How does one keep the outside world out of their training?

[drop bear]

I'm A Pussy T-Shirt

Found one

Nice work.

But seriously. At the moment for whatever reason your training is not as important as your feelings. This happens when people try to loose weight all the time. They want to loose weight but then see cake and mess up.

So you create a situation where the consequences are more important than your feeling.

You hold yourself accountable.

 

[Gnarlie]

Meditate for half an hour. Sit down comfortably but vertically (you don't want to sleep). Focus on your breathing only.

If thoughts enter your mind, just let them come and go. Thinking does not mean you have failed. I find it helps to imagine the thought scrolling away into the distance like the Star Wars writing until it is gone; then back to breathing.

30 minutes meditation between the real world and training does the world of good. You train your mind to switch, and with time shorter and shorter meditations are needed to get you into training mode and put that switch in place.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[Tony Dismukes]

For me, martial arts practice has always been very effective at keeping me in the moment and shutting out my worries from the rest of my life. I attribute this to two factors:

1) I really, really love the martial arts and find the details of practice and study fascinating. This makes it easy to immerse myself in what I'm doing.

2) The nature of my practice - when someone is trying to choke me out or punch me in the face, it has a remarkable tendency to bring my attention to the present instant. Funny how that works.

If these two factors don't apply to you, then your practice may be less effective at bringing you into the moment.

If you don't love your training or find it endlessly fascinating, then maybe you need a change - a different school, a different art, or even something other than martial arts.

If your training doesn't involve the sort of partner work which brings you immediate (and sometimes painful) feedback, then maybe you need a different sort of training. Alternatively, if your training is more solo work (kata, kicking air, punching bags, etc), then you may need to learn a deep internal focus that gives you continual feedback from each move you execute. (That kind of focus took me a while to develop.)

If you are doing partner training where you are getting hit or thrown and you still can't keep your thoughts in the present moment, even when your wandering thoughts get you beat up - you may want to consider getting some professional help for handling the stuff that's going on in your outside life. There's no shame in this. A good counselor is just a coach working to give you tools for handling the crap that life can throw at you.

Good luck!

 

[MJS]

I been having a hard time lately because real world issues I been dealing with can't escape my thoughts. This makes training very difficult and it's hard for me to give all of my focus into it when I got things nagging at my mind constantly.

I took a week off because of this and it's nice to have a break from training under them, and practicing more on my own, but I do want to get back in there with a clear head. I see people nearly transition from a total wreck to happy and determined as soon as they step in the door and I really want to know how that is possible. I would love to able to do that.

Unfortunately, real life/real world issues are unavoidable and often hinder our training. It's happened to me many times. For me, the best way that I've found, is to just get back into it. Only YOU can make yourself train, so you have to push yourself, mentally and physically, to get back into the dojo, gym, etc, and resume what you enjoy!

Usually, after a break, and getting my butt back to training, at the end of the class, even though I'm exhausted, it feels good....it feels good to get back to doing something I love, and seeing my training partners again.

 

[Ironbear24]

For me, martial arts practice has always been very effective at keeping me in the moment and shutting out my worries from the rest of my life. I attribute this to two factors:

1) I really, really love the martial arts and find the details of practice and study fascinating. This makes it easy to immerse myself in what I'm doing.

2) The nature of my practice - when someone is trying to choke me out or punch me in the face, it has a remarkable tendency to bring my attention to the present instant. Funny how that works.

If these two factors don't apply to you, then your practice may be less effective at bringing you into the moment.

If you don't love your training or find it endlessly fascinating, then maybe you need a change - a different school, a different art, or even something other than martial arts.

If your training doesn't involve the sort of partner work which brings you immediate (and sometimes painful) feedback, then maybe you need a different sort of training. Alternatively, if your training is more solo work (kata, kicking air, punching bags, etc), then you may need to learn a deep internal focus that gives you continual feedback from each move you execute. (That kind of focus took me a while to develop.)

If you are doing partner training where you are getting hit or thrown and you still can't keep your thoughts in the present moment, even when your wandering thoughts get you beat up - you may want to consider getting some professional help for handling the stuff that's going on in your outside life. There's no shame in this. A good counselor is just a coach working to give you tools for handling the crap that life can throw at you.

Good luck!

My training is a bit half and half, sometimes it's very gungho and other times it isn't, I've had my bell rung many times. I've had bruises that look like continents on the globe, that training is what I enjoy but I can't do that all the time.

When I'm having these down times, down times meaning my mood and clouded mind, it's like I can't receive the pleasure that martial arts usually offers, likes there is a block or something. During these "episodes" I get hit, get beat up, and it rarely snaps me out of it.

What I did to feel better was a change, I became a teacher for a moment, a friend came by and wished to learn some techniques to add to his martial arts. He made me realize how far I have come in my training over the past couple of years. That is what I needed, he really enjoyed and valued the techniques I showed him which were many wrist locks and various judo throws.

This motivated me, it reminded me that hard work and dedication, along with diligence does have its rewards. It is just difficult for us as individuals to notice our own growth, sometimes it takes someone on the outside looking in.

 

[ks - learning to fly]

I been having a hard time lately because real world issues I been dealing with can't escape my thoughts. This makes training very difficult and it's hard for me to give all of my focus into it when I got things nagging at my mind constantly.

I took a week off because of this and it's nice to have a break from training under them, and practicing more on my own, but I do want to get back in there with a clear head. I see people nearly transition from a total wreck to happy and determined as soon as they step in the door and I really want to know how that is possible. I would love to able to do that.

Although I am one of those who forgets about work and the outside
struggle almost as soon as I step in dojang - it is kind of hard to explain..
All I can really tell you is that - for me - whether I am working on a form
or a sparring technique or especially weapons.. I just try to put 100%
focus into what I'm doing. Plus, our classes are well structured so it
helps to pay attention so you don't end up doing push-ups! Also -
meditation before or during class helps a lot too..

I don't know if that helps but I hope it does!

 

[RTKDCMB]

Personally I go to training the get away from the outside world, why would I want to take it with me?

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Personally I go to training the get away from the outside world, why would I want to take it with me?

Agreed. Sometimes, though, our minds don't care what we want.

One of the advantages I've found in teaching is that my mind doesn't have a chance to wander the same way. In high-stress times (especially when money was tight), I found it difficult to clear my mind during warm-ups. But while teaching, there's something to teach, even during the warm-ups.