A Doctor's Journey - Reshaping Mind & Body

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As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind.  To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again.  To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

                                                                            -Henry David Thoreau

NAME:  Jason McCray, PHD

LEVEL:  Semi-Master

RANK:  3rd Degree Blackbelt, Koguryo T'ang Soo Do   1st Degree Blackbelt Hapkido

The martial arts path is one of repetition and focus.  We do not practice our forms one, or ten times or one hundred times but thousands of times.  We do not throw a single punch or a solitary kick.  We do it again and again and again.  Modern neuroscience has discovered that these elements (focus, movement and repetition) are very literally the way that the structure and function of our brains are changed.  If you are interested in the science behind this you can pick up Norman Doidge’s excellent book “The Brain that Changes Itself”.  When we walk the martial path we are reshaping our brains and lives with each step that we take.

With this in mind, it may be a good idea to reflect on what exactly it is we are practicing.  Each one of us are responsible for our own journey and development.  Our Masters and Instructors can show us the path and encourage our growth but they cannot practice for us.  They cannot ensure that we get better.  Each of us must do that for ourselves.  As I reflect on the twelve plus years I have trained at Koguryo (and my six years of training before that) several things come to mind but what my thoughts keep returning to are perseverance, endurance and an absence of fear. 

On a purely physical level martial arts training is difficult.  We throw punches and kicks until we feel like we can do no more then we do even more.  We do push ups, flutter kicks and haunch jumps.  It is trying and our muscles ache.  Sometimes they even give out and we fall down.  Then we get up.  Perseverance and it's fruit (endurance) come from the getting up.  From the wanting to stop, longing to give up and decidedly choosing to do otherwise.  This choice shapes not only our bodies (by growing stronger) but much more importantly it shapes our character.   When we do it again and again we change ourselves into something stronger and better than how we began.

Training tests our limits both physically and mentally.  By coming into contact with these limits we grow in many ways.  Perhaps the most important way we grow is by learning that there is nothing to fear.  Maybe we will fall down.  That is OK, we can get up.  Maybe getting punched or kicked will hurt.  Maybe even a lot.  That is OK it won’t break us.  We will heal and over time we block the punch or kick, better yet over time we learn to not be there when the strike arrives!  Slowly as we train that fear recedes becoming less and less important.  The result of this is self-confidence.  This does not mean knowing that I will prevail in any fight- it means knowing that I have prepared myself and have nothing to fear.  Even if I am bested it is an opportunity to learn more about my weaknesses so I can correct them.

As each of us intentionally practices our shared art we reshape our brains and our lives.  This is a weighty idea and one completely grounded in modern science.  What are you practicing?  Is it your best effort?  Is it pushing your limits? Is it half heartedly throwing a “kind of punch”?  Is it being fearful?  Trust in our master and our system.  Engage with your training no one else can do it for you.  Your training shapes you, but only in so far as you put you into your training.  Jeong Shim!

JASON MCCRAY, PHD