Ishan Shivanand uses martial arts as an analogy for how most people operate at survival level with their thoughts, emotions, and breath. Like learning martial arts gives you extraordinary abilities with the same body, breathwork and mindfulness let you master your inner life instead of just reacting to it.
Now this is something I want you to understand. A normal person has his limb, he has his body, but he can do very limited work with his body. But if this normal person, you teach him martial arts, he can do so much more with the same limbs. He can do acrobatics, he can do gymnastics, he can move like an animal. He's so much more capable if he knows martial arts. And I like to use the same example. I like to say that everybody has thoughts, emotions, awareness, and breath. But a normal person doesn't know how to utilize these tools beyond the normal processes. He breathes to stay alive. His awareness, he has little to no control over it. His thoughts are random. He has to experience them rather than being able to focus them. And emotions, emotions are a constant stream.
