Part 6 of 21 improvements BJJ has had on my life. This was inspired by Tangled Triangle: 21 Days of Improvement. You can read my Part 5 here!

6/21 Improvements from BJJ: Creative outlet!

Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up. – Jane Yolen

I’m not talking physical here, but rather about writing. I have always enjoyed writing, but I have not always written. When I was in Peace Corps, I would write about my many cross cultural experiences, but I found myself in a situation where I felt obligated to do this. As though I should write about these experiences. I loved living abroad, I loved my career in education, but I didn’t have a passion for writing about these experiences.

As soon as I discovered jiu jitsu, the ideas FLOWED. I started my blog about a month after starting, and I haven’t stopped. Over 3 years later and I still have dozens and dozens ideas for blog posts. Some are more in the feminist arena, some are connected to books I’ve read, some are connections to language learning, but all about jiu jitsu. There is no chore in writing about jiu jitsu, nor is there any writers block!

It amuses me to no end when I’m told, usually about feminist topics, “omg don’t you have better things to write about?” or “why don’t you write about REAL problems.” It amuses me because I just love writing about jiu jitsu, and some topics bubble to the surface more readily. Plus, jiu jitsu – is about as first world problems as you can get. I write here because it’s fascinating to me and because these topics interest me. So thank you, jiu jitsu, for giving me endless things to talk about – some of it more important than others, but all of it fascinating – to me (and hopefully to some of the rest of you out there!).

Jiu Jiu’s Question: Has BJJ given you some creative outlet – art, writing, songwriting, etc?  Please share below!