What Aikido Taught me about Creating in Life

In my coaching clinic at home there is really just one certificate that stands out for me in its significance and value. 

It isn't the International MBA from a prestigious American institution, nor my diplomas in such areas as Human Resources, Buddhism and Agriculture, and not even the honorary this and that of all kinds of activities. 

It is my Sho-Dan, first degree black-belt certificate in Aikido that I earned in Japan over 30 years ago. 

Why, you may ask, what's the big deal?

When I got my black belt certificate after only 2 years in Osaka, Japan (it is customary to get it early in Japan), I felt that I had not earned any great achievement because learning Aikido was a lifetime thing after all. 

As my teacher would tell me, "Ronnie, you deserve what you earned but don’t forget that from here on you are now just considered a "serious student". 

Aikido to me in those days was the focus of my life- all the rest of the stuff, including the teaching of English to Japanese corporate managers and housewives were all secondary. 

Aikido was taking me deep inside as well as high above, all while I was learning to take the falls on the Aikido mats.

Life had it that within a few years I would discontinue my Aikido practice, no big ideological rift, just moves from Japan to Taiwan, to Israel, to the US, back to Israel, and on the way new things, teachers, patterns and routines came up. 

The "soft" Chinese internal martial arts (T'ai Chi Chuan, Bagwa Chuan) entered my life, years later yoga re-entered but for the most part there was a vacuum, an absence of practice. 

Yet, I never have stopped "dreaming Aikido", it amazes me just how deeply ingrained the movements and energy of those years appeared in my life.

Aikido is much more than a martial art, in fact to my mind, it is much more of a way of life than a martial practice.
Aikido, founded in Japan by Morihei Ueshiba (known as "O-Sensei), in the years between the two world wars of the twentieth century, developed a deep philosophy and "way of harmony", of peace and non-violence, of protecting the opponent and of neutralization and flexibility of mind and body.
To me, all these terms seemed unusual to be juxtaposed to "martial training", even in the larger sense of the word. I did "get it", after some time, at least to my understanding: Aikido is really about creating options.
There are thousands of Aikido techniques and new ones are being created all the time. Aikido talks of posture, centering, breathing, alignment, relaxation, swiftness, depth, and so much more. As in Aikido, so it is in life.

Aikido is about "creating options", there are the physical movements called "waza", but they represent and train deeper "spiritual" or "psychological" perspectives.
For example, in the words of the  American Aikido teacher, George Leonard, " What do you do when somebody pushes you?
With any kind of push, whether a shove or strike or kick, the aikidoist generally moves toward the attacker and slightly off the line of attack, simultaneously making a turning maneuver that leaves him or her next to the attacker and facing in the same direction. 

In this position, the aikidoist is looking at the situation from the attacker's viewpoint. It's important here to add one more phrase to that statement.
The aikidoist is looking at the situation from the attacker's viewpoint without giving up his or her own viewpoint.

This entering and blending maneuver immediately multiplies your options.
Thousands of techniques and variations have been identified in aikido, all of which become possible once you've blended.
The same thing is true when you blend verbally, when instead of meeting a verbal attack with a verbal counterattack you respond first by coming around to your attacker's point of view, seeing the situation from his or her viewpoint.
This response, whether physical or verbal, is quite disarming, leaving the attacker with no target to focus on.
At that point, numerous options present themselves, including, best of all, the clear possibility of a reconciliation that meets the needs of both parties."

Aikido is not always about "blending", of course, but it is always about being able to see a larger scope, new ways of experiencing movement and energy, always from a vantage point of how is damage limited, violence avoided, resolution gained.
Today, with the hindsight of 13 years of coaching, I can see very clear how my "coach training" started some 32 years ago in Japan when I first entered an Aikido dojo.

Coaching, in my book is so very much about creating options, new realities, being earnest, authentic, committed. Being able to "see the world from others eyes" is not a simple matter, but for those of us who have had the privilege of tasting and internalizing Aikido, it really has become part of our "invisible toolbox".

I am sometimes amazed how it is after all these years that I still "dream Aikido", often find myself contemplating the moves and the movements.
In a very profound sense, I have come to understand, Aikido is in my coaching, my coaching is really Aikido.
That is my version of the harmony of Aikido.