June is Men’s Mental Health Month, at least according to some calendars (others say it’s November). Regardless, it’s always a good time to talk about mental health. I’ll save you the trouble of asking the question my partner asked when I told him what I was working on—what do I [Read More]
April is Stress Awareness Month. A way to combat stress is by developing resilience. For more resources on managing stress, visit the American Psychological Association’s resource page on resilience. John Coyle, Olympic medalist, author, and public speaker, has presented to leaders in my organization over the last year as part [Read More]
Do you ever feel like you’re wearing a mask or must put on an act in front of certain people? Do you feel like the world has impossible expectations for you to meet—or do you put impossible expectations on yourself? Do you feel like you can’t be honest about what [Read More]
Martial artists carry themselves with self-respect, honor, and grace. They temper their emotions and never fall prey to the temptation of envy…Or we could just cut the bull and stop romanticizing the myth of the martial artist with the unflappable humble heart. Jealousy is a natural human emotion, and it [Read More]
Around 2018 I became fascinated with cults. I binged as much content as I could find: articles, podcasts, documentaries, books, etc. At first, it seemed like a harmless passing interest. About nine months into that year, after months of vacillating between misery and denial, I finally admitted to myself that [Read More]
This article serves as a follow-up to my re-awakening post, “The Weirdness and Joy of Returning to Training After an Injury.” When I was a child, my dad used to make “first day of school” signs for my younger brother and me. We’d hold up our signs while grinning for [Read More]
“It’s like the side kick in Koryo!” A pair of teenage brothers were sparring in a class I was teaching, and the older one did a sliding side kick into his brother’s chest. After clobbering his younger brother, he proclaimed he was inspired to do the move from the taekwondo [Read More]
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Research shows that one in five people in the United States is living with some kind of mental health condition, and statistics are similar in other countries. Our collective experience with the 2020 pandemic and other events has shown that everyone needs to pay [Read More]
April is Stress Awareness Month. Most of us are unfortunately very “aware” of our own stress, but how often do we make the time to address it in a healthy way? Stress is how your brain and body respond to a challenge or demand. Your body may respond in a [Read More]
I’ve left and returned to taekwondo three times in my life: Once as a pre-teen when other interests eclipsed taekwondo. I returned at age thirty-three as a desperate wreck looking for a fresh start. Once as a jaded black belt leaving a toxic environment. I returned a few months later [Read More]
There are countless articles and guidelines for being a good martial arts student as well as being a good instructor. But what do we know about being a good partner? Many martial arts rely on partner work for not only sparring, but also for practicing self-defense and basic drills. A [Read More]
My best boss has never stepped foot in the corporate world, where I’ve worked for nearly twenty years. This person was my Sabumnim, my master instructor from the taekwondo school where I trained for five years. I’ve never worked in a formal leadership role in my day job. Nor have [Read More]
Several years ago, during a low period in my life, I wondered if taekwondo had become yet another addiction. I’ve been addicted to many things: people, exercise, food, alcohol, thought patterns, and coping mechanisms. Taekwondo had been a saving force in overcoming the worst of my mental illnesses. Of course [Read More]
The year I started my adult taekwondo training, I had a raging eating disorder. It manifested during my teen years, peaked during college, and remained mostly contained throughout my twenties and thirties until I hit my emotional rock bottom. It quieted as I found my mental solace in taekwondo. [Read More]
We’ve all seen it in a movie or on television: an athlete “blows out their knee” and is never heard from again. Most people assume the felled athlete smoothly transitioned into another sport or hobby without realizing how difficult, lonely, and frustrating injury and recovery can be. Life doesn’t stop [Read More]
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