At the dojo we will now have a monthly focus word. The word of the week seemed to fly by, and we didn’t really explore it more than a quick post on facebook, so I decided that we should choose a word to really think about and delve into for a month.
This months word is – Respect
This is the first instalment from the dojo blackboard: I will add others during the month to this post
1: Respect starts first with you. Respect yourself enough to do the right things for yourself. First of all take care of your health, both physical and mental. This includes (but not limited to) sleep,food, rest, laughter, positive friends, social groups, goals and aspirations. You know what the right things to do are-respect yourself enough to not make excuses. Your’e worth more than that! If you don’t know the right things to do, respect yourself enough to find out. Your‘e living in the age of information, and libraries are still free- find out !
You cannot truly respect others, or teach others respect if you don’t have it for yourself.
“Martial Arts – Without true respect and the behaaviours and courtesies that stem from this, is Just Violence”.
Respect and humility go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other. When you conquer your ego- you can embrace humility and hence, true respect. (This differs from false, forced,fake, blind subservience)
True respect is given and shown like love. It’s honest and pure and has no Ulterior motives other than to serve the highest self, and the highest in others.
Are you strong enough and brave enough to have the neccessary humility to look inside yourself and ask if you know and have true respect? Do you Love yourself enough? Love is a weird word to hear in a dojo perhaps, but if you think on it enough the truth of it is easily apparent.
Respect- for it to mean anything, should be present in your every action and your every word. How do you talk to yourself with your innner voice? How do you see others, remembering we can only see them through the lens/filter through which we view ourselves. How do you greet others then? How do you enter the dojo ? What spirit does your level of self respect afford you? Your spirit follows you everywhere. It emanates from your eyes, and it’s heard in your voice above your words. Strong hearts, heads up, eyes up, honesty above all, courtesy, loud Osu’s, be a good training partner and inspire others by your actions. It’s all Respect !