Who has never faced a bad phase during his/her journey in the gentle art? Personal problems, work, and studies, among many other things, end up requiring us to make some kind of sacrifice. It hurts having to miss a training and give up that sacred moment of dressing the kimono and getting onto the mat.

However, often your routine starts to be filled with responsibilities and you end up becoming stressed, busy… sleeping is no longer the same. If you have felt or are feeling these symptoms, do not think of it as something abnormal. People who face busy or troubled phases and because of that move away from the daily training, usually feel like this. The point is that, although the sweaty kimono does not exhale the most pleasant smell, it is with it that we find our peace of mind.

Be too big to feel restlessness, too noble to feel anger, too strong to feel fear and too happy to feel setbacks.” Grandmaster Carlos Gracie Sr.

Carlos Gracie, Gracie family patriarch and creator of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, deeply studied these feelings and emotional conditions that are experienced by the gentle art fans. The Great Master did know very well, thanks to his life experience, that everyone who inhabits this planet will experience some feelings like that. And exactly because of that, the Master left us some advice so we could know how to face those problems. Among the 12 lessons, one of the most famous that will help those who are going through this moment is the tenth one: “Be too big to feel restlessness, too noble to feel anger, too strong to feel fear and too happy to feel setbacks.”

Remember: we all go through a hard phases and none of them lasts forever.