Stop ANTICIPATING Reruns

<p>“I can’t believe this is happening to me again. This always happens to me. They always do this to me. Of course things never work out. Again?” These phrases seemed all too common and repeated themselves throughout my life. That was until I realized I was living in my past. It was like relieving Ground Hog Day. You you know the movie where the guy relives one day over and over again?</p> <p>In self defense we look forward by being present in the moment. The past is gone, the future is yet to be determined, and the thing that determines the future is the moment we live in now. However, I like many of you, may have spent a good portion of my life anticipating the future based on a past. My past.</p> <p>In relationships of domestic violence, intense altercations, and even ongoing emotional trauma, we see repetitions of the same actions people experience over and over again. Why? They are re-living or re-running their past and bringing that past into the present moment, and even their future.</p> <p>In self-defense practice we see many people emotionally upset at some point in their training. This emotional upset comes about mostly in the middle of “randori,” or simulated fight training. Tears appear, quivering lips, red faces, and cracks in voice, and even leaving the floor to compose themselves are common reactions to this emotional upset.</p> <p>It may occur from fear, however mostly it comes from an experience of the past. Either the past that they've experienced, someone close them has experienced, or even an experience they have heard about during their life. The realism with which we train may bring about these emotions.</p> <p>However, these are experiences of the past. We all may ANTICIPATE a future that includes all too familiar issues of the past, and do on a regular basis. After all, if it happened once why wouldn't it happen again? It is however to this end that we train. It is true self-defense experts train for the future in ANTICIPATION of what might happen. Let’s look.</p> <p>There is a difference