Meditations on God

Self-Management Over Stress-Management
Stress is misdirected energy.

Stress is energy directed inward that would be more usefully directed toward that which we want to accomplish, achieve, or affect.

This does not mean that we should displace our stress outwardly.

Stress directed outwardly tends to manifest as anger, frustration, and all other forms of counterproductive negativity.

By the time we feel stressed, we have already mismanaged, misguided, and misdirected the external forces acting on us such that they are now acting against us.

We need to learn how to effectively deal with the forces coming at us that cause us to feel stressed before they become stress.

This means we must learn how to better manage ourselves, our space, and our priorities in a way that does not allow external forces to negatively affect us.

This requires integrity, flexibility, and focus.

When we feel stressed by the goings on in our lives, before simply accepting that life is stressful or thinking the world must change in order to accommodate our mental-emotional needs, it would be far more productive to look at ourselves and where we are lacking in one of these three ways.

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 and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh unless otherwise noted.

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August 17, 2020

depression, efficacy, emotions, flexibility, focus, frustration, integrity, life, management, priorities, stress
Progress Over Completion
We cannot control all aspects of life, nor should we expect ourselves to be able to.

A lot of things come at us from day to day, probably more than we can effectively address, manage, or resolve.

That is okay.

Trying to solve every perceived problem, complete every task, and make progress in every direction of our lives all at once will inevitably lead to frustration, overwhelm, and undue amounts of stress because, simply put, it is an impossible task.

In fact, it is a fool’s errand to even try.

Instead of focusing on completion, closure, and resolution in all things, we must learn to focus on progress with regards to those things that matter most.

The goal, after all, is not simply to get things done, but to get things done that make a difference, that move us forward, and that change our lives and the lives of those around us for the better.

This requires that we direct as much of our attention, our effort, and our energy as we can on the people, places, and things that not only need us most, but that we can most greatly and positively affect.

This becomes much more difficult if and when we take on stress associated with things we cannot or should not try to manage, control, or change.

Progress requires efficacy and efficacy requires discernment.

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 and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh unless otherwise noted.

Follow Robert Van Valkenburgh and Holistic Budo on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.

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August 16, 2020

achievement, goals, kaizen, life, priorities, prioritizing, progress, purpose, success
The Value Of An Idea
Our ideas are only as good as their execution.

We may have great ideas, but if we fail to act on them, we will never know.

Then again, our ideas may be terrible or they may need some tweaking, but, again, if we fail to act on them, we will never truly know.

An idea, itself, has no real, inherent value.

It is the action inspired by the idea and the resultant change produced by that action which gives an idea its worth.

Ideas can, therefore, be measured in the change they create.

If an idea creates positive change, in whatever way we measure and define that, the idea can be considered to have positive value.

If, on the other hand, an idea creates negative change, based on whatever subjective or objective criteria we have chosen for measurement, that idea has negative value.

We must keep in mind that the change created by an idea, even when positive, is not always going to be the change we were looking for.

Once brought into the world, an idea may create positive change in ways that are vastly different from the change we were hoping to create through it.

This is quite alright.

Our desire, after all, is just another idea, the value of which can only be known through action.

We can always try again.

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 and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh unless otherwise noted.

Follow Robert Van Valkenburgh and Holistic Budo on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.

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August 15, 2020

action, change, creation, creative, creativity, ideas, value, worth
Savoring Scarcity
“Daddy, I eat my cereal with a small spoon so that I can enjoy it more.”
—My daughter

Quite often, having more of what we enjoy most is either impossible or impractical.

If we cannot have more, we must find ways to enjoy it more.

This is true for many of the small things in life that we like, but that are not necessarily good for us beyond moderate doses.

It is equally true, however, for many of the most important and most valuable aspects of our lives.

Our time, our attention, and our loved ones, once gone, cannot be gotten back

We get what we get and no more.

Regardless of how much we hustle, organize, or optimize, we cannot make more hours in the day.

No matter how well we think that we multi-task, every decision to focus on one aspect of our lives is equally a decision to ignore something or someone else.

And, our friends and our family cannot be replicated or replaced.

We must, therefore, find ways, no matter how small, to savor what we have.

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 and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh unless otherwise noted.

Follow Robert Van Valkenburgh and Holistic Budo on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.

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August 14, 2020

attention, family, focus, friends, friendship, life, purpose, scarcity, time
Embrace The Inevitable
Inevitability is not affected by the way we feel about it.

There are certain facts of life that will not change regardless of whether we agree or disagree with them, approve or disapprove of them, or whether we aid or resist them.

Inevitability does not care about our plans, our opinions, or our emotions.

In spite of how strongly we feel about them, some things we are powerless to affect.

When faced with the inevitable, the sooner we can accept and embrace the reality of its existence, the more easily and effectively we can prepare for it, get out of its way, and view its effects from a vantage point of detachment.

That is to say, we must change ourselves so that we can find a way to live with that which we can not change or stop.

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 and Kogen Dojo where he teaches Taikyoku Budo and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh unless otherwise noted.

Follow Robert Van Valkenburgh and Holistic Budo on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, and LinkedIn.

If you found this post helpful or meaningful in some way, please feel free to Share, Comment, and Subscribe below.
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August 13, 2020

cause, change, effect, emotions, feelings, inevitability, opinions, plans, transcendence

Self-Management Over Stress-Management

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Progress Over Completion

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The Value Of An Idea

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Savoring Scarcity

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Embrace The Inevitable

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