View Full Version : Dealing with a lack of motivation to train.
Sojourner
08-08-2015, 09:14 PM
Greetings all, a blog on the reasons why people fall out of training and what can be done about it to get you back into it. This article also addresses the issue of depression and I hope will give you some keys to dealing with it.
https://dontmakemeangrymrmcgee.wordpress.com/2015/08/09/dealing-with-lack-of-motivation-to-train/
Janet Rosen
08-08-2015, 09:28 PM
Re: depression as it pertains to training. You seem to jump directly to full-blown clinical endogenous depression that merits seeing a medical doctor. I think the more pressing issue for many folks in training is that buttons are pushed that create a form of what many call depression but is really existential angst: questioning the meaning of what they are doing in life and why they are doing it. Jobs push those buttons, family issues push those buttons, and martial arts training can do it also because we confront ourselves very powerfully in training. The answer there is not going to the doctor, but honest reflection.
rugwithlegs
08-11-2015, 05:24 PM
I have had different experiences.
Constant pain from excessive training, muscle cramps keeping you awake at night, stiff and sore and slow moving at work the next day or when with your family - excessive training symptoms can take the joy, and even competence, out of everything else in your life. Listen to your body.
Our awareness of our bodies improves over time. Initially, just lifting the arms in Ikkyo Undo is complex enough. eventually, Ikkyo style koshinage feels wrong, or Ikkyo feels wrong and you can't t put your finger on why. You can't do anything right! (Though you are really much better) You know you felt something amazing and effortless once, or believe that you could if only...and then one day, you figure it out. Progression is Aikido is very much step-like according ton old friend. Right out of any Twelve Step program, the first step is acknowledging something is wrong - and this feeling of worthless frustration is part of the realization. Yes it sucks, but break through and you're on your way to some mini-enlightenment!
Is this really what you want to do/should do? The dedication you show to a martial art can mess with your ability to do well outside of the dojo. One teacher I know who quit made a point of going to major summer seminars every year because he loved what he was doing - and he missed his daughter's birthday every year to be at this camp without his family. Not surprisingly, his daughter took no solace in his improved technique. If dedication to training costs you a good work life or opportunities for work advancement and earning potential, or a family life as fulfilling as it could be; are you happy with this? Ask yourself early if you are keeping a balance you can live with, otherwise your dojo is something you will resent.
Just some random thoughts. Don't want to be there? Go.
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