You have stumbled upon (or purposely sought out) a very, very unique martial arts school.

At Balanced Life Skills we teach self-defense, it's true, but it's self-defense from a global perspective.

It's art, it's peace, it's life!

First off, come see our facility. It's inviting, friendly, warm, and it's a second home to a lot of families in our community.


See a video of our first lesson in self defense

 

 

 

 

Thursday
Jul292010

DateThursday, July 29, 2010 at 2:48PM

How we think:  When we have a situation come up that is daunting, how many of us get to feeling that “we cannot do this”, or “oh this is a terrible situation”, or “this is too hard for me to do”.  When we start thinking like that we can very easily come up with all sorts of reasons why we cannot do the task.  That is how our brain works.  It looks through all of its files for proof for what we are thinking or feeling. 

Once we find one or more reasons that this task cannot be done by me, our body and mind shuts down and we make a decision not to do it or a decision not to even try.  We have convinced ourselves of these ‘facts’. 

The example I use with the students is riding a bicycle.

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Thursday
Jul292010

BLS work influences others in the United States

DateThursday, July 29, 2010 at 5:32AM

I want to share with our community the influence our school has had on others in the nation.  This past spring I had a conversation with another martial arts instructor who has the same values and beliefs that we have here at Balanced Life Skills.  He wanted to know how to do the Rain Barrel project.  We talked at some length and gave him our rain barrel website.  The following video will show you the results when one of his students took the lead in a major way. 

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Monday
Jul262010

Attitude: 3 things that control our attitude

DateMonday, July 26, 2010 at 2:23PM

I know of no parent that has not said to one of their children, “ Don’t give me an attitude!”.  We all know that we are talking about a bad attitude - one that is negative and disrespectful.  Yet most of us if we were truthful with ourselves would have to admit that from time to time we too have that “bad attitude”.   Interestingly in a recent article in the journal; Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics (April, 2009) that it is true that there are some people who are just more positive than others, but that only 50% of happiness is determined genetically.  Where do you think the rest of ability to be positive and happy came from?  Yes it was ourselves.

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Sunday
Jul112010

Work on dangerous trends facing our children

DateSunday, July 11, 2010 at 12:48PM

As many of you know, I have been working on gathering information on the dangerous trends facing our children today.  Recently a news story and the words of a sheriff and renowned expert has demonstrated how important it is that all of us work together on being aware of the issues and knowing how to tackle them with our own children.  The news item is below in this interview.  In reference to this I am recommending that all of us who are parents read the book The Good Girl Curse by Rachael Simmons, especially if we are the parent of a girl, but the information is applicable to both our boys and girls. 

 

If you would like to help us do this research and get this information to the community please join in the conversation at Life Art Peace - Trends Research.  If you have any questions about how you can help contact me directly,  Joe Van Deuren on our contact page here.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Saturday
Jul102010

Children & hot cars do not mix

DateSaturday, July 10, 2010 at 3:45PM

Excerpt from Parenting.com  that is an important reminder.

Sadly, since the beginning of this year, 18 kids have died from hyperthermia (heatstroke) in unattended cars– a record high since record keeping began in 1998. And summer has only just begun.
please take a look at these safety tips from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA):


  • Never leave a child unattended in a vehicle.
  • Never leave infants or children in a parked vehicle, even if the windows are partially open or with the engine running and the air conditioning on.
  • Make a habit of looking in the vehicle -- front and back -- before locking the door and walking away.
  • If you are bringing your child to daycare, and normally it's your spouse or partner who brings them, have your spouse or partner call you to make sure everything went according to plan.
  • Ask your childcare provider to call you if your child does not show up for childcare.


Do things to remind yourself that a child is in the vehicle, such as:

  • Writing yourself a note and putting the note where you will see it when you leave the vehicle;
  • Placing your purse, briefcase or something else you need in the back seat so that you will have to check the back seat when you leave the vehicle; or
  • Keeping an object in the car seat, such as a stuffed toy. When the child is buckled in, place the object where the driver will notice it when he or she is leaving the vehicle.
  • If you see a child alone in a hot vehicle, call the police. If they are in distress due to heat, get them out as quickly as possible. Warning signs may include: red, hot, and moist or dry skin, no sweating, a strong rapid pulse or a slow weak pulse, nausea or acting strangely. Cool the child rapidly. Call 911 or your local emergency number immediately.


For more ideas on how you can insure that this will not happen to you check out this Parenting Website for more information.


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Monday
Jul052010

What is Bully Kindness?

DateMonday, July 5, 2010 at 5:00PM

The Buddhist Answer to Bullies

Published in Psychology Today this article list 5 steps in stopping bullying.

  1. See the suffering
  2. Protect yourself
  3. Use Mantra's
  4. Apply Kindness
  5. Cut-off 

 

If you would like to see the full article here is the link. The Buddhist Answer to Bullies

I found this article interesting, though I must say that we must be careful in all of our suggestions to our children or ourselves about bullying that we do not leave the victim feeling "less than".  This leads to a life time of issues that will only need to be dealt with later in life. 

I am looking forward to teaching a Verbal Self Defense this fall that has been taught to and used by police officers all over the world.  It is called Verbal Judo.  I recently completed a college course for this and am preparing to bring it to our community this fall.  Verbal Judo is excellent in that it allows all parties to not lose face and stay strong themselves, especially the victim of the attack.

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Monday
Jul052010

Jump ropes for Kenya students

DateMonday, July 5, 2010 at 8:19AM

This past week Balanced Life Skills students made 117 jump ropes for children in Kenya who live at an orphanage.  Next week I will be spending the week at the orphanage seeing what we can do to help and provide hope to the students there.  The group will be traveling with martials artists from across the nation and will include singer / songwriters, artists and a full film crew as we will be filming a documentary, "Roots of Happiness". 

The trip was put together by Brian Williams and his Think Kindness organization.  The documentary and our goal is to determine what it is that makes these children so happy when they have so little from an American point of view.  When the film is completed, we will show it to high school students here in America to inspire them to find ways of serving others. 

The film you see here is our jump rope making day at Balanced Life Skills.  If you would like to help fund the supply of school supplies, teacher supplies and the shipping of the jump ropes you can by going to http://rootsofhappiness.com/joe

 

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Monday
Jun282010

Attitude: Definition

DateMonday, June 28, 2010 at 2:23PM

Each month we define and discuss a word of character development with all of our students. 

This month the word is Attitude.  It will be defined this way.

 

 

Young students: Attitude means “How I feel, how I think and how I act.”

Older students: Attitude means:  How you feel, think and act in the face of everyday events and obstacles.

If you would like to see how we will deal with this subject with our students please follow our discussions here during the month of July.

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Wednesday
Jun232010

Why we want to keep soda out of our diet

DateWednesday, June 23, 2010 at 1:48PM

If you are a parent and have not gotten the will power yet to keep yourself or your child off of the sodas this article might just do the trick for you.  The reason that it has such appeal to young and old alike is the affect it has on our mind and body. 

What happens if you drink a Coke right now?

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Wednesday
Jun232010

Summer Safety Tips

DateWednesday, June 23, 2010 at 11:15AM

On our Be Safe Annapolis Website we have listed some summer sun safety tips for families with children from babies to teens.  Be careful in the sun this summer.

Be Safe Annapolis

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