Karate as a way of life offers many benefits beyond self-defense. Some of the benefits include:

Respect,

Discipline,

Heightened Awareness,

Improved Concentration and fitness!

True martial arts have an important mental or spiritual component. The training in the dojo is not just for learning self defense but also for learning about ourselves. Joe Hyam explained this wonderfully in “Zen in the Martial Arts”:

“A dojo is miniature cosmos where we make contact with ourselves — our fears, anxieties, reactions, and habits. It is an arena of confined conflict where we confront an opponent who is not an opponent but rather a partner engaged in helping us understand ourselves more fully. It is a place where we can learn a great deal in a short time about who we are and how we react in the world. The conflicts that take place inside the dojo help us handle conflicts that take place outside. The total concentration and discipline required to study martial arts carries over to daily life. The activity in the dojo calls on us to constantly attempt new things, so it is also a source of learning — in Zen terminology, a source of self-enlightenment.”