Meditations on God

Embodying the Art
“In order to understand the true essence of martial arts, you must have the rest of your life, your relationships, your money, and your health, in balance.” — Joe Sheya

Ideally, martial arts teach us about more than just fighting. They teach us about all aspects of human interaction, from relational etiquette to posture, balance, spacing, initiative, leverage, timing, and, of course, force management, both inside of ourselves and through another person. These lessons, if we are introspective in any way, begin to inform our personal lives, but our personal lives also inform the way that we learn these lessons.

If our personal lives are out of balance, it can be extremely difficult for lessons from our martial practice to find fertile soil from which to grow up into something meaningful. While we will still benefit from our martial practice as we would with any physically and mentally challenging activity, we simply will not understand the deeper lessons therein until we are ready to do so. If there is depth to our practice’s teachings, they need a clean, clear space within which to settle and take root.

It is our responsibility, if we are serious, to do the work in our personal lives to put them in order in such a way as to reap the benefits of the lessons being passed down to us in our practice. Obviously, if we only want to learn the superficial aspects of the martial arts, all we need to do is show up and train, and, to be fair, some martial arts only have superficial value to offer. However, if we are all in, if we have found a practice that has a history, a philosophy, and a character that we want to embody, there is work outside of the dojo that must be done in order for us to become that which we value.

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, as well as a founding member of the Severna Park and Baltimore Holistic Chamber of Commerce.

Artwork by Ana, except where otherwise noted.

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December 20, 2019

learning, life, Martial Arts, teaching, the journey, the path, the way
Skill Does Not Equate To Purpose
Just because you are good at something, perhaps even better at that thing than everyone else around you, does not mean that it is your true calling.

Sometimes we find ourselves in a position of responsibility based solely on a set of skills that we posses. We may even find ourselves in this position simply because the people around us do not possess these skills. Being skilled at something, or at least more skilled than others at that thing, does not necessarily mean that we should dedicate our efforts, focus, and time on that thing.

Being good at something does not make that thing worth doing. Nor does being needed, in most cases, obligate us to do that which is needed for those who need it. Obviously, the dynamics of obligation are affected by agreements, contracts, and familial-social bonds, but, in the existential sense, neither our skills nor others’ needs require action or even a feeling of duty-boundness on our part.

What we are good at may actually be a greater reflection of what we are avoiding than it is of what we should be pursuing. Sometimes, we become highly skilled in areas of work or relationships exactly so that we can buffer ourselves from having to do work that is truly meaningful to us, as a way of drowning out the voice that cries out for light and purpose from the depths of our beings. It is this voice we owe our time and attention to.

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, as well as a founding member of the Severna Park and Baltimore Holistic Chamber of Commerce.

Artwork by Ana, except where otherwise noted.

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December 19, 2019

ability, efficacy, goals, passion, purpose, skill
The Story of Possibility
Sometimes our greatest enemy, our grandest saboteur, is the story we tell ourselves about who we are and the value of our contribution to the lives of those around us.

We cannot base our lives solely on the opinions of others, but we also cannot base our lives solely on our own opinions of ourselves. What we think about ourselves, how we talk to ourselves about our short-comings, our past failures, and fears about the future, does nothing to serve our true character and our true potential. We are so much more than what others say about us and we are so much more than we say about ourselves.

Life is much more forgiving than we tend to be. We get far more chances to try again, to change, and to do better next time than we often give ourselves or others. The story of judgement we tell ourselves over what we perceive as unforgivable, irredeemable, or irreversible mistakes or wrongdoings is just that, a story.

The truth is that we are beings of change, beings of possibility. We must allow ourselves to become more than a product of perceptions, more than how we think the outside world perceives us and more than what and who we perceive ourselves to be. In spite of what others may think, in spite of what we may think, we are more than a story.

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, as well as a founding member of the Severna Park and Baltimore Holistic Chamber of Commerce.

Artwork by Ana, except where otherwise noted.

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December 18, 2019

beliefs, opinions, perception, possibility, potential, self talk, stories
10 Tips for Inspiring Inspiration and Being More Consistently Creative
Regardless of our individual vehicles for creative expression, whether we use pens, brushes, musical instruments, or even our bodies, there are a few things that we can do to inspire inspiration, so to speak, to show up more reliably and consistently.

Here are 10 tips for being more consistently creative:
1. Set time aside: If you do not schedule time each day to do your creative work, it will get pushed to the back burner and you may never get to it.
2. Make it routine: Do your creative work at the same time every day, in the same space, with the same lighting, the same or similar music (or silence), etc. so that your creative mind begins to recognize this time and this environment as where it is free to do its best work.
3. Break up your routine: Once you find a routine that you can stick to, one that works for you, break it up a little bit from time to time to see how different environments affect your creative process.
4. Visit new places: Travel, even to the next town over, is a great way to inspire new creative ideas, especially if these places have a vibrant, thriving art, music, or cafe culture, but even the most mundane new experiences can become inspiration for creativity if we are open to what they have to offer.
5. Hang out where creativity is happening or has happened: Creative spaces inspire creativity, so seek out places where people are making art, music, dancing, etc., or go where people have done these things in the past, or where creative work is on display, such as museums, galleries, etc.
6. Associate with creative people: If it is indeed true that we are the average of the people with whom we most often associate, it stands to reason that, if we want to be more creative, we should associate more frequently with people who are also doing creative work.
7. Let your environment inspire you: When you feel creatively stuck, simply look around, observe what is happening around you, find inspiration in your everyday life, and think about how you can reinterpret or express what you see, hear, feel, smell, or taste in a new, unique way.
8. Scratch your own itch: Make art that you like, that inspires you, that you wish was in the world for you because this guarantees that you have an audience, at least an audience of one.
9. Just let it out: Start writing, start painting, start playing, start moving, but start, and don’t judge your work until it’s done, and even then, don’t judge it —simply make something else.
10. It doesn’t have to be a lot, but it has to be consistent: More is not better —better is better —but the way to get better is to be consistent, and that may mean doing more until your work gets better.
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, as well as a founding member of the Severna Park and Baltimore Holistic Chamber of Commerce.

Artwork by Ana, except where otherwise noted.

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December 17, 2019

consistency, creative output, creativity, Inspiration, self expression, tips, tips and tricks
Be Professionally and Expertly Yourself
“I think there is what you have and what you do with what you have, and that’s the only way.“ —Sophia Amoruso

If we spend our time trying to create something that pleases others with no regard for what pleases us, the result will be both uninteresting to others and displeasing to ourselves. This is neither desirable nor sustainable. A better strategy is to do that which pleases us, within the boundaries of what we are both good at and capable of, in a unique way that attracts just enough people to keep that which we have created going.

By being true to ourselves, in a way that is attractive to the right few people, we develop an audience based on authenticity and integrity, instead of one based on salesmanship and charisma. For obvious reasons, the audience we inspire must still be large enough to be viable, but a viable audience grown organically is stronger, over time, than a larger audience grown artificially. Organic growth begins by doing that which we are good at in a way that is useful to others, not by doing that which we believe others want us to do.

Part of what makes this difficult and frightening is that, if we are doing something new and unique, there is no guarantee that it will work, but if we do only that which others say they want, we are guaranteed to do nothing new or unique. It is better to fail being ourselves, professionally and expertly, than to succeed trying to be someone else in order to please the crowd. The crowd is never pleased for long anyway, so, as long as we are doing something we believe in, at least one person will be happy.

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, as well as a founding member of the Severna Park and Baltimore Holistic Chamber of Commerce.

Artwork by Ana, except where otherwise noted.

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December 16, 2019

1000 true fans, be yourself, creativity, do you, expertise, individuality, minimal viable audience, professionalism, scratch your own itch, sophia amoruso, uniquenes

Embodying the Art

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Skill Does Not Equate To Purpose

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The Story of Possibility

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10 Tips for Inspiring Inspiration and Being More Consistently Creative

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Be Professionally and Expertly Yourself

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