Aikido and Happiness Published by Mark Matloff, Ph.D. "Using Martial Lessons to Enhance Your Life" Contents:
What is Aikido? Aikido is a powerful and beautiful martial art. It means: "The Way of Harmonizing Energy." Aikido practitioners learn to blend and steer an opponent's force to safely control a situation. Aikido stands out as a moral martial art. Injury is to be avoided. And yet it is very effective. The beauty and power of the art has to be seen and experienced to be believed. Aikido has nothing to do with conquest. It emphasizes living in harmony with yourself, with others, and with the world. Aikido contains many great ideas for how we can improve our lives. What are AikiPaths? Aiki Paths use the teachings of Aikido (and other arts) and the wisdom of psychology to help improve and enrich our lives. We can learn to blend with ourselves and with others, to reduce or eliminate conflicts, and live more fully. Aikido and Happiness- reprinted from CNY AIKI EXPRESS Mark Matloff Aikido is quite a mystery to me. I've often wondered what keeps drawing me back to this beautiful art. For me, it is not just the repetition of particular techniques. Nor is it just the other ingredients that make up an Aikido class. Certainly, physical exercise, social bonding, aerobic conditioning, practical self-defense, occasional (for me, anyway) weapons training, and even learning to count to ten in Japanese are all pleasant experiences. And yet, there is something more. Over the course of my life, I have occasionally involved myself in one physical activity or another, which has had one or more of these elements. But I have never stayed with something for as many years as Aikido - and no other training or exercise has held such fascination for me. What is even more peculiar is that I continue to love the Aikido experience, even at those times when I am trying to learn a technique and I am not immediately "getting it." While I'm hardly able to read other people's minds, I have overheard the same opinion from other voices besides my own. My question is: why is this so? Why do we throw each other around like crazy people, and then leave the mat happier than when we came on? When will I stop with the questions? I recently finished reading a great book. While it is not about Aikido, it has a lot to do with happiness. In fact, the title of the book is Authentic Happiness. It is written by a psychologist named Martin Seligman. Dr. Seligman spent the greater part of his professional career studying depression, before turning his attention to the more positive aspects of psychology. One of his main points is that we can strengthen our sense of personal happiness by discovering and exercising our own personal "signature" strengths. What are signature strengths? These strengths are personal virtues that define us as individuals, and that are recognized worldwide as being desirable and good. Dr. Seligman and his colleagues investigated great literary, philosophical, and religious works, to discover what virtues are valued worldwide. The six virtues that they identified are: wisdom and knowledge; courage; love and humanity; justice; temperance; and spirituality and transcendence. You can think of these as the ingredients that make virtuous people in a virtuous world. Each of us possesses some of these strengths to a greater or lesser degree. And since each of us is different, our individual "strength combination" is unique. Dr. Seligman and his colleagues further investigated these virtues and subdivided them into twenty-four measurable strengths that a person could have. For instance, courage could be further broken down into valor, perseverance, and integrity. Humanity and love could be broken down into kindness and lovingness. I won't bore you with the full list. If you're interested, read the book. Or you can investigate your own signature strengths by taking a test on Dr. Seligman’s web site at authentichappiness.org. So what does this have to do with happiness? In order to improve your happiness, Dr. Seligman recommends that you discover your own personal signature strengths and incorporate them into your life and work - and USE THEM. So what's my point (there I go with the questions again? My point is this. Aikido, especially the way we practice it here, allows us to cultivate our best personal qualities both on the mat and off the mat. We have ample invitation to explore and nurture our courage, learning, kindness, curiosity, perseverance, integrity, loyalty, prudence, modesty, and on and on. Notice the posters that adorn our walls, notice our student creed, and so on. Anyone can practice a particular martial movement or technique. But a movement in itself is meaningless, unless it moves us to a better place. Find what moves you. It probably has something to do with who you are and what you most cherish. And remember: the most lasting happiness comes from refining our best personal qualities. What do you think? About the Author: Mark Matloff, Ph.D. is a psychologist, coach,
trainer, teacher, and consultant with over 27 years of experience helping
people and organizations change for the better. When he is not at work, he teaches and practices at Aikido of Central
New York, where he has trained for more than fifteen years. He feels that the resulting mind/body connection holds great promise,
power, and purpose, for improving our lives. CONTACT HIM FOR A COMPLIMENTARY COACHING CONSULTATION Subscription, Un-subscription, Questions: To subscribe to this newsletter: Send e-mail to
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has graciously offered my readers who have never tried Aikido a
complimentary four weeks of introductory training at the school.
Be
sure and tell him that you read this newsletter. Contact: PLEASE FEEL FREE TO PASS THIS NEWSLETTER ON! Mark Matloff, Ph.D |
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