The Fighting Arts vs. Healing Arts
How are they different? And how are they connected?
It’s been said that a first degree black belt can break your back. But a fifth degree black belt can heal it.
As a lifelong martial artist turned healer, I know from my own experience that fixing an injury is much more skill intensive than creating one.
I accidentally broke my back in my mid-20’s — fracturing 2 of my lumbar vertebrae on a snowboarding jump out of the trees that I didn’t land so well.
I didn’t realize I broke the bones at the time. In hindsight, it’s kind of crazy you can fracture your spine and not realize it. I did end up calling it a day and went back to the lodge after being shaken up.
It wasn’t until 15 years later when a routine x-ray prompted my chiropractor to ask, “So… when did you get your spine fused?” that I realized that fall must have been worse than I realized.
I was inordinately lucky that my only pain and suffering from that fall was a stiff lower back.
But 25 years later, I realize that was a moment that turned my career from being a professional martial arts instructor, and general adrenaline badass to a track that took me into the healing arts of massage and shiatsu.
