Breaking Boards

Warning … deep & philosophical post alert …

Have you ever seen those people at motivational seminars doing crazy stuff like walking on hot coals* or breaking boards with their bare hands?  I’ve always thought that it was some kind of scam and even if it was real, it was all a little hokey.  Of course, that was until today when I had the opportunity to participate in a board breaking session.  OMG!  It was awesome!

A little bit of background is necessary to understand why on earth someone with no martial arts experience would have any desire to potentially damage a perfectly good hand by attempting to break a board with it with absolutely no training what so ever.  Here’s the deep & philosophical part …  The whole exercise is symbolic of breaking through the doubts and fears that hold us back from achieving our goals.  Today, we happen to be concentrating on our professional goals.  I don’t talk much about work on my blog, but I’m a Realtor.  As you can imagine, the market is pretty tough right now.  I’ve been incredibly blessed … my business is doing very well, and I work my tail off to keep it that way.  But, every day as I watch & listen to the news, I can’t help but wonder if my business can really continue to thrive in this economic climate.  So, it’s hard to keep pessimistic thoughts from becoming an impediment to growing my business the way I know I should be able to.  Here’s where we insert the exercise of mind over matter - or in my case, mind over economy - and we symbolically break through our doubts and fears by breaking through the board.  Oh, did I mention that before you break the board, you’re supposed to write all of your doubts & fears on one side of the board and all of the rewards you’ll receive when you break through them on the other side.  Deep, huh?

Here’s the video of me actually doing it.  And, yes, I did break the board on my first attempt!

You might ask, how to you actually break the board?  It’s not really that hard, but the answer is again very symbolic.  You take a deep breath, focus beyond the board, and strike hard & fast.  The trick is to not stop your forward momentum once your hand contacts the board (aka doubts & fears).  You have to push through the board. 

So simple, but, in some cases, so hard to do.  It really is a mind over <insert your personal nemisis here> thing.

* PS - If you ever wondered how to walk over hot coals, you should really watch Mythbusters!  :-)

Comments

[Tim]

Audrey,

GREAT JOB! Now, on the off chance that you want to make some extra money in the Pheonix area, just come on over and I'll put you to work as a sawyer in the truss plant. The 2x4's and 2x6's in the yard had better watch out, there is a new sheriff in town and her name is Audrey!

Bravo Zulu!

[Mom (aka-Audrey's Mom)]

Having known Audrey ALL of her life, I know when she puts her mind to something she achieves her goal. Well done my child--
Oh, how is the hand?

[Dan]

in the words of Bruce Lee."Boards don't hit back."

I like the symbolism and the idea of the exercise. One of the treatment centers we work with uses it as part of substance abuse treatment.

And nice palm heel strike. Aimed high, didn't break your fingers, well done.