Peaceful Warriors MA

Oklahoma Family Martial Arts Instructor Blog

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Success Starts in the Mind 2

Written by: Cory Rose www.oklakicks.com

One of our previous posts was in reference to getting your mind set for success, we talked about taking a little time each day, call it meditation, call it prayer, call it a power nap, whatever you want, in order to think about who we are without bias, who we want to be, and what we want to achieve.

Once we start to get a good feel for those things its time to take steps in the right direction. For those interested in science, there are some interesting quantum physics theories related to this. It is also mentioned in various forms in most of the major cultures and religions worldwide as well as 9 out of 10 self help books you might pull of the shelves. Positive thinking gets positive action, and positive action gets positive reaction (more often than not). There you go! There is one of the big secrets! Doesn’t sound so secretive does it? Chances are you have heard this before. Yet so few people put it into action and those that do have seen and know the benefits. (In my next post I will be discussing more in depth how martial arts helps with this by bridging the gap between knowledge/theory and action). 

I worked in the automotive industry for some time, there is a rule of thumb working on cars. you generally want to try to talk nice to them, think positive about them, and the process tends to go well. Think negative about your car, and what can go wrong will. I’ve known many people to have old junkers running forever when they honestly shouldn’t have been, with a lot of positive thinking and love. I have also known plenty of people to have trouble with brand new cars that they think bad about.

Even those that have put this into action will also say that we are human, and it is extremely easy to slip up, even for extended periods of time. Things happen, it seems to hard at the moment, too busy to stop and consider these things. That thinking allows your emotions and knee jerk reactions to everything around you control your decisions and actions in life. You NEED to stop and take some amount of control over yourself. Comes back to an old quote I heard once, more of a thought provoking question, “Do you control your mind, or does your mind control you?” this may depend on your belief system, but the emotions and thoughts of the mind that often go unchecked can very well be controlled with practice.

Staying positive is hard, especially when we all like to nurse self doubts and fears that keep us locked in the dungeon of our comfort zone, where we don’t have to confront too much but we also can’t grow much more either. I like to personally use mantras or affirmations daily to help with this. You can repeat something simple over and over, or record yourself and listen to it. Something like....

“Today, someone needs me, I have a part to play, I am successful, and my success will continue and grow.”

I didn’t say it couldn’t be cheesy, or that it had to make a lot of sense, just something to repeat to yourself, a desire to put out in the ether and a sense of being positive about it. If you can create 0 doubt and give fear no credit, then you can do it. Often directly fighting those doubts and fears can lead to fighting yourself, which is never helpful. I recommend a different approach,

“JUST DO IT!!”

Like Mushin (no mind) pay the doubt and fear no attention, the more attention you give it, good or bad, the more of a handhold it will find a way to grab on you. Do your best to give it no thought, instead refer to your positive thought or mantra.

You wouldn’t stand in front of a door for hours, days, or years telling people your just waiting for it to open, you would reach out and open it, creating your own opportunities. So time is now, quit waiting for the right circumstance, just get in the right mindset and stay there, you will be surprised the opportunities that just seem to flow your way when you are looking for them.

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“I’m too old for that stuff”

Written by: Brittani Rose   www.oklakicks.com

As instructors, and martial arts enthusiasts, we hear “I’m too old for that stuff” all too often. If you only ever listened to the adults who said this, you would think that only children can participate and enjoy martial arts. Not everyone finds a path toward martial arts, but those that do are not simply relegated to doing so in their childhood.

Take Keiko Fukuda Sensei for example. She was the grand-daughter of a Samurai, destined to be a Samurai’s wife and was in training for her duties. At 21 years of age, she was introduced to an instructor who offered to teach her Judo in his school. After beginning her training, and subsequently falling in love with the art, she discovered that in order to continue her training she had to give up her pre-destined life. She did so, and continued to train and teach in Japan and then in the 1950s came to America and continued teaching until she was 99 years old. The reason I mention Fukuda Sensei is that she did not begin as a child, as many male students might have, yet she found passion, strength, and life in her art. It carried her through many rough times in her life and she still taught 3 days a week until she passed away at 99 in 2013.

Fukuda Sensei is an inspiration to me. She is not an inspiration because she was a woman or that she broke traditional gender barriers, but because she did not let her age stop her from bettering herself and finding her place in the world. I was 25 years old when I began training in martial arts. I was 27 when I taught myself to do a back walk-over and am 28 working on a back handspring. I have been sore; hurt; injured; cried; and sweat (A LOT), but not once did I tell myself I was too old to do what I was/am doing. It sounds cliché but age truly is a state of mind.

So, let your mind stay young and adventurous. Let it wonder if you can do those things you see others doing, and then see if you actually can. It will not happen overnight, but when it does, it will feel amazing. I know that eventually my body will not want to do as many things as it does now. I feel lucky that I am able to push my body and learn to do things that are traditionally taught to very young children. If I had stayed on the sidelines and never stepped onto the mat, I would never have known what I was capable of doing. I’m thankful when I wake up sore in the morning because I know it means I accomplished a lot the night before.

I am also thankful that martial arts is not solely about my physical capabilities, but about my character as well. When my body begins to fail me, I know that my martial arts training will have made my mind strong. That I will still want to teach others and help them build strength of character that compliments their strength of body, is a certainty. Martial arts has strengthened my family and deepened the bond that my husband and I share. I have made lifelong friends, and our Dojang is our family. We continue to grow and train together, and nothing is more satisfying than that bond.

Do not let yourself become trapped in the belief that you are too old. You won’t look funny, no one will make fun of you, and no it is not just for kids. Success is never guaranteed, but it is guaranteed never to happen if you do not try. Don’t wait until you “get in better shape” to start, martial arts will get you in better shape, and you will feel better overall. The road to self-improvement is exactly that, a road. It does not matter what ramp you enter on, just so long as you get on and don’t exit.

 “Tsuyoku, yasashiku, utsukushiku” (“Be strong, be gentle, be beautiful.”) –Keiko Fukuda Sensei

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Success starts in the mind

Written by: Cory Rose   www.oklakicks.com

I was asked the question not long ago: “if there was one piece of advice you could give a student, no matter who they were or how long they had been training, what would it be?”

There are lots of things that flash through a persons mind when asked this question, mostly relating to things most people probably hear throughout their lives. Things like, never give up, or always try your hardest. There are countless other little ideas which can all be great advice. I decided to think about it a little while and realized something I had not discussed in my classes in far too long, which became part of a theme for this whole past week.

It relates to focus, and becomes inclusive of the things I call the ‘near universals’ which we often focus on in training, ideals such as courtesy, perseverance, humility, integrity, and courage. It involves questioning things we don’t think about often because they seem obvious. So what was my advice?

To take time every single day, from a few minutes to half an hour, to meditate, clear your head, and ask yourself three questions. 

1. Who am I?

You really have to answer this question in the most non biased and non judgmental way that you possibly can. BE HONEST. You are only answering yourself so let that pride and ego go and really look at who you are, good and bad. I’m talking about who you REALLY are, not who you want to be or who you try to see yourself as. Not how you hope others see you, but who you actually are and come across as to others. Do you use courtesy in all your dealings or does your pride sometimes get in the way? Is there something that causes you fear or anxiety? Is there anything you feel a little guilty about? Do you tend to judge others or yourself to harshly or put others (or yourself) down?

2. What type of person do I really want to be?

After we got down and gritty about how we actually act, think, and feel, now its time to look at who it is we want to be or how we want to be viewed. We look at anxieties and fears we wish we didn’t have as well as mistakes we wish we hadn’t made, such as losing your temper when you shouldn’t have. If you establish that you lose your temper too easily, then is that something the person you want to be would do? Do you find courtesy, honesty, and integrity as a big part of who you want to be and how you wish others would treat you? How does it honestly match up with the person you have been.

I went through a large part of my life not liking who I was, because I told myself it was impossible to be who I really wanted to be. I told myself who I wanted to be only existed in stories and fairy tales and you just couldn’t be that person in the real world. I thought that people would constantly try to run me over, or that I wouldn’t be able to survive doing a certain job or working with certain people if i tried to be the person I wanted to be. I was worried that being too courteous or trying to be honorable would be often viewed as weakness. I had a cocktail of anxieties and fears I won’t even get in to that did not factor in to the person I wished I was. I wanted to be successful and I thought at the time that in being the person I wanted to be, there was no way I would find success.

I was WRONG, its like the old saying, be the change you wish to see. When you are focused on this, every time you fall back into the ‘old you’ habits, you will recognize it, your focused on it, so now you can take steps one at a time to move from who you are, to who you want to be. The farther down that road you go, the more you start to find people you didn’t know existed. Other people who think like that as well, the old you just never noticed them, and they didn’t notice you. Open yourself up, and others will open up to you, at this point the world often starts to appear different in our perception than it ever had.

3. What do you want to accomplish?

What are you goals? It can be anything, don’t worry about how to do it. Don’t worry about how crazy or vague it may seem. It could be to make more money, to want to help people, to want to leave a mark on the world, to get a better job. It could be any number of things or a mixture of thing. While it does help to focus on one at a time, these are your dreams. In these moments of reflection don’t bother with what is rational, or with how to do it. Just focus on what you want to do and WHY you want to do it.

When I set out to do something new I want to be successful at, I usually seek out other people who have been successful and ask them questions. One piece of advice that seemed to be fairly universal in people successful in various ways was exactly this. Take time daily to know who you are, who you want to be, and remind yourself of what you want to succeed at and why. This advice can be read in different words in thousands of self help books. I use to always see it and think, how? I thought it didn’t help me with how to get where I wanted to go. 

Until I finally started to try it, it isn’t magic, its focus and motivation. When your reminding yourself daily of who you are, who you want to be, what you want to do and why, then it is always in the back of your mind. You will see opportunities you probably wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. You will find yourself taking steps toward who you want to be and steps toward what you want to be successful at far more than before. The all important how will slowly begin to fall in place step by step.

I just wanted to help people get out of the pits I had to get out of. I also wanted to be able to pay my bills. Now I’m a full time martial arts instructor, I love my job, and I love all the different kinds of people I work with. Maybe I have something to help them, maybe I don’t, but I am now in the position to do exactly what I wanted to do.

[gymaholic4]

EVERYDAY!

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You stop, your skill drops, you work you gain, there is no stand still..

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If its too hard, its probably good for you..

By Cory Rose www.oklakicks.com

If you have ever spent much time with kids, you have probably heard the words, “I can’t, it’s too hard.” or something to that end more than a few times. Truth is, adults are just as guilty, just not as vocal about it.

It’s easier as we get older to hide inside of our comfort zone and not have to confront our failures on things we gave up very often. It all depends on who we surround ourselves with.

In martial arts for example, I ask my students sometimes if they have worked on something they were having a hard time with, often to get an answer of “Well, a little bit, I want to and want to get better at it but its hard.” Substitute its hard with it hurts or I didn’t have time and you have basically the same thing from the same family of excuses, basically, its not what I normally do so without someone here telling me to I didn’t want to, or feel like it.

Truth of the matter is, whether it is a hard mental challenge, or emotional, or physical, or some mix of all of it; then that is exactly what you should put some time working on. We shouldn’t run away from all of our painful experiences or challenges, it lets us know our weaknesses and what we should be trying to work on. It is coming through these moments that makes us grow, not running away from them, dusting them under the rug and ignoring them.

If you choose not to work on these things then don’t come in the dojo and wonder why the person who started at the same level around the same time as you can suddenly do all these things you still can’t do yet. They probably worked on it, regardless of how hard it was, how much it hurt, or how they had to make time to do it.

Everyone wants to eat, few are willing to hunt for it.

If you want to get better, to learn and grow, then you have to focus on that which you can’t do or struggle to do first.

[mymafit]

Confrontation is not just physical

Written By: Cory Rose www.oklakicks.com

Very few times that you may end up in a fight or defending yourself do you come out unscathed. It can hurt if you get hit, hurt if you hit something wrong, hurt if you fall. You may come out on top of it all; but more often than not, confrontation will hurt at least some, physically or emotionally, regardless.

Learning the tactics behind the arts and how they are applied in physical confrontations also teaches us how to be peaceful and avoid conflict, as well as handle our daily conflicts if we pay attention. I don't mean that we get into physical confrontations daily, but even those who have never been in a physical confrontation end up in some form of confrontation relatively often. Winning a thousand physical fights out of skill or ability does us little good if we can't handle the other types of confrontations that come are way that have no need of getting physical. I know a lot of people would like to punch their boss at times but that hardly solves anything now does it? I am not saying life is a constant battle that we must fight, but understanding the strategy of confrontation taught to us through and by the martial arts can help us face reality rather than just endure it.

It begins with physical and environmental awareness oftentimes. The ability to observe is simple, and yet somewhat rare with so many of us living so much of our lives as slaves to the thoughts in our mind, as well as technology in our pockets. If you don't recognize who is attacking you, then your chances to protect yourself drop to zero. If a stranger is looking through a crowd for a target, usually they will pick the one not paying attention, the easy prey staring at their phone or off in their own world.

There are many people who use martial strategies to manipulate the mind and mood of those around them, those who attack you as friends with a smile on their faces. If we can observe and see clearly the directions in which a present situation can move, we can often solve issues before they even happen. Learning to observe, and to listen to our base perceptions and intuition, those things that take over in the speed of a physical conflict can help us see paths around confrontation that we may otherwise have missed. Not saying to be paranoid by any stretch, just be in the moment, if you have a feeling things might be moving in a bad direction, then rather than playing it out until your rational  mind catches up, put preventative measures in place.

The ability to read the emotions of the person in front of us puts us in a position to avoid useless conflicts. So we know when to speak and when not to, just know yourself and others as much as possible to obtain maximum results with minimum effort. Recognizing rhythm and timing of situations as they unfold can mean the difference between winning and losing, both in the ring and out of it. When we read our opponent correctly, and seize the right moment, the rest comes easy. If we don't read our opponent or the conflict rhythm well, then a lot of energy is wasted and can lead to pain and defeat. Physical confrontation is a last resort, through observation it can be possible many times to come to terms with the situation and obtain the best results possible through compromise towards a positive solution. If a person doesn't feel attacked or criticized, they will be far less defensive and more relaxed, for most people allow events in life to control their emotions, and their emotions to control their behavior, rather than learning to take control of themselves. Of course there are times this is not an option, even then it can be possible to at least divert some of the aggressiveness to avoid wasting too much energy if you have the confidence to find a way to alternative options. Offerings of peace from someone unafraid of conflict often carry more weight than offers of peace of of fear.

Emotional endurance and strength is just as important as physical and erodes without training.

"Solving problems before they form is the way of the warrior." - Ueshiba

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War is easy, peace is complicated...

Written by: Cory Rose www.oklakicks.com

Lets take a look at verbal confrontations or confrontations with people we know, this is where I say that I believe self control to be our best weapon. Miyamoto Musashi was well known, and it was no secret that he used the manipulation of his opponents emotions often to try to ensure victory in his duals. Letting emotion control our action often makes us very predictable to someone who is good at reading emotion. Someone who has a great sense of self control can often detour these verbal confrontations before they escalate to anything worse. I tell my students that I have no problem with them defending themselves, or someone else who isn't in a position to defend themselves, physically if necessary, but if they don't try a peaceful solution first, then they are just as guilty about starting that fight. That's right, the way I look at it, if someone yells something insulting at you, the second you react in anger or frustration and turn to yell or insult them back, then you have done nothing to bring the situation to a calm level, instead you have aided in escalating the situation, so whether or not the other person throws the first punch, to me you were just as guilty at starting that fight because you didn't choose to do anything that was in your power to deflate the situation. Not saying this will ALWAYS work, we all know that, but often a peaceful solution offered by someone not afraid of conflict carries more weight than someone offering it out of fear.

In a real fight.. Nobody wins...

So keeping control of our anger and emotions can be a great weapon in our arsenal of preventing situations all together, that mixed with confidence can find a peaceful solution to many types of conflict. When people allow their emotions and egos to control them, their first reaction to a perceived threat of insult is to become defensive or turn their emotion and anger towards where they think that threat or insult came from, even if they are wrong on the source. Such as believing someone is talking about you specifically when they are not. People who have control of their emotions remain calm and assess the situation first, and try to offer a peaceful solution first.

Regardless of what style of martial arts you may do, you practice self control constantly without realizing it. Every time you get hit by a sparring partner and it hurt, or thrown down a little hard. People not in control will want to immediately react with anger and vengeance. You know you can't in class though, and that the more you escalate it in class the worse its going to get on you, so you learn to let it go and hold yourself in check. Just don't forget to take those lessons everywhere you go.

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One more.

More motivation -> http://www.gymaholic.co

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Keep thinking about just getting that next one...

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Written by: Cory Rose

Everyone wants to be great.. But few are up to the challenge of the work involved. Just like everyone wants to eat, but few are willing to hunt for it. Everyone has the potential to be great, to be successful, even though the world wouldn’t work if we all were. Potential and talent won’t get us anywhere without hard work though, I mean the kind of hard work that NO ONE else is willing to do. To push beyond our limits, beyond our barriers, to believe in the impossible AND put the daily work in. Dedication in your thoughts and all of your decisions and movements is required. That means working when you don’t want too, pushing when you feel like you can’t push anymore. Making good decisions outside of your workout routines. The discipline and integrity to do what is needed even when no one is watching. 

Do you have what it takes?

www.oklakicks.com

[mymafit]

Confidence and Arrogance

By Cory Rose www.oklakicks.com We know that in the martial arts we see people gain confidence over time, which is one reason it is very important to also learn humility along the way. We have all seen those people who are not just confident, but jerks about it, those who continue to let their ego, their “I” and “me” mentality take control. There are many reasons people gain confidence in martial arts, the most commonly used reason is having the piece of mind to know and act.  This knowledge is used to possibly defend themselves and their families, to keep them safe and to avoid conflict. It is this humility and other life skills that is attributed to martial arts training. Yet, in class, it takes many times of falling and getting back up, of getting beat and getting back out there, before this confidence is gained. So where does any kind of confidence in life really come from? Self sufficiency. Confidence comes from knowing your ability to handle situations and hardships that come your way, knowing what your made of, how much you can take, and learning trust in your ability to make things work when they go chaotic on you. This is why many people who came from nothing in their lives often do not complain. In going through the worst hardships and finding their way out time and time again, in living through extreme stress time and time again yet finding a way out, births a confidence carried through life. This also creates an extreme care in decision making. They know how each small decision can have a massive impact and, usually, care more for the decisions that they make. They also gain confidence in their ability to handle situations they find themselves in. They know what their skills are, what their resources are and how to use them when the going gets tough to make it work and push forward. There are still those who have nothing who are the first to complain, they are the ones that haven’t figured it out yet. Pain and strife are great teachers, but there is a hard line in their school. You make it, or you don’t, just like a life or death struggle. Those who make it gain both confidence from finding their way through each time, and humility for knowing what it feels like to be knocked so far down and to have nothing. They are the first to speak on the values of hard work and staying up on the day to day grind. They are the first to try to help others to lift themselves up as well. They will not, however, lift someone else up, but rather show them how to do it for themselves, because they know that lesson is far more valuable. “Teach a man to fish.” as they say. Those who don’t make it tend to fall into depression and despair, repeating all the things that keep them in their hard times. Anyone can make it but you have to consistently choose to make it. Then there are people who complain about their struggles constantly, and how hard things are, all the while living in the nicest neighborhoods with fancy cars and brand name clothes. Those that live in a new house or high valued one, drive brand new vehicles, yet, have financial trouble – are victims of their own decisions. Those people can often be  quick to complain (not all of them by far, but there are MANY out there with this attitude). They are often the first to want a discount or deal. Or, they are the first to tell you their pity stories on how hard things are. They often care only for themselves with not a thought on anyone else involved or how it affects them. Those who know hardship find a way to get/make what they want, they know how to take control and move to get what they want. They also have the patience to wait and learn. Those who only think they know what a true make or break, life or death struggle is often try to find a way to get others to make up the difference for them. They do this because they view their circumstance as out of their control. Some people have many things but little means left, they have spent their money on things they didn’t need for comfort or to be viewed higher by their peers. Again not saying all, but many of these people are quick to complain about costs, and the first to say they are having a hard time. Then there are those who have some means, but not so many things. They know that what they purchase or own does nothing for their soul, those who learned the true value of things and live with less to have more. Those who buy what they need over what they want, those who try first to research, learn, and make what they want rather than buy it. Those who know how to use all the resources and skills at their disposal to make things work, if they don’t have the skills they will search out and learn them. They know that skill is more valuable than money. Having nothing, teaches you how to have money, even if the means is small. In my experience it is usually those who deserve help, who don’t ask for it, and those who don’t really deserve help, who demand it. Why do I bring this all up? It comes out on the training floor as well. You can see the attitude differences between the ones who know the value of pain and hard work, and those who need to learn it. The ones who blame themselves for their mistakes and try their hardest to correct them, and the ones who blame others because they got hit or thrown, and it wasn’t fair or they don’t want to learn the lesson from it. It doesn’t matter where you come from, hardship or not, the decisions we make in life lead us to where we are. There are those who know how to deal with it, who have learned to take responsibility for their own mistakes first and then try to adjust them. There are those who, until they take action on changing how they view their life, will always blame others or circumstances for their situations and try to finagle out of it as if they did nothing wrong. The key is no matter where you are in your life, in your circumstances, the first step to taking control, is taking responsibility. This is also the first step to learning from your mistakes. Stop blaming others, stop blaming your circumstances, and start looking at yourself and what you can do differently to do better. Think outside the box; What have you tried? What have you not tried? Martial Arts teaches us this through training, so when something doesn’t go your way, first look at yourself and what you could do different next time to get the outcome you want, whether a technique, a block, a movement, or maybe life decisions or how you train. Self-sufficiency builds confidence, knowledge and experience. This builds both wisdom and self sufficiency. The wise will handle it and learn from it, the unwise will complain about it and try to get what they need from others.

[mymafit]

By: Cory Rose

www.oklakicks.com

Wisdom is everywhere in the world for those who will take it. It is within themselves, their minds, their bodies, and their experiences so long as they are faced and not ran away from. The wisest words are often the simplest. Yet they fall mainly on deaf ears because, “It can’t be that simple.” But it is, and yet due to habits we form from when we are young, also surprisingly difficult. Therefore only those who reflect on themselves and those words with a clear, open, truthful, and aware mind, and who also have the courage to change and be different, can receive the great gift of wisdom simple words can give. The majority must either learn this skill, or be shown to experience it with action themselves before they will be able to understand. Even after one understands they often simply moved on as if the moment of wisdom never occurred. Once found it must be put into practice in every decision of every day. Otherwise, the moment of epiphany was wasted and lost to the past.

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Power

By Cory Rose

www.oklakicks.com

Power is something that, regardless of style, we often speak of. Most styles have their own way of generating power, whether through hip twists, or up/down sine motions.

There are two things that I believe most people agree upon when it comes to generating power. The first being to have a solid base, good balance and good footwork are key in generating power. Throwing hard does nothing if all you do is overbalance, or throw yourself right into a counter attack. The second being mass, most of us just seem to naturally feel like the bigger, stronger the person, the harder they are capable of hitting. In my time as a martial artist however, I have found that this just isn't true, even on a scientific level.

If you are a smaller person (like me) and are concerned that you could never generate the power the "big boys" have, then think again. Let's look at the math of what it takes to generate power (kinetic energy), the equation for formulating how much power or energy something can transmit is that Power is equal to one half of the mass of the object, multiplied by its velocity squared. Maybe you are a little rusty on your math, but what that equates out to is that power generated does rely on mass, but two thirds of the equation relies on velocity (explosive speed). So even if you don't have the mass, if you can generate the speed, you can generate immense power, not to mention the importance of speed, rhythm, and timing in every aspect of fighting.

This is the reason I am a huge fan of plyometic workouts over more traditional weight lifting ect.., not only are they great for cardio as well as strength, but the main focus is on speed with proper technique. If you are a larger person take note that working towards being fast will help you generate much more power. So smaller people do not be intimidated, anyone can be taken down or hurt if the situation absolutely demands it with no other way, and larger people do not underestimate, especially women, whom many seem to have a natural affinity for muscle speed, I have learned no matter how much I train, the ladies will always whip me!

That being said, as I have spoken about in blogs before, its not generally about how hard you hit, but rather how accurate you are, and the knowledge you have of the human body and target areas.

So how do you get the most out of your speed? Most beginners have one main problem when they first start, TOO TENSE. Sure you want to through your muscle strength into what you do, but that doesn't mean keeping your muscles tense at all times. A relaxed body is a relaxed mind, which focuses better and processes faster. Relaxed muscles are also more responsive and faster in their travel from point A to point B, MUCH faster. If you are someone who is tense all the time, learning to stay loose and relaxed until the moment you are struck or you impact another can nearly double your speed, if you don't believe it, try it.

If staying loose is hard for you the best advice I can give is to be mindful of it, and practice it. whether in sparring, or my personal favorite, practice it in kata. I talk with my students about all the movements between the movements. If you are not at the moment of impact for a strike or a block, try to be totally relaxed except for the muscles involved in the motion. In our system our white belt form has 24 movements that represent 24 hours of the day, or in a nutshell, balance, much like the yin yang symbol. So practice that balance in your form of when to be relaxed and when to be tense. Because it is important to be tense, at the KEY MOMENTS, otherwise you are wasting energy, and tiring yourself for no reason.

Relaxation is the key to speed and to patience, Patience is the key to mastery, In taking things slowly and step by step, we can turn the circles we usually run, Into lines that we casually walk. "If I don't look busy its because I did it right the first time." Unknown

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Choice or Chance

By Cory Rose

www.oklakicks.com

So many people blame circumstance and happenstance for where they are in their lives. While this may be true to a small extent we also do and always have, had more power over our own lives than most people believe. Every choice we make in life puts us on a new path or keeps us on an old one. If the path becomes bad for us most of us blame the circumstance, or another person involved, but it was our past choices that led us to that point, towards those circumstances and those people that we blame. The good new is that any path we are on can be changed by our future choices. In this it is helpful to know where you want to be and what you want to accomplish so that you can make choices to lead in the right direction. If the path you are on is good to you, and it feels right, then stay passionate about it, and all the actions and decisions involved. If it truly feels right it will generally work through in the end. However always be willing to leave it behind for a better turn in the road. The worst thing you can do is stand still and become totally complacent to your situations. Doing so gives us no growth or understanding but rather keeps us in the darkness of our own ignorance. If you do feel that your path is right, or maybe you are unsure of your path at the moment, just make sure you keep moving. If you know the direction you want to go make your choices accordingly, surround yourself with people who are walking similar paths to the ones you wish to walk. Taking advice from others is all well and good, but when you start making decisions based solely on the opinions of others, with little regard of your own opinion because maybe you feel a little lost at the time, then you have given everyone else the power over your own life and path. If you are unsure of yourself it is time to do some searching of emotions in the body, and thoughts in the mind. If it is the thoughts that are leading you to confusion or in circles, then focus on what your body and emotions tell you. I find that they are correct far more of the time than the logical mind can be which often leads you in circles. Search out the experience and how it feels to find the answers of what really works for you. For this you must trust your body's wisdom and intuition. Giving your life and decisions over to others gives you no one to truly blame but yourself for doing so.   Take advice from those who know or have been in your situation, but make sure the decision you make is your own, based on that advice, evidence, and your own personal experience with what you feel is right. Otherwise, you wind up like a boat in the stormy ocean, the opinions of others crashing into you, throwing you every which way. Making it hard to move at all far in any direction while you are at the mercy of the torrent of other peoples opinions. Take what opinions matter, that seem to push you in the right direction, make your own decisions, and most importantly KEEP MOVING (hopefully in the same general direction). You have already chosen where you are and what has happened to you in your life right now, did you choose it for yourself? Or just allow circumstance and people to throw you in those general directions each and every time. Sometimes situations can't be helped but we always have a choice of what to make of it that creates the following situations. Now it is your choice where to go and who you are or want to be from here.

[mymafit]

Physical Training Can Be Deep

By: Cory Rose

www.oklakicks.com

Today I want to share with you what I consider to be one of the top five lessons I have taken from martial arts training. This lesson relates to one aspect; experience, good and bad, and how to see what you are missing all the time without realizing it. Experience is a fantastic teacher that helps to remove both ignorance and incompetence. Avoiding new experiences is essentially losing a fight with yourself. The more you learn, the easier learning becomes and the more you grow. Maintaining that white belt attitude means acknowledging that at all times, what you don't know vastly outweighs what you know. I'm going to be talking specifically about what is one of the most obvious, and yet often most forgotten or abused, pieces of an individual; the body. The body has its own voice, it has its own type of wisdom that most of us ignore or have never learned to access.  Many of us treat our body as simply a machine, a slave to the mind as its master to transport the mind from one place to the next and to put thought and idea into action. Certainly this is a part of it but the master-slave relationship of the mind and the body is unhealthy. The Shaolin monks have been saying for centuries that to separate learning from the body, from the mind, and from the spirit, is detrimental to ones health and wholeness, as well as a massive waste of potential. For what is knowledge without understanding? Only both together is where wisdom is born. Therefore the EXPERIENCE of the body must have the ability to communicate back to the KNOWLEDGE of the mind. The body has many ways of communicating back to the brain, for truly the body is an experience, not a machine. The body is how the mind and spirit perceive and experience the world around us. The easiest of these forms of communication to notice are what we call instinct and intuition. These are not messages generally born of the mind but rather from the body to be interpreted by the mind. Like any muscle or your brain however, without exercising it, practicing with it, and showing some trust in it, then it's immense potential can never be realized. Most people sacrifice the experience and wisdom the body can provide in exchange for speed and efficiency in their day to day life. We have all heard the saying "stop and smell the roses" I say don't just smell the roses but experience them. With your senses awakened even the most mundane events can become deep emotional and spiritual moments of learning and experience. When you are in tune with the senses these experiences become moments of purity in being only in the current moment, and experiencing how a sunset looks and feels, how we feel in the arms of our loved ones, or what the vastness of the sky can arise within us. Anything that can be learned intellectually can also generally be experienced in the bodies feelings. So how does martial arts help with this situation of sleepy senses many of us find ourselves in? When you are deep into a hard workout, or a fight, or sparring match, the brains thoughts begin to slow and drift away. In a fight things happen too fast for the brain to keep up with and so it leaves, which usually awakens the fight, flight, or flee situation giving over to the body's wisdom. It is in these moments that we must trust the body, and its training to take over for our brain. Our reactions come out as instinctual and intuition. The punch comes too fast for the brain to register and tell the body to move, you must trust your body to do so for your brain. In the scroll of the emptiness from the book of the five rings it speaks about using the brain and body to learn a technique or tactic, train to become intimate with it, and then learn to detach from it so that it is always ready in your body with your mind empty so that your reaction times are faster than thought possible. In these moments and in hard workouts as our brain slows we begin to "lose" or social identity for a time. Who we are, where we work, where we come from. Instead we find ourselves focused on finding that well of energy deep down that many of us leave untapped. We focus on the flow of energy from one muscle to the next and on pulling every last drop of energy we can through it to harness that inner energy with surprising power. If you have ever experienced near exhaustion or muscle failure in a fight or workout, then yet found yourself able to continue, then suddenly you begin to feel like you still have quite a bit left to give, then you have experienced tapping into that well of energy. The goal of exercise is not to be strong or look good, or even move well. The main goal should be physical awareness and a healthy relationship of mind, body, and spirit, instead of just that as master/slave. So through these moments we learn how to feel our body, how to experience with it without the interference of the distractions the mind is so fond of. Over time with practice we can learn to tap into this whenever we want. We can learn to stop and just feel whenever we want. We begin to notice having far more profound experiences in the beauty of the world around us. It also begins to give us a keen sense of danger, a far better understanding than most about body language, and even help us grow in our empathy(ability to feel what others are feeling in yourself), which is mostly thought to be a trait that can not be learned, I have experience that makes me disagree. However the bad must also be experienced, if it is bothering you then there is a lesson to be learned from it. Many of us, myself included at one time use those bad experiences to shut down all of our senses, over time we find that we can't even barely notice any real emotions anymore. If you find yourself like I did, I will warn you, if you spend four years blocking out your ability to feel, it will take you 6-8 years to regain it. Ignoring those bad experiences is allowing yourself to be beaten by incompetence and ignorance, which can both be beaten simply through EXPERIENCE. The cottoneaster pictured above is one from my own collection, it has nearly died twice in the past two years, once when it was chopped down from a garden, and once as after it came back as I had the opportunity to try to extricate it from the ground. It experienced bad that turned it into what I see as a thing of beauty, scarred from experience and yet still strong and growing back. We can learn a lot from trees. Practice feeling not just knowing, practice experiencing, not just seeing. Exercise your instinct and intuition so that it may grow, they are meant to be felt, not thought.

[mymafit]

What gets YOU moving?

written by Brittani Rose 

www.oklakicks.com 

The vast majority of us, unintentionally, live sedentary lifestyles. We get up, sit in the car, sit at our desk, sit in the car, go home and sit on the couch. Oh, there may be the occasional walk or guilt-ridden once a month trip to the gym, but for the most part we don’t MOVE! Now it’s time to change. Change the way you think about fitness. Fitness is not just something we do to look like the people on T.V. or in ads, it is a lifestyle and a way of thinking. 

We are meant to move, so get up right now and walk around the room for a few minutes, I will wait..... Hope you got a little stretch in there too! In this day and age, we have to remind ourselves to move to stay motivated. We make lists so we don’t forget important tasks, but did you add get up and move for 10 minutes 2-3 times a day to your list? You should, if you have not, right below DRINK MORE WATER! 

We know it is hard to try to stay motivated to workout because it just seems so daunting. This is where we have to change our mindset and remind ourselves that if we get it done, it will be done. When making your daily to-do list, add drink more water and move around into several spots on the list so that when you accomplish a task or two you get a mental and physical break from your desk. Pick songs that make you want to move, even if it’s slow dance with someone to listen to throughout the day. If you have a friend at work, make them tag along with you on your lap or two around the office, there is safety in numbers after all ;). It also helps to break up your workout routine into smaller increments.

More than anything else, remind yourself that you are doing all this moving and sweating for you. Every drop of sweat and minute that your heart rate is elevated makes you stronger, faster, and happier. Happier? Yes, exercise makes you happier because it releases Dopamine (a happy chemical in your brain) into your body which elevates mood and reduces stress/anxiety. In the end, all of this is about you and can be accurately summed up in a quote from Socrates to a young student, “Besides, it is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit. But you cannot see that, if you are careless; for it will not come of its own accord.” (http://www.artofmanliness.com/2015/03/14/manvotional-socrates-on-the-importance-of-physical-fitness/)

Don’t be careless with yourself, you are important. So, get out there and move!

[mymafit]

Stretching: Dynamic vs Static

written by Brittani Rose www.oklakicks.com

The first time I heard someone say, “ok guys let’s start with some dynamic stretches,” I’m sure I tilted my head to the side and said “huh?” I had never heard the terms dynamic and static in reference to stretching, and my mind was surely blown. Dynamic movements refer to those movements that are vigorously active. Conversely, static movements refer to movements that are, well, less movement and more stationary. 

I’m sure you are wondering by now how this relates to stretching, I will explain. When most of us think of stretching we think about  touching the floor and counting to 20 or 30 and moving through a routine of stretching the legs, back, and arms, right? This type of stretching, common in sports, is what most of us are taught from a young age. This type of stretching is static stretching. The individual stands in a stationary stretching position for a predetermined period of time before slowly transitioning to the next stretch. Another common stretching sequence may be rolling the wrists, arms, hips, knees, and ankles in circles and adding in a few leg swings. This type of stretching is dynamic because you are always in motion. 

At this point, I wondered “well fitness guru which one is best?” One is not better than the other, it is simply a matter of timing. Timing? Yes, it is better to perform dynamic stretches pre-workout and static stretches post-workout. Static stretches tend to create tears in the muscle which facilitates new grown and more flexibility. That is all well and good, except that exercise also creates tiny tears in the muscle which builds strength. Therefore, it is better to begin with moving your joints and getting blood and oxygen flowing to your muscles (dynamic stretch) before your workout; concluding with a good static stretch to elongate the muscles and help deplete any lactic acid build up to reduce overall soreness. Of course, there is no right or wrong. You just may end up a little more sore the next day if you static stretch before and after your workout.

Hope this helps, happy stretching!

[mymafit]

Life is a choice..

Written by: Cory Rose mymafit.com

So many people blame circumstance and happenstance for where they are in their lives. 

While this may be true to a small extent we also do and always have, had more power over our own lives than most people believe. Every choice we make in life puts us on a new path or keeps us on an old one. 

If the path becomes bad for us most of us blame the circumstance, or another person involved, but it was our past choices that led us to that point, towards those circumstances and those people that we blame. The good new is that any path we are on can be changed by our future choices. In this it is helpful to know where you want to be and what you want to accomplish so that you can make choices to lead in the right direction. 

If the path you are on is good to you, and it feels right, then stay passionate about it, and all the actions and decisions involved. If it truly feels right it will generally work through in the end. However always be willing to leave it behind for a better turn in the road. The worst thing you can do is stand still and become totally complacent to your situations. Doing so gives us no growth or understanding but rather keeps us in the darkness of our own ignorance. If you do feel that your path is right, or maybe you are unsure of your path at the moment, just make sure you keep moving. If you know the direction you want to go make your choices accordingly, surround yourself with people who are walking similar paths to the ones you wish to walk.

Taking advice from others is all well and good, but when you start making decisions based solely on the opinions of others, with little regard of your own opinion because maybe you feel a little lost at the time, then you have given everyone else the power over your own life and path. If you are unsure of yourself it is time to do some searching of emotions in the body, and thoughts in the mind. If it is the thoughts that are leading you to confusion or in circles, then focus on what your body and emotions tell you. I find that they are correct far more of the time than the logical mind can be which often leads you in circles. Search out the experience and how it feels to find the answers of what really works for you. For this you must trust your body’s wisdom and intuition. Giving your life and decisions over to others gives you no one to truly blame but yourself for doing so.   Take advice from those who know or have been in your situation, but make sure the decision you make is your own, based on that advice, evidence, and your own personal experience with what you feel is right. Otherwise, you wind up like a boat in the stormy ocean, the opinions of others crashing into you, throwing you every which way. Making it hard to move at all far in any direction while you are at the mercy of the torrent of other peoples opinions. Take what opinions matter, that seem to push you in the right direction, make your own decisions, and most importantly KEEP MOVING (hopefully in the same general direction). You have already chosen where you are and what has happened to you in your life right now, did you choose it for yourself? Or just allow circumstance and people to throw you in those general directions each and every time. Sometimes situations can’t be helped but we always have a choice of what to make of it that creates the following situations. Now it is your choice where to go and who you are or want to be from here.