Beware of Habits

In silat, habit can be both a friend and a trap. Repeating jurus, stances, and combinations builds muscle memory and sharpens reflexes, but when practiced on autopilot, the mind drifts and awareness dulls. Moves that once felt alive become mechanical, and subtle lessons hidden in each movement are easily missed. The danger is thinking you are improving while in reality your perception and intuition may be stagnating.

Breaking habit means stepping out of comfort zones and encountering your art as if for the first time. Approach each jurus with curiosity, questioning every movement, feeling, and intention. Notice the alignment, timing, and energy flow, even in moves you have performed hundreds of times. By disrupting the automatic, the mind and body reconnect, allowing deeper understanding and the discovery of nuances that habitual practice often masks.

In practice, this might look like changing the order of a sequence, slowing down movements to feel every shift, or practicing in new environments. The goal is not to discard learned patterns but to remain awake in the moment, fully present, and aware. In doing so, silat stops being a set of routines and becomes a living, evolving dialogue between you, your body, and your surroundings, keeping your skill, awareness, and intuition constantly alive.

The purpose of this approach is to keep the practitioner fully engaged and mindful, ensuring that silat remains more than just rote movements. By stepping out of habitual patterns, the student cultivates awareness, sharpens perception, and uncovers the deeper principles behind each technique. This not only strengthens skill and reflexes but also nurtures intuition, adaptability, and a living connection between mind, body, and environment, transforming practice into a journey of continual growth rather than mere repetition.

For those who are already practicing martial arts, lets do this, take a moment to reflect on your own practice how often do you move through your jurus on autopilot, thinking you’re improving while your mind drifts elsewhere? Imagine what could change if you slowed down, paid attention to every shift, every stance, and every intention. By stepping out of habit and fully engaging with each movement, you might discover subtleties you’ve never noticed, awaken your intuition, and transform silat from a set of routines into a living, evolving dialogue between your body, mind, and surroundings.