“Flow with the go.”
—Rickson Gracie
Much of the difficulty we face on a given day is rooted in resistance. We resist that which is new, different, or other. We resist demands made on our time, our character, our conceptions, and perceptions. We resist change in ourselves and the world around us. The problem is, where there is resistance, there is conflict.
At best, resistance keeps us where we are. It keeps us stuck. At worst, it causes us to struggle as we lose ground anyway, at the cost of our own integrity and success.
If, instead of resisting the external and internal forces pulling and pushing us from day to day, we treated them with curiosity, we may find that these forces acting on us each contain within them a lesson, a lesson that cannot be learned through resistance.
This does not mean whimsically going wherever the changing tides lead us. We must maintain our focus, our structure, and our drive forward, but if we can do this with incoming forces instead of against them, we will have multiplied our own power exponentially.
Holistic Budo: As it is in budo, so too it is in life. As it is in life, so too it is in budo.
-Robert Van Valkenburgh is co-founder of Taikyoku Mind & Body, Severna Park’s Holistic Chamber of Commerce, and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
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