E117 Eric Davis Martial Arts and Wellbeing
Let’s Be Well Together Podcast - Episode 117
Date: April 23, 2024
Participants: John Webster, Elise Seifert, Cameron Earnshaw and Sheila Webster
Guest: Eric Davis
Start Times and Segments:
[0:00:16] What’s On Your Mind: We discuss a social media post: 5-Minute Mental Health Check. It’s not only about emotions and mindfulness. Some questions: Have my muscles been stretched?; Have I eaten regularly and healthy?; Have I been nice to myself and others?; Have I had a good enough sleep?; Am I hydrated enough? How am I feeling?
[0:09:46] Expanding Minds Interview: [Physical and other areas of wellness] We interview Eric Davis. He started taking martial arts to get his weight under control. He didn’t think he’d enjoy gym-type workouts. He wanted to learn a new skill. He got so much out of it. A key lesson was to show up on days he didn’t feel like going to the dojo. He always felt miles better after he left. He never regretted dragging himself out of the house to the dojo. It also taught him discipline. Activities such as sparring, practicing or grappling with others forced him to be present in the moment, leaving his busy work life, concerns, worries and stress behind him for a while. The ability to change the mindset can be very useful.
[0:26:51] Adventures of the Starving Artist: Cameron went to his first concert 15 years ago – City and Colour. It inspired him to learn guitar. He saw the group again, now that he’s a professional musician.
[0:31:10] Move That Body: Sheila’s biking to work. John’s walking to work. They’re both loving using their bodies to start the day. It also inspires them to do more to help the environment.
[0:36:43] Running Popup: John got a message from a colleague and recognized there are some people we meet who we trust and believe in from the start, even if we can’t say why.
[0:38:05] Flipside of the Coin: How can we harness the passion of you together with the wisdom of age? How do we avoid the inclination to run out the clock?
Quotes and Take-Aways:
Eric – I said to myself, “Look, I’m tired of being overweight. I’ve had enough. I need to take care of my health. What can I do?” I knew lots of people go to the gym, workout, pump iron and do all those sorts of things. I knew that I would not have the patience for that. I like to engage the mind as well as the body. I wanted to ideally learn a new skill and try to expand my horizons. I decided to do martial arts.
Eric – I learned an important lesson from my Sensei. He said some days you might not feel like going in and doing martial arts. It’s those days that you desperately need to go in and do martial arts. You need to have the discipline to come in, but also in martial arts you’re trying to focus on self-defence. You need to be ready for the weak moments and still be ready to work through certain things. There were times I was quite frankly feeling lazy. I didn’t want to go out. I was tired. I had a long day. On those days I said to myself, “Nope, these are the days I most need to go in and show the discipline and prioritize health and wellness, even though I really don’t feel like doing this.” Oftentimes I found that at the end of that session I felt miles better. It put me in a different frame of mind. I can’t remember ever having a regret for dragging myself out of the house to go to the dojo.
Eric – In a career like law, it’s not something that’s easily put aside. You’re constantly thinking about files, arguments, different things going on, different priorities, different timelines and all of this. I can be difficult to shut down those voices in your mind for a little bit. I found that martial arts really helped with this. When you’re sparring, practicing or grappling with someone, you need to be in the moment, not only to focus on what you’re doing but also to focus on not harming the other person. You need to be present and focused, so that you’re using appropriate strength, you’re thinking about how you’re going to interact this. If someone is throwing you, then you need to focus on how to fall properly. If someone’s trying to choke you out, you’re thinking about how you can start breathing again, rather than what’s going on in this file back at work. The activities you’re doing force you to focus on the moment. When you’ve exited the dojo, you’ve had an hour or more of focusing on other things – being present in the moment – focusing on what you or the person you’re working was doing. It can really change one’s mindset from being concerned or worried or stressed, to feeling you learned a lot, that it was a fun session, this was great. The ability to change the mindset can be very useful.
Eric – Martial arts stresses to only act in self-defence. You are not to go out there and start trying to bully people or push people around. If someone attacks you, the first option is to get away – to extricate yourself from the situation. If you cannot and you’re forced to defence yourself, it’s at that point you use the skills you’ve learned in martial arts. Martial arts teaches t avoid those types of situations. Walk away. Get out of it. It’s only used as a last resort.
Eric – Often after studying martial arts you have a quiet confidence. You don’t act in an emotional way back to an aggressor. You don’t try to escalate the situation. You just have a quiet confidence. You can say, “Look, let’s try to resolve this matter in a reasonable way.” That type of discipline and understanding is what you can gain from martial arts.
Bulletin Board Quote brought to you by Eric: You know you’ve got problems when you consider breathing a form of exercise.
Guest Information: Eric Davis is a Partner at SmithValeriote Law Firm LLP. He practices Municipal & Planning Law. He’s an Law Society of Ontario Certified Specialist in Municipal Law: Local Government / Land Use Planning & Development. Throughout his over 17-year career, he has acted for both private- and public-sector clients on all manner of issues related to municipalities. He is a Director on the Board for KidsAbility, a Trustee of the Waterloo Region Law Association, and a Member of the Ontario Bar Association’s Municipal Law Section Executive. In 2019, Eric was awarded the Waterloo Award, the City of Waterloo’s highest civic honour, for his involvement in the community.
Eric’s page at SV Law: Eric Davis
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Thanks for joining us,
(-(-_(-_-)_-)-) Your wellness check-in team
John, Sammy, Cameron, Sheila, Elise, Isabelle, Noura and Julie