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Are Martial Arts for You? �The actions of the sports (in Aikido, waza) have no special value,
but rather, the value is within the individual who chooses to develop her/his
talents.� I am new to the Martial Arts world. I am studying Aikido. I love it! When I was growing up, I knew nothing of it. I suppose it was in my college years that I heard of martial arts (or saw them in the movies) but the image I had was of a gang of macho men learning how to kill people. Not interested! At 50, what a surprise it has been to discover this group of caring, patient, and fun loving people! What an honor and gift it is to be part of this group! Why this article? A colleague of mine, another woman who has just discovered a different style of martial arts (Wing Chun) and who is also quite smitten, shared a book with me called Women in the Martial Arts edited by Carol A. Wiley. I felt I needed to share this with more women. This book is a collection of 23 essays from women who have been training for more than 7 years in one or more forms of martial arts. In almost all of the essays there is talk of the training being a way to look at your self, your life, your journey. �Challenges that arise in training often arise elsewhere in life where they are muddled by surrounding complications. If a person finds herself collapsing under a strong attack in class, she also may be collapsing when mentally or emotionally pushed in life. Learning to be strong in training can translate to being strong when faced with life�s other challenges. In this way, the value of martial arts training is the empowerment of self.�[2] I have chosen one essay to share with the readers of The Boston Women�s Journal. The essay is entitled �Coming Home: T�ai Chi Ch�uan as a Path of Healing� and was written by Jody Curley. She writes of a woman, �Brenda�, who �abandoned her body� when she was very young because it was an unsafe place to be. �She dissociated from her bodily experience of life when the trauma � the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse � became too much for her child�s mind to integrate. Brenda became a disembodied soul and spirit, living principally in her head, numb to most of her emotional experience, moving through the world in a body she sometimes was aware of hating but most often just ignoring.�[3] One of �Brenda�s� most striking characteristics is that she does not remember what happened to her. Yet, her body does remember. It took tremendous courage for �Brenda� to decide to take a T�ai Chi Ch�uan class. Her plan, because she was so uncomfortable using her body especially in a crowd of strangers and because the form looked so easy to do, was to get the information she needed then quit the class and practice in the privacy of her own home. But it was not so easy. And it felt good to move her body. �What Brenda did not know when she came to T�ai Chi Ch�uan was that awareness is one of the most powerful healing forces available to human beings. The purpose of meditative techniques�is to cultivate conscious awareness as a path to integration of all aspects of the personal self, culminating in an experience of union or oneness with what may be called The Way of Things, or Tao, or All-That-Is, or The Divine. When we are in this state of consciousness, we know our own intrinsic perfection with the entirety of our beings. In this state, there is no injury. We are healed and whole.�[4] Practice of the forms helps to increase flexibility and promotes awareness of the hip and pelvic region where the energy is often blocked or frozen. Diaphragmatic breathing, moving the breath from the chest to the dantien (the area 2 inches below the navel), also brings one�s awareness to the second chakra, the seat of sexual energy. This conscious focus on the pelvis can be significantly problematic for students with wounded sexuality. The T�ai Chi Ch�uan exercises provided a non-threatening way for �Brenda� to �feel and use her pelvis more consciously than she ever had.�[5] �She now understood that being physically centered, balanced and grounded inevitably contributed to an emotional state in which she felt relaxed, calm, and stable.�[6] Martial arts classes typically have a greater number of men than women in them unless you find a �women only� class. This provides an opportunity for one to interact with men and women in a safe environment, to establish workable relationships where one might otherwise be distrusting. You learn that size and muscle strength are not the source of your power but rather sensitivity to the flow of Ki from your partner. In the short amount of time I�ve been practicing I have gone from standing in the center of a randori exercise (something like a circle dodge ball game) paralyzed like a deer-in-headlights to willingly taking my turn in the center, knowing that whatever happens, my classmates are supporting me and wanting me to be successful. I might even get in one or two good throws! My fears and inhibitions are being transformed. Out-of-breath and laughing, centered and energized, we end our classes with a declaration of our intention to transform those feelings in ourselves that came up during class that are detrimental to our personal growth. I encourage anyone with any interest at all to consider enrolling in a martial arts class. There are many styles and many different kinds of teachers. If you don�t resonate with the class you are in, try another one. The essay I chose to illustrate the value of participating in such a class was �Brenda�s� story and just one example of one woman�s experience. In Women in the Martial Arts edited by Carol A. Wiley there are 22 other essays that are just as inspirational and perhaps one will pique your curiosity! Biography: Janet Lee M.Ac., Lic.Ac. earned her
Masters degree in Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine from the New England
School of Acupuncture in 1999. She is currently practicing acupuncture
and herbal medicine at Jackowicz Oriental Medical Therapy Associates at Summit Center for Advanced Therapeutics and Performance
(J.O.M.T.A.) in
[1] Kuroiwa Yoshio Sensei, translated by Joel Roth, �Appearance and Reality,� Fighting Woman News, Winter 1985 [2] Women in the Martial Arts edited by Carol A. Wiley [3] ibid p.5 [4] ibid p.9 [5] ibid p.10 [6] ibid p.10
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