They call me the fighting therapist!

I began martial arts training again after a long hiatus. I train at a school in Chantilly, Virginia and although I love it, it is tortuous at times.

I have kept myself in pretty good shape over the years and feel athletic for a thirty-something male but still…I don’t move and heal as quickly as I used to. I found this out the other night during a group sparring class. I was practicing a technique with another student (we were using rattan sticks) when he attacked and my defense wasn’t quite quick enough.

Long story short, I was struck across my upper forearm (we had padded gloves on but they only extended to just past the wrist) not far from my elbow, right across the bone. Yikes! That woke me up fast! Oh, did I mention the other student is about 270 pounds?? That’s a lot of force coming at you!

Anyway, I carried on and finished the class but on my way home (after all the adrenaline left my body), my arm really hurt and a large nasty bruise appeared.

Alone with the pain, my emotions attacked my logical mind. My internal conversation went something along the lines of "Why are you doing this, at your age?? IS this going to happen all the time during sparring? If I failed once, I will fail again. It’s awful that I’m not as fast as I should be."

Now I was feeling lousy both physically AND emotionally. It suddenly occurred to me that I was experiencing “cognitive distortions” (for more information about these types of distortions Google Aaron T. Beck and David Burns).

Since I was in pain, I was reasoning with my emotions and mislabeling everything. Mentally, I took a step back and did some deep breathing.

By the time I got home, I was in a more “centered” state and just let the feelings flow over me without feeling like I had to hold on to them and agree with them. All of us are going to experience these cognitive distortions at various times throughout our lives, it’s important to acknowledge them but not allow them to negatively impact our behavior.

So yes, I will be going back to the next class!