How Karate changed your life ?

[Safroot]

Let's share our experiences, How did Karate change your life ?!

Edited February 15, 2014 by Safroot

[Safroot]

For me it's not a long journey, it's only 1 month journey. The major effects I can see are more happiness and improved fitness (still not the best but at least 10 times better than before)

[sensei8]

Karate is everything to me!! It's all that I've ever been good at. It changed my life from nothing to something. My parents have said that they loved me, but when I look at the things that they did to me, I don't think they truly loved me. I felt unloved and unwanted, and many times, I wish I had never been born.

My Sensei, Dai-Soke Yoshinobu Takahashi, showed me genuine interest in me and he loved me as a dad should. Had it not been for his nurturing love and training, I'm certain that I would've taken my life.

It's not good to not be, and/or feel that one's own parents don't love me. I'm the baby of my family, and I've always felt that my parents loved my brother and sister much more than me. I was in the way! My dad referred to me once that I was a mistake!!

I learned how to emerge myself in karate 24/7 because I fell in love with karate and I felt love from Dai-Soke as well as the "family" I had at the dojo. Karate changed my life for the better, and without karate, I'm an empty vessel.

Dai-Soke was the potter; I was his clay!!

[Safroot]

Karate is everything to me!! It's all that I've ever been good at. It changed my life from nothing to something. My parents have said that they loved me, but when I look at the things that they did to me, I don't think they truly loved me. I felt unloved and unwanted, and many times, I wish I had never been born.

My Sensei, Dai-Soke Yoshinobu Takahashi, showed me genuine interest in me and he loved me as a dad should. Had it not been for his nurturing love and training, I'm certain that I would've taken my life.

It's not good to not be, and/or feel that one's own parents don't love me. I'm the baby of my family, and I've always felt that my parents loved my brother and sister much more than me. I was in the way! My dad referred to me once that I was a mistake!!

I learned how to emerge myself in karate 24/7 because I fell in love with karate and I felt love from Dai-Soke as well as the "family" I had at the dojo. Karate changed my life for the better, and with karate, I'm an empty vessel.

Dai-Soke was the potter; I was his clay!!

That's great experience Sensei8, I have never expected such an effect of karate, It has changed your life 180 degrees if I am to think about your life without it!!

[Zaine]

Karate in a lot of ways made my life better. I started when I was 12 (it was that or boy scouts and, nothing against the boy scouts, I made the right decision). Karate saw me through a lot of difficult times in my life. When I was younger I was beat up and emotionally tormented by other kids so I initially took Karate because I was tired of being the victim. I wanted to defend myself. Karate was there when I couldn't control my anger and felt depressed because I felt that no one loved me (far from true but chemical imbalances can be a heavy burden). Karate taught me to have the will power to work through the things that plagued me (and still do). It gave me the patience and control to deal with stress. Shortly after finding a good medium (finding that was hard and involved me physically lashing out at a friends mother and being suspended from Karate) I got involved in the philosophical side of Martial Arts. In many ways the study of the philosophical side of Martial Arts put me on the path to study philosophy in general and want to teach.

Karate gave me drive and purpose. In my mind the version of me who was a Martial Artist many times pushed me to realize the goals that he had set for me. Without Karate, I don't think I would of had the confidence I have now. I believe that I would be timid and still have a victim mentality. Probably the most important thing it gave me was the ability to listen to those wiser than I.

[Safroot]

Karate in a lot of ways made my life better. I started when I was 12 (it was that or boy scouts and, nothing against the boy scouts, I made the right decision). Karate saw me through a lot of difficult times in my life. When I was younger I was beat up and emotionally tormented by other kids so I initially took Karate because I was tired of being the victim. I wanted to defend myself. Karate was there when I couldn't control my anger and felt depressed because I felt that no one loved me (far from true but chemical imbalances can be a heavy burden). Karate taught me to have the will power to work through the things that plagued me (and still do). It gave me the patience and control to deal with stress. Shortly after finding a good medium (finding that was hard and involved me physically lashing out at a friends mother and being suspended from Karate) I got involved in the philosophical side of Martial Arts. In many ways the study of the philosophical side of Martial Arts put me on the path to study philosophy in general and want to teach.

Karate gave me drive and purpose. In my mind the version of me who was a Martial Artist many times pushed me to realize the goals that he had set for me. Without Karate, I don't think I would of had the confidence I have now. I believe that I would be timid and still have a victim mentality. Probably the most important thing it gave me was the ability to listen to those wiser than I.

Great experience as well Zaine, just have 2 questions for you:

1- How karate helped you to control your anger (I really need to learn how to do it) ?

2-was it easy to change your victim mentality ? how did you do it ?

sorry for lot of questions but theses topics are really very interesting to me

[sensei8]

Karate in a lot of ways made my life better. I started when I was 12 (it was that or boy scouts and, nothing against the boy scouts, I made the right decision). Karate saw me through a lot of difficult times in my life. When I was younger I was beat up and emotionally tormented by other kids so I initially took Karate because I was tired of being the victim. I wanted to defend myself. Karate was there when I couldn't control my anger and felt depressed because I felt that no one loved me (far from true but chemical imbalances can be a heavy burden). Karate taught me to have the will power to work through the things that plagued me (and still do). It gave me the patience and control to deal with stress. Shortly after finding a good medium (finding that was hard and involved me physically lashing out at a friends mother and being suspended from Karate) I got involved in the philosophical side of Martial Arts. In many ways the study of the philosophical side of Martial Arts put me on the path to study philosophy in general and want to teach.

Karate gave me drive and purpose. In my mind the version of me who was a Martial Artist many times pushed me to realize the goals that he had set for me. Without Karate, I don't think I would of had the confidence I have now. I believe that I would be timid and still have a victim mentality. Probably the most important thing it gave me was the ability to listen to those wiser than I.

Solid post and DITTO!! My parents aside, Karate has opened doors that had I not found karate and Dai-Soke, many doors would've been shut for good.

[Zaine]

Great experience as well Zaine, just have 2 questions for you:

1- How karate helped you to control your anger (I really need to learn how to do it) ?

Anger many times needs and outlet. That outlet can be anything you would like it to be (although I would suggest it be something healthy). When you bottle it up it festers inside of you and eventually you explode. Karate helped me by both giving me an outlet for all the aggression and anger that I had built up and, when I started caring about what it meant to be a Martial Artist, it gave me an example to live with. It showed me how to let go of all of the things that I had been building in my twisted tower of hate. Once I was able to get rid of the anger and learn patience, my life got 1000x better.

2-was it easy to change your victim mentality ? how did you do it ?

sorry for lot of questions but theses topics are really very interesting to me

It was not easy. I made a goal for myself and through sheer will I overcame my insecurities. I had to teach myself that what others thought about me was not as important as I had made it. I learned to pick and choose what I let effect me and how it effected me. That wasn't easy. At first it was insurmountably difficult to separate critiques from personal attacks. However, through Karate I was again able to learn patience and learn how to have confidence in myself. Confidence is the greatest tool one can have to battle that victim mentality. Confidence allows me to take criticism and say "You're right, I could work on that" without taking it as a personal attack.

[Safroot]

Great experience as well Zaine, just have 2 questions for you:

1- How karate helped you to control your anger (I really need to learn how to do it) ?

Anger many times needs and outlet. That outlet can be anything you would like it to be (although I would suggest it be something healthy). When you bottle it up it festers inside of you and eventually you explode. Karate helped me by both giving me an outlet for all the aggression and anger that I had built up and, when I started caring about what it meant to be a Martial Artist, it gave me an example to live with. It showed me how to let go of all of the things that I had been building in my twisted tower of hate. Once I was able to get rid of the anger and learn patience, my life got 1000x better.

2-was it easy to change your victim mentality ? how did you do it ?

sorry for lot of questions but theses topics are really very interesting to me

It was not easy. I made a goal for myself and through sheer will I overcame my insecurities. I had to teach myself that what others thought about me was not as important as I had made it. I learned to pick and choose what I let effect me and how it effected me. That wasn't easy. At first it was insurmountably difficult to separate critiques from personal attacks. However, through Karate I was again able to learn patience and learn how to have confidence in myself. Confidence is the greatest tool one can have to battle that victim mentality. Confidence allows me to take criticism and say "You're right, I could work on that" without taking it as a personal attack.

Thanks so much Zaine for taking time to answer my questions. it's actually a good answer that I really need

[n4tive]

Karate is everything to me!! It's all that I've ever been good at. It changed my life from nothing to something. My parents have said that they loved me, but when I look at the things that they did to me, I don't think they truly loved me. I felt unloved and unwanted, and many times, I wish I had never been born.

My Sensei, Dai-Soke Yoshinobu Takahashi, showed me genuine interest in me and he loved me as a dad should. Had it not been for his nurturing love and training, I'm certain that I would've taken my life.

It's not good to not be, and/or feel that one's own parents don't love me. I'm the baby of my family, and I've always felt that my parents loved my brother and sister much more than me. I was in the way! My dad referred to me once that I was a mistake!!

I learned how to emerge myself in karate 24/7 because I fell in love with karate and I felt love from Dai-Soke as well as the "family" I had at the dojo. Karate changed my life for the better, and without karate, I'm an empty vessel.

Dai-Soke was the potter; I was his clay!!

Pretty much what sensei8 said. Karate is everything to me. It had taught me many things, and it continues to do so, even spiritually.