Hello everyone!
We’re excited for next week’s training! Our theme is “Soften Your Heart”. It’s important for marital artists to remember the motivation behind our training. These practices are ancient. For hundreds of years, they have been a vehicle for teaching self-discipline so that the clans of old could work together and survive. Part of group survival is ensuring sound mental and physical health for each individual. That’s why we see so much mindfulness work inside our martial art. Learning to calm your mind and soften your heart is essential to the mental and physical health of each of us, and to the survival of our community.
We’ve seen dehumanization pop up a lot in the media lately. People all over are talking about others as if they are not human, allowing their anger to fester into hatred. As Brenne Brown points out, humans are not designed to hurt other humans. It’s unnatural. So, we use our hatred to turn the other person into something less than human. When we do this, even when we do this in retaliation, we are making ourselves weaker and ultimately weakening our global community as well.
We invite you this week to catch yourself whenever you begin to anger, at someone close to you, or someone you feel very removed from. Catch yourself and soften your heart. Remember, to harden your heart and perpetuate hate toward anyone goes against nature and is unhelpful in the long run.
The techniques we’re working on this week are San Shin, reviewing rolls and break falls in all direction, and working with our partners on bo staff. As you practice this week at home and in the dojo, be sure to notice your emotions and how you regulate them. Budo Taijutsu can be a meditative practice that helps us achieve greater control of ourselves so we may help make this world a better place.
See you in the dojo!