“Awakening the power within”.

During belt testing Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim takes us “to the next level”.  We are presented often times with a challenge we have never faced before.   I have watched so many times how students bring up their second wind, how they dig deeper into their internal power and overcome the obstacle in front of them.  Most commonly it’s a breaking technique they have never done, or it’s sparring with a tough opponent.  In each case the student starts out overwhelmed.  Great Grandmaster calls out to them to look at her, to focus, to believe.  “I believe you can do it” she will say with conviction.  Then I see the student bring up a new and higher level of focus, they continue and they succeed! 

How is it that they can do this?  How is it that they can believe?  How is it that they can trust someone else and then take another step forward into the challenge before them?  It’s quite simple actually.  They do it because they do believe Great Grandmaster when she says that she believes in them.  They do trust her when she says trust me.  They see a person who walks her talk and who shows by her own personal example.  After they succeed they are astonished!  They say I never knew I could do that. 

Analogy:  The law says we are innocent until proven guilty.  Our emotions tell us the opposite.  They tell us we cannot do something until someone else proves to us that we can.  It is almost like we live in a limited world of our own preconceptions of our selves.  Only through instruction, lessons, teachings, learning and growing do we start to understand who we can be or can we now say… who we really are!