Saturday morning is taekwondo. There are a lot of reasons that this is a really good thing, the best one being that I get to exercise first thing and it makes me feel better the whole rest of the day. This is the day, the part of the weekly routine that I don’t makes excuses to get out of unless I am going on vacation. Yes I occasionally make excuses to get out of exercising. I know it is hard to believe.
The routines we put in place are important, especially the ones that have to do with our health. When we don’t have them we are sometimes lost and it is so easy to come up with excuses. We end up sabotaging ourselves.
I have been thinking about the idea of discipline as an avenue to freedom. The definition I found this morning of discipline was this:
1. Training that corrects, molds or perfects the mental faculties or moral character.
And disciplined:
1. To train by instruction and practice, especially to teach self control.
Seems as if life itself is the ultimate discipline…………
Here is the description of the taekwondo tenet of self control from the Gentle East website:
This tenet is extremely important inside and outside the dojang, whether conducting oneself in free sparring or in one’s personal affairs. A loss of self control in free sparring can prove disastrous to both student and opponent. An inability to live and work within one’s capacity or sphere is also a lack of self control.
I liken the idea of self control to being grounded and centered in your life. The word control rubs people the wrong way sometimes and can feel stifling. When you are grounded and centered in sparring or life, mind and body working together to be in the present moment, this is the ultimate freedom because it gives you choice.
I am grateful for the discipline of taekwondo, of exercise, of awareness in my life and I can let these help me with the ultimate expression of who I am in the world.
Now, off to kick and punch…
