❤️Overcoming the Pain of Cancer and Learning to Learn: Alchemy of Yin and Yang Style

It starts with love. . .

My Body as Enemy: Tales of Cancer Struggles

As I try to survive cancer again, I remember my dystopian childhood and the pains in my body. I had defeated cancer and felt invincible, however, my body started to shut down again, so I sensed that my cancer had returned

When I was a child, I could never sit still, for I ran to the table, as I found my way underneath to safety, for demons aliens from planet X were attacking with laser beams.I suffered from ADHD and was hyper all the time.

I would quickly grab some energy goop from the dinner as my hand would steal food from underneath the table. Yeah, I would eat and run, hurrying, for my life was in danger from space ships.

Run, run, run away. Fast, fast, faster.

I didn't have many friends, but my imagination kept me busy and kept my soul company. Always I was suffering from pain from over training in martial arts or gymnastics. I had broken my nose during karate fighting and was almost a quadriplegic during gymnastics training.

The curse of the stupidity of overtraining was killing me. Training to fight demons is not easy psychologically, but it is even harder physically.

However, the real purpose is to metaphysically defeat the demons, for I saw things other did not. Asian vampire girls entered my room and sat down peacefully, for they found a friend not a foe.

I was bullied, beat up, and suffered as a child in tears.xhrough martial arts, I learned that deep power is generated from the Earth.

You twist your hips, and the center of the body is two inches below the belly button, for my father taught me this when I was young, growing up in Japan.

He learned it from grand master Mas Oyama's dojo in Japan.

From that center, you can learn to knock down the biggest opponents with a punch, a kick or just a thrust, like Bruce Lee.

However, you must train your lower body more than your upper body to fight demons.

You must generate power from the Earth itself, from its center. When I moved to the Heartland, I found myself a young man in an old body.

After years of training, my various black belts tests were memories of merely overcoming pain. Usually pain won as I failed my tests of skills.

As I retook them, earning the black belt would simply be a recall of the level of pain that could I endured trying to pass. The demons smiled as I suffered from excruciating pain.

Once before a test as I stayed awake all night thinking should I go to the emergency room because I was unable to lie down and breathe.

I walked and practiced, sleeplessly, painfully, and mindfully, trying to outsmart a body in immense pain.

Black Belt Test: Failing Improved my Technique

During my test, my kendo, samurai test the next day because I could only raise my shinai (bamboo sword) as high as my shoulder because of the pain.. .

Therefor, I had to do these small fast strikes instead of big strikes that were required for test.

I could only strike a few times with great speed because moving was so painful.

Finally, I finished and hoped I passed, and I waited for the judges to decide, for I wasn't sure. One sensei passed me, for we always said quality over quantity mattered. He meant it.

Another sensei failed me because he emphasized quantity over quality, more strikes with big swings.

Strangely, from the pain, I learned a more effective way to do sashi men, or small short fast high strike, which is hard to do well and expected from masters. Therefore, it changed by technique as I improved my kendo techniques.

However day by day, the pain increased more and more in my knees and my ankles. Finally, I was unable to train any more, for I couldn't even walk without an extreme amount of pain.

Without training, my masterful skills started to slip. . . The black demons of doom enjoyed this carnival of wounds and laughed. I didn't know what to do.

Without training, I would die because I have trained all my life.

Those demons from hell would surely win, so I went to specialist after specialist. Furthermore, I went to a physical therapy, but nothing worked, the stretches they recommended were useless.

They wanted me to take very strong pain killers, but I refused, and the demons laughed and laughed and laughed to death.

I understood I was on my own, so I also knew that I could solve it Therefore, I refused drugs again and again. I knew that they would not work, for there would be side effects.

So I bought ankle and knee bracelets for support, and I bought special shoes for walking to absorb the pain.

Wisdom of a Yoga Teacher: Creating Bed Yoga

I asked a yoga teacher for better ways of stretching, and she helped me to develop a new way to stretch using pillows. Bless her. These stretches were the most painful think I ever did.

However, slowly the pain was less and less as I did more and more, for demons watched from a distance. One day I woke up and stopped eating meat. Overnight the stomach pains I had experienced all my life ended.

I suffered from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) which meant that I would have violent stomach pains at least once a week.

I would be up all night in pain, and I remember being in class as school still but being in a lot of pain.

Those demons and zombies would smile at me, laughing. Being a vegetarian changed my life, because I felt more energy and became more positive about my life. Nothing the doctors recommended ever worked.

All my life, I had never paid attention to nutrition.

Bruce Lee books didn't mention much about that, and I don't recall it in my readings.

Moving Mindful Meditation: Walking Away the Pain!

I walked a little, half a block one day, as I did deep breathing, deeper and deeper. I painfully stretched more and more, multiple times a day. The next day I walked a block. Each day I increased the distance. Some-days, I would walk less if the pain was too much. However, every day I walked, more and more. The demons with wings flew above me in circles.

Finally, I built up to a mile. Then a mile and a half. Then two miles.

Then two a half miles after lunch. Then I after dinner, I walked more. Five mile a day. More and more.

I kept walking more and more. Becoming stronger and stronger. I took off the ankle and knee braces. I was walking three times a day about 8 miles. I even walked up to 10 miles a day.

The demons followed from above. Sometimes when just walking across the room, by legs are in deep amount of pain. I wait and tell it to leave. It does. Or I shake my leg. Wait.

The pain vanishes. I look at the demons. They look away. Today I am almost pain free. However, my right knees still hurts. I am working on healing it.

At times, the pain returns often when I haven't trained in a couple of days.

If I don't train, I hurt. Or if I don't take my superfood mix, the pain returns.

However, I have demons to fight. No time for pain. Every night, they attack. Every night, I defeat them. They die only to be reborn as new forms of demons.

Samsara: Death and rebirth.

Thank you for reading. . .