Sometimes You Need Your Alone Time
Pausanias, a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, is noted as stating âKnow thyselfâ was written in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. The communicative theorist Kenneth Burke defines humans as: the symbol-using (symbol-making, symbol-misusing) animal, inventor of the negative (or moralized by the negative), separated from his natural condition by instruments of his own making, goaded by the spirit of hierarchy (or moved by the sense of order), and rotten with perfection. Fundamentally, arguing humans are divergent from other animals by the high caliber of their exploit of symbols to communicate, their understanding of contradiction, their division from nature by their own techniques, their existence in differing social structures, and her/his goal to become better than he/she presently is to a fault. My training in Tai Chi Chuan consisted of the lesson of doing the solo forms with the intension of learning deeper who I am with the understanding also to learn what it is to be done to better myself properly and in a positive manner, by virtue of learning myself completely. The tool used to do this was doing the form by myself, literally. By definition only you can do the solo form. I assert that grand learning can be attained by doing the solo form with no other person around, with no distractions, literally by oneâs self. Being able to be by oneâs self will give the person doing the form the opportunity to have nothing else to reflect on other than doing the form properly and their self, thereby allowing the practitioner the opportunity to not only study the form without distraction, the practitioner also gains the opportunity to study oneâs self. Sadly, this opportunity does not guarantee that one will fully and efficiently take advantage of the opportunity.
As I believe Kenneth Burke would assert; humans by their own nature remove themselves from their natural position of knowing their self by the nature of their own existence. By the nature of our own accord with being, we remove ourselves from equations of reality. Removing oneâs self can be a great asset in understanding oneâs surroundings; also it could be a great hindrance to understanding the actually of reality. Naturally removing ourselves from situations to better study reality lends to us not having as many opportunities to learn and understand who we are and why we are the way we are. Understanding how and why we process things the way we do is imperative if one wants to truly better their self as a part of the social reality of which they are a part. Being able to know how we respond to our environment and being able to process and accept our part in nature/reality is a point of having time alone to practice the solo form as to be able to create an environment for self-reflection.
Know thyself. To do so one must be able to be open and honest with one âs self. When you honestly know yourself you have a social advantage over those that do not and are better equipped to understand the nature of reactions in your environment. Those that are ignorant of their self have a tendency to inadequately adapt with the world of which they are a part. Humans are social creatures and knowing oneâs self helps one to better function and properly adapt to their environment.
So, know thyself, know that by your nature you remove yourself from the reality of which you are a part and better yourself by understanding that what you do, who you are and why you are the way you are has a direct affect on your environment. You are a major part of the results that you receive. If you receive positivity, you more than likely implanted positive actions into the function that caused the product. If you receive negativity, realize that it is highly probable that you feed a mass of negativity into the function. We easily accept that our good actions bring us good things. It seems difficult for many to note that negative actions received are because they themselves cause the negativity to happen.
Go have some alone, if you do it right you may get uncomfortable when you dig inside; itâs okay, just keep digging, properly, and work toward positive growth.
For more information Winstonâs his martial arts academy please visit Internal Magnification.
Winston Price, Executive Producer, has over a decade and a half of marketing, advertising and public relations experience. He began his business career in 1995 and is a graduate of Indiana University Bloomington. Winston also is a master martial artist and personal trainer with over 2 decades of knowledge and experience. Winston runs his own school, Internal Magnification Martial Arts, where he focuses on helping people reach their personal goals of health and fitness via At-Home personal training with martial foci of Taekwondo, Tai Chi Châuan, Hapkido and Ba Gua Zhang. As an executive producer for VoiceAmerica, Winston utilizes his skills in business and personal training to help new and existing hosts maximize their opportunity with the VoiceAmerica Talk Radio Network by supporting his hosts with the business and personal aspects of creating and developing their show. Winston believes that each host brings their own flavor to the Network. By properly coaching and motivating his hosts, they are able to produce THEIR show with THEIR style and THEIR passion being at the forefront of every broadcast.
