Finding your “Voice”

What can martial arts do for me? “I don’t ever want to have to fight anyone.”

Well, lucky for you it’s not all about fighting…. But if it’s not all about fighting why would I “waste my time”???

There are many physical benefits to training, but for now lets focus on the mental strength you’ll gain…

Through your training you will learn respect, honor, integrity, loyalty and the development of other personal attributes such as humility, maturity, discipline and inner peace. Another an extremely important one is Confidence. And through that confidence you can find your “Voice”.. But how do those attributes apply to confidence ??? Let’s take a look at just a few ways…

Respect— You will learn that everyone sees life through different eyes and has different life experiences that shape who they are and how they may see and process things differently than you. And learn to have admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements.

Honor— Is defined as “adherence to what is right or to a conventional standard of conduct.” “high respect; great esteem”. from here you will learn to respect for tradition and for those that came before us and left us this amazing gift called Martial Arts. And you will develop a great respect for the traditional training of the arts. And respect for the process of traditional learning.

Integrity—Having integrity means doing the right thing in a reliable way. It's a personality trait that we admire, since it means a person has a moral compass that doesn't waver.

Loyalty— You will foster very strong relationships and in essence grow your family in ways you never expected. And with that you will find that you have a whole new circle that you can depend on, and that can depend on you.

Humility— teaches us that we might not have all the answers. It also opens the door for us to ask questions from the ones who might know a better way.

Maturity— lets us take the constructive criticism offered by those that know more than us and get better. And most importantly not taking it personally. (always easier said than done :)

Discipline— keeps you training and always working hard to be better. Regardless of whether it’s physically or mentally. And showing up for class even when you are not at your best. Those are the days that you’ll find that you’ve grown the most!

Inner Peace— An important part of your training. Even if you’ve had a very trying day, you can come and train and burn off all of that frustration. It helps you calm your mind and refocus. You can then go back and see whatever problems you are having through new eyes.

Confidence— This is a big one. Here’s where it all comes together. Now with everything put together you will have grown the confidence to speak up for yourself. And armed with your new found attributes, you can find the best words to say and the best way to say them. The plain simple fact is that sometimes how you say things can be just as/if not more important than what you say. You will have grown in to a person that can clearly identify what’s truly important and speak your mind. Speaking up for what you believe, and helping those around you find their own voice. You will learn to ask questions and seek out the answers even when they aren’t staring you in the face. That way you can make the most informed decisions possible. And you will have gained the maturity to keep your feelings in check. The truth is, facts don’t have feelings. It just is…And in an age where a great many people get their “information” from social media you owe it to yourself to wade through it all and find the true facts.

This is a topic that we could speak about indefinitely, but this will at least give you some ideas on how to BE a martial artist and through it all and find your voice. If you think that training is all about belts and learning to fight you may have missed the point. As martial artist we should always try to find a way not to fight. Armed with a “Voice” you can most times talk your way out of it..

Being a martial artist isn’t just something that you do. It becomes something that you ARE…