ViciousCycle

In a one-hour aikido class, I have more deliberate direct physical contact with non-family members than I do than the other twenty-three hours of the day combined. This means that if someone "gets on my nerves", it won't be merely a figure of speech. After all, when they grab my arm, they're causing sensations to travel through my nerves. In this sense, aikido heightens my awareness of my reactions to other people. This is different than how it is in everyday life. i.e. Often, when you decide that you don't like someone, you try to minimize contact with them, and don't have to work through what bugs you about them. But in aikido, you have to maintain contact with them (in a literal sense.) Sometimes, an odd little idiosyncrasy of someone else's body language might cause a negative reaction in me at a non-conscious level, but aikido makes me continue forward with direct contact with this person. I find this to be more instructive about my own dislikes, prejudices, etc. than any form of talk therapy.