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My persOnal insights on aikido, karate, macrobiotics and daily life applicaTions
I will attempt here to give my understanding of a very complex topic in a relatively quick and simple blog post.
Aikido is a Japanese word made up of three parts - "ai" (harmony), "ki" (energy/spirit) and "do" (the way). So it can be translated as "the way of harmonising energy". Aikido emerged out of the ancient martial arts of Japan. As a martial art, rather than fighting against your attacker, you fully join with them and combine your energy with their's. It is the way of restoring peace, or harmony, when there is conflict. Ideally, you aim to protect your attacker as much as possible. Rather than destroy or even harm them, you simply cause them to lose their will to continue fighting. Thus, they become peaceful again. If you understand the principles of aikido, you can apply this to verbal "attacks" as well. When you have a verbal conflict, disagreement or argument, you can respond peacefully and harmoniously, leading to a win win situation where both people are happy, rather than trying to defeat the other person in argument (which only leads to more emotional pain, resentment and further conflict). "Aiki" can also be translated as coordination. Harmony and coordination both carry the meaning of everything working together. Through aikido training, you first establish harmony in your body - whole body coordination. Interestingly, this is a very difficult skill to develop to a high level. Next you develop coordination of your mind and your body. Unlike simple physical exercise like a lot of popular forms of cardio for example, aikido really requires you to strongly use your mind together with your body. When you have established these two levels, then you can aim for harmony with another person (attacker). All of this is developed in aikido training. The beautiful thing about this is that once you have developed this feeling of harmony in your training, that feeling naturally starts affecting your daily life. You became more comfortable, joyful, positive, calm, happy and effective. You more naturally turn challenges into something good. Plus, if you consciously think about how to apply the principles of aikido in your daily life, it will have an even stronger affect. Aikido can lead you to achieve harmony in any of your daily struggles - conflict with people, health issues, challenges in your work or study, or simply the struggle to just enjoy life. I could go on with more detail, but that's about enough for now...
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