I recently heard a great story about perspective that I will paraphrase here. View from the toll booth A man was approaching a line of tollbooths on the freeway in San Francisco. He began to dread the most mundane, sometimes depressing kind of interaction that you get with someone stuck in a toll booth. Yet when he rolled down his window, he heard loud music playing. Upon arriving at his lane’s booth,

When I was young I used to choke a lot. I mean this both in the physical sense (me choking on something, not choking someone else as we do in the adult martial arts classes) and the mental sense. For instance, I used to be totally incapable of taking pills. I would psyche myself out and gag on them, so my mom had to grind them up and hide them

In a few weeks we will be having our first Internal Retreat here in California. My teacher Sifu Brown, who first taught me the value of meditation in martial arts, has had many such events in Michigan, and we are excited to bring it to our students here. Our retreats are a wonderful opportunity to immerse ourselves in practice and make a tremendous amount of progress in a short period of

About two years ago I wrote an article about rank in martial arts after Chris earned his red sash. We’ve had many tests recently, so I’ve decided to revisit it with some changes and additions. Enjoy!   How do you get a black belt? You find a competent teacher and a good school, begin your training and work hard. Someday—who knows when—it will come. It is not easy, but it’s worth it.

The question of the week in the dojo is about your relationships, “What is the most enjoyable thing your family has done together in the last three years?” For many of the students who have brought their family to the dojo, practicing martial arts might be that thing. For those of us who no longer have family practicing here, it may be less enjoyable when we do techniques to them. Some