First, let me tell you about our karate dojo (where karate is taught). Honestly, I've never been to a place full of so much positive energy before. No negativity, only hard work and learning. I think it's wonderful that we willingly keep coming to the place which keeps giving us tough time every week. I doubt even 1% of this willingness is present when it comes to going to school. Another different thing about this place is– here age doesn't make you junior or senior, your skill does. Often we learn from someone who is much younger than us and it doesn't hurt our pride at all.
Learning martial arts is much more than learning to fight. To me, it's about overcoming your limits little by little. When you practise, your goal is to improve your physical ability, get past your weakness but you cannot do so by going against your body– you have to cooperate with it. During the process you can learn much about your body, your limitations and ability. It becomes a process of knowing yourself. And while you do all of this, you get to form a bond with your body, you learn to appreciate the wonderful mechanism your body has been built into. All of which promotes self-love.
Additionally, karate emphasizes on discipline– be it in our behaviour or the set movements we make while performing karate. Synchronizing body movements and techniques properly requires a great deal of focus so each training session ends up becoming somewhat meditative.
One question people around me ask is– "how long will it take to complete this karate thing?" Well, the answer is– learning never ends. You decide when you no longer want to continue. Earning black belt might mark the ending for some but then again, there's always more to learn. So, instead of looking forward to the end, I'm enjoying the process of learning as I go. Cuz you know– journey matters more than the destination :)