24 Jul, 2025

I've been looking to a lot of different sources lately to get some good advice on "keeping my Zen" in tense situations. It's not like I have rage issues or anything like that, but this stuff can help out anyone regardless of what their usual response to trouble is. This mental/spiritual side of things is ultimately where my training is going. For more perspective on that, my previous couple of musings are about things I want to work on within myself.

When it comes to the more meditative side of things, I've looked into a ton of sources. For a long time when I was young, I was into the more esoteric (and sometimes mystical) concepts of "flowing energy" type of things, and I applied the exercises I learned in a variety of ways that covered everything from appreciating everyday benefits completely grounded in reality to attempting the entirely experimental "turned up to 11" "ki" powers of martial arts fantasy films.

As I got a bit older, MMA started making its way into the mainstream. This was a great opportunity to start bringing a passion of mine, martial arts, to my friends who don't practice but have an interest in MMA! To fit in and be understood, I also started pulling away from the esoteric in favor of overt things that are good for combat sport sparring, and I didn't notice that I was moving myself into a "body; also mind" outlook, rather than keeping a unified "body and mind" outlook on things.

Now, as I'm going back to "keeping my Zen" as the main benefit, I've caught myself going back and looking at meditations, "ki" exercises, and the surface level Kiaijutsu that I learned 25 years ago. This time, though, I'm not learning this stuff as a curious teenager who was inspired by cool martial arts fantasy. I'm learning it as a middle-aged person trying to "Keep my Zen," and the way the exercises benefit me will also show in my martial arts ability at the dojo.