O Sensei, the founder of Aikido, told us that we should practise every day. In our modern and demanding world, this may well be an impossibility, as family and work demands bite into our time and energy.

However, having made a choice to make some time for ourselves and to practise aikido, it is good to focus on the fact that aikido is, after all, a martial art. Although unlikely, we may be attacked at any time, for example, when we are tired, too cold, too hot, too sleepy or just not at our best. A martial discipline should be just that, “disciplined”. Keying in to the discipline and responding to attack teaches us to move beyond the lack of focus within ourselves to new levels of understanding. An important point to remember in our training is that there is the training that we want, when we feel like training; or the training that we need, like it or not, when it’s our time to train. Real Aikido practice is training to become self-reliant, to overcome our discomfort, to push ourselves out of our comfort zone and to learn to cope with any situation that we find ourselves in. This is not just for ourselves, but for the people around us as well, who we may even be called upon to protect. Real aikido takes regular practice.

There are so many diversions these days. Just returning from our work, we perhaps find ourselves exhausted and fatigued. The serious Aikido practitioner knows that s/he could be attacked when tired and fatigued. S/he goes to practice irrespective of how they are feeling, often feeling better after training. Indeed, when we least feel like training, we can, surprisingly, have our best practices as Aikido has brought us back into balance and in to harmony with ourselves, others and the world in general.

When we stay at home watching too much television, we are watching someone else’s experience in the unconscious illusion that perhaps it is our own experience. We can become anesthetised into a mindless apathy that adds no value to our lives and, in fact, can subtract from our awareness of life itself! When we practise Aikido, it is real. We use our body, mind and spirit. We have the opportunity to develop as a human being, to develop the physical skills as well as being able to evolve emotionally and spiritually. Even in our discomfort, or pain, we can say ‘Yes! I am alive!’ Aikido is not to correct others, but to overcome our own negativity and illusion and to realise, through intensive training, the deep harmony of all things. O Sensei said “I am at one with the Universe”.

How do you achieve regular Aikido practice? What helps you to find the motivation to come in those times when you think you don’t want to?