What is your definition of freedom when it comes to your body and movement? How do you imagine movement unfolding across your lifetime?

I rediscovered that my belonging extended beyond being solely Filipino, biracial, woman, or warrior; I was a part of the universal human experience. Though I am a student of martial arts and have had many instructors, Mother Nature has always been my Grandmaster. Patiently waiting for me to learn her most fundamental lesson: to trust and surrender back into the flow of life. I know now our warrior ancestors understood this deep wisdom; wisdom that we’re beginning to reclaim.

Anting antings have a long history in Filipino Martial Arts. Escrimadors or practitioners of the martial arts in the Philippines would often carry an amulet or talisman with them for protection. Anting antings are mystical objects of power. They could be anything from a crocodile 🐊 tooth, medallion worn around the neck, or oraccion (prayer) tattooed on the body. There are many stories of escrimadors who claimed their anting anting made them invinsible. These magical tokens would be passed down through the family or from teacher to student. Essentially, it’s something that can focus your will, or something you can draw emotional or spiritual spiritual strength from.

How do you want to feel? How to use movement to bring in more of what you’re longing for.

What if some distant ancestor magically time traveled from hundreds of years ago and appeared on your doorstep to give you a gift… How would you treat that gift? For sure, you'd cherish it like it was some treasure that could never be replaced, and you’d pass this priceless heirloom along to your grandchildren.

Your body, health, and DNA can be seen in the same way.

What if strengthening our bodies was an act of gratitude towards our ancestors? What if our bodies were our ancestral altars, and each bead of sweat shed during exercise, a sacred offering?

What’s your relationship to rest? How do you know your body is actually relaxed? The same way we can identify the sensations and signals our body gives us when we’re in danger (for example: elevated heart rate, sweaty palms, queasy stomach, tightness in chest, etc). Our body also tells us when we’re adequately at rest.

Fear is the body’s most ancient ally.

Self-defense is more than just learning how to fight.

Learning situational awareness, and how to read body language and your environment are self-defense strategies.

Movement has ancestral memory.

Training can act as an amplifier of old feelings, thoughts, and fears that you have stored in your body. Training in martial arts can bring up a lot of our “stuff.” For example, how you physically respond to a punch coming towards your face, your feelings about getting hit, and then the thoughts that follow – can be like little windows into your past.

One of the reasons I love Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) is the adaptability and the resourcefulness of the art throughout history. Kali teaches concepts that can be applied to our everyday lives, concepts that transcend time. For example, once you learn the basic striking angles, you can apply these angles to any weapon. The stick, the sword, your fist 👊🏽, an umbrella, trash can lids — anything can be a weapon.

If you were an ancient warrior of the Philippines, what would your weapon of choice be? Which weapon would call to you? Would it be a heavier dual handed sword like the kampilan, a headhunter’s weapon? Or a bow and arrow, allowing you to stay hidden and shoot from a far? Or would it be a bolo, an all-purpose blade for farming and fighting?

The Filipino Martial Arts was always originally a bladed art, meaning our ancestors used swords, daggers, spears, axes – weapons with a sharp edge. However, after the Spanish colonized the Philippines, they established a law that forbade locals from carrying long blades. Traditional swords that had both practical and spiritual meaning to the community, such as the kris and the kampilan, were banned. That’s when our ancestors who practiced the warrior arts decided to use rattan sticks (like the ones we practice with today ) instead of blades, hiding martial movements in choreographed dance and theater.

Chrysalis Kali Merchandise Launch!

When we exercise, we’re gifting ourselves a strong and agile body that can move with less pain and more ease as we age. However, beyond the physical benefits of working out, it’s been finding the deeper meaning in movement that keeps me consistent with training. Whatever your current reasons are for cultivating an active lifestyle, I'd love to share with you five transpersonal reasons to move your body that help me stay the course.

New year, new logo!

I chose the image of two overlapping circles, also known in sacred geometry as the vesica piscis because it represents the divine feminine. This symbol has been found throughout ancient history in different cultures across the world, and mathematically contains other shapes (including the triangle, as you can see below). Also, in some circles (no pun intended), this shape is called the Eye of the Crocodile. Did you know that in some indigenous traditions in the Philippines, the crocodile is the guardian of the underworld and bridges the physical and spirit realms?

My experience learning martial arts has been so many things. It’s hard to sum up an experience that is constantly changing over the years. Overall, it’s been transformative, challenging, humbling, and incredibly fun. I feel the most valuable insight that I’ve learned through martial arts is that it can be a mirror. It is a practice that will reflect back to you everything that is going on inside you. Anything in life can be a mirror, but I feel really grateful that I gravitated to an embodied practice that keeps me both healthy and safe. For me, martial arts is a doorway for deeper learning about myself, and it’s also a vessel for expansion to learn about the world and other cultures.

In this episode, founding member, Kristen Cabildo of Chrysalis Kali Collective talked about listening to our own body and healing from collective trauma as a community.

5 years ago on this day, I received my Black Belt in JKD and FMA. This moment in time marked a big turning point for me in my journey — it basically made me confront (shatter) all my narratives and embodied beliefs about achievement and power. Up until this point, I was striving hard to reach “feeling good / safe enough” through physical training, which I thought would happen once I got to Black Belt level. Instead, it spurred a personal breakdown (breakthrough) that completely inverted my training. At this moment, 5 years ago, what really happened is I got my White Belt — an initiation into the Inner Journey. Rescuing inner parts of myself has been more challenging than navigating outer opponents, but I feel like I’ve gotten a few stripes on my White Belt these past couple of years. 😂 Bridging the external practice with the internal one is my new JKD/FMA journey. And I feel so grateful for the supportive community at UMA where I’ve been able to express my unique martial art story.