If we challenge ourselves often enough, we will reach our breaking point. We will feel like we want to quit.
In these moments, if we do not quit, if we persevere and push forward, we will learn things about ourselves and tap into parts of ourselves that would otherwise remain hidden.
We may still fail. Persistence does not guarantee success.
But this failure will always be worth the effort.
Fear is a deceptive emotion.
Sometimes our fear is our ego’s barrier between where we are and where we should be going, telling us exactly that which we should pursue by acting in spite of our fear.
Other times, our fear is a warning sign telling us to take another path in order to avoid imminent danger.
Both manifestations may feel exactly the same.
Wisdom is knowing the difference and acting accordingly.
Abuse is not meant to be tolerated.
There are situations or circumstances, however, wherein our very survival may depend upon our ability to tolerate the otherwise intolerable.
If we can do this and it does not break us in the process, we will be stronger, wiser, and hopefully more compassionate for the experience.
And yet, abuse is not meant to be tolerated.
There will be times when we will doubt ourselves, our choices, and our path.
This is only natural.
When we find ourselves feeling unwaveringly confident in all things, absent of doubt, it is a sign of either our foolishness or our ignorance.
Questioning, not confidence, is the path of wisdom.
Confidence without doubt is hubris.
Wisdom is attained only through curiosity.
Curiosity followed leads us down the path of errors, mistakes, and even failure.
This is the path of knowledge, not to be avoided, but pursued, embraced, and celebrated.
Doubt should not impede us.
It should inspire us.
Doubt is a teacher.
As such, it should be honored, explored, and learned from.
It is only on the far side of doubt that we will find ourselves and our way.
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 Kogen Dojo Self Defense Academy where he teaches Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
All photos by Robert Van Valkenburgh unless otherwise noted.*
*Robert Van Valkenburgh’s black and white photography can be seen at My Darkness To Light
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One thought I have had during all of this is that our information age has damaged science and medicine in a way most do not consider. It has forced scientists and doctors to be experts in real time, but that is not how science or medicine really work. They work slowly.
In the past, the experiments, the trials, the data, conclusions, mistakes, etc. were all done behind the scenes over a long period of time before being presented to the public as expertise. Now, the public is given a view behind the curtain, so to speak, but the public does not understand that what they are viewing is a process, not a conclusion. We are not equipped to handle the process. We are wired to need a solution. And, on top of that, we should have no say in the process, but now we do, in some weird way.
None of us is capable of being an expert in all things. Nor are we capable of holding informed, educated opinions on all subjects. Knowledge and expertise at the highest levels, especially with regards to science and medicine, are not democratic in that way, even if access to them may be.
Personally, I would rather not know until the truth reveals itself, which may be years away. In the meantime, I want to live my life with my own knowledge, my own peers, and in my own community. The science and the medicine will get to me when they are ready, which may be never.
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.
Meditations on God 