Task 2a; Reflective Practise/Journal Writing

I have just finished Reader 2 and again found all the points made interesting and had me nodding along in agreement at times. Especially right at the beginning where we are exploring the ideas of reflection and experience. 

Taking an experience and turning it into knowledge is exactly what I can relate to in the fitness industry. After completing a course in gym instruction not so long ago, I had no idea how to perform a bench press correctly but after experiencing being taught the correct demo on how not to teach and how to teach it, I walked away with the confidence that the next time someone asks me how to do it I shall have the knowledge to teach it and not shy away from it anymore!
Just using that example in my own head makes me understand this concept so much more, as I am reading I try and relate a circumstance to my own life and realise that I can relate to this.

I found what Graham Mcfee describes about the term bachelor very matter of fact, and in the reader it asks the question; 'Have you ever known something before you realise what it means to you?' I could think of a list of these! But as time goes on and you are out in the big wide world you do come across more and more experiences which allow you to reflect back and almost snigger at what it may originally meant to you as apposed to what it 'should' mean or an alternative. I love learning new things and as the old saying goes 'You learn something new everyday' - only if your open to it!

After touching on the Kolbs cycle before, looking at it again with the reflective reading thoughts in my mind I have almost seen it slightly differently. I  the reader it asks 'at what point do you feel you enter learning?' For me I would enter this cycle at Active experimentation. My example of this is what I am doing right now - blogging. I had absolutely no idea about this blogging world as i have previously mentioned, so for me I didn't go straight into it and make it up ask went along process, I had a little look at what other people had done, made a page up and wrote a few things, re-read it about a thousand times, the changed it again before I was exhausted from looking at my computer for hours! So in other words I was trying out what I had learnt from reading other peoples blogs and had a go myself which took me a while but hey I got there in the end!

Journal;

I have made a start on my journal every night since last Thursday (12th March) and I have found it very therapeutic. Its most definitely benefited my husband who doesn't have his ear chewed off before bed as now I'm writing it all down instead!
Since November I have faced my biggest challenge to date which is training for the Virgin London Marathon. With it now only being 5 weeks away I am coming close to my last few long runs which has been extremely challenging not only physically but also mentally. So when I came across this task I thought GREAT because as the runs have increasingly become longer and more enduring, I have found my mind ticks over and thinks about absolutely everything. If I have had a problem lurking in my mind before I run, by the time I have finished I will have a solution or a plan in place. It  amazing to use that time as best as you can - especially to help keep your mind off the pain of running after 18 miles! 
So continuing on from this, on Sunday when it got to the time for journal writing I felt completely exhausted and found my hand just writing and writing until my hand actually hurt. After my 20 miles I thought I was kind of down with thinking about my day, but actually I have used my brain again but in a totally different way. Again this has pushed my boundaries into trying something new and so far I am proud to say I have stuck with it!