With Thanksgiving last week, I’ve been thinking and talking a lot about the practice of being grateful or thankfulness. The challenge of the week in the dojo is to spend at least one minute each day thinking about the things you are thankful for. This simple practice is easy to discount, yet it could absolutely [...]
Today is Voting Day. No matter what your political views are and whether or not you feel any power over the outcome, you are probably very happy for this election season to be coming to a close (specifically if you’re like me, for the hundreds of texts to stop). I promise this blog will not [...]
The spiritual meaning of namaste is The Divine in me bows to the Divine in you. When a yogi bows with hands pressed together, this is a physical expression of respect that transcends the ego. This is what all bows can be. When I first heard this explanation of a bow, I thought it [...]
We are now entering the 9th month of Covid-19 in the US and the 6th month since California announced a stay at home order. Many people have died and everybody’s life has changed. It seems like our entire world has changed. We can choose a perspective from Martial Arts. When we look at this year [...]
I like the question of the week, "Do I like the person I am?". It gives me some insight into how I have changed over the years. When I was younger I didn't like myself. It seemed like other kids were always making fun of me and only me (they must have sensed some innate [...]
Returning to the dojo means breathing with a mask, and some of us find that difficult. What can happen is a feeling of breathlessness, of not being able to breathe enough. This feeling is called dyspnea by scientists and clinicians, and dyspnea comes from the brain rather than not getting enough air. The feeling is [...]
I had planned on talking about forgiveness in this newsletter, but I’m finding it to be an increasingly difficult topic to navigate these days. I’m not going to tell you to forgive anybody, nor will I attempt to tell you what is right or wrong for you to do. I don’t believe that martial arts [...]
A student asked me about what I meant by emotional content last week and as it is an important concept in martial arts, I’m seizing the opportunity to discuss it at length here. As Bruce Lee famously mentioned in Enter the Dragon, emotional content is about being in the moment, free of attachment, and feeling. [...]
Over the last few weeks I’ve been talking a lot about thriving and the idea of turning challenges or problems into opportunities. I believe that this is one of the most valuable things we get from our practice of martial arts and meditation. What we as a human race are facing right now is undoubtedly [...]
There seems to be an air of helplessness in the world today, rather than responsibility. If you watch the news you’ll be scared half to death by any number of things. Lately, politics and coronavirus are the most pressing, so I’ll use those as a jumping off point. In many of my recent conversations about [...]
