In our martial arts class we are encouraged to make a lot of "noise". It not only helps us remember to breathe, but it can intimidate an attacker or draw attention to us if we are being attacked. A grunt, a growl, a yell, a kiai, whatever. As a woman, it was really hard for me to do this at first. After all, ladies are expected to be quiet and polite, demure, etc.
Now that I've been training for a few years, it has become more natural. Perhaps a little too natural. I've noticed that I make noise whenever I'm doing something physically challenging or at all exerting. This isn't an issue at home or in class, but when I'm at the grocery store, lifting a heavy bag of cat food, I get a few strange looks. The other day I was trying to plug in the coffee maker at church and the cord didn't want to cooperate. I gave it a good push, along with a loud grunt, and it wisely gave up. Perhaps that's why the other ladies in the kitchen stopped making eye contact. At a fancy Italian restaurant, a little piece of bruschetta took a bit of convincing and a noisy "unh!" to break in half. I didn't look around but I'm sure lots of people heard me. At least I didn't go "Hi-Yah!".
Yet. :)
4 comments:
As a fellow grunter, I can feel your consternation of happening to make a sound where you really had not intended too.
I laughed out loud at this post. I can relate. I tend to be a little vocal when I'm home, especially alone. Sometimes I think I scare the dog.
You may get strange looks but the upside is people are probably saying to themselves, "I'm not messing with her!"
I'm glad, and a little surprised, to learn that I'm not alone in my grunty world.
That's hilarious! My husband and I do martial arts and at our school, we bow when we walk in. My husband has actually bowed walking into a store before. I guess its just hard to break the habit...
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