‘To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral you down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that training and discipline are about. So teach your mind to dwell on sweet perfumes, the touch of silk, tender raindrops against the shoji, the tranquillity of dawn, then at length you won’t have to make such an effort and you will be of value to yourself.’—extract from James Clavelles Shogun
“The inner opponent is, basically, the voice or instinct that tries to warn you of the dangers that you face and the possible consequences of your actions. In general the inner opponent will advice you to run when danger rears its ugly head.”—from Dead or Alive by Geoff Thompson
Without a doubt the biggest obstacle to our development as martial artists is not our ability to learn technique or our ability to win fights against others, but our ability to overcome ourselves, to tame and control the ever present opponent that lives within us all.
As if we don’t have enough to contend with as martial artists we have this other person residing inside us who’s sole aim, seemingly, is to try and hold us back by filling our minds with fear and doubt and insecurity, knocking our confidence at every turn and continually telling us that “you shouldn’t do that”, “you’ll never be able to cope with that” and “face it, you just don’t have what it takes to succeed”. An over all helpful guy, I’m sure you’ll agree.
With every challenge we face, the inner opponent is there, lurking in the shadows, testing our resolve at every turn. But why? Why do we have this incessant voice of negativity inside of us all the time? In truth, I can’t give you a concrete answer to that question. One theory of mine is that the inner opponent exists to make us stronger. If you can control and overcome a force as potent and persistent as that which lives within us then you can overcome anything.
If you can master your inner opponent then you can master anything, for no challenge is greater than that. Of course, by the same token, that makes mastering the inner opponent an extremely difficult task, but that’s not to say it cannot be done. Anyone who has achieved greatness in their lives first had to master their inner opponent before achieving anything, but the fact is these people who achieved so much have succeed in that regard and therefore proved that it can be done.
Your inner self is the key to your success in anything, including martial arts. It is the rudder which steers you towards either success or failure. The layout of your inner self is reflected back at you in the layout of your life and is voiced by your inner opponent. If your life is messed up it’s because the way you are on the inside is messed up. If you don’t like the results you are getting from your training or anything else in your life then you have to change the nature of your inner self in order to get the results you want.
Getting results often means entering into challenging situations that will inevitably push us to our limits and for some people this is very hard to take and they end up backing away from such situations or running away altogether. But running away will get us nowhere, for we have to face and overcome these obstacles if we are to succeed in anything.
The reason many people end up backtracking is down to the flight or fight response we talked about in the last article on fear control. When we are really up against it our bodies tend to release adrenaline into our systems to help us out, either over time with slow release adrenaline, or right away with immediate release adrenaline. Unfortunately most people react to this adrenal dump the wrong way and end up channeling it into panic and fear, the result of which is that they freeze up or just run away.
We can’t run away from everything however. Back in prehistoric times when the flight or fight response first originated, running away from things was probably a good tactic, because the challenges faced back then came in the form of Sabre-Toothed tigers and huge Grizzly bears. Hanging around to deal with such foes would have been folly, to say the least.
Unfortunately the flight or fight response has not evolved very well and remains the same as it was back in prehistoric times. Now the challenges we face more likely come in the form of board room meetings and speaking in public, or as martial artists, rule bound competitive fights and gradings, situations that we shouldn’t really be running away from but our initial response insists we do exactly that.
Added to this urge to run away from every challenge is the voice of our inner opponent who keeps pointing out the negative consequences in everything, making it harder for us to push on and see our challenges through. That’s why most people don’t get nearly as much success in life as they should, because they don’t understand their bodily reaction to stress and confrontation and they don’t know how to handle the nagging voice of their inner opponent.
Having said all that you shouldn’t feel bad for wanting to run away from situations. It’s just natural instinct. If flight is an option then by all means take it. Problems only arise when flight isn’t an option and you have to stand and face the music. In which case you really have to come up with a more proactive response to the situation. So just bare that in mind the next time you feel like a coward for wanting to run away.
So we’ve already talked about how to handle the adrenal response, so let’s now look at how to deal with Mr. Negative, our inner opponent.
As this is a martial arts blog we will assume here that we are talking about the inner opponent in the context of a physical or violent confrontation, but the techniques I’m about to put forth can just as easily be applied to any situation were you are feeling fear or an overwhelming urge to panic and run away, as in, to use a previous example, public speaking or a high profile meeting.
Thought Control
Thought control is the technique we are going to look at here, of which there are three variations, all of which involve you having a good degree of mindfulness, of being aware of your own thought processes. Being mindful of how your mind works is half the battle when it comes to actually cutting out negativity. You have to be aware that the negative thoughts are there. Sometimes you can not notice what is being thought in your own mind and you will therefore be influenced almost subliminally, without you even noticing. So be aware of what is happening in your own mind.
When your mind (or inner opponent) is bombarding you with negative thoughts then you have two options open to you. The first option is to simply ignore the negative thoughts, to not engage with them. By not engaging with negativity you will not be pulled in by it and will therefore be able to carry on regardless. However this is not as easy as it sounds as negative thoughts have an annoying habit of making themselves heard despite your best efforts, which is why we back this up with another tactic, which is Counter Thinking.
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Counter thinking basically involves countering a negative thought with a positive one. Here’s an example of that:
You’re really scared
I am not scared, I’m completely fine
You can’t handle this
Yes, I can handle this
You should run away now
No, I will not run away
By countering every negative thought with a positive one you are not giving the negativity a chance to take hold and influence your behaviour. It is very important that you counter each individual thought because for every negative thought you let penetrate your psyche a small part of your will be eroded until eventually you will be facing defeat, both in your own mind and in the situation you are in. So it is very important that you keep those thoughts under control if you want to succeed.
The next technique we are going to look at involves blocking out the negative thoughts altogether by constantly repeating something positive in the form of a mantra or affirmation. This technique is very simple but very effective and prevents any negative thoughts from taking hold. So you would say to yourself:
I can deal with this, I can deal with this, I can deal with this, I can deal with this, I can deal with this…
Or:
I am in full control, I am in full control, I am in full control, I am in full control, I am in full control…
You get the idea. You can say anything you like to yourself just as long as it’s positive and it empowers you and takes your mind of anything negative until you can do what you have to do.
Complete Mind Training
For complete mind training to be effective you have to take a holistic approach to it which means you can’t really view it as being separate from the rest of your training. Everything we have looked at in this series of articles, from meditation to visualization to mental focusing to NLP to fear control to managing your inner opponent, all of these techniques must be integrated into your existing training for them to be truly effective.
The object of martial arts is to train the whole person, the mind, body and spirit together so that we develop in a balanced way. Train your inner self as much as your outer self but train both together. View yourself as a whole person and strive to develop yourself as such.
Really try to define what it is you want from life and the martial arts and then dedicate yourself totally to getting what is you want. Use whatever tools you have to get the results you want and always keep a good eye on your ultimate goal, for that will keep you moving in the right direction and ensure that you don’t go off course.
All the techniques in this series feed into one another. You will get the best results if you find a way to combine them all for the purpose of achieving whatever goals you have set for yourself. If you truly desire what it is you want to achieve then nothing will stop you from doing that. Yes you will encounter many setbacks and problems along the way but if you use the tools you have at your disposal, like the ones I have given you here, and you continue to train hard and dedicate yourself then you will surely find success.
I hope you have enjoyed this series on mind training and I also hope that you found the articles useful and that you will use the techniques to further develop your own training. If I have helped even one of you become a better martial artist then this series will have been a success.
In the meantime I would like to provide you with this further resource on mind training for martial artists that you can check out. It’s a recent podcast by Ian Abernethy, a very well respected and highly knowledgeable and experienced martial artist from the UK. You can download this excellent podcast here.
I also highly recommend that you check out the following books by Geoff Thompson. All the books contain great advice and are very inspirational if you are looking to make positive changes in your life.
Hunting the Shadow: How to Turn Fear into Massive Success
Animal Day: Pressure Testing the Martial Arts
