Humans are emotional; we can choose from angry, happy, sad, scared and frustrated. Our emotions are healthy responses to the stimuli that helped our ancestors survive the trials and tribulations of a harsher and ruthless environment. Emotions can still help us cope with unexpected danger, but they also make us wrong decisions. We must learn how to control and respond to our emotions; one of the great ways to control our emotion is learning Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
How Jiu-Jitsu help you manage your emotion
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or simply “Jiu-Jitsu” although an art of self-defense, can also assist the practitioner in managing your emotions. It is a self-defense system that preaches patience and instinct. It teaches you to feel the enemy’s movements and respond. In combat sports, violence is inevitable, but Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu helps you to controlled aggression. If you can stay cool and think clearly when the blood is flowing, there are several other areas in your life where you cannot do the same. Staying cool can control your own worst enemy which can often be you!
Anger is a momentary madness, so control your passion, or it will control you.– Horace
Saint Paul says not to let the sun go down on your anger. He’s using a figure of speech to let us know we have to deal with anger quickly. Jiu jitsu is a great antidote if used properly for controlling your emotions. Anger is a normal feeling and control of it is a great tool to carry elsewhere in life.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu techniques discourage an athlete from attacking an unprepared or uninformed person. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioners are strongly discouraged from using strategies aimed at injuring an opponent. Athletes are responsible for their opponent security. When using any of the submission techniques, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu students must apply pressure slowly. They should stop when they sense that further pressure could injure the athlete. This teaches the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu student the clarity of purpose, which is to get the opponent to comply and not to harm him. It also teaches them to give honor their opponent’s strength.
Martial Arts Helps You Develop Mindfulness and Reduce Anxiety
Mental training is just as significant as physical fitness and strength. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu brings countless improvements to mind. The martial art has also helped many children and young adults with attention deficit disorder (ADD) by improving their concentration levels, reducing the interference that might otherwise cause disruption in adulthood.
While self-control and discipline improve your ability to manage your responses to ordinary emotions, martial arts can also help you deal with those emotions and anxiety. For example, when you show your emotions and channel them into healthy activities, you begin to dissolve your anxiety. Activities such as martial arts techniques or harnessing negative energy in the form of a well-formed punch or kick on the training bags can melt those emotions before you lose control. In addition, by focusing on the mind and body, martial arts can improve your mindfulness ability to find inner peace and patience so that you become less angry.
Here are some of the ways Jiu-Jitsu or Martial arts training can help you to develop mindfulness:
Jiu-Jitsu helps you learn to deal with pressure
Martial arts give children a safe and controlled environment to learn how to deal with pressure properly. When teaching martial arts, children often find themselves in situations where they have to use their skills to solve problems. Disciplines such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, among others, often emphasize duress performance by improving problem-solving skills.
By coping with the pressure on the mats, children learn to deal with the pressure outside the gym. The clear and calm mind they gain through meditation, combined with improved problem-solving skills, allows you to discover in yourselves how to reduce the stress they experience by working effectively and maximizing their talents.
Be aware of your thoughts
To stay in the present, you must be more aware of your thoughts. For instance, are you calm and productive? How do you talk to yourself while exercising? Are you critical and judgmental? As you become more aware of your thoughts during training, you will be able to rethink all negative things so that your internal dialogue will facilitate only learning and improvement.
Speed of thought
The more you practice martial arts, the more you understand that you need to stay ahead of your opponent. Reasoning plays a big role in developing a defense and attack plan against your opponent. This is why most Jiu-Jitsu experts compare this martial art to a chess game. Many people call Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu “the game of human chess.”
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu can be a special help for parents who find it difficult to control their child’s temperament. Children can learn these qualities early in their lives and put them into practice.
If anger, fear or emotional control is ruining your life, whether it just makes you unhappy, or you start lashing out at people in your life, we recommend that you try martial arts. At Lake Effect Martial Arts we offer a wide variety of practices to suit your individual needs, including Boxing, Wrestling, Muay Thai (soon), and of course our speciality, Jiu Jitsu. We even have a free trial class to get you started. Call today to schedule an appointment or sign up today! 716-395-3451
