Martial arts and happiness are closely related. A martial artist is always happy with martial arts, be it practicing, or participating in competitions, or reading books, or seeing movies, or hearing songs, or anything and everything else related to martial arts.
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The martial artist is happy as long as he is immersed in the environment of martial arts. But then, practice, competitions, books, movies, songs, and everything else that was the source of happiness, ultimately ends. When it ends, then happiness also ends, which means that happiness is momentary and not everlasting. To continue experiencing happiness, a new source of happiness is sought. This new source, at some point of time, also ends. Again, a new source is sought, and this cycle of gaining momentary happiness by constant strenous seeking is repeated in a continuous loop. In this manner, not only the martial artist but the entire humanity is entrenched in a rat race for seeking happiness.
Steve Cutts video “Happiness”:
This rat race, which for the majority of humankind means getting ahead of everyone in every possible way, in order to procure material possessions, so that they may fulfill their wishes, desires, needs and wants, of which some are fulfilled while some remain unfulfilled, and most of these come sprinkled with generous doses of hard work, competition, bitterness, jealousy, anger, and frustration.
But in all this mayhem of getting ahead of everyone, happiness remains elusively momentary, and humankind goes on pursuing happiness.
Kunal Newatia video “The Pursuit Of Happyness (full movie in hd)”:
If happiness is pursued by humanity, then logically, happiness should be important enough to be pursued. If happiness is so important, then the question naturally arises, after all, what is happiness? Unfortunately, there is no agreed upon definition of happiness. Some say it is due to good relationships, others opine it is largely due to genetics, while some state it is a combination of enjoyment, purpose, and satisfaction.
TED video “Robert Waldinger: What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness | TED”:
Greater Good Science Center video “Sonja Lyubomirsky: What Determines Happiness?”:
TEDx Talks video “The art and science of happiness | Arthur Brooks | TEDxKC”:
Many thinkers, both ancient and modern, from all around the world, have formulated many theories of happiness, based on age, gender, culture, education, interests, health, religion, sports, and more. All these theories, in some way or the other, conflict with each other and generally, there is no consensus reached amongst them. However, in a very broad sense, they may be grouped in four different types.
Questions by Wesley Walker “What are the 4 theories of happiness?”:
Almost every theory on happiness assumes that happiness is all about getting what one wants; however, some thinkers state that even if one does not get what one wants, yet that person can be happy. This might be termed as “synthetic happiness” created from a theorized so-called “psychological immune system” of the human body.
TED video “The surprising science of happiness | Dan Gilbert”:
Humanity may treasure happiness, but when the pursuit of happiness is discarded then it might be revealing to know that instead of happiness, the only treasure worthwhile enough to be pursued, is life itself, and living every moment of it.
Turap Aktay video “Titanic Deleted Scene – The Ocean Heart”:
In this article, an attempt is made to explore happiness not in terms of its various theories, but rather in terms of its features that affect a common person and how those features relate to martial arts. There are many features and only few are briefly mentioned here.
Happiness as an emotion
A feature of happiness is that it is an emotion, somewhat like joy or pleasure, which is experienced in the present time, here and now. For example, a child eating an ice-cream feels joy and at that moment, it may be said that the child is happy, because for the child the ice-cream is cold, creamy and condensed happiness.
Family Fun World video “CUTE Babies Eating Ice Cream for the First Time | Funny babies Compilation”:
Martial artists feel the emotion of happiness while practicing martial arts. For example, they may feel it while celebrating 4th of September, which is generally regarded as the International Taekwondo Day, commemorating the day Taekwondo was adopted as an official Olympic sport. They may also feel happiness as an emotion with some song that they make for Taekwondo.
@mofakoreaz video “Happy International Taekwondo Day!”:
CoComelon Animal Time – Learning with Animals video “Learn Taekwondo Song | CoComelon Animal Time – Learning with Animals”:
Happiness as love
With respect to emotions, perhaps love is the most powerful emotion that can give happiness, and love is expressed by all life-forms living on this planet Earth, right from the single-celled amoeba to the multi-cellular homo sapiens. It is well-known that happiness is the most dominant feeling when someone is in love.
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Love is the greatest emotion and usually it signifies staying together. But it might be debatable whether the sentence “and they lived happily ever after” is a myth or not. Is it not possible that just like staying together, even not staying together, is also love? Generally, just like staying together, parting away is also a form of love and it may also bring happiness, especially with the realization that parting away by not remaining together is what makes both happy.
MovieTivation video “La La Land – Full Movie in English”:
Martial artists love martial arts, and this love can also create new styles and new types of martial arts. For example, Jigoro Kano created Judo, and Bruce Lee created Jeet Kune Do. Even nowadays, there are many martial artists who have created their own martial arts, only because they are happily in love with martial arts.
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MARK STAS video “Wing Flow System in action”:
Happiness as an overall emotional state
Besides finding happiness in emotional present moments, happiness can also be found by recollecting happy moments lived in the past, which gives rise to an overall emotional state of happiness.
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An emotional state of happiness is usually achieved by some appraisal, for example, being contented with what life had to offer. In such a case, happiness may be an overall emotional state that appreciates one’s life, taken as a whole. The fact of living a full life brings contentment, which brings an overall and a broad emotional state of happiness.
BBC Three video “94 Year Old Jack Has Been Practising And Teaching Judo For 67 Years”:
Happiness as achievement
After a lot of blood, sweat and tears, when one is crowned with the desired achievement, then it also brings a lot of happiness. Over the years, humanity has crossed many milestones and earned several achievements, right from the hunter-gatherer age to the knowledge age, and all this has now led to a new age, which might be named as a space age.
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory video “JPL and the Space Age: Triumph at Saturn (Part II)”:
The space age has also given wings to the imagination of science fiction writers who have speculated how it will be to live, in the coming future, on the planet Mars, or the moon Titan. Such sci-fi thoughts provide robust optimistic achievements, and optimism brings happiness.
Future Business Tech video “Future of Mars Colonization (2030 – 3000)”:
Insane Curiosity video “Let Me Explain Why It Would Be Preferable To Colonize Titan Instead Of Mars!”:
Martial artists obtain happiness by gaining achievements in martial arts. On the physical level, it may signify earning higher belts, while on the mental level it may mean developing the warrior mentality, and on the spiritual level it may translate into continuously evolving into a better person.
WKBN27 video “74-year old earns black-belt”:
Team Fearless video “The Warrior Mentality (Motivational Video) Fearless Motivation”:
佛教導航精舍 video “Master of Zen – Bodhidharma (Da Mo Zu Shi) – Buddist Film (Turn on CC for updated English subtitle)”:
Happiness as near-death-experience
A near-death-experience is when a person is clinically declared as dead, but then after some time the person becomes alive. Explanations of how this happens have resulted in several theories without any agreement between them. However, getting a second chance at life may bring happiness.
CBN News video “She Died and Visited Heaven? Doctor’s Near-Death Experience Sheds Light on Life After Death”:
Daystar video “Dead for 11 Hours: My Unexpected Journey to Heaven and Hell with Jim Woodford | Full Episode”:
In martial arts, a near-death-experience can trigger greater motivation, perseverance and purpose, which brings greater happiness.
UFC video “Terrance McKinney Recounts His Near-Death Experience”:
Happiness as giving back to society
All through their lives, humans take many things from society, and therefore giving something back to the society, always brings happiness.
Forbes video “How Warren Buffett Donates His Billions | Top Givers | Forbes”:
One can experience happiness by serving the society in whatever possible way one can, although life may have hit hard.
TED video “What really matters at the end of life | BJ Miller | TED”:
Martial artists give back to the society in various ways, and one of the notable ways is to give free food or clothing to the needy.
WLKY News Louisville video “Hwang’s Martial Arts host canned food drive to help Wayside Christian Mission”:
Happiness as discovery
Any discovery undoubtedly comes with its fair share of surprise, awe, and sometimes also happiness. For example, discovering hidden treasures or sunken treasures is an event that brings happiness and has captured the imagination of humans for centuries.
National Geographic video “King Tut’s Treasures: Hidden Secrets Rediscovered (Full Episode) | National Geographic”:
National Geographic video “Sunken Treasures (Full Episode) | Drain the Oceans”:
Besides hidden and sunken treasures, discovering the hidden codes or mechanisms in works of art and machinery can also provide surprising new insights, which in turn can provide happiness.
Patheos video “Secrets Revealed: The Mysterious Messages Hidden in Leonardo da Vinci’s ”The Last Supper””:
BBC Global video “Antikythera Mechanism: The ancient ‘computer’ that simply shouldn’t exist – BBC REEL”:
Apart from the above, other types of discovery can also bring happiness. For example, an astonishing discovery is the existence of a highly advanced race, who live deep inside the earth. This may sound like science fiction, but according to Admiral Byrd, it is very much real. Admiral Richard E. Byrd was a highly decorated naval officer, pioneering American aviator, polar explorer, organizer of polar logistics, and also a veteran of both World War I and World War II. During an Arctic expedition, he made a very unusual discovery of a “hollow earth” and interacted with a much-advanced civilization that, according to him, exists inside the earth.
HISTORY video “Ancient Aliens: Crystal City Discovered Under Antarctica (Season 18)”:
HISTORY video “Ancient Aliens: The Hollow Earth Theory (Season 10) | History”:
In martial arts, discovery means self-discovery. Discovering oneself while traveling on the path or the Way of the martial art brings happiness. This Way is laid by ethics, tenets, and principles of the martial art. For example, in Taekwon-Do, discovering its tenets of courtesy, integrity, perseverance, self-control, and indomitable spirit, while training, sparring, or in self-defense, brings happiness. The Way is also a Way of life, which continuously changes the life of a martial artist for the better, and these changes go on bringing greater and greater happiness, as the martial artist continues his or her journey on the Way of his or her chosen martial art.
Black Eagle Martial Arts video “The Five Tenets of Taekwondo in Korean and English”:
caisik video “Kung Fu: More Than Martial Arts – A Journey of Wisdom and Self-Discovery”:
Happiness as daily practice
In order to do anything or not to do anything, human beings need a physical human body. The human body is the prime instrument through which humanity can perform any action or non-action. Therefore, it follows that if the body is well cared for, mainly by exercising it daily, then it can provide immense happiness.
Healthy Long Life video “Julia Hawkins (107 yr old) I eat TOP 5 Food & don’t get old. Anti-aging Benefits.”:
To perform martial art techniques with a high level of skill, daily practice is a pre-requisite. Hence, martial artists undertake various training exercises, daily, and in this process, they obtain happiness, day after day.
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Koryo Sport video “DPRK ITF Taekwon-Do Training”:
Conclusion
Due to many variables, defining happiness is difficult; hence, there is no universal agreement on it. Nonetheless, it might be illuminating to learn more about happiness from persons who have lived or are living a long life.
100huntley video “105 Year Old’s Secret To Happiness”:
LifeHunters video “Life Lessons From 100-Year-Olds”:
Martial artists who have practiced martial arts all their lives are dedicated, sincere, and true martial artists, who find happiness in martial arts. True martial artists totally immerse themselves in martial arts. Without fail, they practice daily and eagerly pass on their knowledge to the younger generation. For them, the definition of happiness is actually quite simple. Happiness is martial arts.
Pacific International Taekwondo video “Grandmaster Trevor Dicks checking Yul Guk pattern”:
New China TV video “93-year-old Kungfu Granny practices martial arts for 90 years”:
Widuliya.Com – Explore the Future video “OLD is GOLD #2 – Best Martial Arts Elders | Motivational Video”:
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