Kiai
A kiai used in martial arts is a loud vocal expression. This week’s question is, “Do kiais embarrass or liberate you?” Kiai is a Japanese term that means “spirit yell” and is comprised of the symbols for ki which means spirit or life force energy (similar to chi in Chinese) and ai which means to harmonize. A kiai is an explosive shout meant to energize a strike and startle an attacker. Your
Choosing your Life
Choosing can lead to certainty. In Karate Kid, Miyagi Sensei drew the comparison between Daniel’s choice to practice martial arts and walking down the road: “Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later, get squish just like grape.” Choosing or waffling We live in balance between extremes. Sometimes, we may experience much of life as a grey area rather than everything being in black and white, yet
Patience
This week’s internal challenge is to recognize when you wish something were going faster, then pause and be patient. Patience is something we all struggle with from time to time. This simple exercise will help us keep it at the front of our minds and cultivate patience. Traffic as a teacher Years ago I recognized I was often driving impatiently. I would drive at least a little faster than all the cars
Growing Up
Over the last few months, I’ve been growing up. At least, "grown up" things have been happening in my life. Two were of my own volition: getting married and buying a house. The third was seeing my mom pass away. The first two have seemed almost like I’m playing pretend at times, like my life is still in a lower gear yet higher gear things are happening whether or not
Challenge and Loss
I’ve been writing and speaking about how to best deal with challenge and hardship in life for about 20 years now, and I have a confession to make: I don’t think that I’ve had to truly deal with hardship in my own life. If you’ve known me for any length of time this probably comes as no surprise; I talk often about my charmed existence. One of the main reasons
