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SOME THOUGHTS ON MARTIAL ARTS/COMBAT SPORTS

Aug 4

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Just heard on a tv promo “Will learning violent contact sports make life safer on the streets?” while showing a clip of some thugs fighting on the street and then a BJJ gym. #stupidquestions

Obviously #combatsports and #martialarts are healthy way to discipline and control #naturalaggression and learn #respect but these days everyone wants a scientific study before they believe anything.

Of course there are always the few bad eggs who will not benefit as much, and this is probably because other aspects of their persona have not been dealt with adequately, but that is not to say that martial arts training has not helped them from being worse than they would have been.

For the majority the benefits of martial arts in strengthening and controlling mind/body/soul are immense. It’s time the public became more educated and aware about what #martialarts and combat sports are really about, instead of marginalising it as simple “violence”… #violence is for untrained neanderthals.

In the end we are all just a few millimetres of cerebral cortex away from being a hairless monkey, and without harnessing our human capacity for imagination and self awareness, that additional cortical matter isn’t worth a whole lot.

Martial arts are just that… “arts”… they connect your human imagination to your animal soul, control it, and channel that natural animal aggression into it something beautiful, flowing and precise. It can crash into destructive force, it can bend the opponent to submit to your will, but the skilled practitioner knows and learns how and when and to what degree it is required.

That is the difference between the depth of an “art”, and the indiscriminate, mindless chaos of “violence”.

It does not promise mastery or victory, but it does demand the discipline, respect, skill, determination and pure hard work required to achieve it. These are the attributes and habits that one will be driven to cultivate, if they are not already possessed to some degree.

It may be true that there are some who will never be able to fully embody these characteristics, no matter how much they train, but this is nonetheless this is the potential for empowerment and greatness that martial arts will offer you.

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(From Adrien Grenier’s Facebook)

Posted in Fitness and Health, Martial Arts, Philosophy, Sociology, Sports

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SOCIAL ANXIETY: AN ANALOGY

Apr 30

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AN ANALOGY: Dealing with SOCIAL ANXIETY is like learning to swim. If you’re worried about how cold the water is when you hit the surface, then you won’t get in, will never get comfortable with getting wet and never swim well. 

But once you force yourself past that troublesome barrier with a dive or pindrop, the initially uncomfortable feeling of shock when entering that cold water, start to warmup and move around, you may start to even enjoy it.

Even if swimming isn’t your thing, the more you push past that barrier, and the more you try, the easier it gets, and the more you can allow yourself to get comfortable with swimming, which you could not access before because of that disdain aand avoidance of the discomfort of the transition from dry to wet.

Like social situations, your sticking point may be getting past that coldness, and that transition from disengaged to engaged in the social situation. The more practice you get, the colder the water you can tolerate.

Just like with anything, training yourself to do this is all about repetition and internalising new habits. 

Posted in Fitness and Health, Mental Training, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology

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I’ve watched this video a few times as I’ve never really stopped to think about it in detail. This is an interesting idea. It’s a vague word, layered with multiple vague meanings. Be concerned and cautioned if someone calls you “nice” or you feel that someone else is being “nice”.

I HATE being called nice. I consider it the worst insult to my being. I KNOW that when someone calls me “nice”, they don’t really mean I’m kind or generous. They mean I’m a fucking pushover. Are you a fake, pretending to be something you are not? Are you weak, pretending or hiding that you are bothered by something?

Nobody calls me kind, generous, or a good person. They say “nice.” Clearly that means something completely different. It means there is a lack of congruence between your internal state and what you are projecting externally. It makes me question who I really am, who I am “being”.

Origins of the word:
Middle English (in the sense ‘stupid’): from Old French, from Latin nescius ‘ignorant’, from nescire ‘not know’. Other early senses included ‘coy, reserved’, giving rise to ‘fastidious, scrupulous’: this led both to the sense ‘fine, subtle’ (regarded by some as the ‘correct’ sense), and to the main current senses.

I think the original definition of the word speaks for itself. Something to reflect upon.

Watch Elliot Hulse’s video about being “nice” here on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPDPtt-eCn0

 

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PERSISTENCE and PATIENCE

Apr 29

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Just stay your course! Staying motivated when you barely see progress from day to day is difficult but when you keep working and stay persistent, compare yourself now to where you were a few months back, you’lll realise that it’s paying off. Setbacks may come your way, but work through these and believe in your purpose.

For myself, I can mention a number of instances where the philosophy of persistence has saved me. I trained a year and half before I could get my first boxing match, after being set back by a broken hand, a month long antibioitic-resistent skin infection, and 4 months of not training while bailing out my dad’s bad business. I worked 6 years on my old job that I did not like, taking almost no holidays, to leave honorably on a high, and with enough savings to start afresh. I went through 2 years of braces a second time, to prepare for jaw surgery to correct my crossbite. I have spent many years correcting negative thinking patterns, a couple of years on and off psychotherapy, CBT and psychological counselling for social phobia and other complex issues, and have almost reached comfortable social functioning (though I aim to master it).

I have spent 2-3years on and off, and the last 6 months working consistently on correcting a decade of functional scoliosis and low back pain through learning as much as I can through a completing a PT course, finding a very skilled physio, writing a complex corrective program, and performing it regularly, with noticable though slow progress.

All the work has been worthwhile and yielded results over time. I know that working to correct any present difficulties will lead to a better life in future.

The hardest thing about learning new things and making new habits is perhaps breaking old bad habits first that get in the way. You have to work on those things concurrently. Don’t overwhelm yourself with expectation; when you start from negative, getting to zero is a great achievement! Also, the best person to count on is you, you know yourself better than anyone – HEAL THYSELF.

Obviously the best thing is to get everything right early in life, and have the gift of good luck, but for the rest of us… believe in the changes you are making, don’t let the setbacks phase you, be determined to reach your goal, work consistently and keep persistent!

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Posted in Fitness and Health, Mental Training, Psychology

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