James Williams Sensei continues to share his unique approach to martial arts training, skillful aging, and personal development by releasing fear and subconscious programming in a way that allows you to focus on prevailing, even in edged weapons engagements.
If you have not yet heard Part 1, I would highly encourage you to listen to that episode at www.everydaysamurai.life/35.
Williams Sensei’s tactical knives for today's operators based on authentic Japanese style:
Traditional samurai swords, tools and other accessories at:
Online video dojo in Nami-ryu as well as announcements for his upcoming seminars:
One of my favorite articles on the Eye and the Mind. Williams Sensei emphasizes the importance of keeping the eyes soft, especially in a crisis, because it staves off tunnel vision and allows the mind the maximum capacity to process information.
https://www.systemofstrategy.com/blogs/news/112407494-the-eye-and-the-mind
Train in Nami-ryu at these affiliated Dojo:
Be ready for the next episode!
Release Stress And Tension For Peak Performance
Those familiar with the “killology” work of former Army Ranger and Psychologist, Lt Col. Dave Grossman will recognize the references to physiological responses the body undergoes during the extreme stress of combat.
Grossman describes how the life and death circumstances experienced in combat trigger involuntary reactions, including tunnel vision, auditory exclusion (or the blocking of certain sounds), vasoconstriction, that temporarily redirects blood flow away from the extremities and into the internal organs (thereby reducing the ability to execute some fine motor skills), as well as a whole host of altered perceptions that can degrade human performance.
This is why you want to stave off the adrenaline dump as long as possible, so as to avoid riding that wave into the highs of an accelerated heart rate that will surely be followed by a period of exhaustion, and even a vegetative phase, where your faculties are severely diminished.
Stress responses can even come from mundane tasks like driving, having a verbal confrontation with a colleague or loved one, stress at work, deadlines that need to be met, or even unresolved painful memories.
In fact dwelling in the past or anticipating the future are threats to both your success in life as well as prevailing in combat. James Williams Sensei describes anticipation, expectation, assumption, and judgement as the four horsemen of the apocalypse because they draw you away from the present moment of reality.
Staying fully present, in the eternal now, is an essential skill for warriors, yet cultivating this capacity requires training. Releasing resentments of the past, as well as fearful anticipation of the future is part of the mental conditioning process just as much as offering no muscular resistance to sharp steel is an essential physical skill for prevailing in edged weapons combat.
A key component for both mental and physical conditioning, to succeed in combat and every other area of life is to actively release pent up stress from the body. James Williams Sensei often says that tension in the body is white noise in the mind. It dulls your ability to perceive reality and respond appropriately.
Therefore, taking time every day to actively wring out stress from the body is every warrior’s responsibility and that is exactly what the Primal Stress program is designed to do.
Primal Stress uses joint mobility movements, bodyweight strength training, and yoga styled active recovery techniques to deliberately purge the musculo-nervous system of stress adapted postures, so that you can thrive in the zone of constant flow.
Primal Stress is the best program I’ve found to address the demands warriors face and, I don’t care how you make your living, you are a warrior, right?
Get into the flow of fitness at everydaysamurai.life/primal, that’s everydaysamurai.life/primal.