The Role of Fighting on the Road to Wholeness and Regulation

Saturday evening, the Melbourne Pavilion filled with fight fans for Roots 30, 'Slings and Arrows,' a Muay Thai fight show.

Bright lights warmed the canvas of the elevated boxing ring, the thump of a reggae bass line from Fat Freddy's Drop reverberated through the pavilion. Friends, training partners and family gathered around to watch as their loved ones prepared to climb over the ropes to do battle.

Professional Muay Thai; kicking, punching, kneeing, elbowing, is a violent sport. A violent sport with virtually no money involved. So what motivates people to subject themselves to this extraordinary experience?

The capacity for violence is a trait observed throughout the animal kingdom. Birds peck each other, fish eat each other, toddlers with no exposure to violence will pick up a block and whack another kid if playtime isn't going their way.

I grew up in a culture where violence was generally frowned upon, "love your neighbour, forgive your enemies," that sort of thing. But most of us have some experience of wanting to hit someone. Perhaps as a child we experienced injustice, or wanted to protect a friend who was being picked on.

Our body sent very clear signals to our little clenched fists that said, "it's your time to shine."

However, the adults around us told us, "it's bad to hit." This mixed signal between our body and the adults in charge led many of us to push down and suppress our violent impulses, perhaps even to judge ourselves as bad or naughty for having these very natural urges.

Generally, what we resist persists. Every time we resisted the urge to express ourselves violently, those feelings were bottled up, gradually accumulating as tension in the body. While whacking people every time we feel like it isn't a great solution, neither is suppression. So what is the healthy option that serves both our inner emotional health and the people around us?

Martial arts give us an opportunity to release that tension, to befriend the part of ourselves that has the capacity for violence.

They give us a safe enough space to intentionally experience our capacity for violence so that we can choose peace and non-violence in our lives.

While it's not the only way we can learn to regulate our nervous system when we have the urge to lash out, learning to fight can be an incredibly helpful tool to support our journey toward wholeness and regulation.

Watching the fighters on the weekend embrace each other, grinning from ear to ear at the end of each fight, I was struck by just how transformative participating in martial arts can be.

What suppressed energy in your own life might be asking for healthy expression?