Shoka Magazine March 2023

March 1, 2023

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty.”

Parents, families, students and friends,

Was John F. Kennedy strong or weak? I believe he was an extraordinary human being He suffered from ailments and injuries that would have kept a lesser man down, but he didn’t let them stop him. How could he say to the leaders of the world that we will “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe in order to assure the survival and success of liberty”? Where did he get his strength? It’s the old nature vs. nurture question. Was he born with it or did he get it from the environment his parents created for him. I believe the answer to the nature vs. nurture question is that it is both. He had good genes but the expectations that his parents had for him and his siblings played a major role in him becoming who he was. This is what we aspire to do for your child. Give them an environment that will allow them to flourish, to find their passion, to become all they can be. What John F. Kennedy’s parents did for him. It’s a wonderful example of parenting at it’s highest. Let us help you give your child what they need to become all they could possibly be.

Here’s what’s in it this month’s Shoka Magazine:

• Shoka News (our newsletter)

• Everybody Must Get Stoned

• Tough Parenting

• A Black Belt is a White Belt who didn’t quit

• Niju Kun #10

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Core Assumptions (Part 4 of 4)

• Michael E. Gerber Show

• Commitment, By Deng Ming-Dao

• Commitment, By Goethe and W.H. Murray

• Thankfulness

• Olivia Shane – one of our newest students

Yours truly,

Shoka News

Shotokan Karate Leadership School® Newsletter

March 1, 2023

A BIG Welcome to our newest students!

v Addie Santiago, Julian Santa Maria, Lily Digardi, Joshua Reeves, Samsaara Santiago, Skylar Morales, Khyle Phy-Birdsong, George Jasmin, Bella Espino, Olivia Shane, Kent Wilson, Logan Purtill, Jovanni Garcia

Upcoming Events and Activities

Ø March-April Instructional Period starts the week of February 27th

Ø Next Great Journey Lesson topic will be Endeavor. The first chapter is titled Never Give Up. We will be reading from Tiger’s Great Journey pages 82 to 92.

Ø Saturday, April 1st next Santa Rosa Invitational Karate Tournament: 10:30a-12:30p

Ø April 10-17th Japan Trip

Ø Friday and Saturday, April 28-29 Sensei Kevin Warner back to teach classes

Ø Saturday, May 6th – Spring 2023 Award Ceremony and Potluck Dinner

The Next Santa Rosa Invitational Karate Tournament – Saturday, April 1, 2023

If you’d like to compete, please let us know. After we get a complete list of those who want to compete, we will decide on divisions and do a final selection of the competitors. We will start training for the tournament February 27th at the start of the next Instructional Period

Japan Trip – April 10 to 17, 2023

I will be joining some of our friends from Shotokan International Alliance and traveling to Japan to do some sightseeing and karate training. If you’re interested in going, let me know and we’ll see if we can make it work for you.

April 28-29 – The Return of Sensei Kevin Warner, 7th Degree Black Belt from Riverside He will be here to teach classes on Friday evening, April 28 and Saturday morning, April 29. Details will be available later.

Spring 2023 Award Ceremony and Potluck Dinner: Saturday, May 6th

Shoka Magazine: We’re mailing it to your house. We hope you’re getting it. If not let us know.

Mystery Crusher and Stacker: Who Done It? – Detective Wanted

Not only are the cups in the bathroom being crushed by small hands but they are being stacked as high as an elephant’s eye or as high as the little hands can reach. The mystery continues... who done it? Help us solve this mystery!

Our Covid Policy

Wear a mask if you are unvaccinated Decide for yourself if you are vaccinated. We will never ask you to do anything that will put you or your family at risk. You always have the opportunity to opt-out of any activity or event that you deem is unsafe.

Everybody Must Get Stoned

“Well, they’ll stone ya when you’re trying to be so good They'll stone ya just like they said they would. They'll stone ya when you're tryin' to go home. Then they'll stone ya when you're there all alone. But I would not feel so all alone. Everybody must get stoned.”

Bob Dylan is one of America’s greatest singer-song writer. The truth in what he is saying in his song ‘Everybody Must Get Stoned’ is universal. It means that as we strive to make something of ourselves, we will all, at some point, face people who will try to hurt us.

The only time this may not happen is if we hide our life away and live in seclusion. So, if this hasn’t happened to you yet, get ready, because it will.

So, what do we do? How do we prepare ourselves? How do we go on after we get stoned? I’m not a politician and I’m generally not very trustful of them but I do admire their ability to let criticism roll off their backs.

So, we could freeze up, let fear take over, and run and hide. But if our oppressor is intent on hurting us, this will only embolden them and they will just throw more rocks. Or, we could fight back, and maybe we should but it probably shouldn’t be your first response as it can stimulate your enemy to respond with more vengeance.

But perhaps the best response is to show that it doesn’t bother you, let it roll off you, think “This too will pass” and “Oh well, have a nice day.”

Sometimes tough parenting requires that you tell your kids that they need to clean their rooms before they can have a donut, while you sit eating donuts yelling, ‘Hurray, they’re almost gone!’

A Black Belt is a White Belt Who didn’t quit.

“If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the highest return.”

Niju Kun #10

This is the tenth of 20 precepts of Master Gichin Funakoshi, the Father of Modern-Day Karate. Master Funakoshi is known by millions of people all around the world and is considered to be one of the three most influential martial art masters of the 20th century.

What is karate?

Karate is a method of self-defense assessable to almost anyone. It uses the arms and legs as weapons of defense. But most importantly it’s a way to improve and strengthen your mind, body and spirit. In this way you become the best person you can be. In the process other people see you as a person of substance, someone who they can depend on in a crisis or to accomplish a major task or project. This is what it means to be a leader.

How do you put this into your everyday living?

This means to be yourself and put who you are and what you’ve learned to work on a daily basis as you live your life. Which is something you can’t really help but do but which you might not be aware of.

What is karate’s true beauty?

The true beauty of karate is how it has made you and formed you into the best person you can be. People are beautiful because of who they are. Boys and men value strength, while girls and women value beauty. But true beauty lies within which is something both males and females possess.

What is True Beauty?

True beauty is the soul or spirit of the individual. You see this in people who are greatly admired for who they are. Great men such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Walter Cronkite, George Washington, William Shakespeare, and Isaac Newton. And Great women such as Jane Austen, Ada Lovelace, Marie Curie, Maya Angelou, Katherine Graham, Florence Nightingale, and Helen Keller.

So, put the best of who you are into everything you do and never stop developing your mind, body and spirit.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Core Assumptions

Every life science has a set of core assumptions it operates out of. The core assumptions of CBT are based on the assumption that the quality of our thoughts impact how we relate to our life’s experiences. This means that the attitude and approach we take towards life, relationships and people will influence the outcomes we experience throughout life.

11. WHAT WE FOCUS ON HAS AN EMOTIONAL CONSEQUENCE.

Have you ever stopped yourself abruptly after realizing you’d been focusing on something unhelpful for too long? Perhaps it was something that didn’t go well in your day or something offensive that someone else said. Whatever the situation was, it was something you knew was not a big deal in the grand scheme of life, and yet you felt the need to mentally replay it over and over in your mind.

Every time you give power to the little things that seem to bother you — when another driver is rude to you on the road, or someone doesn’t return your email right away you’re choosing to be that anxious, unproductive energy. Every time we get caught up in our need to feel liked, approved of and respected or focus on how other people have wronged us, we are choosing to be the fear of being mistreated. Thinking is more than just an activity: it actually manifests as a state of being.

It’s not that we must swallow our feelings about the life events we’re experiencing (big and small) in fear they will somehow define us. But what if we were to begin questioning the thoughts that create our feelings, instead of creating unease and drama over something that we may not even remember in a few days from now, we prevent the negativity from consuming us. We tend to spend so much of our time focusing on things that don’t really serve us when the thing that would actually help us the most is to focus our attention inward. If we can pay attention to and understand how our thoughts are influencing us, we will change who we’re being and how we are experiencing the world. It starts with a simple realization: we can feel free, present and be open in this present if we choose to let go of the worries that stand in our way.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Core Assumptions

Question: If you were to accept that this assumption was true, how might your attitude towards life and other people change?

12. PLASTERS DON’T HEAL WOUNDS

As previously mentioned, there are many things we can do to make us ‘feel better’. However, such things are only ever temporary diversions from the emotions or situations we’re facing in life. Plasters don’t heal wounds, but dealing with the root of the problem does. Dealing with the root of the problem means learning to identify and grow up out of the limiting beliefs and destructive thought patterns that we developed at an earlier stage in life.

Destructive thought patterns are repetitive and unhelpful thoughts. They serve no real purpose and lead to negative and debilitating emotions. The truth is that we have a choice about how we react to these destructive thought patterns and once we learn to recognize and identify them, we can start to make wiser and more well-informed decisions about what we focus on. So how do we move through life in a way that is practical and authentic without getting drawn into negative thought patterns?

Become the watcher of your thoughts in order to become free from the negativity you must become more aware of what you’re thinking! Begin paying more attention to what’s actually going on inside your mind at any given time. Pay close attention to any patterns of negative thinking that arise. Become a curious observer of what is going on in your inner world. Our minds are similar to a record player, playing the same habitual songs over and over again. Through lack of awareness, the record continues playing because its momentum is used to moving in the familiar grooves.

Maiden plucks folk tune on steel strings, Crickets chant like monks. I’ve walked into autumnal contentment, Yet a young boy seeks guidance.

One may be quite far along the path, but if one meets a beginner who sincerely seeks guidance, then one should help without reservation. If such a beginner were to come to you, what would you say? This is what I said to someone today:

“The time of beginning is one of the most precious times of all. It can be very exciting and full of wonderful growth. The first thing to do is to make up your mind that you are going to go the distance.

“When I first began, I made a lifelong commitment. I determined that I would learn from my teacher for at least seven years. Now, it has been much longer than that, but the essential element is the same: commitment.

“But commitment needs something else in order to be perpetuated. It needs discipline. This is the perseverance to keep on when things are tough. Adversity is life’s way of testing and perfecting a person. Without that, we would never develop character.

“Rice suffers when it is milled. Jade must suffer when it is polished. But what emerges is something special. If you want to be special too, then you have to be able to stick to things even when they are difficult.”

Commitment and discipline – these are two of the most precious words for those who seek the way.

Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness.

Concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance which kills countless ideas and splendid plans:

The moment that one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too.

All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner, of unforeseen incidents and meetings, and material assistance, which no man would have dreamed would come his way.

I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

Ask your instructor about our BLACK BELT programs and take your training to a NEW LEVEL!

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it.”

Murray,

Himalayan Expedition

Marty Callahan, 8th Degree Black Belt Shotokan Karate Master, was seen on CBS, NBC, ABC, and FOX and affiliates across the country as an expert guest on The Michael E. Gerber Show.

Marty Callahan’s passion for helping children started with earning a degree in psychology from the University of California at Riverside and led to the founding of Shotokan Karate Leadership School® in Santa Rosa, California in 1981 with a dream to awaken the extraordinary leader in his students. Having inspired, taught, coached, supported and trained over 15,000 students during 40,000 classes, Marty has become Sonoma County’s preeminent martial arts leadership instructor. His students, hundreds of whom have gon e on to become leaders in their chosen fields, appreciate his engaging, student centered approach to teaching.

Michael E. Gerber is a true legend of entrepreneurship. Inc. Magazine called him "the World's #1 Small Business Guru.” One of BusinessWeek's bestselling authors over the past two decades, his New York Times Best Selling Book, The E-Myth Revisited has sold over 5,000,000 copies in 29 languages. Michael’s passion and genius for entrepreneurship has transformed over 70,000+ businesses in 145 countries in the last three decades. Michael believes all entrepreneurs seek a path that has, at its core, a higher, more inspiring meaning than just making money, or selling a product, or seizing market share. Above all, they are trailblazers seeking to transform lives in all that they do.