If you asked Mr. Kim why we
practice martial arts, his response was “To Know Ourselves, To Better Ourselves”.
I have discussed in several blogs
how a martial art at its true essence trains the mind, body, and spirit. It supports your mental, emotional, physical
and spiritual growth. At its true essence
it trains us To Know Ourselves, To Better Ourselves.
There are many activities out there that can
help you improve physically and when adding in focused intention can help you improve
both physically and mentally (running, weight lifting, cycling, motorcycle riding
etc.). There are activities that can
help you spiritually like meditation.
There are activities that can help physically mentally, emotionally and
mentally like yoga but even this is not provide the same benefits as martial
arts training.
Don’t get me wrong - I am not
advocating that other activities are not beneficial to you or you should not
bother to take part in enjoying them. I,
along with many of you partake in many of these activities and recommend you continue
to do so.
But I contend, no activity is
better than martial arts when it is taught and practiced for its true essence To
Know Ourselves, To Better Ourselves.
Why do I believe this? A self-defense based martial art like Han Moo
Kwan trains you to perform under the most stressful times…when you are potentially
in fear (getting hot, injured), when someone may be emotional and yelling at
you trying to push your buttons, when there is chaos around you. At these times, you must be in control of yourself. You must stay grounded and balanced at
these times. You must stay focused and
be able to be at your best physically. At
these times, you must be able to get past the emotions and fears. No other activity trains you for this – to
learn about ourselves and to better ourselves not just through our own internal
convictions but while there is external opposition.
When you are in control mentally,
emotionally, physically, spiritually, you have the power to make better choices
and have clarity in those choices. With that
clarity of mind body and spirt can come wisdom and the ultimate of knowing ourselves
and bettering ourselves.
While this may sound simple and
easy when written as a one-page blog, I am not saying that at all. In fact, there are days when you feel in
complete control, and then you have an emotional trigger you were not aware of,
and you realize you need more training.…and hence why practicing a martial art is
a lifelong journey.
Kelly
"Fear comes from uncertainty; we can eliminate the fear within us when we know ourselves better." Bruce Lee (1940 –1973) American-born Chinese Hong Kong martial
