The more we look for beauty in the world, the more beauty we are likely to see.
The same holds true for ugliness.
Both exist whether we look for them or not.
So we must choose where to focus.
Looking for one does not make the other go away.
However, by adding our focus to one or the other, we bring a little bit more of it into the world.
‘Into Focus’ by Robert Van Valkenburgh
HOLISTIC BUDO: As in Life, so too in Budo. As in Budo, so too in Life.
We can pour our heart into something, but if the results we produce do not show it, no one will ever know.
This leaves us with a choice to make.
We can continue to put our heart on the line for the sake of the act itself, regardless of outcome.
Alternatively, leaving our feelings aside, we can switch to a results-focused approach.
Or, we can give up on our current course of action and choose a to go in a different direction altogether.
None of these options is necessarily better or worse than the other.
The choice is ours.
We simply have to be willing to live with the outcome.
‘Choosing Heart Or Result’ by Robert Van Valkenburgh
HOLISTIC BUDO: As in Life, so too in Budo. As in Budo, so too in Life.
It is easier to stay healthy than it is to get healthy.
Going from an unhealthy state to a healthy one requires immense effort, dedication, and discipline.
Staying healthy requires the same, but with one major difference.
The transition from an unhealthy state to a healthy one also requires us to overcome inertia in a way that staying healthy does not.
Inertia keeps us stuck.
It makes it difficult for us to get started in a new direction.
Overcoming inertia can be beyond challenging without the proper motivation.
And our motivation must not only get us started, but it also has to keep us going until we gain momentum.
Even with motivation and momentum, drastic changes are not easy, but they become easier.
Once we begin making real, observable and measurable progress, all we have to do is to keep going.
This is not without its challenges or setbacks, but it is much easier to keep going than it was to get started.
Once we are on our way, we must be diligent in not allowing ourselves to fall back into the trap that is inertia and begin gaining momentum in the wrong direction.
‘Overcoming Inertia’ by Robert Van Valkenburgh
HOLISTIC BUDO: As in Life, so too in Budo. As in Budo, so too in Life
When we obsess too much over the things we cannot have, we miss everything else.
By looking at what we do not have, we fail to see the things we do have and we close ourselves off to the opportunities available to us.
Instead of seeing ourselves as unfortunate because we cannot have what we think we want, we should be grateful for the clarity we have gained from this experience.
A blocked path offers us the gift of clarity.
Now we know where not to go.
In spite of how we may feel, this knowledge gives us freedom for it opens up the world to us.
Everything is possible except for that which we now know is not.
A blocked path may be the end of one thing, but it is also the beginning of everything else.
‘The Opportunity Of A Blocked Path’ by Robert Van Valkenburgh
HOLISTIC BUDO: As in Life, so too in Budo. As in Budo, so too in Life.
We often hear that change is frightening, but what should be more frightening to us is never changing.
To not change means that we do not grow, adapt, or evolve.
It means that we stagnate and remain stuck as who we were before life brought us to this point at which we presently find ourselves.
Change may be intimidating, but to not change is exhausting.
Not changing requires immense amounts of resistance on our part and it is unnatural.
From birth to death, life is change.
To live is to change.
‘To Live Is To Change’ by Robert Van Valkenburgh
HOLISTIC BUDO: As in Life, so too in Budo. As in Budo, so too in Life.
Meditations on God 