Shihan Kendall

"Patience is not simply the ability to wait. It's how we behave while we're waiting." — Joyce Meyer We treat patience like it's something you're born with — you either have it or you don't. At The Dojo, we see it differently. Patience is trained the same way a strong stance or a clean technique is trained: through repetition, through frustration, through doing the same drill for the hundredth time when you'd rather move on to something new. The white belt who wants to skip ahead to flashy...

"Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." -Mr. Rogers My young children's faces in a rearview mirror. That's one of the most vivid images I have from 25 years ago, when on an absolutely beautiful September day, the world suddenly felt like a very dark place. It's an image that endures alongside a whole lot of others from that day--ones that all of us of a certain age share: balls of fire, falling bodies, falling buildings--and it is every bit as vivid. Those two...

"Not in his goals but in his transitions man is great." — Ralph Waldo Emerson There are perhaps no moments in any Dojo class more important than the first few--those moments when we transition from wherever else we've been and whatever else we have been doing that day to being present in our Dojo. That's why the first thing we do after we bow in is simply breathe. Deep, conscious breathing relaxes our bodies. Relaxed bodies bring calm minds. And calm minds help us make that transition....