Fighting through emotional trials: exploring the role of karate in emotional reflexivity

Abstract

Emotional trials – such as break-ups, abuse, bereavement and ill physical or mental health – are a common part of life. These are events that interrupt our everyday routine sense of normality, and are often accompanied by increased reflexivity. Much of the literature on how we reflexively come to understand and make our way through emotional trials focuses on verbal reflection. What we ‘do’ when we do reflexivity is often overlooked (Brownlie, 2014). This article, looks to expand Brownlie’s contention that leisure pursuits ‘are a way of engaging in reflexivity, that is, thinking and feeling through an activity’ (Brownlie, 2014: 158) by exploring the role of karate practice in reflexively working through emotional trials. This article draws on data from four photo-elicitation interviews and participant observations from two karate clubs drawn across nine months. Findings suggest that karate practice facilitated participants’ reflexive processes during times of emotional trial. Karate practice worked to provide temporal relief from inner talk related to participants’ emotional trials, and provided a space to ‘release’ negative emotions associated with their trials. Through achieving small physical accomplishments, participants perceived karate practice as a way to develop a ‘better self’ during or after an emotional trial. This article concludes that understanding active processes of doing reflexivity is essential for understanding how people make sense of and move on from emotional trials.

Upheaval and reinvention in celebrity interviews: Emotional reflexivity and the therapeutic self in late modernity

“…However, while these activities at times allow for the stilling of reflexivity, they may also provide a way of engaging in reflexivity, 'that is in thinking and feeling through the activity' (Brownlie, 2014: 158). As Maclean (2020) found in her study of men's participation in karate, the calmness the activity generated allowed participants to work through difficult emotions. Lawson recognises the potential for the repetitive tasks involved in cooking to allow the individual to 'unwind' or 'decompress', thereby facilitating the processing of emotional trials: 'So if you have a friend or a child or anyone who is going through a difficult time and wants to talk about things that aren't easy, I think you stand much more of a chance if you're chopping some carrots at the same time' (Trenoweth, 2018: 39).…”

“…Therapeutic discourse is both a specialised body of knowledge (theory) and a broader cultural framework for the production and ‘retooling’ (re-making, re-storying, re-scripting) of the self (Illouz, 2007: 48). This framework ‘orients’ our understandings of self and others and ‘generates specific emotional practices’ (Illouz, 2008: 12; Lively and Weed, 2014; Maclean, 2020) and identity work (Schwalbe and Mason-Schrock, 1996: 115; Snow and Anderson, 1987: 1348).…”

“…And I think that’s a very good way of short-circuiting the monkey mind.’ For Lawson then, cooking is akin to mindfulness meditation, bringing consciousness into the present and stilling the mind: ‘it forces me into the moment and that’s good as I’m rather an anxious person’ (Trenoweth, 2018). Numerous studies have shown that the physicality and focus required in leisure activities, such as karate (Maclean, 2020) or quilting (Dickie, 2011), may serve to quieten the individual’s internal dialogue, allowing them respite from rumination and the ‘emotionally draining reflexive process’ (Maclean, 2020). However, while these activities at times allow for the stilling of reflexivity, they may also provide a way of engaging in reflexivity, ‘that is in thinking and feeling through the activity’ (Brownlie, 2014: 158).…”

Playing with emotions: emotional complexity in the social world of elite tournament bridge

“…Emotionally charged moments are abundant in the worlds of sport and leisure. For example, in Maclean's (2021) study of karate, the sport can be used by some participants to overcome 'emotional trials' by releasing negative emotions. This can be explained in reference to Elias's (2000) theory of emotions in sport and leisure; the sporting arena represents a space in which emotions can be dramatised (Thing, 2016).…”

“…While there have been studies of emotions and emotion management in other sporting contexts (Snyder, 1990;Way, 2013;Maclean, 2021), and in occupational settings (Lively 2000;Bolton, 2001;Lopez 2006;Chiang et al, 2021), thus far no studies have explored the social world of bridge through the conceptual lens of emotional complexity. Many studies of physical sports focus predominantly on the emotions-performance relationship (Campo et al, 2018;Deck et al, 2021) and, while contributing to the fields of sports psychology, are less concerned with theorising emotions sociologically.…”