One reason that many people are drawn to the martial arts is that they would like to develop more courage.
This is not everyone’s reason, but it is important for some people.
Many people experience an irrational level of fear about their own personal safety. For some people this fear is so strong it becomes pathological and they end up never leaving their home.
They feel unsafe within themselves and in the world. They are on constant alert and are always feeling at threat.
This can be as the result of prior experiences in their life such as experiences of violence.
Most people are not so disabled by out of control emotions like this but in general many people do exerperience concerns about their personal safety in public.
Before I started Aikido, I would occasionally have fears and worries about walking the streets alone. When I was younger, on a few occasions I had to run away or escape gangs that were looking for violence. I was lucky on a number of occasions but the expereinces remained in my mind.
I noticed after around 6 months of Aikido training a lot of those fears had disappeared. I started to realise that in general very few people in the world are looking to cause hard to others. The idea of a random act of violence is incredibly rare.
As we develop through Aikido, we gain more confidence in our selves. Aikido can be a platform to develop in courage and confidence. As we do this, the world seems like a different place.
Please feel free to message me with any questions about this.
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