@Gregor Engler A highly interesting topic, thanks for the info brother.

I could converse on this topic for hours quite easily. A very wise and astute means of delivery on a massive topic, thanks @Melissa Cogan

19/11/24 - 22/11/24 Did I train? Did at least the evening/morning session of state/form training. When will I train next? Tomorrow. Observations/Questions/Insights? I have the opportunity of extra days off as I am using my holidays up before the new year. Its odd, but all I seem to be doing is sleeping. No pressure or fuss around what I am or are not doing in terms of Kung Fu or anything. Perhaps just the time to relax is needed. Although, from tomorrow I aim to start doing more with my time as I do want some productivity from my days off. My state training and form sessions have been excellent and I'm gaining insights on every session. During the Chi Sau session the other day, I noticed howthe tension throughout my my musculature and when I pressed against the wall with the state applied it all disappeared, the difference is palpable and very real. I have had a few discusssions with Ward too during the break out room sessions, I watch an anime called "my hero academia", it focuses around a young boy who was born in a world full of people who have "quirks" these are traits that can be classed as sub or in some cases superhuman. He is approached by the top hero of his age and given his quirk, yet a lot of the story is based around his lack of ability to use the quirk at 100% as it destroys his body due to how powerful it is. I have been applying this principle to my state development and playing with different parts of the state at different percentages and you can really feel the difference. I invite anyone reading this to play with this too. Thanks for reading, Adam.

23/11/24 Did I train today? Evening State/Form session. When will I train next? Tomorrow. Questions/Observations/Insights? Having all this time off work and not having my time filled has given a golden oppportunity to become better acquainted with aspects of the state through out my day. Whilst I am capable of doing this at work, there is always a sense of urgency or time cost and limit so it makes it more of a stress, clearly need to create a way of living where time is in abundance and not spent wholly in the pursuit of an income.

From my understanding, there is a level of operation where emotions and the perception or notion of positive or negative can cause you to give away your power and feel stuck or trapped. For instance, someone who is chasing positive emotions is (potentially) constantly looking for something outside of themselves or chasing some way or event which caused them a moment of elation or happiness. Thus pushing the power outside of themselves. The same can be said on the negative side, which we spend time trying to avoid the negative events or exepriences that cultivate negative emotions. Both pursuits have the ability to steal from us twice, once during the act of craving happiness/avoiding unhappiness and then also by taking us out the moment. Dr Hawkins speaks of the levels of consciousness in his books and I know Sifu champions these also. Its of interest to note that whilst the levels of consciousness could be perceived as emotions. They are also states of being. As an example, Joy is a way of being, so even when faced with tumultous events a person could still exude a level of joy, because this is their level of consciousness and go to state of operating as a being. This is also why Sifu has us set a higher/spiritual intention,because it falls in line with a way of being/level of consciousness rather than something consuming like emotion. I hope what I have said makes sense?

Our brother @Carlson Yan spoke on this topic in his post https://www.skool.com/skoolofselfmasteryfree/belts-verses-skill-level?p=923eff79. It is my understanding however that belts would be obtained through physically being tested by Sifu at his dojo. As Carlson expresses in the post above, belts do not necessarily determine skill level.

@Gregor Engler I agree, they can be great motivators on personal progress, a symbol of your progression. I'm not dismissing the attainment of them, simply that they are not always a true factor of skill level.