I think this quote teaches us these things.
If you are always looking for an easy life from the beginning, usually you will end up with a harder one, because of always choosing the lazy or easy way, you don’t have the strength from overcoming hard times, so when you experience something difficult all of sudden, you can’t deal with it, and lose control.

There is no such thing as a life that’s free from difficulties, so you will experience hard times one day anyway.

Your problems will get harder and harder If you are always running away from them.
If you are always choosing the easy way and keep doing that, then that will become your habit, you get lazier, so then you start feeling that the easy things become harder.

On the other hand, if you are always challenging yourself, you will get stronger, and you will get used to doing that, so that harder things become easier to do.

For training, if you are always choosing the lazy and easy way, then you enter a competition, you will have a hard time. If you are being lazy, and not doing any exercises, and always having unhealthy easy take away foods, then it will feel hard just going up the stairs, after that it will feel hard just walking, next it will feel hard just getting up, and you will start having health problems, then you will have a hard life later on.
Instead of that, make a little effort to have better food, training hard and challenge your limit all the time, you will get stronger then everything will be easier.

Don’t choose the lazy and easy way, choose the harder way to get strength from overcoming every obstacle. Have good experiences and be a bigger person. Then you will have a better and happier life.

Ryoma Sakamoto ( 1836 –1867 ) was one of my heroes. 
About twenty five years ago, I came to Australia all alone. I didn’t know anyone, and couldn’t even speak any English at all. And one of the reasons for me to have this big challenge in a different country was that I was inspired by his story, I wanted to be like him with big dreams and big challenges.

He was a great pioneer in Japan’s history, but what I respect him the most for is his heart and his attitude.
Around his time, whenever they tried new things or tried to change something, it always became life threatening, people from the old government who did’t want change would try to kill them. 
Coming from those kinds of circumstances, his words and quotes are very powerful and realistic. 

The present time we are living in now, we are free. We can try most of things without someone trying to stop and kill us. So, we should try the hardest we can to accomplish something great using all of our passion and life energy.
Don’t spend your life being idle.    
Have big dreams and challenge big!

There is a lot of negative energy around us. 
You see bad incidents in the news all the time If you watch TV or the internet. Negative people always write negative comments and post on social media. You see a lot of grumpy, impatient, and angry people when you drive a car. You have to deal with negative people when you go to work, and they are always grumpy, whinging, complaining, making excuses, and criticising others. 
When you try to talk to them, they start to attack you with negative energy. If you attack back in a negative way, you make the negative energy bigger, then it usually ends up with conflict and a fight. 

Negative energy is contagious. You will be one of them too If you don’t be careful.
Best if you avoid negative energy, stay away from those people, and don’t  watch the news or internet. Although it is very hard to avoid them all living in this society. You can’t avoid them all the time. 

Negative energy is contagious but the good news is positive energy is contagious too. So, going to places or participating in activities regularly where there are a lot of positive people, you will get positive energy from them.
Then, when you encounter negative energy, let your positive energy out which is stronger than their negative energy to affect them. That doesn’t mean to persuade them or educate them. These kind of people usually don’t listen to other people anyway, so that would be a waste of your energy, and you might get their negative energy. What you should do is inspire them with your attitude and actions. Probably, they still won’t change, but that way, at least you don’t get affected by them and don’t have to waste your energy.
As you keep letting out your strong positive energy, they start feeling uncomfortable, and either they slowly change to a more positive attitude or they won’t be negative in front of you, and will probably go to different group where more negative people are.

Don’t get affected by negative energy, inspire them with your strong positive energy!!

My teacher Submission Arts Wrestling founder SHIHAN Hidetaka Aso used to tell us to strengthen our body all the time. 
Through physical training to strengthen our body, we will get benefits for our mind part as well, such as getting mental strength, and as our body is getting stronger, we will be getting confident.
But we have to be careful here, he said ” Strengthening the body is important but that doesn’t mean just go to the gym, and forget about Martial Arts training and just try to get big muscles. Some people end up making their body unbalanced which makes it easy to get tired, lose speed, unhealthy, etc, or get injuries from lifting heavy weights. That’s like putting the cart before the horse. A more important priority is to get a strong and tough body to fight against injuries and sickness, and achieve the ideal body for fighting. "

If you are getting sick or injured all the time, you can’t keep training, so can’t improve constantly. You need healthy and tough body with full of energy all the time.  And the ideal body for fighting is to be able to control your own body with swiftness, agility and flexible movements. 
Traditional Martial Arts exercises and body movement drills are the best way to attain this kind of body.

In Martial Arts, we often use an allegory with bamboo tree's growing as our improvement.

Some bamboo trees don’t grow much or not at all for the first four years. Why? Because the first four years, they are actually growing roots under ground deep and strong, so we can’t see any growing from the outside. But once they grow a strong base underneath, they start growing very fast. Some bamboos grow one metre a day, and they grow over twenty metres high, so they need to grow a very strong base underneath first to hold themselves. Then they become very strong trees. If they don’t grow a strong base first, even if they grow big and high, they will break and fall down.
 
Our improvement is like that too. Sometimes you don’t see or feel your improvement much outside or can’t get any good results from competitions  even though you are training hard, but if you keep going, be patient and train hard for a long time, all of sudden, you will feel your improvements, start to see results, and  grow very fast.

You are still improving and growing inside you when you can’t feel your own improvement, just can’t see it from the outside, just like the bamboo trees.
 
If you don’t see or feel any improvements now, you are improving and growing the internal part at the moment.
When you start improving on the outside part it will be very fast, you won’t get broken or fall down because you will have a strong internal base. 

Most people don’t keep doing the same thing for even two or three years. They lose interest very quickly or give up very easily. They stop training when they are just about to grow very fast and big. 

​Be patient, and you will improve and grow very big and high soon, just like the bamboo trees!!

A long time ago, when I was training very hard for competitions and fights, and when I started feeling mentally and physically exhausted, I tried to think and tell myself these words “ I’m tough, I can get through this!! “ , “ It will be much harder at competitions if I get lazy now!! “ ,  “ My future opponents are training much harder than this!! " , “ This is a good opportunity to get one step up better and stronger!! “ ,  “ This is easy, I might have much harder times than this in my life later on!! “ ,  “ I’m the one laughing in the end!! “ .  
Extra power and energy came after I told myself those words.

Every time when I got through those hard training sessions, I felt like I was getting mentally and physically stronger and tougher.
 
This is not only when we train. Everyone is getting stronger and tougher by getting through hard and tough times in our everyday lives, then we become  bigger and stronger people, like our muscles grow bigger and stronger after weight training. If we put some pressures and stress on ourselves, we will be stronger and tougher. 
If you give up or run a way because it feels too hard, you will struggle at the same point all the time.
So, try to make a habit of thinking like this when you have a hard and tough time, either in training or in everyday life, and overcome them!! 
“ This is a good opportunity to get better and stronger if I get through it!! “

武の道は礼に始まり礼に終わる

​This means attaining good manners, respect, and courtesy is one of the most important priorities of Martial Arts. 
Every training session, we start and finish with respect and courtesy.
During training, show your respect and courtesy to thank and appreciate your training partners, teacher, and the dojo. If you don’t have your training partners, teacher, and place to train, you can’t even train and improve yourself. 

We practice fighting techniques which could be very dangerous without respecting each other.
When you are doing sparring etc, and your partner gets a strike or a submission on you, you should thank them, because you can realise what to fix.
In the old days, SAMURAI warriors respected each other even when they were killing each other in a battle. 
The good warriors were polite, and got respect and courtesy.
We should respect each other when we compete too. You learn a lot from competitions. Be polite, and show courtesy to your opponent, referee, organiser, etc. Without them, you can’t compete. Consider your opponent as a helper to make you better. So give 100% effort  to make that competition meaningful for you and your opponent.

Don’t forget “ The Way of Martial Arts begins and ends with respect and courtesy "

I hated being defeated in competitions in the early stage of my fighting career when I was teenager, because for my young and silly brain back in that time, I felt like all my technique, hard work, and even my presence itself got denied from being defeated.
I was crying all night, not talking to anyone for a few days every time I got defeated in fights. But as I had more and more experience, I realised I learnt much more when I got defeated than when I won. 
I found and realised a lot about what I had to fix when I got defeated, and easy to find what to focus on in training until next competition.
I would always find some technique and physical part to fix, but the biggest thing I learnt after being defeated was my mind. I felt like every time I got defeated, I was getting mentally tougher, I learnt more mind skills, and got wiser too.

Of course, winning competitions is the best way, and you should always try your hardest at training and your hardest at competition to win. You learn a lot from winning competitions too, also you get confident, but if you don’t be careful, you get an ego very easily from just winning only few fights, then your improvement will stop. That happened to me at one stage.
So, don’t stop learning from either winning or losing. 
Don’t waste those experiences. The most important thing I’ve learnt from being defeated was to stand up and fight again, attaining the never giving up spirit.   
If we keep running away because we are scared of being defeated or worry about failing, we can’t improve and we will achieve nothing. If you want to get better or achieve something great, you have to challenge someone better than you or challenge yourself with something hard. When your challenge is bigger, you will get better and you will have greater achievements.
Learning this kind of mindset from being a fighter is helping for my life a lot now

Dojo is simply translated as gym, club or place of training in English, but I want you to know more about the meaning of dojo, so you will know why I named our club MMA ITO DOJO. 

The word “ DOJO “ consists of two different KANJI characters, DO (道） and JO (場). 
“DO” means “Way", but also meaning long journey for attaining something great. “JO” means “Place”, but also meaning somewhere like church, temple, or sanctuary in this sense. So, “ DOJO “ means a sacred place where people get together with respect, peace, and happiness, learning and practicing to attain something great in their journey. And through this journey, we will improve ourselves to be better people. 

I want all my students and even myself to remember that, and respect the place, people, and equipments in the dojo, so we can continue to keep going in the right direction as Martial Artist and as humans

6, Life style and habit

​What I  focus on  to stay healthy and energetic all the time is 
1, Mindset   2, Physical exercise   3, Food   4, Recovery   5, Breathing.
And this time is the final topic “ 6, Life style and habit "
“ We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."              Aristotle​
                                                                              

Even if you learn the topics above, if you don’t apply them, the knowledge will be wasted.
After applying the knowledge, you have to keep using that until it becomes part of your life style and habit. Otherwise you can’t achieve a healthy and energetic body.
Most people don’t even apply this knowledge. Even if they apply them, they don’t keep doing. 
That’s why they can’t achieve results. That is exactly the same as learning Martial Arts techniques. 
We must have a lot of repetitions to master one technique until that becomes habit, but most people don’t have the patients to keep doing the same thing over and over. Losing interest easily, giving up easily, then they can’t master even one technique.
Getting healthy and energetic body is same. We have to be patient, and keep doing until that becomes part of our life style and habit.

If you have a unhealthy life style and habit now, try to change to healthy way as soon as possible. You might be OK right now but life style and habit is repeating everyday, so that builds up slowly but surely, if you keep going, you will have some health problem sooner or later. 
Also, sometimes you don’t  realise you have bad habits, something like fast and shallow breathing, or thinking negatively all the time, etc.

If you need help to find those bad habits and fix, or need help to change your life style to healthy way, start PT session at the MMA ITO DOJO.
And if you wish to improve all those 6 qualities ( 1, Mindset 2, Physical exercise 3, Food 4, Recovery 5, Breathing 6, Life style and habit ) to achieve healthy and energetic body, call 0410 594 064 to start one on one consultation and Personal Training.  
Healthy and energetic body for your life!!

5, Breathing

Breathing is what I always focus on the most myself, and also when I teach people. 
Most of the time breathing is controlled by our subconscious mind so we don’t have to think to breath, but that’s why when our emotions change, usually our breathing automatically changes too.
When we get nervous, scared, angry, panicked, or shocked etc, our heart beat gets faster, then our breathing gets faster and shallow.
​Breathing is directly connected to our subconscious mind, so controlling breath with our conscious mind is one of the keys to controlling our emotions. 
Controlling our mind and emotions are very important to be healthy and energetic, which I explained on the previous article about “MINDSET".  
                ↓ ↓ ↓
http://www.mmaitodojo.com/sensei-toshis-blog/how-to-be-healthy-and-energetic-all-the-time-part-2

We can get a lot more benefit from changing our breathing. 
Controlled, slow, and deep breathing takes maximum air (oxygen) into our body and brain, so it makes our body and brain function work at their best.
Putting more oxygen into our body makes more energy, and quick recovery from muscle fatigue, and even makes quicker injury, and sickness recovery, makes our immune system stronger, even against serious sickness such as cancer, since cancer cells thrive in low oxygen environment. 

Martial Arts breathing method is using our lower part of stomach ( TANDEN 丹田 ),
which is supposed to be the centre of our body. 
Controlled, slow, and deep breath with focusing TANDEN movement, which make us aware of the centre of the body, that make all the Martial Arts moves and techniques better.
Also It’s known that this kind of breathing can make a hormone called serotonin work better in the brain, so it promotes a feeling of calm and relaxation.

Whenever you have a little moment, try this breathing method, especially when you feel tired, busy, stressed, or depressed from work etc. That will recharge your energy, and make you feel like you are reborn!!

Recovery Part 2 

I think feeling nature is a good way to relax and refresh our mind and body, like looking at a nice big ocean with the sound of weaves and smell of the ocean at the beach.
​Listening to birds and the wind, looking at the greens grass and trees, and breathing in fresh air at the mountains or in the bush.
You will get relaxed nature, and will feel that we are still part of it.

Also I recommend to go to see someone you haven’t seen for a while, family or friends. Visit someone you respect who gives you positive energy ( Try not to visit negative people, they suck all your positive energy ).

If you don’t have the time or chance to go somewhere like that, you can just simply listen to nice relaxing music, read books, or just do breathing exercises whenever you get a little bit of time. 
Deep breathing is one of the best things to relax and refresh our mind and body.
If you keep doing slow and relaxed deep breathing for a while, you go into meditation stage.
And meditation makes your mind and body recover well, like after you have a good sleep.
I will go into more details about this topic “ Breathing “ next time.

Having good quality sleep and relaxing and refreshing time make your body and mind recover, so you will always be healthy and have a lot of energy.

The next topic is “ Breathing "

4, Recovery

​This includes sleeping, relaxing, and refreshing.

After using our body or brain for work, study, exercise etc, we always need to recover  to get more energy and power.
The same as our muscles after a workout. They get bigger and stronger if you give them a rest.

Having a good sleep is the best thing to recover our body and mind.
Good sleep means good quality sleep. 
Even if you sleep for a long time, you will be tired if you wake up a lot or couldn’t get deep sleep. And sleeping too long will make you more tired too.
Quality is more important than how long you sleep.
There are so many different things you can do to have good quality sleep such as having a good diet, getting the morning sun, not eating right before you sleep etc, I can write more of them another time.

Having relaxing and refreshing time also helps to recover our body and mind.
When I was still fighting in Japan, after every big competition I always went to the hot spring resort in a nice country town just for a day.
Having a hot spring bath, nice food, and nice SAKE ( Rice wine ) made my body and mind recover very well. 
I remember a lot of power and energy came back, and I was motivated to train harder after that.

You don’t have to go to hot springs or resorts to relax. There are many things you can do to relax your body and mind easily.
So I will write a little bit more about this topic next time.