Wrestling as meditation

It's been over three months since I last attended any type of grappling workout. Since I had some free time today, I made it down to the R-1 and did some wrestling in the morning. After an awkward start (I never spent much time at grappling, and after three months since my previous go I was really busy in my head trying to remind myself of the environment) I started to loosen up and have fun. The guy I was working with was good and encouraged me all the way. It's great to have good training partners. It makes you leave feeling good no matter how you performed.
Anyway, things were going along fine for a while. I felt like things were getting smoother and I was moving better than at the beginning. But when we started going a bit harder, I found out just what kind of shape I was in; not great! Things were going along ok until I just started gassing out. Sometimes you hit that point where you know your going to pay a heavy price the next day and wonder "should I push it"? Well, I decided not to on two occasions. I figured I could take it to a certain point and stop (which I did) and I would not have the (I haven't done this for a while and I over did it) pain that we all get when jumping back in with both feet after a break. Well, I mis-calculated that stopping point. I was feeling great after the workout. You always do. But man, I am sore as heck tonight. Zoe and I had Yoga this evening and I thought I was going to fall asleep, until the pain woke me up. That's were part of the "wrestling as meditation" comes in. The wrestling induced a feeling of euphoria offset by pain that kept me in a constant state of detached awareness while doing yoga. A very interesting feeling I haven't had since spending the weekend at a Buddhist Monastery in Taiwan 12 years ago.. 4AM chanting in the hall with all the monks and students... I am also now working on detaching from the pain while being aware of the fact I am writing this blog entry.
It was a lot of fun today. I hope I survive work tomorrow.