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Some comment on it, others smile and more than a few have looked at it and given me a quizzical look. It is a large, framed poster of Bruce Lee in a fighting pose, in the shadows with a quote attributed him, along with his signature. The quote is: Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.
So…many people ask me, why Bruce Lee? I’m assuming what they really want to know is why does my therapist have something like this on his wall? Should I be worried? Shouldn’t he have a picture of Sigmund Freud or something? I get this. I struggled with whether or not this was appropriate for an office where mental health counseling is conducted.
The more I thought about this, though, the more it made sense to me. I don’t want to say something trite like, “everything I learned about counseling, I learned from Bruce Lee.”However, I have discovered that my basic counseling philosophy is very similar to Lee’s philosophy towards the evolution of his martial art and life in general.
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In his book The Tao of Jeet Kune Do, which I keep in my office (and read and reflect upon on occasion), Lee discusses how one must go through a transformation process, a continual process of learning and experimentation and ultimately as he succinctly states, “absorb what is useful and discard what is not.”
This is my favorite Bruce Lee aphorism; unfortunately, I could not find a poster with that one on it. Over the next few months, I am going to be publishing several blog entries which discuss the intersection of mental health and wellness and the practice of martial arts. Why? Why not! I hope you will enjoy them and maybe learn something new or better yet, go out and try a new activity yourself.
