Sometimes, in order to know our own potential, we need another person to see past the limitations we think we have and tell us who we really are.
We are more complex, more capable, and more powerful beings than we imagine. Often, our greatest limitations are those we place on ourselves, limitations based on our perception of who we are, what we are capable of, and who we can become.
Every once in a while, a person will enter our lives who looks right through our self-imposed limitations and sees our true capacity for love, for creativity, and for change. If we are fortunate enough to meet such a person, we can borrow their vision of who we are. If we are brave enough to face ourselves in this new light, we can actually become this better version of ourselves.
This will not be an easy process. The pull we will feel to go back to our old selves will be strong. Change is frightening and difficult. It is easier to embrace our limitations, to cling to them and let them hold us down, than it is to climb out of our own darkness and face our power and our light. We owe it to ourselves, however, and we owe it to those who see us for who we can be.
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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Meditations on God 