Stress Management & Peer Bonding

I have to admit, despite my attempts at a positive outlook on my injury in my last post, that there are times I very much miss my training. This past week was about the worst I've had at the company where I've worked over the past 7 years and despite my alternate evening activities and family time, the stress was tough to manage.

My martial arts training is hands down the best stress management system I've found, and no other activities are sufficient replacements. There something very kinetic and primal about hitting the Mok Jong, practicing kata or doing pad work. One of the best things I think is practicing defenses with a partner and/or sparring which provides a form of stress relief and a type of peer bonding you can't find anywhere else in the world.

I think part of why I find martial arts to be such a good stress reliever has to do with the peer bonding. I might only see some of my karate friends ever in karate, but because of the training, and our overall similar goals in our practice I fell very close to some of these people. The break in my foot has limited my contact with some of these people. I can text, call or email them sure, but it's not the same as training together, learning from them, and teaching them.

It's also the interesting mix of people. At work I have all people working in similar areas and so a lot of the same type of people are there. In a karate class we might have a mechanic, a business man, an IT professional and a doctor in class together learning from each other which provides a lot of different points of view and thoughts.

Another contributor is probably the lack of judgement in my school. It's an atmosphere where I don't have to worry about people judging my mistakes or any of the other back stabby things people do in the business world. I go and we work together to make ourselves better at our craft and just better people in general. A person I consider a close friend in my class once told me that she moved to CT and started training to become a better person than she used to be. Although she never elaborated on what she meant by that, I think that's something we all have do in our training. Whether it's to be a better physical me through fitness or it's to learn to control my thoughts and mind to be a better inner me, or some hybrid of the 2, I think with everything I'm seeing happen this past year, I think we could all use a little time making ourselves better people. 

I know for me I'm a lot less forgiving and am just generally not as nice when I'm stressed which is affecting me at work and at home. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I am channeling my energy into some other activities and so I've resolved the worst of it. I really can't wait until the doctor tells me I can remove my air cast and return to the mat. That way if I have another week like this past week I'll be better equipped to handle that stress. 

Train on.