Tae Kwon Do Tutors | A Martial Arts Blog

It is a common stereotype, and quite cliché, that martial artists meditate. Despite that irritating cliche, it is true. Many martial artists meditate. But why?

Reason 1: Stress Reduction

Let’s be real; life is stressful! This is as true for martial artists as it is for you. To cope with this, I’ve met many a martial artist who uses meditation to help with this. They take a small amount of time to simply breathe and meditate. The people I know report this to help them focus and relax. For a martial artist, meditation helps them reduce their stress so they can be more productive and have more agency in their lives!Meditation on a beach is something I have seen before!

Reason 2: Focus

Focus is key in martial arts. After all, how can you fight and train well if you are’nt focused? A good martial artist, in my experience, meditates to help them focus before fighting, before training, or for anything really. If they’re getting distracted, many black belts will use meditation to bring their attention back to what they are doing in the present. This is especially helpful for competitions, teaching, and testing. These parts of the martial arts world require a great deal of focus, so being able to bring oneself back to the moment can be very helpful to a black belt.

Reason 3: Study

Surprised? There is a reason we have been training for so long!

Contrary to popular belief meditation, particularly in the martial arts, isn’t just about clearing your mind and focusing your attention. It’s also about study. It’s about taking the time to focus on reviewing what you’ve learned and practicing. Using meditation to study can be practicing Poomse meditation, or sitting down, closing your eyes, and meditating on Poomse. It can also be reciting some information you’ve needed to memorize. Or perhaps recalling what your instructor told you. Whatever you might need to think about, using meditation and focusing on your study is a way to help you study martial arts! Pretty cool, right?

Conclusion

The idea that a martial artist meditates is true; and now you know some of the reasons why we do it. We do it, because it helps us. To be completely honest, it isn’t really as much a part of our training as others might think it is. It’s really just about learning self-control and self-care. Both things that are important for anyone’s day to day life. If we need to focus, to study, or to just take a break, you might find us meditating. Perhaps it might be worth trying it out some time?

May you have a wonderful day, friend!

Professional note: This blog post is in no way meant for medical advice, psychological advice, mental health advice, or anything other than entertainment. If you are seeking medical advice on meditation, reach out to a qualified medical professional.