I had no idea how much Jiu-Jitsu would change me mentally, emotionally, and spiritually when I first started training. Rickson Gracie’s words hit me hard the first time I heard them;
“Jiu-Jitsu can support you in terms of giving you more confidence, giving you more capacity to handle stress, handle emotions…”
I was just a beginner trying to make it through each roll at that point. I did not understand how Jiu-Jitsu could alter the way I thought about life.
I was having a hard time with anxiety at the time. Every day I felt like I was walking on a tightrope because work was too much and relationships were tense.
There was doubt in every choice and conversation. I was tense and always second-guessing myself. It was not clear to me how much stress I was feeling.
But Jiu-Jitsu was not like that. I could feel my body tensing up the first time I sparred with someone.
Being in a fight with someone much stronger and more skilled than me took me out of my comfort zone. But something strange caught my eye as the roll went on.
It was like the outside world, my stress, my worries, and the noise in my head went away. It was just me facing my opponent and the way the roll went. There was no room for doubt or fear.
After that, I could not help but think about how I felt.
I felt present for the first time in a long time. Fighting arts like jiu-jitsu gave me a place to deal with my feelings and stress in a healthy way. The mats became a safe place for me.
I began to notice more changes as I went along. It was not just my techniques that made me feel better about myself. I did not fall apart when life threw me curveballs.
For the same reason I did when I was stuck on the mats, I kept my cool. What Jiu-Jitsu taught me is how to deal with pain, how to breathe through it, and how to get above it.
After each roll, Rickson’s words began to make more sense. Jiu-Jitsu taught me more than just how to defend myself physically.
It also gave me the mental strength to deal with the hardest things in life. Jiu-Jitsu taught me how to handle stress without getting too stressed out, how to deal with fear without getting stiff, and how to keep my cool when things get crazy.
Jiu-Jitsu is more than just a sport. It’s a mental discipline. To face life’s storms with confidence, to face problems head-on, and to get back up after every fall.
Jiu-Jitsu became more than just a training discipline for me. It became my anchor. I felt strong enough to trust myself, face each day with clarity, and deal with anything life threw at me.
Thanks for reading!
◣ Read Next◥
Sun Tzu’s Strategies for Jiu-Jitsu Practitioners (All Chapters)
