The Yielding Warrior – Jeff Patterson on Martial Arts, Meditation, and Mastering Life

In this insightful episode of Life-Changing Challengers, host Brad Minus welcomes Jeff Patterson, martial arts instructor, meditation expert, and author of The Yielding Warrior: Discovering the Secret Path to Unleashing Your True Potential. Jeff shares his powerful journey from growing up in a financially struggling single-parent household in Southern Oregon to joining the Marine Corps and later finding his true calling in meditative and martial arts instruction.

Jeff discusses his early exposure to martial arts, the role of Tai Chi and meditation in his training, and how these disciplines transformed not only his combat skills but also his mindset and approach to life.  This episode offers valuable insights for anyone seeking personal mastery in sports, business, or life.

Episode Highlights

• [10:00] – Joining the Marine Corps at 17 and training as a combat engineer.
• [20:00] – Transitioning from military life to college, earning dual degrees in business and finance.
• [30:00] – Discovering the power of martial arts, meditation, and Tai Chi.
• [45:00] – Training under world-class boxing and martial arts coaches.
• [55:00] – The philosophy behind The Yielding Warrior and the importance of yielding in life.
• [1:10:00] – How breathwork, mindfulness, and awareness training can improve athletic and mental performance.
• [1:20:00] – The benefits of Tai Chi for athletes, professionals, and everyday life.

Key Takeaways

1. Yielding is Not Weakness – True strength lies in knowing when to redirect force rather than resist it.
2. Meditation Enhances Performance – Mindfulness practices improve focus, awareness, and mental resilience.
3. Consistency Creates Mastery – Small, repeated efforts lead to significant transformation over time.
4. Breathwork and Movement Are Powerful – Proper breathing and movement awareness improve physical and mental health.
5. Personal Growth is a Lifelong Journey – Learning to yield in different aspects of life leads to tremendous success and fulfillment.

Links & Resources

• Jeff Patterson’s Website: TheYieldingWarrior.com – Learn more about his book, programs, and philosophy.
• Jeff’s Book:
  • The Yielding Warrior – Available on Amazon.
• Follow Jeff on Social Media:
  • YouTube: The Yielding Warrior
  • Instagram: @TheYieldingWarrior
  • Facebook: Jeff Patterson
• Tai Chi Seminar Video: Push Hands Tai Chi with Grandmaster Sam Tam – A must-watch demonstration of Tai Chi’s power.

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Transcript

Brad Minus: And welcome back to another episode of life changing challengers. I am super lucky to have Jeff Patterson. He is the Yielding Warrior. Also, that's the title of his book, The Yielding Warrior, Discovering the Secret Path to Unleashing Your True Potential. He is a martial arts and meditation instructor, and we are really excited to hear some of the things that's been going on in his life.

So, Jeff, how you doing today? 

Jeff Patterson: Hey, I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. 

Brad Minus: Oh, the pleasure is all mine. So Jeff, as we start, can you tell us a little bit about your childhood? What was the compliment of your family? Where did you grew up and what was it like to be Jeff as a kid? 

Jeff Patterson: Yeah, I mostly grew up in Southern Oregon and I didn't have my father around.

So it was me, my sister and my mom. We didn't have a lot of financial resources. We lived in HUD housing and, bought groceries with food stamps which was always kind of embarrassing to do as a young guy, cause not many of my friends were doing that. And so it was, a small town kind of place.

We lived in white city, which went to high school in Eagle point. I grew up fishing and, kind of doing a lot of outdoor type things, getting into athletics a little bit. And I tried to get out of there as soon as I could. And so when I was 17, I joined the Marine Corps and that got me out of Southern Oregon and I was kind of moving on from then.

Brad Minus: So you were raised by a single mom with your sister, 

three years younger. Were you close? 

More so when we were younger, we don't see each other too much right now cause we're in different states, but, yeah, we're still close. 

Good.

That's great. You said you were somewhat athletic in high school. Did you do some like extracurriculars? 

Jeff Patterson: Yeah, I played baseball was kind of my, my sport in high school. Other than that, I did a lot of, I, I raced BMX, , and I fished and loved motorcycles. So I was just kind of outdoors a lot.

Brad Minus: Oh, very nice. Yeah. I grew up in basically in the in the suburbs. So, you know, you say the word motorcycle and the parents go crazy. So that definitely didn't happen. But I am a nine and a half year veteran of the United States Army. We got that in common as well., what was your MOS? Yes. I was a combat engineer. Oh, nice. That for, for us, I think that was. Like, well, something 12 anyway. So, all right. So combat engineer, that's fantastic. So you actually got to like build things and, bridges and stuff like that, right?

Jeff Patterson: Yeah, we built bridges. We did a lot of demolition work. We dealt with mines, anti personnel, anti tank mines and how to, take them out if they were live I learned a lot of things that I never would have seen otherwise. 

Brad Minus: Yeah, I get it. I get it. I'm the 

same way. I got to do a lot of things that I never would have done if I didn't go in. So how long were you in the Marine Corps? 

Jeff Patterson: As soon as the first Gulf War was over, they were letting people out early and I decided to take one of those tickets and went up here to Portland and started going to college.

Brad Minus: Yeah. That was my next question. If you went to school, took your GI bill and went to school, 

Jeff Patterson: what'd you study? I studied business. I got two degrees. I got a degree in finance and a degree in business management. And I was the first kid in my whole extended family to make it through college. I graduated in a little less than four years, and, you know, it's kind of funny, my whole family thought he's going to go get a big job doing something important, and when I decided to follow the meditation and martial arts lifestyle, everybody was thinking, you know, when's he going to get a real job?

When's he going to do something important that, you know, they never would have guessed that it would have turned into what it has. 

Brad Minus: That is so interesting because I was literally about to say that I was like, Hey, you know, this guy gets this very, left brained type of, you know, thing, very logical numbers oriented stats, the whole bit, and then you kind of go into martial arts and meditation, which definitely still has a lot of those, You know, there's a lot of trajectories and, 

specifics involved, which uses that part, right? But it's also what other people would think of stereotypical is kind of like 

woo 

What got you started in martial arts? 

Jeff Patterson: I was always interested in martial arts, even as a young kid. 

So when I was old enough to get one of my first jobs, I started making enough money to where I could pay for going to a martial arts academy on my own. And I started doing that right before I went into the Marine Corps and I just stuck with it. I kept training through the Marine Corps.

And then when I got out, when I was going to college, I was teaching part time in order to help pay my way through college. And then when I graduated, I opened up this Academy that I've been running now for 30 years with a training partner of mine, and, that's how I got started. 

Brad Minus: Wow. So you had, but even before the Marines, you had started this.

What was your first, what was your first discipline? 

Jeff Patterson: I was introduced to the martial arts through, Kempo and kickboxing. I was at a school where they kind of did both and that's where I got started. And then when I moved up here to Portland, I met a teacher who was, A very high level boxing coach.

He had worked with champions, amateur and professional champions. And, I used to go to a boxing gym just a few blocks down the street here from my academy now. If you're not familiar with how a boxing gym works, usually. It's, it's not like your traditional fitness class where you go in and there's an instructor and there's, you know, 20 students following the instructor, it's usually there's three or four instructors rolling around or coaches coming around and each one of those coaches might have a handful of fighters that they're working with.

Well, at this one particular gym, one of the coaches there. It was very well known. He had created some pretty high level champions and I, I wanted to get to spend some time with them and have them coach me, however, he wasn't taken on any new fighters. And so I'd always show up at the gym when I knew he was going to be there.

I'd work hard and try to let them know that if he invested some time in me, it wouldn't be wasted. And after following him around for about three or four months. He finally started giving me some tips and showing me some things. You know, everything he told me, I treated like it was gold. You know, I did it over and over and, and he'd tell me to do 100 reps.

I'd do 300 reps, you know, and I'd really push myself. And then he said something to me at a fairly early stage, maybe in the first two to three weeks of getting to work with him. And he said, you know, if you really want to be a good boxer. You should start doing meditation and Tai Chi. Now at the time, I was this young guy, didn't know much of anything and, thinking, isn't Tai Chi for like old people in the park.

How's that going to help me be a better, better boxer, you know, but I had a lot of respect for him and I started following the practice it's changed my life in so many ways. And through the years, you know, I've had over 26, 000 students come through my academy and I've heard literally hundreds of stories of how the meditative arts has positively influenced people's lives.

And that's what's made me so passionate about trying to get that message out there and really trying to spread the word about the meditative arts. 

Brad Minus: That I'm really interested in. We're going to get to that in a minute. Definitely. But, just so you know, I held a black belt, and hop Kido and Taekwondo, I went through a, I'm going to call it because when you've been around a lot, you kind of see the differences in the dojos and, you know, there's a, commercial type of thing you go through and you can kind of see that go if you've so do so many classes and you do well on the test, you get your next belt.

There's really no, you know, you're not doing there's nothing behind it. It's just that you've mastered those skills. Okay. And now you get the next belt. It's not that you've competed and won. It's you just. Mastered those certain skills and not and that's kind of how I saw it.

So, I ended up getting my black belt and then I went to college and I, I went to go train at a dojo and I got my beat like beat up by some of these guys that were that when I went to, to their dojo, I mean, things were just completely different. It was much harder than anything that I'd ever been through.

And, it definitely was different. Of course, you know, and that's, I don't know what you would call it. What would you call, the differences between, Tai Chi and like Taekwondo, Abkido, well, Abkido is kind of like that. 

Jeff Patterson: Well, the Tai Chi, the Qi Gong, the sitting meditation, standing meditation, breath work, I kind of call all of those internal or meditative arts.

Right. Taekwondo, boxing, Muay Thai, jiu jitsu, all of those I would call external arts. And they're more combative practices. Whereas the meditative arts are more for internal development, you can practice the meditative arts to improve your athletic performance Through working with your timing your physical awareness and your ability to stay present then there's the therapeutic side of the practice, which is good for our longevity and our basic overall health Then there's the medical side of the practice, which all of Chinese medicine is based off of qigong theory.

And so, you know, all the old Chinese doctors used to be qigong practitioners. Then there's the philosophical side of the practice, which is something I've always been kind of drawn to. And then there's also the spiritual side of the practice. As you start diving into the meditative arts, you could follow anyone or maybe a couple of those paths with your practice.

Brad Minus: I've never heard it put that way. You know, I have been around and have talked to like breath work, instructors, yogis, meditation, practitioners, a plethora of people. You know, in each one of those areas, no, nobody as well rounded as you, but no one has ever sat there and talked to me about meditation about these five pillars.

And I think that's a credit to you, but it's also shows your understanding that you have, I do want to say. That I took, one semester of Tai Chi when I was in college, just for that reason people don't understand that while Tai Chi is this movement and seems like it's a, you know, it's the national form of exercise in China, right?

There is some power and come back to it and I'll just make reference to at least one of your videos that I saw where you were with a Tai Chi master and he just kind of like barely touched this guy was this very fluid movement and threw him into the wall. I was like, that was, cause it was just so it was all very tight.

She this very flowing and then all of a sudden they bumped hands. And he just like pushed him and it looked like he barely moved. And this guy went flying into the wall. I thought that was amazing. So there is actually something to that, that can be for self discipline as well. 

Jeff Patterson: Correct. Oh, for sure.

You know, and that's why my boxing coach was having me study that. And, you know, after I started doing a meditation and Tai Chi practice. I wasn't making the connection for a while, you know, and I was trying to understand, you know, how am I going to use this to help me in my boxing? Because boxing's a very aggressive sport, and it's something that finding that finesse and those little subtleties that you do in the internal arts is kind of far from a lot of boxers perspectives.

Well, I remember being at this party. When I was like 21, maybe I was pretty young kid and there was, one of the guys from the boxing gym was there and he'd been boxing for about 10 years. Really solid boxer. And I saw him sit down into his leg very slowly and then stand up and shift his weight. Like he was throwing a punch in slow motion and I had this aha moment, if you will, and all of Tai Chi and the movement, it's kind of like learning how, you know, if you've ever had a watering can and you go to water your plants, it's got the little tube on the end and when you pour the water out, it only comes out a few ounces at a time.

Well, that awareness of transferring your weight a few ounces at a time and paying attention to that, that's where all the power comes from. So by slowing down and doing Tai Chi and being able to really tell all of those little subtle things and those weight transfers and your ability to change your energy from going from your left foot to your right foot and through your, up your legs and through your torso and out your hands, this ability to do this.

Really brings out a lot of power. And so it really changed kind of my whole practice from that point forward,

Brad Minus: from what I saw. It definitely, there is power there. It was really amazing. The story that I was told, and I'm not sure if this is true and you can help me out is one of the, one of the reasons, or one of the ways that Tai Chi started to become. Popular and the story was that a master of Tai Chi was or of a specific martial arts was teaching in a dojo way back when and, you know, everybody had this sense of discipline and he was meditating in the dojo and a couple of the students wanted to prove him that this, this guy was like, you know, it was basically full of crap and they came at him and they took a couple of both staffs and they like tried to, Really hit him hard on the shoulder and the story goes is that he was able to basically relax and put the force back into the bo staff where they both broke the wrists.

Any legitimate, 

Jeff Patterson: does that ring a bell that have you ever heard anything like that? You know, there, there is a lot of ways that you can use your power by studying the Tai Chi to make you more powerful. That said, if you're not training to be a fighter, practicing Tai Chi. I wouldn't recommend somebody who's practicing Tai Chi to go enter an MMA fight, you're going to get smashed.

So, you know, the idea is, is that you use some of these internal concepts in these ways, you know, it's kind of like today. You know, if you go around to professional athletes, there are thousands of professional athletes these days that are using the meditative arts to help improve their performance on the field.

It's no different with Tai Chi and martial arts. You use this meditative practice to help improve your ability in the martial arts. Now, if you're a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu guy and you're grappling on the floor, practicing Tai Chi 10 hours a day is not going to help you on the mat. Be a better grappler. You know, you've got to practice grappling too, but if you are a grappler and you practice a meditation practice to help improve your mindset and ability to be more present, more aware of what's going on, it can definitely help you.

And, you know, one of the most amazing, Brazilian jujitsu guys on the planet, Hicks and Gracie. He meditated all the time. He practiced breath work and he understood this concept, you know? And so I think a lot of people that are doing the harder styles and doing the Muay Thai or the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, or maybe the boxing or Taekwondo or whatever it is, they have a negative feeling towards the meditative arts, but it's because they are not looking at it really with the right perspective.

If they do, and they're more open to it, it can just help them perform that much better. 

Brad Minus: Okay, so I'm an endurance coach and I coach people to, do like marathons, ultra marathons, Ironman triathlons, half Ironman triathlons, you know, these crazy races, right? Ultra marathons, like 135 mile races and stuff like that.

So there's a little bit of suffering that's involved. If you're running a hundred miles, usually you start to suffer around 75. If you're trained right about 75 miles in things are happening. If you're doing an Ironman, we always, the joke is that Ironman doesn't start till mile 80 on the bike.

So for Ironman is 2. 4 mile swim, 112 mile bike followed by a marathon all in the same day. One right after the other. And the joke is that 80 miles is about where the suffering starts. So for someone that is on this bike, that's on a bike, if you can just think about it, they've been, they've, they've been going three, four out three hours or four hours at this point, and things are starting to hurt and stuff.

Where do you see. That like a meditative process that they might've done while they're training could help 

Jeff Patterson: well in many ways. So, so the meditative arts helps us improve our awareness, so we're expending less energy. We're not using energy where it's not needed. It's helping us to stay more present. So we're more focused on being more precise in what we're doing.

And it also helps with your. Discipline and integrity and perseverance in the ability to just have these qualities in everything you do. And so, you know, you look, you know, one, one of the most famous basketball players of all time, Michael Jordan, when Phil Jackson was coaching the Chicago Bulls, he was having his players practice Tai Chi and meditation to help improve their performance on the field or on the court.

And here you've got these guys that are amazing athletes. I mean, and they're out there. Practicing these mindset training exercises that help them perform even better. It's kind of like, you know, you don't always see it happening. And there's a story I like, you know, it's about this.

ancient stone cutter in China, and he was very well known for making these beautiful sculptures and so much so that he would have apprentices want to come and study with him and they'd follow him around for a few years and then go off and, and, you know, start their own thing and practice the trade that they learned from him.

Well, one day the stone cutter, you know, every morning he used to go down to the river and meditate. And after his meditation, he was walking down the river and he had this vision of this big six foot mystical Chinese dragon that was carved out of Jade. And he was so Taken by this image that he decided that he was going to go out and create one of these dragons.

And so he spent the next three months traveling around from village to village and looking for the perfect piece of jade to carve this dragon. Well, he finally found the jade. He took it back to his shop and as he begins to work on this, before he even touched the stone, he walked around the stone and he looked at it and tried to see and envision how this was going to work.

And after studying the stone for a while, he took his chisel and his hammer and he found one place on the rock and he started tapping on this spot. And he would do hundreds, if not thousands of taps every day on the same spot. A few days go by. Nothing happened. A few more days go by and his apprentices started talking 

nothing's happening a few more days go by and he tapped it finally this big slab broke off the backside of the Jade, and it was this perfect smooth line that created part of the dragon's back and one of his apprentices said How did you know that that strike was going to break the rock? And he said, it wasn't that strike that broke a rock.

It was the thousands of strikes before that. And the apprentice got this discouraged look on his face and he said, But I saw no cracks. There was no signs of any change. Why keep trying to make that happen if it wasn't working? And the stonecutter gets down on his knee and he touched the smooth line that he just created.

And he said, Each strike was not wasted. The stone was changing beneath the surface, and even though we couldn't see it, that consistency and that repetition change not only underneath the surface of the stone, but it also changes the person who wields the hammer. This is Much congruent with the meditative arts because we are practicing this breath work and these movements and these philosophical concepts to look for things from different angles and many times we don't see what's happening day to day, but having that belief in that consistency in our effort, it strengthens our foundation and that's what helps us.

Brad Minus: Is so profound, especially in this day and age, you know, because we are we are a environment of quick gratification, right? Is tapping, tapping and tapping and tapping. And then all of a sudden after thousands and thousands of taps, it finally flourishes.

And it finally comes out, to be this work of art. That's like, not you wouldn't that's not heard of here. Same thing With podcasting, they say that nothing really happens until after 100 episodes, people are like 100 episodes and I completely agree with it because I don't know any podcast out there.

That's got that is near successful. That doesn't have at least 100. It's kind of the same thing. Repetition, repetition, repetition. And we finally get to the point where your skill evolves. Yeah. To where it's something that is interesting, you know, and then people start to listen.

So, let's continue on with your story real quick. So you started practicing. What were you doing as a job when you got out of, when you got out of college? 

Jeff Patterson: I went right into opening up this academy with a friend of mine. You know, I had been teaching part time through school and, we decided to.

Open up the gym and, you know, for the longest time, it was a struggle, you know, I remember I was teaching out of my basement in my house, I had about six private students that I was teaching, I was teaching at a racquetball courtroom at the PSU college that where I went to school and I was teaching out of a couple health clubs, I was, I had to have four roommates because I couldn't pay my bills and so I'm, you know, going in debt, believing that this is going to happen, you know, and I, What, what changed my path was that same boxing coach that I mentioned earlier.

He told me once, he said, you know, you want to create a life, not make a living. And I could see myself trying to make a living behind a desk, doing something in the finance world or something where I wouldn't be as passionate about it. And I was like, you know, there's nothing I'm more passionate about than the meditative arts and the martial arts.

That's what I got to follow. And while it was a struggle. The first six, eight years of getting this business going, once it started turning and the wheels started moving, you know, it, it. Became pretty successful. You know, we're not one of the probably the largest academies in the Pacific Northwest and, it's been a fun ride.

You know, I have students that have been with me now for 30 years. It's like my second family here. I go on vacation with my family and I kind of miss everybody back here, you know, so it's, pretty special place here. 

Brad Minus: That's amazing, because I know recently, there's been a ton of places that have come and gone and here you are, you held on to it, and 30 years later, you're still teaching.

So you started before you went into the Marine Corps, and then you kept going while you were in the Marine Corps when did you feel like. It was time for you to teach.

You know what I mean? Cause it's like, you know, they, they, it takes a little bit while, even if you're going through the mainstream, what we call a commercial dojos or whatever, it still takes a couple of years, two, three years to get to your black belt and you, they don't allow you to be a.

Instructor, just because you have your black belt, you know, it's still, you know, on stuff on top of that, when did you, when did you decide, or when did your, your, your mentor decide that, okay, it was now you had something to teach to everybody else, 

Jeff Patterson: you know, my, my first martial arts teacher after I had been training with him for a fairly short time, you know, maybe only a little over a year, he had me start helping out with some of the classes as an assistant.

And that's where I kind of started getting my passion for teaching. And then he moved me into teaching some private lessons to some of the beginning students. And that's how I got started. And then from there, I just, I started seeing how. It could change people's mindsets.

People, it's always fun to take somebody, for example, that comes in here who is athletic and they're competitive and they want to go compete in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu or, Muay Thai or something like that. And they go out and they do well. But when you get somebody in here that's so lacking confidence that they can't even look you in the eye and they feel like they don't even feel comfortable walking down the street by themselves and after a couple of years, their whole physiology changes and you help them kind of see that confident way of life.

That's really rewarding. And that's kind of one of the things that's always made me so passionate about trying to help people is that you start to see these things happen. It makes you want to do more with it. I get it. 

Brad Minus: That's the one thing I can see right now because I'm not an athlete, right?

Like I coach people that are, you know, the mean age of my roster is like 55. Right? Most people are over 40 and they're doing this to get in shape, to do something better, to do things that are hard. Right. And you know, I competed for a few years before I decided to coach. But I will tell you that I used to say for the longest time, when I first started coaching, I was like, Oh my God, it's just barely second to me crossing the finish line myself.

You know what I mean? This feeling I get When my clients cross the finish line successfully smiling, which is what I say is successful. So if you cross the finish line, smiling, you're successful no matter what. And when I see them coming across that line and they're smiling big giant, you know, that was like for a long time.

It was just, it's a super close second to me crossing the line myself. And then every year it got to be stronger and stronger to where now. It's so much better to me to watch my client crossing the finish line, hitting their goals, their metrics, and coming across that line with big smile over the face than me doing it myself.

It's not, I mean, it's not even, it's not even a, not even close anymore. So I get that, you know, watching that change. But that's, that's amazing. So. Can you, give us, an example of someone that you thought made the greatest change, coming into your dojo and then moving on, you don't have to use names or you can change it or whatever, or just say him or her or whatever.

Jeff Patterson: Yeah. So, you know, I've had so many stories. One person I always think of was this gentleman who started with me 30 years ago. When he was about 54, 55, somewhere in that range. And he had a very high stress career. He came to me, he was as stiff as a two by four, and he came to me wanting to learn sword fighting. And after getting to know him for a couple sessions, I'm like, you know, it would be great to start doing some meditation, maybe doing some Tai Chi, I think it'd be really helpful for you. And here it is 30 years later, he's still at the Academy and he's in his mid eighties.

He's been here for 30 years and, His whole physiology changed after about two years of training. He was able to be more comfortable in his own skin. His whole life evolved at 55, how many people at 55 are making changes like that? Not many, and so it was really amazing to see that transformation in him and 30 years, 

Brad Minus: wow. See, that's crazy. 

Jeff Patterson: Yeah. Yeah. He's still coming in. Actually. He just texted me about a webinar that I'm doing tomorrow. He's like, Hey, how do I get on there? Cause he's not too familiar with, the computers and how to even work around them.

But yeah, he's a great guy. And he always puts a smile on my face every time he comes into the academy. 

Brad Minus: So what are all the disciplines that you're, that you're trained, that you are teaching and that you're trained in? 

Jeff Patterson: So here at the Academy, we have four adult programs.

We have our striking program, which is the boxing and Muay Thai. We have our Brazilian jujitsu program and we have our screema program. And then we have our meditation program where we do the Tai Chi, Qi Gong, sitting meditation, standing meditation, and breath work. What is a screamer a scream is a Filipino martial art does a lot of stick and knife fighting but it also has like the pun and token in the second round and the dual Mog, which are various different forms of the Filipino martial arts 

Brad Minus: and you're considered I mean, I don't even know, do all these things use belts or is it, is some of them have belts 

Jeff Patterson: I've been studying now for 36 years and not as a hobby, you know, it's been my profession. So I've been in it for a while. 

Brad Minus: So did you, take all those 30 years of experience and wrap that into the yielding warrior? How did you come up with the title? And then why did you decide to start writing the book?

Jeff Patterson: Well, in a way I was kind of forced into the book. Yielding has always been something I've been very passionate about. It's a very interesting concept and it's something that you can apply to anything you do in life. When COVID hit. A few years back, we were worried about the academy shutting down.

I didn't know what was going to happen, how long we were going to be out. So I was like, well, with my time, I got to find something to do. I set the goal of writing 8, 000 words a week until I got at least 80, 000 words. I knocked that out in 10 weeks, and at the same time I created my online Yielding Warrior program.

Once I wrote that book, it was about two years of editing it before we finally published it. But once I got that book out, I started focusing on my online program to help teach people these meditative practices. Because, you know, I've seen so many benefits. And how it's affected my students in here at my academy.

I wanted to create something now that people everywhere can benefit from. And I also created a teacher training program where I help other martial arts academies, yoga studios, life coaches, learn how to teach the meditative art so they can. show their students or clients how to create an evolving life practice with the meditative arts.

And so that's kind of been something that I've really been focusing on the last few years. But the idea of yielding itself is broken down into three pillars. So we have physical yielding, mental yielding, and emotional yielding. Physical yielding is the easiest one to understand. It's the idea that. I push you, you push me, whoever's the bigger, stronger person with the most leverage eventually is going to push the other person over.

But with yielding, instead of us trying to see who the bigger meathead is, when you push me, I get out of the way of that force. And now I can respond with less effort. So I'm not trying to butt heads with you and see if I'm bigger and stronger than you. Now it's obvious how this is beneficial in martial arts or athletics, because you're always going to come up against somebody who's bigger and stronger than you.

The lower part of your body needs to be strong and flexible so you can change your central equilibrium without getting tight. The body has to be relaxed, the breath has to be calm, and the mind has to be present.

And while it may be a lifetime journey to really master these skills, from day one by integrating a meditation practice into your life, you start seeing these things. in yourself with a little bit more detail. And this is where it starts to become very interesting because now not only do you see those things more clearly inside yourself by expanding your awareness with this practice, you also start to see these things more clearly in other people.

And this is where we move into what I call mental yielding. So say, for example, you and I are having a conversation and I say something that unsettles you and I pick up on it right from that first sign of imbalance. It's a lot easier at this point to adjust the conversation and keep us in a happy place than if I'm not paying attention to that and pretty soon I'm so far off track you want to slap me upside the head.

And so learning how to use yielding in all of our interactions is extremely powerful. It allows us to drive the conversation to a positive outcome with the least amount of resistance, which is beneficial in our relationships and business and sales and negotiations.

I mean, there's so many different ways we can apply this. Then the third pillar of yielding is emotional yielding and emotional yielding is very much like mental yielding, but with our own interpersonal conflicts. So you think about many times something will happen to us and we'll respond. And we'll go down this path and we might get an hour a day a week down that road and realize maybe that wasn't the best choice, but with yielding in our ability to be more aware and more present when these things happen, we're able to kind of set back and not let our emotions get involved and be more balanced in our decision making 

save us a lot of heartache on the other side. You know, and I've been explaining this idea of yielding now for many years running the academy for over 30 years. One of the most common things I hear people say is yielding makes a lot of sense. In fact, I do that all the time. Well, I would agree and that I think everybody does some degree of yielding all the time, but it's kind of like if you or I were to walk into a crime scene with a detective who's been on the job for 30 years, I guarantee you that person would see things about the series of events and the timeline that I know at least I would have no clue of, 

the meditative arts helps you see things inside yourself and inside other people that most people will go through life and never have any clue of 

Brad Minus: that makes complete sense. And while some people would think about yielding as giving up, it's not like that all the time. A lot of time it's, knowing who you are and knowing that you would serve a better purpose by yielding and letting someone else take over or letting the process take over rather than you trying to use brute force.

That's just things I can think of. Off the top of my head, just like you said, if we were going into a crime scene for some reason, we would yield to the person that's got more experience. That's not a bad thing. It's not a negative thing.

It's a mindset that states, Hey, there's a better way to go about this obstacle, this problem, this situation. And the better way sometimes is to. Yield. 

Jeff Patterson: Yes. And you know, it's, it's very strategic and it's not at all giving up because you know, if I come up against somebody out on the street, who's 250 pounds and can pick up a Volkswagen bug, I'm not going to want to wrestle that guy to the ground.

I'm going to have to yield to his force and go around and maybe choke him out if I'm going to survive that encounter. Yielding is used all the time in military battles. It's used in fighting, it's used in aggressive athletics and football. And, you know, there's so many different applications of yielding when somebody thinks it's giving up.

It's just because they don't understand it. 

Brad Minus: Yeah. In society today, it's just, you know, it's not a mainstream thing. You know, yield is automatically considered negative and it's not, you know, it's exactly what you said.

And that was the word I was looking for before it was strategic. You know, it definitely could be strategic, but that's outstanding. Just for you to be around 30 years, I am. Just, I know of other places that never made it that long. And especially, and this is the way you got through the pandemic.

So good for you. And I think that's amazing. For those of you out there, that are listening, Jeff has a website that you definitely should take a look at. And it's basically the yielding warrior. com. And he's got his programs on there. He's got a blog going on.

And then also he's, Oh, look at that. I didn't even see that part. You can get an ebook version of yielding warrior for free. He says right here on the front page. That's fantastic. But I'm assuming also you can probably get a hard copy or paperback on Amazon. 

Jeff Patterson: You could get a hard copy on Amazon, or if you go to the yielding warrior.

com forward slash book, we'll send you out a free copy. If you just pay for shipping and handling.

Brad Minus: Wow. That's a lot of work you put into that to just, be getting it out for free. That's really nice of you. And I can see, cause you just want to get your message out there. 

Jeff Patterson: Yeah. You know, I'm trying to share it with as many people as I can. And, you know, also too, if somebody is really.

into it, they read the book and they like it. There's so much deeper they can go with it. So, you know, my goal is to hopefully see them, you know, in our online community or maybe see them here at the Academy someday. 

Brad Minus: Well, I'm into it and I'm going to order a copy. 

So, and then more because I've always wanted to get into the meditative arts. And I've tried to, move forward, but I already have ADD, if you couldn't tell. And I probably could use it. It probably would really help. But, I haven't been able to sit down and, like, those first steps that we're always told, right?

Count your breaths, for 30 seconds. And you work it up in that time, and I just haven't had the patience. What kind of advice would you give to me? 

Jeff Patterson: You know, one of the biggest struggles I've had as being a teacher is trying to get people to see the value in being consistent and having a practice so they can reap all the benefits from the practice.

And so I've come up with three things that I like people to think about and spend a little bit of time with when they're coming to a practice. And the first one is I will ask them why they came to the practice. Do they want to stay healthier into their later years to watch their grandkids grow up? Or are they dealing with a stress disorder, panic attacks and they want to have something so they feel more comfortable in their own skin or maybe they're an athlete and they want to improve their performance.

And once they figure out what that reason is and why they're kind of drawn to that, then I like to like them to take it a step further and think about if they accomplish that. And if they do that and they make that part of their life, what are 10 or 20 things that are going to change for the positive in their life that are going to make it better because they spent this time doing this.

And then I tell them, to flip the coin. And if they don't do this, what are 10 or 20 negative things that are going to happen if they don't? Because you know, we're all human. It's going to come the day where your alarm is going to go off and it's time to get up and go meditate. And you're going to be, I'll hit the snooze button.

I'll do it tomorrow. But if you have a good reason to do the practice and you have this energy behind you now, rather than looking at it, like it's a chore you got to do every day, you start looking at it as it's something you get to do and you have kind of more of a passion for it and you want to do it.

And so I think running through this process is real important. And then also coming to it with the understanding that the consistency is so important because by having the consistent practice, we develop this discipline, this integrity, this perseverance that helps us in everything we do. You know, the Dalai Lama once said, you know, everybody should meditate for 20 minutes a day, unless you're too busy, then you should meditate for an hour.

I love that saying and that everybody has time for this. You don't need to retire to a cave and meditate for the rest of your life. But by integrating these practices. into your life, you'll see so many benefits from it. You know, one of the things that I've heard people say through the years is that, I've tried meditation, it just didn't work for me, or, I don't have time to meditate, it's kind of like, you know, if I was to go out, for example, and, you know, sometimes people will, they'll have these stress disorders. and they'll say, well, when I meditate, I just do deep breathing when I have a panic attack or all, if I get stressed out, I'll practice these breathing exercises. It's kind of like, you know, if I said this afternoon, I'm hungry, I want an apple for lunch.

I should go plant a seed this morning so I can eat an apple in the afternoon. It takes time to nurture. And so having this idea and approaching the practice that you're doing it with consistency, kind of like earlier in the podcast when we talked about the story of the jade rock and carving the dragon, he knew through consistency that it was changing beneath the surface.

And then the third and final thing that I have them spend a little bit of time thinking about is coming to it with the understanding that You have to find a guide. You know, there's so many distractions out there. You could go watch about this meditation practice and this breath work and this movement practice.

And I've seen people who have been self taught and come into the academy that have been pretty disciplined people and have been practicing for 10, even 15 years. And they're never past the surface in the depth of their practice. Whereas if you have a good guide and somebody helping you along the way, you can cover a lot of ground in 6 or 12 months.

Somebody like that. So if you really spend a little bit of time and think about your why, understand the benefits of being consistent and have a guide, you can reap so many benefits from this practice. 

Brad Minus: Summarizing that 'cause I was just about to do that. 

So thank you very much. And I appreciate that. And I appreciate you. Those are things that we all need to look at and see that we want for ourselves.

And I am, I'm very, very, I'm excited, you know, for myself, but I'm all excited for, for all of you out there that are, that are listening, that are watching, that this could really be a step. To change your life. You know, we always talk about life changing challenges being a place where you can come and listen to people tell their stories and get little nuggets of information and then you take action on one of those nuggets, no matter what it might be, even if it's only one.

If you listen to 10 episodes, you got one nugget. I feel like the podcast is successful. So if you decide that you want to take a look at this and you want to, move forward in a meditative and the meditative arts, definitely pick up the book, get onto the yielding warrior, website, contact Jeff and see where, that can take you.

I'm excited about that. So again, It's theyieldingwarrior. com and then he's got book. theyieldingwarrior. com and all that will be in the show notes and, you have a, you've got 149, videos on his YouTube channel and they are, pretty cool. Oh, and if you get to, I gotta find, I would have to find it again, but there's, he's got a clinic that you did, like, was it like 10 weeks ago with, a Tai Chi master, Sam, Tam, 

Jeff Patterson: Oh, seafood Tam.

Brad Minus: Yeah. You all have to catch that. If you find it, you got to watch this because, this is the guy that I was telling you that does this little just fluid motion and throws the sky against the wall. You got to see it.

It is. Yeah. Outstanding. If you've got any interest in Tai Chi whatsoever. Oh, it says it's Push Hands Tai Chi Seminar in Portland with Grandmaster, Sam Temp. That's the video on Jeff's channel. And the Jeff and his channel is at the yielding warrior that will be on the show notes as well.

So you don't even have to think about it. You can just as soon as you're done listening to this, go over to the show notes, click it, and it'll take you right to his channel. And then, of course, it looks like you are also he's got every all the other socials as well. And we'll put those in the show notes as well.

So Jeff. Thank you. Thank you so much for spending some time with us today and telling us about you know The meditative arts and the benefits that you know, it can help us with I really appreciate it Yeah, it's been a pleasure and thank you and if you're watching this on YouTube, please go ahead and hit the like and the subscribe and the Notification bell so you always know when a new You know, when, when a new one's dropping, and then if you're listening on Apple or on Spotify, go ahead and leave us a review.

You know what? I don't even care if it's a good review. It could be a bad review because we always want this to keep going and keep evolving. And without feedback, that doesn't, that doesn't happen quite as fast. So, you know what, let us know what's going on. Spotify has got now comments that you can write underneath the episode.

So drop us a comment. Tell us what you think. But for Jeff Patterson and myself, Brad minus, thank you so much. And we'll see you in the next one.