In 661 AD, a man named Sol-Sedang was traveling to China when a bad storm broke out. He and his travel partner took shelter in what they perceived was a cave. During the night, he awoke with thirst. In the dark cave he felt around and found a gourd filled with rainwater. He drank the water and quenched his thirst and returned to a dry comfortable night’s sleep in the cozy cave.

Awaking the next morning with better visibility, Sol-Sedang was shocked to find that the gourd he drank the refreshing rainwater from during the night was not a gourd, but a human skull with tainted water and filled with maggots! Upon vomiting with this realization, he also noticed that the cozy cave that he and his travel partner had a restful night’s sleep in, was no cave. It was a
burial chamber.

The storm remained too harsh to resume travel, so they were forced to stay another night in the burial chamber. This second night was not like the first. The travelers struggled to sleep. Creepy and terrifying noises in the night as well as visions of ghosts from restless corpses! This is the moment that Sol-Sedang had his awakening.

Sol-Sedang realized how powerful one’s mindset was in their life. When he believed he was drinking rainwater from a gourd, it was refreshing and quenched his thirst. When he believed he was resting in a cozy cave, he slept wonderfully. But when he saw the tainted water and realized the cave was a burial chamber, he suddenly became ill and couldn’t sleep.

The only difference in the two nights was his mind set. Some of you may recognize this story if you train with the original Ch’ang Hon patterns of Taekwondo (International Taekwondo Federation – ITF). Sol-Sedang also goes by the penname, “Won-Hyo”, which is the name of the 4th Gup pattern in this set of forms. Typically, the rank of Green belt. One of my favorite patterns/forms in the color belt system.

This story of Won-Hyo is not just fascinating but also teaches us a great lesson. Our mindset has a powerful influence on our life. You have most likely heard some form of the saying, “life isn’t what happens to you, it’s how you react to it”. This story is a great reflection of that statement. Mind over matter essentially.

The mind is extremely powerful. Even knowing this, it’s hard to adjust. I find myself struggling with this as well. A few months ago, I noticed tingling in my fingers and a soreness in my arm pit. Upon more analysis, I found some lumps in my arm pit. My first thought went to my mother. Back in the mid 1980’s, she found lumps on her body and had them checked out. The lumps were found to be cancer, and a few months later, she was gone.

With this memory in my head, I immediately jumped to conclusions. It took me a couple weeks to find a time to get to the doctor as I have been extremely short staffed this year at my studio and have been working excessively with no free time to even go to the doctor. Those two weeks between discovering lumps and the tingling in my fingers and the time I finally got into the doctor was mentally destructive. No sleep and constant thoughts of being certain my time on this earth was soon to be up.

Mike Tyson once gave a disturbing comment during an interview stating, “It’s a scary neighborhood up here and you’re all alone”. This rings very true, especially in dark situations and nothing but you and your mind to contemplate life.

Thankfully, upon the doctor’s examination, my worst fears were dissolved as the lumps were concluded to be on the muscle and the tingling assumed to be due to a possible pinched nerve stemming from upper back and neck issues. That night I fell asleep with ease, even with the pain and discomfort I was in. Mentally, I felt better. The only difference was my mindset.

We all struggle with this mindset. Some more than others. Paranoia, thoughts of doom, depression, poor outlook on life. Whatever it may be, our lives can be dramatically altered by thought alone. I see it every day in every class I teach. From students who fear being hit and retreating in sparring, to students not having confidence in their board breaks and not breaking a board that can easily be broken. It’s all in their head.

I can explain thoroughly how moving forward in sparring is by far a better option than moving backward, but the fear of being hit is overwhelming and the student continues to retreat. Until they actually take a hard hit and realize it didn’t hurt as bad as they thought, they are in fear of being hit the entire time. I can also show, demonstrate, and give mathematical equations to explain how a student can easily break a board if they just strike the middle and follow through. Yet the fear of the board hurting or the assumption that they can’t break it, wins out and the board break fails.

Everyone in martial arts hits these mental walls at some point. It’s both normal and expected. Those who conquer their mindset in these situations will succeed every time. Sadly, some fall into a downward spiral and can’t pull out of the tailspin. This is where students come upon their final failure and quit training in frustration and assumption that they are not good enough. Not understanding that they are more than good enough, they just won’t accept it mentally.

It is hands down the biggest issue I see in students. I’ve never seen a student fail in class because they weren’t strong enough, smart enough, tall enough, or popular enough. It’s always because their mindset defeated them. It’s both the easiest and toughest part of martial arts training. However, there are a few steps one can take to help overcome this descending mind set. Think of a R.U.T.T. to get yourself out of a rut.

*Recognize that fear is usually the biggest factor that leads to a negative mind set. And fear is never anything that is currently happening. It’s always what we think might happen. This means there’s still time to adjust to make sure your worst fears don’t come true. And when it comes to your worst fears…

*Understand that the most extreme fears are the least likely scenario. Yet, it’s the scenario we immediately go to and attach ourselves to. Even when we know logically it’s ridiculous sometimes. To break free from grips of this abyss…

*Think about the best possible outcome rather than the worst. Be creative and think of alternate outcomes of succeeding. Make it ridiculous. The more you think about it, the less you will think of the negative and you may even find a surprising path to success. Creativity usually breads positivity.

*Tell a friend what you want to accomplish and that the next time you see them, you will have accomplished the task. This holds you accountable. We tend to fight harder for others than we do ourselves. Therefore, we feel we are letting others down when we fail in this regard. Plus, simply talking to another person about the issue can be quite helpful. Assuming that person doesn’t have an even darker mind than yourself!

Now let’s cheers to Won-Hyo and our newly found positive mindset by chugging maggot filled tainted water from the skull of a buried ancestor and enjoy it!