Aikido Off the Mat One Woman's Journey Using Aikido Principles to Stay Sane in Body, Mind, and Spirit

A deeply personal and compelling memoir that illustrates how the basic principles of Aikido can help us cope with the challenges of life outside the dojo

Drawing from more than forty years of experience as an Aikido practitioner and teacher, Kathy Park explains how principles such as embodiment, grounding, centering, extension, 360-degree awareness, blending, and alignment can be applied to everyday life. Candid stories from her own life show how the purpose of practicing Aikido on the mat is to take it off the mat and into the world.

KATHY PARK holds a second-degree black belt in Aikido, practicing since 1977 and teaching off and on, formally and informally, since 1978. She has an MFA in creative writing/nonfiction from Lesley University, Cambridge, MA. She has published two other books (a memoir about her apprenticeship with a stone sculptor titled Seeing Into Stone: A Sculptor's Journey and a compilation of nonfiction, fiction and short plays titled Coyote Points the Way: Borderland Stories and Plays). She was a citizen diplomat promoting Aikido in the Soviet Union in 1989. From 1990 to 1994, she founded, administered, and taught in the Prison Integrated Health Program, an all-volunteer holistic health program for female inmates and staff at FCI Dublin in the Bay Area. She teaches at Adams State University, both on campus and through ASU Extended Studies. She is also an artist, painting in watercolor and carving wood and stone.