| Meditation and relaxation before and after martial | | | | practiced many, many times. If they cannot focus |
| arts training sessions are important for a number | | | | all their mental and physical energy without having |
| of reasons. First, meditation teaches proper | | | | to think, they will not be able to react effectively. |
| breathing techniques. Students are taught during | | | | Ask any martial arts practitioner who has |
| meditation, to become aware of their breathing. | | | | achieved mushin and survived a self-defense |
| Long, deep relaxed breaths taken in through the | | | | situation. They cannot tell you how or why it |
| nose and out through the mouth are the | | | | started, what was said during the engagement, |
| preferred method. | | | | what techniques they performed or how the |
| Students are instructed to force the air into the | | | | encounter ended. They cannot remember, not |
| hara or tanden (the abdomen) and hold it there | | | | only because it happened too fast, but also |
| for a short period of time before exhaling. All | | | | because there was no time to think. There was |
| mental and physical energies are focused on a | | | | only time to react in the way they trained. |
| single thought. Concentration of the energies | | | | Mushin, however, is not just a state of mind that |
| relaxes the mind. A relaxed mind abandons all | | | | can be achieved during a self-defense situation. |
| unnecessary thought. Thoughts of stress and | | | | Many martial artists train to achieve this state of |
| fatigue no longer occupy the consciousness even | | | | mind so that flawless techniques are able to be |
| if for only a brief time. | | | | performed. Mushin can take many years to attain |
| The state of "no-mindness", "mind of no mind" or | | | | but once mushin is attained through practicing or |
| mushin as it is also referred to is imperative in a | | | | studying of martial arts, the overall objective is to |
| self defense situation. In this state of mind, martial | | | | attain a level of complete awareness in other |
| artists do not think of what they will do next. | | | | aspects of the practitioner's life. |
| They react the way they have been taught and | | | | |