Breathing with a mask
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 triggered by higher than normal levels of carbon dioxide, which we may get when the
Martial Arts in Troubled Times
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 comes with any set moral code; rather, our practice should help us better understand our own
Emotional Content
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. Don’t think, feel
Thriving
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 a challenge. It seems to be one of the greatest we’ve faced thus far. How we
Responsibility
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 politics, the eventual conclusion we’ve arrived at is “it’s all a mess and there’s no way
