Chances are if you’re reading this blog, you are very passionate about martial arts. I would also venture to guess that quite a few of you also have a lot of martial arts pictures on your social media profiles, and rightfully so, It’s something that you are passionate about. I created my Facebook account in 2016 and for the longest time I only had pictures of me doing martial arts.
To be honest with you, I didn’t know it, but it put a lot of pressure on myself and restricted how I interacted on social media. I felt like I had to post only martial arts related things, and just like how people get self conscious about their physical appearance when posting a picture, I became incredibly self conscious about my technique! Every kick and stance had to be pristine.
Towards the end of last year I made a change. I decided to post a picture of me completely unrelated to martial arts. Suddenly, I felt more human and a lot of the pressure went away. Teaching classes and lining up as a student, I felt like I could be myself, and both my technique and my attitude improved. I also felt better about sharing some of my other hobbies like hiking and photography!
I think it’s incredibly important that we remember that underneath every martial artist is a person. These people have hobbies and interests outside of martial arts. They have lives. They have a family. I think being in uniform is important, but it can make it harder to see past the martial artist and see the person.
So If you want to humanize yourself, Relieve some pressure, or express different facets of your life, do what I did. Share a picture of you not doing martial arts. I don’t want the world to see me as (Boo) Sah Bum Nim or Mr. Paprocki, I want them to see David.
