more difficult and it becomes harder to get through daily activities.
  • This stage can last 4-12 months.

Thawing stage:

  • Your range of motion starts to go back to normal.
  • This can take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years.

Causes

It’s not clear why some people develop it, but some groups are more at risk. Frozen shoulder happens more often in women than men, and you’re more likely to get it if you’re between the ages of 40 and 60.