“It will make your journey much more difficult if you don’t have an open mind, and refrain from assuming that you won’t be able to do it or it won’t work.”
The human brain is a very interesting organ; just by thinking or reacting to something, your body will physically respond. When you’re anxious, your heart races and you start sweating as if you’re running a marathon, yet you could be standing perfectly still in a cold room. When you’re overjoyed, you feel a warmth inside you, possibly even beginning to shake from excitement as if you’re a bit chilly. All of these physical reactions and body functions were derived from an emotion, or a thought, in your head that affects your whole being. This is why it’s so important to manage your thoughts, and overall, I believe it’s the reason a lot of people are so careful and skeptical of what they believe. People begin to only see the world through their own perspective, and it creates mental barriers around foreign concepts. There’s an idea that relates to this, for lack of a better term, titled ‘Western mind’, which I might more accurately describe as the ‘American mind’.
In the United States, our culture shies away from talking about emotions, mental health, and how debilitating those things can be to our everyday lives. We’re so focused on staying busy and trying to be confident in ourselves, we default with the response ‘Good!’ when someone asks you how you’re doing. Everybody hates feeling negative emotions and what they do to our body, so we just avoid them. All of this is done to protect yourself and your own thoughts. It similarly is why some people can’t handle philosophy or abstract concepts; they are shaken with information that they haven’t considered before. Information that could potentially shake up what they’ve always thought to be true, it would change their whole world. This is something that I believe all cultures and society experience, but the way each one reacts is vastly different. Since American society has such a stigma against emotion and abstract thinking, people are further solidified in their own beliefs and often will become defensive of them, leading a majority of people to become closed minded.
With martial arts, the way that we move our body in position for kicks, strikes, rolling/falling, is unnatural to us as we’re using muscles barely used in everyday life. It will make your journey much more difficult if you don’t have an open mind, and refrain from assuming that you won’t be able to do it or it won’t work. It’s important to be curious and skeptical of new things of course, but there is a respectful balance when it comes to martial arts. A lot of beginners will constantly question everything: themselves, the techniques, including the validity of techniques and drills themselves. Maybe you experienced this as well! As mentioned, it’s good to have these questions, but not stay hung up on them as it will hinder you from advancing.
Think back to the first time you saw a horse stance. It probably looked weird and you didn’t understand what this had to do with fighting somebody. Nevertheless, if you didn’t quit right then and there, you did the stance anyways and trusted your instructor. Eventually your legs got stronger, your balance and alignment improved, and you were beginning to understand how to use your body in a different way you hadn’t considered before. If you stayed stuck by your thoughts of the horse stance, there never would’ve been the opportunity for you to realize the benefits taught through the generations.
Whether you’re starting a new martial art, job, hobby, this applies to anything. Keep an open mind, keep learning, and keep growing.
