MODULE 8 1

Module 8 Final Reflections

Donovan Felice

Arizona State University

OGL 340: The Aikido Way

Bill Erwin
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FINAL REFLECTION

1. Prompt #1: In Module 1, you watched "Invictus," a clip from the movie "Gandhi," and a

60 Minute Segment on Mindfulness.

After watching the movie, and the video on mindfulness, the primary point of

which I believe to was to give us a metaphysical representation of mindfulness as well

prove to us the opportunities to have mindfulness in daily life in a physical and more

tactile sense. I wrote about the nature of mindfulness and it’s presence in the mind as

awareness of your own thoughts and feelings. Breathing was of a heavy focus, much like

snipers and their controlled breathing techniques to calm their body, or monks who use

breathing as relaxation, stress reduction or other bodily stresses. I wondered how much of

this sort of westernization/adoption of eastern traditions appeared. Surely the man in the

“60 minutes” show was not the first but one of many individuals who saw value and

adopted more eastern beliefs about stress, relaxation, and awareness that Aikido also

teaches. These Japanese and other eastern beliefs about the way or martial arts and

breathing techniques traveled their way to America around the early 20th century,

adapting and evolving with the adoption from western civilization. In America in

particular the Japanese Immigration in the United States to escape famine and revolution

over the years, as well as the continued globalization of many countries produced more

cultural similarities or adoptions.

In some way leaders of the world should be able to learn from this cultural

crossroads. Adopt attitudes less stringent, demanding and dominating in the workplace
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with unfair treatment and conditions, something that promoted happiness meditation and

healing were far more appealing than to give into the rat race of more modern

workplaces. The rapid industrialization and adoption of “office work” by businesses was

a radical change many were forced to adapt to, in some part this may have also led many

to look towards a more appealing philosophy such as Aikido to calm the stressors of daily

life.

My own approach to conflict has not been the best I have needed much

improvement and change to my philosophy towards conflict, so I studied and read up on stoicism

and Marcus Aurelius, as well as the other Greek domains of metaphysics. I eventually arrived at

the conclusion that they taught many things well, but I grew each day more fascinated with the

Tao Te Ching and glimpsing into the eastern philosophies. I admire the way Japanese people

conduct business; in fact, I believe I prefer it. By studying this line of thinking I decided to take

this class Aikido the way to conflict transformation as it is the primary philosophical interest of

mine, and it was a topic that I could take to assist my degree’s required credits.

The thing that could have stabilized this module as a foundation to the classwork after

would be the more philosophical foundation and learnings from eastern philosophy itself. Just

the basics, Confucianism, Taoism, Aikido, what they are how they differ, what practices are

involved and a discussion on what we can learn from them and apply to the workplace. The

inclusion of Nelson Mandela was a huge positive in my book. A fantastic film to watch, think

about and discuss with the class.

2. Prompt #2:

In this section we explored Aikido and practices the discussion model with our

partners. With the primary focus being centering Aikido centering I had to understand

exactly what being centered meant, how it feels to be centered and why. Practicing the

hand on the wall helped, but most of what I feel I understood about centering came from

the black belt demonstrations in the learning materials which I feel was vital. Some

improvement for the class could be a simpler explanation of what centering and hand on

the wall means, rather than leaving it open for interpretation I could hear that line of

thinking as a baseline, expand and create my own perspective of it.

3. Prompt #3:

This section involved the Spitting Out the Hook exercise and an evaluation of

“The Matrix” film clip. I was really fascinated by the Matrix discussion, the

philosophical inspirations and the understanding of martial arts even as depicted in film

displaying certain principles in a philosophical and physical sense. When you think of a

film you think of what it is trying to say, the message it conveys to the audience, with the

context of aikido or martial arts viewing that clip made it enriched because not only is

Neo quite literally resurrected with understanding almost like a Jesus type character but

also utilizing the martial arts we was taught previously, but displaying his true power and

potential when he has mastered himself, and now can master the world. There is a lot of

meaning to be derived from films and Aikido.

The exercise itself I believe impinged on where control of yourself, the

conversations and emotions are in a conversation. Which will absolutely help me deal

with conflict in business or relationships in a professional sense. The quizzes are fair, and

it did help me get more from the text and understand it in a simpler and more theoretical

sense as an applicable trait or skill that can be understood and learned.

4. Prompt #4:

The H.E.A.R. method and the power of listening was a thought-provoking discussion

based on the premise of listening and understanding people when they speak and

conversations. How to reflect that listening and turn it into productive conversations. That in

a sense will deal with conflict by the end of producing some sort of positive conversations. I

feel I have active listening down as a good skill I have but reviewing it was useful.

5. Prompt #5:

The burn clean model helps us assert and stand up for our own views in a conflict.

With this model it helped me understand the difference between aggression, avoidance,

and assertiveness. At first, I was surprised by the calmer and toned-down definition of

assertiveness as I have always viewed it as a form of positive aggression, sticking up for

oneself and their view. That new definition reminded me more of compromise and

negotiation rather than what I think of “assertiveness” it challenged my worldview as

well as my own action and how we can still stand up with assertiveness without
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aggressiveness as I always associated these two closely. It caused me to redefine my view

of conflict.

6. Prompt #6

When dealing with the Say Yes model, you are mediating conflict, the outset

attention of coming to an agreement with one another from each party. This transforms

an outright disagreement and conflict into a way to make decisions, a meeting of minds

and opposing positions. “Can we meet in the middle? Solve both of our interests.” As just

an example of the opposition reaching positive conclusions based on conflict,

transforming it. I feel confident using it though I have had difficulty getting the other

party for instance to sit down and meet or help solve the conflict, often they are unwilling

to participate.

7. Prompt #7:

The most improvement that could be made would be the discussions less focused

on the exercises explaining our exercise point, but rather I would format discussions more

as “discussions”. At first our thoughts on the exercise and what our biggest take ways

were, then we can explore the more philosophical topics that relate to those bigger ideas,

and the book itself. Just asking our thoughts on things rather than asking us to describe

how our “exercise” with the discussion activity went. I feel discussions should be more

engaging, not talking about the mediating circumstances of basic disagreements we

discussed with the method or exercise primarily. I feel the workload was perfect for me, I
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could work without having to worry about missing an assignment each day because I was

busy for one of them, I could do it after work or when I had time, which can be rare in

some cases. It was nice and refreshing to have a well-placed perhaps less stressful and

flexible class. I feel I was able to learn more and absorb more because it was at my own

pace rather than getting it all done or cramming it in in a far shorter window.