“Striking Breakdowns” is a badass YouTube channel I follow. If you’re new to combat sports, or even if you’re a pro, you’ll love his analysis and breakdowns of major fights in martial arts history.
I recently collaborated with the man behind the channel, Lawrence Kenshin, who just released a video that I scripted and voiced and that he edited and matched with inspiring fight footage.
People are really loving it!
Watch it here:
“Why You Are A Warrior Within”
You see, self-defense and fighting are only the surface level of what martial arts are really about. Like with the tip of an iceberg… most people don’t see the depth and core beneath the surface.
For most of its 5000-year history, mastering the martial arts involved a lifelong journey of continuous self-improvement mentally, physically, emotionally, even spiritually.
Through the practice of martial arts, we can develop authentic confidence, perseverance, fortitude, courage, tenacity, persistence, discipline… but also what often is forgotten in the modern age — integrity, humility, honor, respect, kindness, and even compassion.
Quoting Chatri Sityodtong, the founder of ONE championship, “Martial arts has the incredible ability to change lives, to turn weakness into strength, to mold fear into courage, to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.”
Above all, martial arts unlock, unleash, and strengthen a powerful masculine archetype in all of us who practice it — the unbreakable Warrior spirit to conquer adversity and rise above it even stronger than before. It is that anti-fragile part of us.
Now when I say “unbreakable,” I don’t mean “perfect.” No one is perfect… thankfully… because real beauty in life can only come from those touches of imperfection on an otherwise clean canvas.
The Warrior in us isn’t about being perfect. Like Sly says, it’s not about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.
It’s about getting up after the fall. It’s about learning from the mistakes and failures, regrouping, and taking another shot.
It’s even about the power of forgiveness.
Above all, to forgive yourself when you tried your best but still failed.
It takes fortitude to forgive. Only the cowardly cannot forgive.
A great lesson from martial arts is that when we hold and carry negative energy in our hearts, minds, or bodies, we become burdened by toxicity and poison. We tense up and freeze, lacking fluidity or flexibility of movement.
The martial arts train us to relax — our bodies, minds, and hearts — under progressively stressful situations.
When the rest of the world tenses up, a martial artist breathes more deeply and lets go of his tension. The martial artist stays relaxed and conserves his energy until just the right moment to strike. If he doesn’t, he gasses out — in the cage… and in life.
Martial arts teach us controlled aggression and point us to the important life principle of counter-striking. They teach us that we don’t always have to charge headlong into things… full of nervous, agitated energy. Instead, we learn to stay calm and relaxed, hanging back until the opponent strikes and finally reveals an opening.
Even the earliest ancient texts in China explain this connection between counter-striking and mastering life, such as in the ancient 4th-century BCE text the Dao De Jing:
“Martial practitioners have a saying: I would not strike first but would rather lay in wait. I would not advance an inch, but would rather step a foot back. This is called practicing the dao of effortless action.”
Mastering the martial arts requires being fully present — mentally, physically, emotionally — being in the moment and not in your head. They instill us, in a profound and powerful way, the delicate balance of training in the dojo and then emptying the mind of all that… enabling flow in the present moment, in the heat of battle, whether it’s with your opponent or with the challenges life throws at you.
Out of all sports, it’s in martial arts where this warrior energy is most fully embodied… getting the closest to the literal and physical fight for survival and reproduction we all evolved for.
You see, this indomitable warrior spirit — what the best martial arts instill in us — this Warrior energy is in fact a part inside all of us that has been passed down from generation to generation over hundreds of thousands of years. This warrior archetype in you IS positive masculine energy.
This warrior archetype exists inside you. The warrior part of you is about action and strength. The warrior is looking to DO something using this power.
Is there a part inside you that is a warrior… that can make anything happen? A warrior inside of you that takes action… a warrior that makes no excuses… a warrior that produces results… a warrior that will not come back without the result. Is there a part of you like that?
In talking about the warrior, we are talking about recovering the energy, the strength, the determination, and the commitment to truth that were stifled in our youth. When we reclaim our warrior energy, we unlock and unleash this ability to transform our lives… and the world with it.
For over a decade, David Tian, Ph.D., has helped hundreds of thousands of people from over 87 countries find happiness, success, and fulfillment in their social, professional, and love lives. His presentations – whether keynotes, seminars, or workshops – leave clients with insights into their behavior, psychology, and keys to their empowerment. His training methodologies are the result of over a decade of coaching and education of thousands of students around the world.
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