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electroflux
31-01-04, 21:45
Hi everyone, I hope this may be of use to someone.

Shotokan Karate helps my panic attacks.

A year after my first panic attack, I found Shotokan Karate. I had found out that my, then, two sister-in-laws ( I’m no longer married ), were training in Shotokan and recommended it to me. After a lot of reading and looking around for clubs, I decided that this was for me.

There are many styles of Karate but Shotokan is a very traditional one with its roots back in the mists of time. It is a Kata based style (forms). Kata being a set sequence of defensive and attacking moves carried out by one person training on their own or in a group (club). There is no contact whilst doing Kata; the only enemy is the one you visualize in your mind whilst going through the moves. So whilst there is always a slight chance of injury in any exercise, Shotokan is one of the more safer ones. The trick is to find a club with a very good instructor who enjoys Traditional Karate and is more interested in his students rather than how much money he can make instructing.

I am very lucky that I found a club within walking distance of my home. The instructors are wonderful, sympathetic, caring people. Shotokan Karate causes a gradual positive change in people over the months and years; it gives you fitness, self-confidence, honour, consideration, discipline, etiquette, humility, respect and a philosophy for life. It is a journey along the “way”. Not only physical but also mental and spiritual. People of all shapes and sizes are drawn to it. There is no age limit as you train to what your body can handle. Of course there is the self-defence aspect as well, which builds up confidence in the physical and mental. Though you will find as you train more, there is less chance you will ever need to use your Karate against someone else and would not want to anyway. There is always another option. Karate is the very last resort.

I will admit there was a time when the panic attacks were winning and I was unable to train in the Dojo (training hall), my fear of being with people and stuck in a room took over, but I carried on the mental fight and trained at home. Now I am back in the Dojo and find peace when I train. Totally committed to what I am doing I enter an almost trance like state. Vaguely aware of my surroundings, my concentration is almost 100% on the Karate; it flows through me and around me as I train. There is no room for a panic attack as I discipline my body to carry out the defensive blocks and attacks in Kata.

As you progress training in Shotokan Karate, Kihon and Kumite are practiced which when training with a partner does introduce some very light contact. This is where distancing when punching and blocking is learned and helps to gently toughen you up against of course the physical but also the mental and spiritual. In this way I find it toughens you for life’s knocks we get from time to time. I find I am filled with confidence and positive energy. When I am in a situation where I feel stressed or a panic attack coming on I use my Karate mentally to fight it, as a distraction technique.
If I am thinking my way through a Kata I can no longer think of the stress or panic attack and it subsides.

I do a lot of reading about Karate and recently found out that an 8th Dan instructor I know of was on the verge of a nervous breakdown through life changing circumstances, when he started Karate 30 years ago. For me, he is an example of what Karate can do for you to fight life’s “battles”. He has been for many years now a well respected, professional Karate instructor.

All the people I have met through Karate have been very “nice” people. They tend to be shy, nervous, retiring, introverts like myself. But the Karate gradually moulds and shapes them and all the positive things learned in the Dojo can be applied in every day life.

I hope this has given you a positive view of Shotokan Karate. I am biased I know as I have trained for a long time now, but I think it has been a positive thing to use against my panic at

nomorepanic
31-01-04, 23:26
Thanks for that Ken.

I hope there are some others that do the same sport too



Nicola

electroflux
01-02-04, 00:18
Nicola

I think it was good therapy for me writing about Karate. I got quite emotional at one point whilst writing. I think it is because I realise how much it has done for me. Although it will soon be classed as a sport and be in the olympics, for me Shotokan Karate is more of a way of life now and has literally saved my life, by giving me the strength and spirit to carry on.

Ken

Meg
02-02-04, 18:28
Dear Ken ,

Many thanks for this .

We've had people cruise through here where I thought this sort of martial art would be brilliant but I didn't have anything to refer them to..

I'm sure Nic will incorporate some of this information onto the site somewhere in the revamp.

Many thanks again




Meg

Watch your thoughts, they become your words...
Watch your words, they become your actions... Watch your actions, they become your habits... Watch your habits, they become your character... Watch your character, it becomes your destiny...

electroflux
07-02-04, 18:37
Re-reading what I initially wrote above I don’t think I emphasised enough the incredible amount of peace I feel whilst practicing my Karate. There have been times where I have felt that I have had to almost wake up from a trance like peaceful state, at the end of a training session and I always feel wonderful walking out of the training hall.

The other thing I left out, perhaps because it is hard for a man to say (but I’m saying it now!), is the love I feel for my training partners in Karate. When I say love I mean it in a love for your fellow man sort of a way. Perhaps it sounds strange but everyone training, in my opinion, seems to exude this love. It may come from the care we have to take, so that we do not injure each other, or it could be the subtle change Karate has on everyone as they train. All the Karate students who train in my dojo (training hall) are such caring, wonderfully nice people, I’m sure the love is there.

Surely the dojo can only be a wonderful, caring, environment for an anxious, panic ridden, worrier like me? I can feel the gradual positive change for the better. Why not try it yourself?