Life

When we make a mistake, we should acknowledge it, accept it and learn from it. Philosophy says that we need to accept ourselves as we are, live with the mistakes we make. It’s ok to feel bad about mistakes but they need to be acknowledged and accepted. Where do I get this idea from? See below.

A couple of years ago I attended a course where we practiced and aimed to improve several useful transferable skills. Among the exercises we did was one which was about going into a room, sitting down and answering questions of several interviewers. One of us who was selected for this exercise had been studying a martial art for a long time (I think he did kyokushin karate) and his performance was better than the others' (people not being interviewed were observers). The course leaders said that people studying martial arts are naturally better at interviews and, generally, in stressfull situations.

I was thinking a bit more about the 7th point of the previous post while cutting a couple of shomenuchis in our room: "Do something that makes you feel better". If this is part of a pattern that is associated with negative thinking and with - wrongly - focusing on what we don't want then there should be at least two types of activities that make us feel better.

I spend a lot of my time on thinking who I am, why I am, what is my purpose in this world, why I do things the way I do them. Depending on what my actual thoughts are my aikido trainings are also different. If I'm in a good mood then training goes with ease, if I'm having some negative thoughts then training is more like struggling.

When we go to Hungary to visit friends and family, I usually try to organise our programmes so that I have time to train at my old club at least once. Since starting blogging, this was the first time we went home so I think it's time for me to write about what it was like to train with old aikidoka friends.