“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” - Seneca
The best Aikidoists are afraid of nothing. I am not talking about being fearless in a hubristic sense. What I mean is that an Aikidoist is afraid of “no-thing” because fear is a conjuring of the mind. Most times, as the stoic philosopher Seneca points out, “Things are mostly never as bad as our imagination leads us to believe.”
In Japanese, to be “fearless” is konjounosuwatta (根性のすわった). Konjou translates as “willpower” but means “fighting spirit” and suwatta is “to be in a position” or “to sit with.” Therefore, to the Japanese, fearless doesn’t mean to be without fear but rather to be in a place of fighting spirit. Fighting spirit is defined as, “courage and determination expressed in a willingness to fight or struggle.” This implies as Mark Twain once said, “Courage is not the lack of fear. It is acting in spite of it.”
Aikido training helps us to develop a fearless or fighting spirit mindset. In class, there is a special moment in a student’s career when they begin to roll without hesitancy. Hesitancy is this physical lag or sputter where our minds realize some fear, address it, mull it over, and then act. This causes our movements and reactions to be slow, and our bodies to move out of sync. To roll without hesitancy is the first unhesitancy that we develop in our training. Rolling without hesitancy means that the roll is smooth because the student has learned to not give in to the fear, has stopped thinking about it, and just moves in spite of the fear. When this happens, the fear has been overcome. The same thing happens when they learn to be unhesitating and move smoothly against a strike, grab, or any other attack. From the outside, the movement may look mindless but internally it is completely mindful.
One way to overcome fear is to add in an element of curiosity. When a normal person is confronted by something, their first reaction is one of doubt, fear, or any other negatively conditioned emotion. The trained Aikidoist is different. When confronted, they quietly say to themselves, “Is that so?” before the fear sinks in and grabs hold of them. Saying or thinking, “Is that so?” changes the tone and enables our minds to wonder if something is true or not. Then before the fear takes hold of us, we become curious, and we want to know if it is true for ourselves. That curiosity enables us to change the orientation of our minds and enables our bodies to move smoothly without hesitation.
Author Haruki Murakami said, “Be fearless, be brave, be bold, love yourself.” When we don’t allow fear to stop us, we can have the curiosity to be bold or brave. Being curious over being afraid enables us to find ourselves which leads to the state of loving ourselves. O’Sensei said, “The Art of Peace begins with you.” When we can love ourselves, then we can be healthier and happier and thus have no need to destroy others, making the world a better place.
A quote often attributed to Miyamoto Musashi is “There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.” This can be the road map to overcoming fear because when we can realize that it is all in our minds, then we realize that we have the power to overcome it and we can take back our power not only in Aikido but in every aspect of our lives.
Today’s goal: Rather than being afraid, be curious. The real you is waiting for you on the other side of fear.
Watch this video of former Navy Seal Jocko Willink talking about overcoming fear.