Energy Manipulation

I have a friend who is a high level black belt in Aikido.

Aikido is not like other martial arts. I’m no expert by any means, but it’s my understanding that most martial arts are offensive and defensive. True fighting skills.

But Aikido is mostly defensive. It uses the opponents energy against him. Meaning somebody comes at you, you simply adjust and deflect. There’s not a lot of “attack” strategies.

Now, when most people study martial arts, it’s so they can avoid conflict. It boosts your confidence, and it helps to keep control of your anger whenever you get into tense situations.

Fight Or Flight?

If you don’t have any training, and you are in fear of your safety, your instinctive programming takes over, and you may say or do things without much conscious thought.

On the other hand, if you know deep in your bones that you can defend yourself, you’ll likely be in much more conscious control. Allowing for calm and relaxed dialogue which can keep fights from starting.

But as my friend tells me, Aikido is a much different level. He says that while Karate will keep you out of fights, Aikido will get you out of the bar an hour before the fight even starts.

Read Social Cues Like A Genius

You get this massive insight into social crowds and behavior, and instead of waiting until things are about to boil over, you simply exit when the temperature rises slightly.

Of course, this is only a secondary effect of practicing Aikido.

Clearly, having such levels of social intelligence can help you out in plenty of situations.

Being able to “feel” the energy of the room can give you a HUGE advantage.

Even in a one on one situations, feeling the energy of the person you’re talking to is like having X ray vision.

Not only to you know what their words really mean, but you’ll get a sense of what they’re really trying to say. What they’re really afraid, and what their deepest desires are.

If you can be the one to give that to them, while covertly respecting their fears, they’ll see you like they see no other.

Your Own Mental Dojo

And you don’t need to spend years inside the Aikido Dojo to get this level of social intelligence.

All you need is a few minutes a day of mental practice (the RIGHT mental practice) and you’ll see the world like few people do.