You’re Strong Enough!
I am about to say something really rude. I’m about to say you’re doing something all wrong. It will be interesting to see if you can take it.
Read through the martial arts magazines and you will come across lots of ads that appeal to your desire to get stronger. Maybe they tell you you can beat up the sand kicking bully, or maybe they tell you will get the girl if you can just be stronger. The problem is…they’re wrong.
Your muscles are actually strong enough just as they are. You are strong enough to do anything you want right now. No increase in your strength is required, either to do the martial arts or anything else…including beating up that bully.
Real strength can be measured in several different ways. There is the very real strength you measure by the amount of friends you have. This is a strength that never ends, and is opposed to the fellow who takes martial arts just so he can beat people up.
Then there is the strength of energy, which you grow by stretching and breathing and slow motion. This strength lasts ten times longer than strength of the muscular kind. This strength will never slow you down or bulk you up, such as can be experienced by many types of strength methods.
This energy strength is available through the practice of forms. The slower you go when you do the form, the more strength you will have. The reason for this phenomena is because doing forms cultivates awareness.
Awareness is the ultimate strength. When you do something, maybe do a form stance, you become aware of how your legs work. Thus, you learn how to make them work better, and all sorts of other things, and the legs become measurably stronger.
Simple exercises of the weight lifting type give you some strength, but you tend to focus your awareness on the iron, and not of your body. When awareness becomes focused on the body part, this makes the body part stronger, and gives you more real strength. It is awareness that will ultimately make you as strong as you can be.
Awareness of how your body works, instead of the endless lifting of iron. Awareness that is not concentrating upon your desire for self-image, but rather on the seeking of self-improvement. Awareness, but, unfortunately, most students are mired in such ruts that they are unable to seek out methods that increase awareness.
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Tagged with: health • karate • kung fu • martial arts • pa kua • self defense • shaolin • Tae kwon do • Tai Chi
Filed under: karate
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