Martial arts is underrated as a way to prevent the feeling of “overwhelm” in life.
Whether its your partner, your financial situation or your health, life gives us challenges to grow. And in my experience, martial arts has been a time tested method to learn how to weather the stressors.
It was a regular morning in Mysore, I woke up in my newly rented AirBnb apartment, watched the morning sun shining through the windows. It was a slow start.
After attending an online session (that is part of the 64 day purpose challenge), I finished a few household chores.
Before I knew it, it looked like I was going to be late for the Kalim martial arts class in the Akhada. I arrived and based on the instructions of Guruji, had to get to work and finish 10 pushups on my knuckles for every minute I was late (not only me, the whole class). This amounted to 190 push-ups on my knuckles on the hard floor.
Photo by Sarah Cervantes on Unsplash
1.5 hours later…
All of us had finished 190 push ups on our knuckles. I had done it chanting the name of Jai Mahakali and Jai Hanuman, they gave me the strength to push through the pain.
I felt an unsurmountable surge of courage and a calmness from the accomplishment that I thought was impossible a short while ago.
Photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash
The next day I ventured alone to Goa to attend a wedding and meet a lot of people who usually tend to be difficult to interact with in a positive way without conflict. Usually, anxiety and fears would make this reality come true. However, any moment the useless thoughts of fear cropped up, I referred back to the moment I finished those 190 push-ups on my knuckles.
And be filled again with calmness, despite the pain, from achieving what I perceived as the impossible. Energy would suffuse back into my body and I would think of creative ways to solve the problems without giving up on these difficult to deal with people. Martial arts certainly helped me over-prepare for the stressors in life.
It was quite clear to me once again, beyond the desire to learn self -defence, why I kept going to learn Kalim martial arts. It was the fearlessness it nurtured in me to face life’s numerous challenges.
It was for the joy one gets from helping others, and not giving up on them.
It was for being limitless while also bringing others along with you.
– Meenakshi Piplani