When we are young, we just fling ourselves at life without knowing better. The body and mind are more tolerable to changes and neither has yet understood the impacts of our actions. As we grow, life gets embed into our bodies and mind creating patterns of imbalance. For example, if you lean on your left side too much while standing can cause the hips to start tilting and the muscles to contract more to one side. The same thing goes for ways of thinking. Getting set into certain reactions and thought patterns will only reinforce those ways of thinking. For example, quitting when you aren’t immediately good at something reinforces the option of giving up rather than following through knowing you’ll eventually understand. All these things create a reverberating effect in our lives we often don’t realize until they have become prominent. We then start to identify as those inadequacies becoming the very problems we fear. The trick of the mind in fooling us we are not good enough while in reality, we are far more powerful than we think and know.
As we become more self aware and start taking a deeper look into our lives, we can begin to bring focus to these pain points or problem areas so we can properly address them. This only happens when we turn the lens inside ourselves and start becoming responsible for how life has affected us. We then see that we’ve grown to have a stronger left side of the body and back pain from certain actions. Sometimes we notice that we talk with a reactive nature to others without even thinking often creating scenarios we wish to avoid or pushing people away. The healing starts by bringing awareness to these elements of ourselves that we’ve neglected.
Most of our lives are spent making money so we can pay for food, housing, going out to forget about our work, and other things that are only furthering our progress into the pit of suffering. Making time for yourself to actually heal becomes so difficult because our minds tell us that we can’t even take that time when it’s truly the one thing we need. Only when our lives have become painful enough do we make it important enough to change these habits and behaviors. Through suffering and pain we are usually led to the solution of a problem. Many don’t find the right answers as there are many distractors that take away the true path of healing. Doctors giving pain medications for muscle imbalances when we really need to put in the work for rehabilitation. Negative emotions and thoughts pushing us towards further depths of pain within when the solution can be the very thing we shy away from like needing a hug from a fellow loved one or exercising out our frustration. There are many examples and certainly some extremes that don’t necessarily apply here, but for the most part, the majority of problems we face in our lives can be solved through simply bringing awareness to ourselves.
All of us have dealt with issues as we grew up. From the people we have interacted with to how our parents brought us up. Very few people have upbringings that guide us free of issues that we will have to deal with in our adults years. Taking that responsibility upon ourselves to be the ones to stand up and say “I’ve had enough, I’m ready to heal” is all we can truly do. This self empowerment is that path towards creating a better quality life both in the bodies we inhabit and in the minds that channel thoughts.
This is the very reason that we started Fera Academy. To create a place to not only allow healing of the mind and body but to create a healthy lifestyle freeing our creativity and instilling peace in our minds, bodies, and spirit. We do this by targeting all of our problem areas through holistic methods that have a cascading effect pushing us further into balance allowing for peace and happiness to take place of pain and suffering. Here is how we work on achieving this balance:
Martial Arts
After a long day of work we often come home to want to rest due to the stress we’ve accumulated. Pushing those emotions deeper within, they get embedded into our bodies and minds not allowing our energy to flow creating blockages. Bringing our minds away from the day and into the moment creating presence in our lives helps release that weight we feel.
Moving the body with focus and intention creating better control helps release some of these blockages. Through intense and controlled movements, we allow the body to harness the power within creating a healthy outlet for that stress. Punching, kicking, and pushing our bodies to new heights of discipline channels that pain into a razor sharp knife that cuts through suffering creating calm within. The lungs start asking for more air as the heart pumps more blood through the body. Releasing endorphins and putting focus into movement, we instill the mental and physical discipline required to bring our focus into a deeper part of ourselves we never really understood.
Once this awareness starts to set in, it starts to grow. Creating more space in our awareness allowing us to absorb more with ease. We gain consciousness over our muscles, breathing, heart rate, emotions, and the quality of feeling within the body. As this awareness expands, tranquility starts to set in as we are no longer chained by the pain that used to be. The mind learns to let go of pain and realize it’s much more than what we feel. The body starts to move easier with less effort while making every aspect of our lives easier. We begin to implement what we’ve learned in every day life creating a lifestyle for self improvement making it easier to deal with those hard moments. The journey starts to deepen as we learn to seek the truth about ourselves. We also learn to defend ourselves in the process increasing our confidence.
Calisthenics
A lot of us sit or stand all day and get up in the morning with back pain. Our knees start giving out as we don’t use the muscles we used to due to our daily jobs and life patterns we have developed. We start to gain weight and shy away from exercises because of the increased difficulty as the metabolism slows down. The body gets injured from lack of control or strength to prevent tearing or ripping in the muscles. Our bodies start to feel the effects of life as we move throughout our day without second thought for it.
Strengthening the body isn’t just about how much weight you can lift. It’s about how you use it. Being able to bend down properly to pick up heavy items. Learning how to lean over without hurting our backs. Strengthening the legs and ligaments around our knees to reduce pain as we age. Calisthenics provides a platform to not only strengthen the body for more functional martial arts but create a foundation that helps facilitate more movement, especially as we age.
Creating a better cardiovascular system through optimizing the transfer of oxygen into our blood stream from our lungs. Increasing our metabolism helping reduce sickness and increasing our fat burning. Strengthening the muscles to help prevent injury if we fall down or even supporting aging ligaments by facilitating harsh movements throughout our day. We create a more effective body by strengthening what was once weak allowing the vessel to become more pure for self expression. No one likes getting old but we have to choose our pain. We can either put in the work in training our bodies or feel that pain when it starts to deteriorate.
Stronger muscles help prevent ligament injuries. They also allow faster and easier movements in the body, especially with calisthenics creating a more functional application of that strength. We learn to fire these different muscles, some of which most people have never used, creating balance in the body. From lower back pain being relieved through strengthening the hamstrings and surrounding support muscles to bettering posture by creating a stronger core and back. We instill balance in the body that allows us to keep doing what we love.
Stretching
Just strengthening the body can create tight and imbalanced areas. This also applies if you only stretch. By combining stretching with our training we create better blood flow, reduce potential of injury, and most importantly we allow for mobility to increase. Learning where, how, and when to stretch and instilling that into a daily practice transform the body. It also harness the focus of our minds teaching us how to relax the muscles. Often times we experience a sense of sharp pain in certain movements and even shy away from doing many things due to that lack of mobility. This often only furthers the pain reducing mobility furthering the suffering.
Stretching the hips, shoulders, spine, and limbs can let us sit more comfortably for extended periods of time as well as reduce potential injury. A well stretched muscle is like a loose rubber-band more resistant to breaking while one that is tight is like an aged old elastic that’s ready to rip at the first sign of stress. How many of us can sit in a full squat comfortably? Do the splits? Live without shoulder or knee pain? Lower Back Pain? These things not only reduce our quality of life but they also affect our thought patterns making us shy away from things we once loved or even wish to do.
Adding balanced stretching that focuses on not only lengthening the muscles and ligaments but teaching our minds to bring calmness into the body changes everything. Allowing us to sit for meditation longer or sit for our car rides on vacations without pain. It facilitates martial arts allowing us to kick higher or even enabling us to pull out those dance moves we envision in our heads but never thought we could do. The transformation in our lives from having that strength and flexibility gives us confidence in the body that brings about great change.
Breathwork & Meditation
The mind is a powerful tool. We use it for everything we do channeling our deeper selves through the brain. The mind is trained to think like a race car is trained to move fast. Slowing it down and focusing on one thing can be hard and feel impossible, especially with the every changing world of technologies. The 15 to 30 second reels that draw us in and teach us instant gratification make for an even harder battle in focusing that ever important noodle.
Breathwork can release stale air in our bodies, increase oxygen levels in our blood, and even help us gain proper use of diaphragmatic breathing which we often may forget to do. Paired with meditation to help sharpen our focus, stilling the mind creating a platform to allow peace and calmness into our lives where there was once anxiety and fear. We re-write our brains training them to focus on a task better allowing us to be more productive. We learn that the racing of our thoughts isn’t us, but our brains trained to think after a lifetime of impressioning. Aiming to bring the awareness to look at thoughts and let go creating space inside that allows for creativity and intuition to take place of ridged thinking.
Meditation is the gateway to self realization allowing our perspectives to grow outside of a narrow view point showing us we are much more than our thoughts and feelings. Giving us the perspective to see past the chains of our ego setting us free allowing for true self expression. We start to instill love and peace where there was once hate and fear. Our mind become a receiver of thoughts that guide us to a better life rather than push us further down the path of suffering.
We are the masters of our lives and the power to change them is in each of our hands. This change doesn’t happen instantly but takes time and hard-work to instill. Finding the love and peace within through self awareness and repetition, we create a new world. We instill balance in our minds and bodies allowing for our souls to channel the truth of existence into this reality. Becoming this moment, letting go of the past, manifesting a beautiful future, the life we live becomes full of bliss. The journey there may be hard but ever worth it. Taking the first step is hard, but so important. This is our way forward.
If you seek guidance in your life and would like to train with us in order to bring about the balance you strive for you can email us to join our online training. The power is in your hands, it’s up to you to change it. Don’t wait, but act now, your future self thanks you.
