In most martial arts as you begin to learn new techniques and new ways of moving you are often told to “freeze”. You stop and hold whatever strike or block you executed last in which ever stance you happen to have landed in. Once you have stopped moving the Instructor will come along and push on your arms, legs, and shoulders as well as test your balance.
Life also often works this way. We are required to stop in our tracks, cease moving forward and simply “wait our turn”. We hit roadblocks that cause us to have to pause, even if it is in a “position” that is not to our advantage. Life, and the world we live in, has a way of challenging our mental and emotional balance, testing our “guard”, and pushing us in directions we may not want to go.
As that beginning student of the arts you often found that the Instructor was able to push you around the floor quite easily. That even those techniques and skills you believed you had mastered still offered little in real stability or resistance to the slightest push. What you were experiencing in those moments was a lack of “rooting”, you found out that your balance and your energy were not “centered”. The next lessons you were likely taught by your Instructor probably had a lot to do with breathing and how to stand. They were teaching you that your breathing effects your power and your ability to defeat an opposing force or strike. The lessons were also meant to show you how to develop better balance and find footing and focus of the mind that would allow you to gain a better “grip” on the earth beneath your feet and keep you “rooted” to your spot.
These same lessons can, and probably should, be applied to life. When challenges arise, can you “weather the storm” or will you be “blown away”? Do you know how to use breathing to calm yourself and “find center” before you lose control. Can you focus your mind and resist the forces that are pushing you to the edge?
