How many times have you been busy, so busy you didn’t notice you had a headache? That throbbing in your left ankle? Or, peanut butter on your shirt for the whole day? For me? Way too many times.
In most kinds of physical training, self-awareness is essential, like judging the difference between various kinds of pain, muscle movement, and where you are in space (Proprioception). It helps you focus on the movement for perfection and good technique, and also pulls you into the present.
Many live stuck in the past or future. Constant anxiety, depression, and stress sneak in unawares, take hold and begin their work of internal destruction and chaos. Sound familiar? You crave wine or some other liquor every night, want to binge watch whatever show pulls you in, are tempted to sneak away from life and just be alone all the time. These are signs of inner turmoil, but many don’t know why they feel these so strongly. We become stuck in stress and seeking relief cycles but don’t know why.
Mindfulness is the popular term for self-awareness. Folks in recovery programs stash mindfulness in their toolbox, for sobriety maintenance. Mindfulness brings you to the present and acknowledges what you are feeling, and why. It allows you to make choices on how to respond to the stress you’re feeling in non-destructive ways.
Training in self-defense automatically brings you into a state of self-awareness. Learning to move your body in specific ways, feeling the desire for self-protection, being acutely aware of your current environment, learning how to react calmly to danger and other such training phenomena hone your sense of self. You may find feelings you didn’t know you had, or ideas that are self-destructive as you become aware of your thoughts and emotions. This benefits your personal life because becoming aware of yourself and your inner workings helps you start to turn the tide on the aforementioned self-destructive cycles.
Training is a path to peace and making better choices. In my current martial arts training, I’ve found this to be remarkably true. Becoming self-aware through physical training has changed and accelerated the course of my recovery from a destructive childhood. You don’t have to have a bad childhood to need inner calm — even people with happy lives can attain higher levels of mindfulness than what was previously possible.
Come join us in our training and find out for yourself what is possible for you!