5 Essential Mindfulness Habits I Learned From a Decade of Karate
Karate isn’t self-defence. It’s self-improvement.
When I was 5 years old, my parents put my brother and me in Goju-Ryu karate.
Translating to “hard-soft style”, Goju-Ryu originated in Okinawa, Japan. Home to some of the longest-living people in the world.
Karate didn’t teach me how to fight — or even defend myself.
But, it’s provided me with the mental strength, training, and practical skills to balance the hardness and softness of life.
In a world buzzing with stimulation and controversy, here’s how karate helped me look within.
Karate doesn’t work for self-defence.
As a kid, my dad used to say, “I feel sorry for whoever decides to mess with you at school.”
Being shy, nervous, and never having been in a fight himself, my dad didn’t understand that karate is a philosophy — not a lesson plan.
Famously illustrated in the movie, “The Karate Kid”, Goju-Ryu teaches self-defence indirectly. Through mental training such as wax-on-wax-off movements.
