Martial arts: connecting body and mind

In eastern cultures martial arts are one of the main tools to connect three elements that make up the being: body, mind and spirit .

The concepts of spirit that we find in the West are very different from those in the East, and susceptible to fatal misunderstandings, therefore we will limit ourselves to the primary connection, that between body and mind .

We will discover, to begin with, that the concept of the Eastern mind is also different from the Western one, in that the so-called mind also includes the feelings and emotions that normally here in the West we love to bring back into the sphere commonly called "heart".

Therefore, the idea of connecting body and mind means finding a balanced harmony between the movements and structure of the physical body and thoughts, ideas, feelings and emotions.

Healty mind in healty body

The body, in itself, is a complex and surprising biological machine, but the secret of driving lies in the driver and the ease he finds in transmitting his commands to the machine.

In this sense, the physical discipline is very important: the machine must be efficient, responsive, ready, polished, trained.

Discipline is the vehicle that transmits awareness in the body, and a conscious body is a self-controlled progressive body, ready to express mastery; but a great car in the hands of a bad driver is not a big deal.

The mind also needs discipline, control and mastery . Disciplining the mind means not letting moods prevail over the objective we set ourselves: every day we can find a thousand reasons (excuses) to avoid training but a disciplined mind knows how to find the only reason to train when they seem to be missing all conditions: a disciplined mind is self-motivating.

Emotions and harmony

But we can say that the last stage, or in any case, another stage without a doubt superior, is that in which there is no longer the driver and the machine and a sort of fusion takes place, of total identification: the mind ceases to be an entity abstract and the body awakens from its status as a mere instrument, discovering that it is actually composed of the same matter as the mind: consciousness .

Martial arts are an excellent way to develop all this: the disciplined repetitiveness, humility, the need to be sincere and obedient in the face of one's own limits and possibilities for growth, attention to detail and minutiae, the possibility to deepen and refine infinitely every single technique, the systematic empirical knowledge of the body, of each of its functions, of every part, bone, tendon muscle.

Finally, the discovery of emotions under pressure and of guiding ideas : we will discover anger, impatience, impatience, fear, envy, distrust and we will discover that it is these distortions of mental strength that limit us.

Martial practice will teach us to transform anger into understanding, impatience into flexibility, impatience in patience, fear, courage, envy in appreciation and gratitude, distrust in self-esteem.

These breakouts of mental energy will be reflected in the body generating a form of joy during practice, a very positive emotional maturity, and superior martial performances .

Even the opposite will be true: the satisfactions in martial progress will automatically open mental doors that have been closed until recently: we will find ourselves more noble, balanced, we will no longer need to prove anything to others, nor to attract their attention.

The body will remain noble in defeat, in adversity, in pain, in injustice; the mind will do the same. With a true master, an example of life that does not live the martial arts only as an expression of power or opportunity for competition, this path is possible.