Embracing Growth Through Adversity and Adaptation

We had a great time talking with Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge winner Michael R. about his experience with the challenge. Michael first discovered Bruce Lee when he was 12 and first started studying martial arts at a martial arts school. An older student recommended "The Art of Expressing the Human Body." After that, Michael was hooked on Bruce Lee. He discovered the Bruce Lee Podcast when he was looking for podcasts to listen to as he was remodeling his family's apartment. Struggling with depression due to lack of job opportunity, Michael knew he wanted to make a change in his life, but felt trapped. When the challenge was announced, he decided that this was an opportunity to reframe how he perceived his world and that would give him a way out. Michael shared with us a few of his affirmations: Recognizing that emotions are both positive and negative and that I can select how I act with their influence, I will dedicate my reasoning to draw out and accentuate the positive emotions and transfigure the negative into useful activity. Accepting that all people are in the process of their own journey, as I am in the process of mine, and that each person retains the agency to choose their own actions, I remove my expectations of others and remove the desire to live up to their expectations. I welcome and encourage everyone I meet with love and appreciation of who they are and the beauty that they bring into my life. During the challenge, Michael saw dramatic improvements in all areas of his life: "My relationships got better with my wife and kids especially, I lost weight, my blood pressure went down, my heart rate improved, I was less stressed, I was happier, I had more enjoyment of each moment, people started approaching me in public and interacting with me positively. But most importantly to me, my depression disappeared." The 2nd part of the challenge was: "I would feel better in my body if I spent 20 minutes in daily practice of movements, skills, and play. Honoring my body in its current state and yet purposefully driving myself toward the physical autonomy I desire to train my body and my mind in a continual moving mediation. I synthesize the mental and physical traits I have been given into the highest and most authentic expression of myself." The Harmony action item of "Letting others be," seemed like the easiest part of the challenge to Michael. However, he discovered when he started it that he interpreted "letting others be" as ignoring people versus actually just letting them be. He realized that was not working since he was still bothered by what others were doing. He found that there needed to be an interaction, recognize where the other person was coming from and then not make judgments and let it be. For those of you inspired by Michael's experience with the Bruce Lee Podcast Challenge, go to brucelee.com/podcastchallenge to find out more. #AAHA Ed Kaihatsu is a long time fencer and is the US Veteran National Champion in men's foil 7 times. As of now Ed is the associate head coach of women's fencing at Northwestern University. He's now a teacher and has said that his whole purpose in teaching and being a fencing coach, is to make his students better in every way not just as fencers. #BruceLeeMoment From listener Nick B.: "I read the story of when Bruce was running with John Little and when John told Bruce he could not continue or else he would die Bruce responded with "Die Then". When I run to this day I will repeat this in my head over and over, at the ends of races when I am pushing harder than I can sustain I will chant it aloud. Last May I ran my marathon and was a couple minutes off of qualifying for the Boston Marathon, I was running into 40 mile per hour headwind nonestop for the last 8 miles... Die Then was what pushed me on to the finish." Share your #AAHAs, #BruceLeeMoments, and #TakeAction progress with us at hello@brucelee.com Find the full version of our show notes at BruceLee.com/podcast