CAKC - Mind, Body, Spirit

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Christchurch Aotearoa Kendo Club

George's favourite saying!

Today's paper has a front page story about the NZ Commonwealth Games team lack of performance at the games. The medal count wasn't anywhere near as high as expected and the thought was that "mental toughness" was behind the reason...
A couple of nights ago, Sam led the training session. I really like Sam's sessions - it's always a little different and you can be sure you will be "pushed". Towards the end of the night, about 5 minutes before practice was due to finish, Sam asked if we should do 1 more, or 3 more, of the last drill - since he asked, I replied "5 more!". The rest of the class groaned ... Sam "launched into them" - I presume, because he spoke in Korean. I can imagine what he was saying, and it's something I find myself telling my team at work - something that seems pretty basic but seems hard for most to do.

Two words - "Harden-Up".

Let me explain.
In the Hagakure there's a section saying:

"There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet.
When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything."

I thought this was a good example. People are often surprised that I bike to work every day - despite rain, snow, wind etc. For a while I was surprised that this simple thing was so much of a "big deal" for some. For me it is simply a case of being resolved to whatever the weather is. Nothing hard about it - it is simply a case of mind over matter. I am used to the "hardship" of it and have planned appropriately for it. Sometimes I don't exactly look forward to it, but I don't stress about it, and quite often it is exceedingly enjoyable. But perhaps it is the clue to understand it all.
People seem to be so attached to their own comforts that to not be comfortable is a big deal. This comfort is not just physical comfort reflected in "hardening your mind to the soaking", but also mental comfort. Mental comfort is why people avoid conflict situations or change situations. When conflict or change is forced upon most people, they feel "stressed" and their physical well-being can become affected as well. Where-as there are a small group of people who thrive on change as they have learnt the mental toughness to take life as it comes and not be so attached to their own comforts. They know how to "harden-up"!

Many people actually know this - it is not a great secret. But when it comes to just let things go and "go with the flow", they cannot. It is a simple desire or state of mind to drive this change, but most people are too attached to their various comforts to do it. Look at all the people who have succeeded in changing their lives from a low point and you will see examples of the mental toughness required, and probably you will see "behind them" the people in the same environment who "wanted to" but couldn't. People often say in these situations "You were so lucky..." - my response is usually "You make your own luck". What I mean is that you make the decisions that lead you down the path and you can take the easy road or the harder road depending on your will-power (mental toughness). Eastern philosophy has the equal in "Kharma". I believe that one controls their own destiny much more than most people think - those who think in terms of "luck" anyway.

Part of the mystery of the "good old days" and the admiration reserved for the knights and Samurai especially, is that people know what is right and wrong, but due to inability to confront "conflict" or comfort levels, they think they could never overcome their desire for comfort to act as the knights or Samurai did. Another "old" story from the days of the ancient Greeks:

an old man looking for a seat at the Olympic games. As he stumbled about from one section to the other, the spectators laughed at him. But when he came to the Spartan section, all the Spartans stood to offer him their places — and there was universal applause. The moral drawn by the commentator was: you see, all Greeks know how we ought to behave, but only the Spartans act on it.
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The Spartans are perhaps western civilisations greatest point of reference for the term "Harden Up". Spartan babies were taken from their mothers after birth and left outside overnight - if they died, they weren't tough enough. The Spartans bred a culture of toughness and were greatly admired because of it - because while people recognised the benefits, they were/are too attached to their own comfort to enact the same deeds. The term "spartan" itself of course recognises the lack of comfort items;

"spartan" definitions: severe, unsparing and uncompromising in discipline or judgment; practicing great self-denial; resolute in the face of pain or danger or adversity; austere.
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