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BePartofStory

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Journey of discovering strength & mind power.

Verča Partikova: Kung Fu Academic

MMA fighter with a PhD in Sports Psychology

writing about mind, fighting & life in Asia

Writer's pictureVeronika Partiková

What Fighting Can Teach You About Your Mind: I Am Not My Thoughts

Fighting is a great tool for a number of things. For example, and that is my case, it can let you look around your headspace and be like: “Wait a moment, who runs this place?!”


I am very interested in sport psychology, self-development, and just in general becoming a better human, really. The fight is for me something so primal, old, and deep that it lets me touch the core of my soul. I have not yet found a better mirror for myself than fighting. That is where I really see who I am. And the stress and pressure push me and motivates me to work with it, to shape myself as an athlete and as a person.




Not everyone training in martial arts needs to have fighting experience. I have had maybe 50 students and very few of them actually wanted to fight full contact in a ring or cage, even though many were interested in fight or self-defense in general. And that is ok.


(Full)contact fighting is not for everyone and it is a raw, chaotic, painful, intense, and stressful experience. Why would anyone do that right? Haha. I ask that myself every time I accept a fight. But there are many amazing things going on when you fight and I want to share one of them with you now.


I had a breakthrough moment. I analyze a lot of what is happening during, before, and after the fight and my training, I write tons of notes and preparations. I even sit down in a café and ask myself questions that I then reply to myself. (In my mind, of course, I have not been kicked out of a café yet).


In one such analysis, I realize that the voice inside my head is not me.


I was in a fight, I was telling myself: “This is terrible, let’s get out of here, I don’t want to be here, let me out”. A the same time, I did not want to get out of there. But that was much deeper, and not formulated into words. I just knew that what I am thinking and what I am thinking are two different things.


I reflected back on thoughts I have during training such as “I am tired today”, “You can’t do this”, “This was shit”, and “I should stop and rest now”. My mind was playing tricks on me. Who is talking? Who is that voice? Because I am pretty sure, this is something I love doing. Why would I want to stop?


I started to pay attention to the voice more, and when it was going bad, I reminded myself: It’s ok. It’s just a voice. Nothing bad will happen. You don’t need to listen to it. It doesn’t mean anything. You are ok.


And to become a real landlord in my own head, I started to shape the voice, so it serves me, instead of playing tricks against me. But about that, I will tell you some other time.


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