New students join martial arts classes for different reasons, like improved confidence and fitness with a purpose, but find that their anxiety is reduced the more classes they take. How to reduce anxiety? Read on to find out! We’re not medical professionals and recommend you consult with a doctor to get the proper treatment and care you deserve.
How to Reduce Anxiety with Martial Arts
Adult BJJ classes can be really helpful for adults and kids who may struggle with clinical or just life-related anxiety. Not only is it a highly physical sport, but it’s also an effective tool we can use to combat symptoms of anxiety.
A common symptom of anxiety is racing thoughts. If you struggle with how to reduce anxiety, you may feel like you’re just your thoughts, not feeling present or even feeling your body at all. Martial arts can be a great solution for this. First of all, the excess adrenaline that your brain can dump into your endocrine system when you’re feeling anxious needs to go somewhere, or else you’re stuck in fight-or-flight mode for too long.
Kicking, punching, and channeling that energy effectively is a superb way to combat the adrenaline pump. It can even be necessary for your body, as it’s getting the adrenaline and anxiety out in an intentional way. Secondly, the full-body workout you get when learning self-defense, in general, is going to melt that stress away and help you get all of those feelings out.
Stress at work, stress with your kids, your partner, your life, everything you’re ruminating on or worrying about flushes out on the mat. You channel it all into movement and it makes you a focused, clear-headed person off the mat- and an excellent martial artist on the mat, with real power and energy behind your moves.
Concentration and Motivation through Martial Arts
Another symptom of anxiety is difficulty concentrating or feeling motivated. Sometimes you feel hyper-alert and hyperactive, other times you’re pretty sluggish and don’t want to do anything. You’re either frozen in panic or spinning your wheels with stress. If this sounds like you, show up to class. That’s all we ask you to do.
Once you get here, we will help you. Our world-class instructors, most of whom have dealt with or still deal with how to reduce anxiety themselves, will show you how to take your stress, tension, and “help, my shoulders are stuck to my ears” feelings and channel them into your moves. You concentrate on one minute of each class at a time and soon you’re having a lot of fun and the time is flying by.
For this one martial arts class, you don’t have to be anything other than exactly who you are, anxiety or not, doing what you’re doing, exporting your thought process to your instructor, and getting it all out through physical movement.
We can’t say that martial arts classes can “get rid of your anxiety, only doctors and therapists can show you how to do that. We will say that physically moving your body, channeling your racing thoughts into something useful, being a part of a fun community with rewarding social interactions, and setting and getting new goals will help anyone’s mental health. They’re key pieces to the whole picture that martial arts classes can provide.
Creating a Better Mindset through Martial Arts
We say it all the time, but it’s true. Martial arts is about way more than just punches and kicks. Martial arts is an amazing tool that people have been using for centuries to improve their lives and mindsets dramatically. How to reduce anxiety? With the help of martial arts classes and the martial arts philosophy, you build confidence and physical and mental strength. You develop perseverance while achieving your goals and getting your belts. And you learn so much about how strong your mind is from such a physically demanding sport.
Listen, martial arts is hard. It is a difficult sport. There’s a lot of complicated coordination between your brain, your body, your muscle memory, and your discipline skills required to be a successful martial artist. Our classes aren’t peaches and roses and neither is life. Neither is life with anxiety. So let us help you get through it! Whether it’s just anxious feelings or full-on generalized anxiety disorder, we know the difficulty of life with mental health issues cannot be understated. We also know it can be helped through the power of martial arts classes and the development of your mindset.
How to Reduce Anxiety with the Right Mindset
In our martial arts classes here at Gladiator Jiu Jitsu Family, we are huge believers in the power of mindset because we’ve seen it work time and time again. One of our favorite quotes is, “A black belt is a white belt who never gave up.” It’s true, that’s the only difference. And it’s the difference between perseverance and giving up, even when times are tough.
When you’re by yourself in a gym, for example, it’s you, the machinery or weights, and your brain telling you what to do. Sometimes, when you’re anxious, your brain is not your most reliable workout buddy. It gets distracted, it can say some pretty mean things to you and hype you up for “emergencies” in the worst way possible.
But when you’re in our martial arts classes, it’s not your brain telling you what to do. It’s our awesome instructors. You’d be surprised by how many of them have struggled with their own mental health issues, and have turned to martial arts time and time again for support from their instructors, their peers, and this family here. Martial arts is an individual sport in a group setting, which means that you’re never alone, and that fact alone can be hugely helpful with how to reduce anxiety with Taekwondo.
One more thing about the instructors. Sometimes when you’re really in the thick of it with anxiety, you can’t see anything other than your shortcomings and failures. But know this, our instructors and the community here are going to support you.
We are going to show you just how freaking amazing you are, despite your mental health struggles. The best part is that over time, you start to internalize that positive mindset, and can carry yourself through tough moments with compassion and grace. The whole self-defense piece of it, then, becomes just the icing on the cake.
Martial Arts and Mental Health
Hopefully now you can see how to reduce anxiety with Karate. Staying active, focusing those racing thoughts into something positive through kicks and punches, and mindset/community support are martial arts benefits that are critical to staying well. With martial arts classes, your mood and health can improve tremendously right alongside your mindset, which can help give you the proper tools to reduce anxiety and get through those tough times.
Ready to see what martial arts can do for you? Give Gladiator Jiu Jitsu Family in Montclair a try with our risk-free adult martial arts classes trial and see for yourself how it can change your life. You’ll love it!