Expectations (Kitai: 期待)

Frustration usually comes from our expectations.

We make a mistake and get frustrated not because we really made a mistake which is just an event of the moment but from the expectations we put on ourselves.

We tend to expect things to be a certain way and when they go awry we perceive it as an attack and immediately experience frustration and fear which triggers the systems in our brain that kick in the adrenaline dumps that exacerbate it causing it to rise even more.

It can be a train ride that goes out of control and takes us on a roller coaster ride of emotions and the consequences of same which are detrimental in self protective situations as well as all of those life situations. In reality both are the same with the exception that the consequences in the physical world are psychological or physical or both.

We strive to take control of this in our training and practice. If we are not aware of all the variables that result from nature's conditioning, i.e. the hunter/warrior, we let it take control of us where the goal of karate-do is to give us the tools to control it, to a degree.

If we are not aware of it and just practice then we remain in the same old rut, spinning out of control, never achieving the level we seek to control and provide self awareness, self discipline, self control, and self protection … to name a few benefits.

This is why I go to great lengths to seek out knowledge. To program my brain with all the data I can so when I train and practice the brain/mind will find this data and associate it with the appropriate actions and intent so when I truly need it, it will come. Make sense? I hope so as I am not sure sometimes since I fully understand that communications of any kind is a most difficult art to master.

If we seek out karate for health and physical fitness and ignore any other aspects this may be all we desire and need but if you really wish to learn karate-do, fighting art, martial art, or what ever title you wish to place on it then to do so adequately and completely, i.e. yang-n-yin principle, then open the mind to the possibilities and train the mind/brain and thus the spirit and body.

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