Martial Art of Self

When we think about all the things we need or want to change, it can become daunting. But often we make it more difficult to change than it has to be.

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self podcast, we talk about the things that can stand in our way of self-change and how to become aware of these and not let them drag us down when we become inspired to change our lives for the better.

We specifically look at how our thoughts and past can turn against us, loading an additional weight onto our shoulders.

I share a brief story about how I faced such a moment of my mind turning against me when I wanted to change a simple thing in my life, and the lessons I sourced from this instance.

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Martial Art of Self is a Martial Arts Self-Awareness Journey with a focus on self-development. Bringing the essence of Martial Arts back to self. Martial Arts Podcast and Blog.

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Table of Contents:

[00:00:00] Episode Intro

[00:00:44] Why it is so difficult to change

[00:01:08] When past failures shoot back

[00:02:43] Failures from the past, dooming the present and future?

[00:03:11] Losing confidence in our ability to change

[00:03:59] The old self taking over again

[00:04:52] Listening to your discouraging thoughts

[00:05:37] Deciding to move instead of listening to thoughts

[00:06:02] Starting small

[00:07:33] Doing something that is of self-movement to get out of the mind

[00:08:03] Lessons Learned

[00:08:08] You don't need to listen to the discouraging voices

[00:08:36] I don't have to stay where I am just because I once decided

[00:08:58] A decision can be changed any time

[00:09:22] Change comes down to me deciding to

[00:10:08] The is no universal law of having to stay with a 'bad' decision

[00:10:54] How to change in the middle of an experience?

[00:11:51] Every new moment is a chance to start over

[00:12:09] Change can feel daunting in the beginning

[00:12:25] When your past is against you

[00:12:44] Don't take your mind personally

[00:13:37] Focus on what you can change instead of everything you did wrong

[00:14:20] The is no limit to creativity in the methods to facilitate change

[00:14:29] We are masters of making things more difficult

[00:14:56] The pitfall of waiting for the right mood

[00:15:35] Episode Ending

[00:16:13] Episode Outro

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self, we are looking at martial arts as a path to self-understanding.

Here I share a story of how I used to see martial arts in my life. I was obsessed with perfection and wanting to excel for the wrong reasons. The training turned more into stress than an aid for me, my self-experience, and my life in general.

Further, I touch on how the simulations we create in our minds about our skills can have adverse effects when we meet physical reality with such imaginary simulations.

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self, we discuss the transformation of our motivation for doing our martial arts so that it is no longer rooted in fear.

When we do something, like our training, out of fear, and we practice individual skills out of a fear-based reason, we are only feeding into the fear. Instead of evolving inside ourselves, we are merely improving our external physical skills, while at the same time developing, strengthening, and expanding our fears.

What if we could transform our martial arts to be a support to become less fearless over time instead of growing our fears?

In this episode, I talk about my discovery of doing martial arts and training for specific things due to fear at the root of my motivation. I mention some of the realizations I gained in the process and walk you through a practical approach I used that lead me to see, understand and start changing my starting point for doing martial arts from fear to something more useful and fulfilling.

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self, we discuss a pattern of being too militant in our training, or life in general. 

For me, I discovered how this militant approach towards my martial arts training, as well as to other parts of my life often lead me to burn out, and losing interest, and joy in the things I do, or which are part of my life.

Being too rigid with our plans or goal settings suffocates the necessity to be flexible and to adapt to real-time moments and contexts of what we are doing. It is good to plan and set goals, but I find all plans need space to breathe freely. After all, life doesn’t move as a straight line, but rather more like a wave that seems able to travel up, down, back and forth, and sometimes it feels like it moves in all those directions simultaneously.

In this episode, I talk about the importance of practicing sensitivity. It is vital to establish communication with what our body feels like and goes through.  

Then we can assess a challenging moment in self-honesty and establish if such a moment is a chance to push a bit more for growth, expansion, and creation, or if we are demanding too much too soon from our body, mind, and self and should slow down.

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self, we continue exploring some further dimensions of the Martial Arts personality.

In particular, we open up and discuss the pattern of chasing positive feelings through our art, or whatever it is we are doing.

More often than not we are trying to generate some powerful positive feelings to boost our ego, or we look for positive feelings to superimpose onto the negative way we truly feel deep within ourselves, or life.

Here I tell my story of how I chased some positive feelings to boost my ego or compensate for the negative emotions I felt inside. I list some of the core applications that I use to face and work through my negative emotions.

The essential question I ask here is whether the things we do - such as martial arts - grow our person or our ego.

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self, we look at some dimensions of body-respect and body-care.

It has become mainstream to drive our bodies to the limit in an unnatural, and harmful pace, and way. Unfortunately, we mostly treat our body as a driving vessel for our self-interest, our desires, wants, and needs only.

We miss the fact that the body is one of the most important manifestation we have in our life that makes or breaks our physical life-quality. We live with our bodies day in and out. It is here from start to end. Through good, and bad. A true unconditional companion. Hence, we should treat it a lot better.

In this episode, I talk about how I became aware of treating my body ill with my martial arts training, and how I approached my training. I share a few of the viewpoints, and realizations that opened up for me when I looked at this point of how I treat my body through the process of self-inquiry in self-honesty.

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self, we discuss self-limitations. We talk about ways we limit ourselves by imposing certain thoughts, feelings, and emotions onto who we are, and the things we do.

Once we accept a belief as truth inside ourselves, it becomes a conviction in our mind. From that conviction, we build our self-definition. Once we accept a certain way of seeing and experiencing ourselves it becomes so much part of us that it becomes hidden in plain sight.

Often we no longer immediately see that we are acting in certain ways, or experiencing certain things inside us and our world because we have imposed specific limitations on ourselves, and life.

Here I share a bit of how I became aware of some self-limits, and this general pattern of limiting myself through the thoughts, and beliefs in my mind. I talk about how I assist and support me to challenge self-limits, and expand myself instead.

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self, we discuss the Martial Arts Personality.

Often we create a personality or virtual entity around the things we do, be it sports, painting, career, education, or martial arts. This suit or mask is mostly limiting. We often lose interest or focus on other things life has to offer. We become consumed by only one or two main things we do.

To step outside such a suit and take off the mask requires us to ask the difficult questions. It requires courage to face something that makes us feel good and question it. But it is rewarding. We discover our true expression and much more life has to offer that we can use to benefit the thing we love doing and expressing through, such as martial arts.

Here I share when I became aware of my Martial Arts personality, how it was, what is was, and how I am moving forward with it to free myself from it so that I can keep on expanding and actualizing myself further.

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self podcast, we discuss the concept and action of training. We ask the question of what real training is. Is training only limited and applicable to martial arts, fitness, sports and other applications that exercise the body and mind in superficial ways

Training is synonymous with practice, application, and living. Thus to practice, apply and live something over and over again until it integrates as part of ourselves, as a new way or state of being.

Here I touch on how I have copied the definitions and understandings of the word and action we call training from others and settled on that. With that acceptance, I closed myself off from entering a deeper relationship of understanding and application of the word and concept of training.

I talk about my process of learning more about what training really is, where and how it applies, as well as giving some distinct examples of how I have lived it practically to help communicate my understanding of what training is as I have come to understand it for me through a process of self-investigation and self-introspection.

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self podcast, we look at self-awareness as a Martial Artist. What is self-awareness, how and where does it apply?

Self-Awareness isn’t a magical potion that is going to make you great and transcendental all of a sudden. It is rather challenging, tough work and an ongoing, never-ending process. It will bring many good, bad and ugly parts of ourselves to the limelight. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary. It is a key that will unlock new doors to ourselves that we didn’t recognize possible.

The saying is that the truth hurts. Self-Awareness will be hurtful. But it is also said that the truth shall set you free. Self-Awareness will also do that.

In this episode I discuss what I have come to understand self-awareness to be at the moment, how that understanding is not stagnant but ever moving, flowing and expanding as I walk and live my life, as well as discussing an example where and how I apply the principle and state of self-awareness in the practice of Martial Arts.

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self, we explore the unique and contradictory theme of things getting progressively more challenging in our martial arts training instead of easier.

This theme reaches across other parts of practice also. It is not only limited to the practice of martial arts.

I share my experience with this point of things getting progressively more challenging, and what I have learned from it. Nowadays I approach this experience from a different perspective where I value this feedback from my reality, and what I have come to understand it means.

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self, we take an honest and deep look into the word and concept of toughness. We ask ourselves what it means to be really tough? Is toughness only limited to physical abilities, skills, and form? Maybe there is more to being tough than meets the eye.

Martial Arts is certainly a field where toughness comes in handy in many ways, from exercise to sparring to actual competitions and combat. However, many other areas of our life and self-experience in our life and this world require us to be tough.

In this episode, we explore how we can map the concept of being tough to many more areas of our life and self than just martial arts. I share a bit of my history with toughness, how I started to challenge my definition and relationship to toughness, and how I am living it right now in myself and my life. Turning it inside. From the within to the without. Expanding toughness to be an expression of myself rather than just limited to one singular field or application, such as martial arts.

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self, we look at the word 'fun' and our relationship to fun when it comes to martial arts for example.

Doing something that we are not good at, and doesn't come easy to us, is rarely ever fun, but it is fruitful. Through sticking to it with time and dedication, and discipline - it bears fruit. It expands our self-character and enriches our life. This is something we can then truly be proud of ourselves.

We can reshape our outlook to for example martial arts and the training and living involved in it, and free ourselves from this concept of 'it must be fun all the time.' It is not. That would be unnatural since our experiences vary from day to day anew. Each day is a new setup. We meet each day anew. Therefore what was fun yesterday, may not be so fun day after day.

Continuing to do the training though is the important part otherwise we put a halt to our growth if we only let ourselves grow when we have and experience fun towards something.

In this episode, I share how this idea of fun has compromised my growth and what I have realized when it comes to fun and martial arts and other activities of my life.

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self, we discuss both the times where we feel more and less in alignment with our goals, motivation and starting point that we initially had for something in our life, such as for martial arts.

We all know the times where we feel motivated and pumped to pursue our goals. Following through during those times with for example our martial arts training is quite easy and smooth. The other side of the coin is the times where we feel misaligned and even start doubting our goals and the initial starting point of our pursuit in martial arts.

However, consistency on our part is the king that will bestow us with treasures if we keep it up. Both high and low times are natural parts of the one, which is the movement and progression of life.

In this episode, I talk about how I try to keep this strand of consistency in myself when it comes to for example the context of martial arts.

This episode of the Martial Art of Self sheds light on the importance of being and working out alone. It is important to build a balance between working on yourself alone and participating in a group. 

Being alone with ourselves puts us in a much different space of self. In this space we are left with ourselves alone: Mind, Body and Being. 

This, in turn, gives us a unique opportunity to get to know parts of us that we otherwise wouldn't. 

Here I share how working out alone and being alone with myself has created a calm and silenced space inside me where I can explore much more of me, my mind and body. This, in turn, allowed me to perceive new aspects within not only martial arts but other parts of my life.

In this episode of Martial Art of Self, we discuss personal commitment and investment for self. I share my observations on when I started questioning my purpose with martial arts when I kept doing the same exercises over and over. I could not figure out why I was doing what I was doing. I started having lots of doubts about my relationship with martial arts.

Martial arts, like so many other tools, can be used as an aid to support the best of you in this life. It is possible to create a better version of yourself through the system and principles of martial arts.

I share with you how I decided for myself the type of words I applied in my training, the exercises I used when I went into resistance, and what I had to do to re-invest in myself.

In this episode of the Martial Art of Self, we continue with the question “What is my relationship to martial arts?” We dive into the self-inquiry process and how one must make an active choice to challenge one’s own current understanding and views of martial arts.

There is no sense to continue the journey of self-inquiry if one is not honest with oneself in totality. The good, bad and ugly must be embraced and looked at to gain clarity on oneself and see beyond the constructed box one has built for oneself.

It is possible to use martial arts as a tool to conduct additional methods and applications of self-investigation for self-discovery. It is also possible to use the physical body to your advantage for self-expression. We explore more on these points today - so get ready!

In this episode of Martial Art of Self, we explore the question: ‘’What is my relationship to martial arts?’’

Working with your own personal definition of martial arts can assist in understanding how you interpret this art form and whether it supports you completely or not.  I find to truly understand your relationship to martial arts, you must be brutally honest with yourself, with no suppression of the truth.

In this episode, I share how my definition of martial arts made me tunnel-visioned and fueled my ego. This damaged me and my mindset because I used it for comparison and competition. I decided to challenge my current relationship to martial arts and created a new definition that turns martial arts for me into a process of self-inquiry, self-understanding, and self-actualization.

I share glimpses of how I walked that process of re-defining martial arts for me, and some of the methods, steps, questions and points I looked at, and tested.

In the very first episode of the Martial Art of Self podcast, I share my personal insights and realizations when it comes to exercise, willpower and self-principle. We explore the following questions: Is it possible to push through the laziness, lethargy, and resistance towards training? Can it be that we can create a motivation point within ourselves that can move through negative emotions?

I believe that exercise within martial arts is not only a tool for building physical strength, but self-character. One can take all the words within martial arts and philosophy (such as strength and power) and apply it to other aspects of our lives - making martial arts an integral part of us.

To become self-motivated and develop the strength to meet many internal resistances and challenges towards training and growing ourselves is absolutely possible. In this episode I explain what has worked for me and how I am living it.