u/musicofamildslay

Hi! I’m a classical musician (violinist) in my 20s and I have been looking to get my body moving again via martial arts— the past couple years I spent finishing my degree in conservatory have been more sedentary than I’ve ever been just because my schedule was so busy. I miss feeling strong and clear headed in the way that only exercise can bring about!

I did shotokan karate as a kid/teenager for about 5 years, going a few times a week, and I really loved it! I got pretty good at it, too. Once I got really serious about the violin, it started to feel a bit high impact to do kumite (a lot of the reason was that the classes were mixed age and I spent a lot of time as a smaller than average teenage girl getting inadvertently beaten up by people’s 40 year old fathers, which became upsetting.) I ended up quitting but I still miss it.

I loved doing kihon and especially kata, though— those were definitely my strengths and to this day I still love anything that prioritizes intentional movement of the body in different forms. I’m looking to get a meditative experience for the mind that also aligns my body and strengthens bodily awareness. As a side note, it would be an amazing bonus if this aided my playing or prevented playing-related injuries in some way!

I was leaning towards Aikido just because I know a few professional musicians who do it. I am just a little worried about it being hard on the shoulders and arms as a beginner. I don’t have any mobility issues and generally am in good health so maybe I am overreacting a bit, but I need to be able to play my instrument to make a living, so it’s quite important to me that I not get injured above the hips at least!

If anyone has any suggestions on how to prevent injury, or personal experiences practicing Aikido, especially starting out, I’d be really interested to hear that. And if I should abandon this idea and try something else, I’d also appreciate knowing that! Thank you! :)

I haven’t yet finished this, but I am dreading the end of this book, simply because I think it’s such an enjoyable read. Every other sentence makes me laugh to myself. Warner’s very self-aware, tongue in cheek writing— dripping with irony and yet, at the same time, so full of care— makes it so especially charming to me.

It feels like a very unique book, but I am searching for another book that fulfills the characteristics I love about this one, which are:

Setting: Medieval Europe / Renaissance Europe / Early Modern Europe

Focus on female characters

“Plot-less” novel— the waxing and waning of daily life

If you know of any other books that fulfill, say… 2/3 of these categories, please let me know! In the meantime, I will be finishing this book as slowly as possible.