Tell me about your vision.
I've been running a martial arts meditation academy for about 30 years.
And one of the things that's really inspired me to write my last couple books
and to build my online program and my teacher training program is, you know,
we've had over 26,000 students come through the academy.
And I've literally seen the meditative arts change hundreds of people's lives.
And so that's why I created the online program and wrote the yielding warrior is
I want to get that message out to as many people as possible and share the benefits of the meditative arts.
That's a very different vision.
So tell me, where did it come from?
This vision of you, of meditating arts and martial arts at the same time, I'm assuming.
Yeah. So the meditative arts came to me in a bit of a roundabout way.
I was originally as a younger guy, 19, 20 years old, really into Western boxing.
And I had a boxing coach tell me that I should start doing meditation in Tai Chi.
And at the time, you know, I thought, isn't that for like old people in the park?
How's that going to help me with my, you know, my practice?
And I had a lot of respect for him.
I took on the practice and the meditative arts changed my whole life in so many ways
and my trajectory of how I started.
But it's kind of funny in that in the beginning, I wasn't really interested in wanting to pursue a meditation path.
But it ended up being a great investment of time.
And I'm forever grateful to him for turning me on to the practice.
How old were you when you started that?
I was around 19, 20.
Oh, pretty young, very pretty young.
Yes.
That's amazing. That is amazing.
Is that what you say your vise? Why do you do what you do?
It's very closely connected. Yes.
So running my martial arts academy, we also have what I call external martial arts.
We do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Western boxing, Muay Thai kickboxing.
And through the years, I've trained a number of competitors that go out.
And it's always fun training a competitor to go out and do well in the practice.
And, you know, when a first place medal or when a belt or that kind of thing in a competition.
But nothing hits home as closely as when somebody comes in here who's been dealing with anxiety or depression
or they've had a health issue or something, and then they take on the meditative practice and it changes their whole life.
And so that's what my my drive is, is making those kinds of changes.
That is amazing. I did not.
I didn't think about that until you said it. I bet I guess.
I don't know how that works, but I'm guessing somehow the focus goes on to.
Meditation, martial arts and away from depression and anxiety, and they probably have a better purpose in life.
So so the meditative arts is is a science and it's a very dynamic, it's very diverse.
You know, there's five main directions within a meditative practice.
You can do it for the athletic side or the combative side, the therapeutic side, the philosophical side, the meditative side, and also the medical side.
And so different people that come to a meditation practice might just resonate with one or two of those areas.
And so when you build a meditation practice and incorporate that into your lifestyle,
it's important to focus on things that help you in whatever direction you have an interest in.
And then also to create an evolving life practice around that direction.
And so, you know, a lot of times people get the misconception that meditation is, you know, sitting down and counting your breaths.
You know, it's I've been studying the meditative arts for over 30 years and I'm still just a student.
I'm nowhere near the master. You know, there's so much to learn with the practice.
And one of the things that makes it so interesting and fun to pursue is that it is such a deep practice.
Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show. And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.