the gentle art philosophy

tribulation. patience. hope. “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.” - Theodore Roosevelt Jiu Jitsu is difficult. There are no shortcuts on this journey, failure is guaranteed and your ego will be bruised constantly. The first step of this path is to submit to tribulation. You will be manhandled by smaller team mates. You will feel like an fish on dry land flopping awkwardly for water. You will be submitted from all angles clueless of how you ended up in that predicament. In the midst of tribulation, we adapt to find peace with the situation. When fending off a consciousness separating submission, suddenly that stressful deadline, the burdened past and a fretful future morph into insignificance. The challenge is directly before you. Required to solve this puzzle are all of your physical and mental faculties. To live outside of the moment is not an option and mindfulness of now is imposed. Through the trial by fire that every new practitioner undergoes, a patience is forged. Congratulations, an achievement has been unlocked. The individual who held onto ego has long left the mat and quit at this stage. This patience is earned through the experience of tapping a thousand times, it unlocks the insights into what happened and why. It may take months before you taste the sweet nectar of a secured submission against a defending opponent. This intoxicating experience gives the assurance that the painful path was worth it and hope is formed. This tribulation. patience. hope. cycle is continuous as new challenges are set and potential gets stretched.