My introduction to First Tang Soo Do of Fremont started in September 2013. Before meeting Master Bell my life was typical of a young immigrant family. I am from the Metropolitan city of Chennai and being the eldest among 3 siblings, I did everything right in a timeline: school education, engineering degree, job and marriage. I got married and came to the US in 2001. I did my Masters degree and started working in the midst of having two kids. Torn between kids’ demands and the corporate world, I quit my job, to find peace and joy in life. But I didn’t have the parenting skills to raise kids and so I enrolled kids in different classes. I was also keeping up with societal norms by being part of get-togethers, parties and sweet deals, but within me I had no joy or peace. My husband and I were in search of a better life.

When Master Bell suggested for the whole family to be part of the training, I didn’t hesitate for the physical challenge but I was reluctant to spend 90 minutes, 3 days a week given the full life I was living. I wasn’t aware then that not only I was going to learn Tang Soo Do kicks and punches but also learn about my true self (personal development), with which I would make sense of my past 36 years and have clarity for my future.

From day one awareness was instilled in me. Awareness of corrective breathing, to move and breathe gracefully, to keep my spine erect and much more, were taught with so many details that bringing my mind, body and spirit together was instantaneous. With the experience of mind-body-spirit balance, I was able to understand the reason for my mental exhaustion because my mind was very active while my body and spirit were neglected. This helped to look at my every thought and action because those thoughts and actions were the reason for my emotions, good and bad. Since the negative emotions of anger, ego and fear were my predominant ones, I saw the need to replace them with positive emotions like love, joy and appreciation. Though tough, this required one of the powerful qualities as a Tang Soo Do student, humility. The awareness about my imbalance, my openness to humble down to my weak habits and acceptance to change them, started a new path for me.

Initially it was challenging for me to let go of my anger and authoritative way of handling situations but when I observed how anger changed my body chemistry and affected me and others around me, that led me to take a stance on my anger and look at situations logically. For this change to become consistent, I needed to create space. That paved the way to structure and declutter my day and way of life, curbing my own impulses. Whenever Master Bell challenged a weak habit it made sense to me because I developed that habit to keep up with the perception of the outside world and less to do with my joy and peace.

Tang Soo Do calisthenics, drills and hyungs brought out my true characteristics. My fear, ego disappointments and rigidity were all on display and I had no escape than to see it, accept it and change it. I could once again be human, making mistakes in front of my kids and other students who were in the class. Through those training experiences and hours of conversation with Master Bell I became humble and developed patience and tolerance towards myself, kids and towards life as a whole. Since the philosophy challenged every inch of my existence through lessons from every class, I became better as an individual. As a family we became better. As Master Bell says “it’s the accumulation of small changes that brings the biggest impact in our quality of living” and we could experience it in our lives. The changes we made not only improved our physical health, it also gave us better mental clarity and emotional stability.

Before Tang Soo Do I thought I had a good understanding and relationship with my husband. The philosophy exposed what was missing and with that clarity we talked about each other's life from childhood to right now revealing our true selves. This increased the level of respect between us. Through these conversations I could relate to my husband’s behaviors and traits and his approach to life. With our stability, kids' have become joyful, creative and emotionally stable. We created our own family values and traditions by connecting to our root identities, strengthening the basic foundation of our family.

With the personal changes that I went through, my self esteem improved and I redefined myself as 'orchestrator of the family’ which gave me a renewed sense of purpose for my existence and being a mother and spouse. With the knowledge gained from the past 10 years of training, authoritative approach and being a woman cannot be an impediment to my role as an orchestrator. So I step up by setting aside my emotions and looking at the reality to see what is needed of me. Being the first woman in my kids’ life I do my best to be an effective mother, attending to their needs, teaching them life skills and to not look down on anyone, humbling down to my mistakes on the way, being tolerant, patient and kind to myself and them.

I was introduced to the healing art of CHI-KUNG, 6 months into Tang Soo Do. This art heightened the level of quieting mind and bringing mind-body-spiritual balance that gave me the experience of feeling my energy flow. When I was taught how to elevate my CHI(my life source) it changed my body chemistry and brought a pleasantness in me. I felt lightness in my body and was able to keep myself healed letting go of body pain which was the result of years of accumulated emotions. I was also enjoying and soaking up energy from nature. I observed how my pleasantness changed my interactions with people around me.

I am humbled and blessed to learn Tang Soo Do, CHI-KUNG and YOGA. It was the most pivotal choice in my life and for good. With a decade of training in these 3 arts, I experienced a better part of myself, my family and overall a better quality of life. My recent experience with COVID-19 has given me more assurance that I am on the right path, learning the arts. I plan to share my knowledge of Tang Soo Do with family orchestrators in the community. I look forward to being at my best, in sharing the knowledge and experience I gained, with the next generation of the Tang Soo Do community and others.