About a month ago I stepped into the Gentle Art academy for my first trial class in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ). It was a 7 am class and there was the professor, one of the gym owners (also a student in that class) and I. We started with warm ups, then I was taught a sequence of moves from how to escape the mount, sweeping, getting out of closed guard and into the mount and 2 submissions. Then, the prof said, “let’s roll”, and then I was hooked.

The gym I go to is fairly new, but they’ve got a great vibe there. Everyone is nice, friendly and works hard. The class structure seems to work well for me too. I’ve been training at least 4 times a week and I enjoy rolling (‘sparring’ of BJJ). I’ve received lots of positive feedback that was really unexpected. People there have told me I’m natural. Haha, I don’t know how to handle praise well, but I just thank them awkwardly but I also know I still got so much to learn and improve on!

There’s a BJJ competition coming in April and I was told that I should compete. I sat on that idea for a while. I didn’t wanna go and get my ass kicked. I guess that’s the same as being afraid to lose. Then that created a pressure of needing to train hard and win in the competition. I told myself I wasn’t ready. Then that was when it hit me, I remembered the advice I always told myself: DON’T WAIT FOR YOUR FEELINGS TO BE READY TO TAKE ACTION, TAKE ACTION AND YOUR FEELINGS WILL COME! Yes, I can’t wait to be 100% ready to do something. I was also listening to a Tony Robbins audio book while cycling the other day and he talked about how only actions create change. Change creates opportunities. Action comes from making decisions. The more decisions you make, the better you will be at making them. So I have to make this decision to compete, even if I end up sucking at the competition, it’s still a decision made, and I would have created some kind of change in my life, rather than let me remain static. Change is good. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? I lose my first round. I could go into a state of depression for losing, but that I would be self-pitying and playing a victim, how I feel is simply a choice in the moment, you can choose to feel sorry for yourself, or you can choose to learn from the experience and pick yourself up. Well, I know I’m gonna CHOOSE not gonna beat myself up too much if I do lose my first round. So that brings us to what’s the best thing that could happen from competing? I win my category and be really happy. The worse case ain’t too bad and the best case scenario is pretty sweet, so I’ve signed up for the competition!

Plus, there’s always more incentive to excel in something as a vegan! Cause then you can say, oh! a vegan won! (But where did I get my protein?)

Just like how I surprised myself cycling up Mt Wellington, something I never thought I’d do, now I’m into the ground game of MMA, something I didn’t enjoy watching cause I didn’t understand it. I always preferred the stand-up/striking game, that’s why I did boxing/muay thai, but now I only go for BJJ classes, cause kicking hurts my shins (#justsaying #lameexcuse).

x peace