In what ways have you learned to manage your stress as a result of training? In what ways have you learned to manage your stress outside of training?  I've heard stories of high-ranking black belts staying calm in stressful situations, do you find the MA has helped your stress levels when dealing with life? Car accident? Hospital visits? Managing expenses? Watching the news? Spending time with difficult people? What are some techniques you use to manage your stress?

As you might know stress has long term negative effects on both mental and physical health, including higher blood pressure, stroke, obesity, insomnia, mood disorders, and much more.  Depending on the survey, anywhere from 62%-70% of people feel "highly stressed" on a weekly basis, many saying that life is getting more stressful, not less.  

 

Great topic. I could write volumes about it, certainly I've Read plenty!

I think people come seeking, or eventually find, inner calm, peace of mind, stress relief, in more traditional martial arts. Pretty much any activity that is good exercise, has a regular discipline to it, takes your mind off things, and has some social support will provide stress relief. But martial arts has greater depth to it, if you look for it. Meditation, breathing exercises, philosophical writings, all help with stress relief. forms have been described as moving meditation. No, you won't likely find them at your neighborhood dojo, it's been a self-study thing for me.

A common thread in Zen Buddhism, types of Yoga, and the "Moo Shim" (empty mind) of martial arts, is to turn off the monkey mind. All those thoughts, emotions, that race through our bodies and minds, creating that false sense of self, protecting the ego, and so on- they have no actual reality. If you can sit in meditation, or do Yoga, kata, and create that space, of empty mind, how you react to stressful people and situations will change.

I think it also helps to create a personal environment that limits a baseline of chronic stress. Turn off the bad news, limit social media, don't stay in a job you hate, don't drink/get high to numb your feelings. Create a life you won't want to escape from. Life will still happen, but you don't have to be on the ledge already when something bad happens.

On 6/16/2026 at 9:36 AM, JazzKicker said:

Great topic. I could write volumes about it, certainly I've Read plenty!

I think people come seeking, or eventually find, inner calm, peace of mind, stress relief, in more traditional martial arts. Pretty much any activity that is good exercise, has a regular discipline to it, takes your mind off things, and has some social support will provide stress relief. But martial arts has greater depth to it, if you look for it. Meditation, breathing exercises, philosophical writings, all help with stress relief. forms have been described as moving meditation. No, you won't likely find them at your neighborhood dojo, it's been a self-study thing for me.

A common thread in Zen Buddhism, types of Yoga, and the "Moo Shim" (empty mind) of martial arts, is to turn off the monkey mind. All those thoughts, emotions, that race through our bodies and minds, creating that false sense of self, protecting the ego, and so on- they have no actual reality. If you can sit in meditation, or do Yoga, kata, and create that space, of empty mind, how you react to stressful people and situations will change.

I think it also helps to create a personal environment that limits a baseline of chronic stress. Turn off the bad news, limit social media, don't stay in a job you hate, don't drink/get high to numb your feelings. Create a life you won't want to escape from. Life will still happen, but you don't have to be on the ledge already when something bad happens.

It's interesting because some schools I have trained at start and end each class with meditation; others did no meditation at all. Those were sport schools, where traditional martial arts (TMA) were doing it.  That is only my experience, so it is not an observation of either type of school as a whole.  Even in the meditation elements of the schools, though, I found I was doing meditation on the terms of the instructor, which sometimes felt too long or too short, but I understand the dynamic.  Practicing TMA, again this is my experience only, was more self-defense and self-growth focused, where sport MA were more aggressive, more of a jock type culture.  For me, TMA helped me grow and get life lessons off the mat more than sport MA did.  It was a different approach, and TMA was more fit for what I wanted out of my training.  I have no problem with people training MA with the primary goal being to compete, as I myself have competed in tournaments, but for me it was never the main focus of my training or why I started the MA. 

As far as off the mat, I recently read a book called "Let Them" (not MA related at all) by Mel Robbins, and the concept is the same that Zen Buddhism has been teaching for centuries, which is let go of control.  You can't control what others are doing so instead of resisting that, it is better to "let them" do it.  The book kept saying the same message over and over which is done to get it stuck in the mind of the readers, but I think the entire 300 plus pages could be summed up in one sentence - "the only thing you can control are your own decisions."  To me that is the entire book.  Let go of control.  You can't control what others do, say, ect.  True you can persuade them by making harsh punishments for not acting in ways that you want, however in the end they will make their own choices, and we make our choices as well.  What you can control is how you respond to situations, and sometimes you have several options. One choice I have made recently is to focus on handling my stress better.  I sat down two weeks ago and made a list of all the things that cause stress, and the list got very long.  I concluded that stress is a daily event, and it is a daily process to manage it and keep pushing it out of your life, because it will keep trying to get back in.  

I fully agree with your comment about the news.  That has been part of my new focus on lowering stress, I am doing a full summer detox of ignoring the news. Sure, I will see things here and there, but I am making an intentional decision to avoid news and social media, because it has a strong negative impact.  News is full of fear, anger, tragedy, ect, and often is not a true reflection of the world.  They take the most extreme situations and sensationalize it for entertainment.  The news wants you addicted to it, they are trying to be addictive, the more you watch the more money they make.  For whatever reason fear and rage sell, so that is what the news outlets often prioritize.  Over the past month I have cut my news down to almost none, same with politics, and I can tell you that I feel better physically.  I am less tense, less angry, less anxious, I am sleeping better and I think I lost a little weight.  I am happier, more optimistic, and have a better view of life.  It has only been a month, but I notice a big difference in my thinking and how I feel physically.  As far as politics, I can make my voice heard by voting but I don't need to be in the middle of the mudslinging.  I've learned I can be involved in it without being controlled by it.  This is a recent and life changing approach that over the past few weeks has severed me well.  

I especially like the part about creating a life you don't want to escape from.  So many of us feel stuck in unsatisfied lives.  Create and live a life you feel good about.  Live a life that makes you excited about the future.  Get enough sleep.  Don't overschedule yourself. Spend time with the right people.  Find what works for you and stick with it.  Stress will always play a part in our lives, but we have a lot of say about how much of a part we allow it to play. 

Anyway, I have said enough about it for one post, I am sure I will have more to say about it soon enough. What reading have you done on the subject? Was it more on Zen or stress management?  Are there books you recommend?

Stress Management through martial arts. Interesting topic.

When I was younger, teens, and 20s, stress management through martial arts meant beating the heck out of a heavy bag. And I don’t mind telling you, that destressed me rather well.

But when I hit my early 30s, and went through a divorce, many times stress management was similar, but expanded to training. I would train 1.5 to 2 hours a day, not including martial arts classes (CMA at that point) which at one point went 7 days a week and more than an hour a day of class. It’s kind of hard to be stressed when you’re too tired to even stand up, but not to worry, I still had incredibly stressful moments during that period of my life, it was kind of unavoidable due to the situation. But I think the training and class was more of a distraction, or a break, from stress than anything else

Mid to late 30s, I got more into the forms I was learning, Taijiquan, Long Fist, Wing Chun, Xingyiquan, that focus helped calm things down. Also began training Qigong and reading a lot of Taoist related material. This is where more of the calm side of things came into play. Also started reading a lot of Buddhist material as well and even trained a bit of meditation.

But with all that said, I do not feel a martial arts class is about distressing, finding peace, or your center, or internal revelations. It is about martial arts. It is how you train it, and what you focus on that helps you distress.

Another thing that I have discovered over the years that helps with stress…age… the older I get, the more I find that I get stressed a lot less than I use to.

 2 books that also seemed to help me, “Zen in the martial arts by Joe Hyams” and…. Yes I know this might be cliché… but “The secret power within: Zen solutions to real problems by Chuck Norris”

Edited June 25Jun 25 by Patrick

^ those are both great titles relevant to this topic. One I just finished is "How to Meditate" by Pema Chodron, a Tibetan Buddhist nun. Cheri Huber is another good author on Zen.

On 6/22/2026 at 12:31 AM, KarateKen said:

I fully agree with your comment about the news.  That has been part of my new focus on lowering stress, I am doing a full summer detox of ignoring the news. Sure, I will see things here and there, but I am making an intentional decision to avoid news and social media, because it has a strong negative impact.  News is full of fear, anger, tragedy, ect, and often is not a true reflection of the world.  They take the most extreme situations and sensationalize it for entertainment.  The news wants you addicted to it, they are trying to be addictive, the more you watch the more money they make.  For whatever reason fear and rage sell, so that is what the news outlets often prioritize.  Over the past month I have cut my news down to almost none, same with politics, and I can tell you that I feel better physically.  I am less tense, less angry, less anxious, I am sleeping better and I think I lost a little weight.  I am happier, more optimistic, and have a better view of life.  It has only been a month, but I notice a big difference in my thinking and how I feel physically.  As far as politics, I can make my voice heard by voting but I don't need to be in the middle of the mudslinging.  I've learned I can be involved in it without being controlled by it.  This is a recent and life changing approach that over the past few weeks has severed me well.  

I agree.  I stopped watching the news several years ago, and I am much better off for it.  If I want some information, I'll go looking for it.  I also limit what I do on social media.  I don't us X, Tic-Tok, Instagram, or SnapChat.  I have a Facebook account that I usually use to wish happy birthday to people or to update my kids' sporting events.

Our Aikido dojo will do some meditative breathing at times, but it hasn't been a mainstay in the classes that I've been able to make.  I think it can be beneficial, but I think everyone reacts differently to trying to meditate.  Sometimes, I'll just sit in the car and drive with no radio or podcast going, and then tends to help calm my mind.

A lot of people mention the forms as "moving meditation," and I've tried it from time to time, but perhaps I worry too much about trying to get better at the form I'm doing as opposed to just doing it, and letting the performance happen.  I've always had this feeling that I'm not good enough at the Martial Arts, so I'm always trying to get better, and I think that lends a bit more stress to things than need be.  So that is something that I'll have to work on.

My stress isn’t MA related at all. My stress is health related, and often times it’s like throwing a baseball while inside a hurricane.

Prayers do help me with my stress. Support from my family and friends helps me with my stress. Spending time here at KF helps me with my stress.

Slapping the tar out of my hanging bag helps me with my stress. Kata helps me with my stress. Training in general helps me with my street.

Do I breakdown for time to time?!? Absolutely!! Do I cry from time to time?!? Definitely!! I’m human; prick me, do I bleed!! 

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” ~Nietzsche 

I am not sure where you are reading this from, but here in the USA the culture is very stressful. We are bombarded with stressful things all day long. News, money, health, advertising, weather, social media, and what not. The "keep up with the Jones" lifestyle of the American culture is causing people to be overworked, stressed, and not getting enough sleep. No amount of accomplishment is ever enough, and it always feels like there is not enough time in the day. Constant rushing around to be productive, then spending that money on superficial things to impress others, leaving us broke. It is a lifestyle that will put you in the grave early if you don't manage it. Stress is inevitable, I don't see how anyone can avoid it all together, but there are things you can do to reduce it. What I have started doing when I feel stressed it remind myself to say no to it. SAY NO TO STRESS. Take a breath, notice what is happening in your body, and step back. Doing this will require self-awareness and understanding your trigger points and your patterns of behavior. Pay attention to how your body feels constantly. I made the mistake the other day of clicking on a news story and could feel my stress going up. Even just one news story can raise my blood pressure. This morning I was at the walk-in clinic for a rash, which the doctor said can be stress related. He also said that chronic stress is a factory in nearly every major health problem. Chronic stress puts you at a higher risk for stroke, high blood pressure, insomnia, hair loss, bad rashes, and seizures, to name a few. Understand that we live in a very stressful time. All the fear and anger being sold to us in the news and online, plus our own personal issues of things like money problems, health, the future, climate change...we have an epidemic of obesity and loneliness as well in the USA. Stress will play a part in your life, so will fear, but you can decide if you are going to control it, or if it is going to control you. Today (July 17) is Zen Day. Do something today that lowers your stress. Do it every day. For example, I am getting a massage tonight. We live in a stressful world, but you don't have to be controlled by it.

Today is both Zen Day and National Tattoo Day, which is perfect because I have a tattoo of the Zen symbol. Now if only I had gotten it on July 17....