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##Iron Sharpens Iron – Interactive Essay Lesson A

Hi this is AJ and welcome to this months’ Interactive A lesson. In this lesson I will first read an essay about our topic. Then I’ll go back and I will teach you the vocabulary from this essay. In Part B I will ask you questions about it, so that you learn more deeply. You will answer the questions out loud using the mini-story technique.

All right, let’s begin.

Jiu Jitsu will make you happy. This is another reason to make sure you get to that training session. Jiu Jitsu will make you happy and that’s a fact. Researchers and scientists who have been looking into the science of happiness and have come to the conclusion that the happiness hormone is something called ‘Dopamine’. Dopamine is technically a neurotransmitter and makes sure the signals in your brain fire at the appropriate times. The more you can get the dopamine to light your brain up the more happiness you tend to feel.

So, what makes the dopamine get excited and fire up? Well, real happiness isn’t the short-term smiley feeling we feel when someone buys us something, like a gift. That is more of a fleeting bliss or euphoria. This study looks at something more permanent, long-term happiness.

The scientists have realized that to get that dopamine moving, we can do several things.

Engage in a physical activity that raises the heartrate.

Learn new skills that test us and keep our brain active.

Spend time with friends and family, have a sense of community.

Those are the main three that can help us live a long and happy life. Did you notice that all of those elements fit perfectly into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? It’s totally cardio centric.

• Point number one– We need to keep learning new skills or everyone gets a handle on our game and we get passed

• Point two– The academy is a great place to have a good time and enjoy yourself.

• Point three– Even in a tournament environment, once the war is over all I see are people hugging and shaking hands. It’s the safest cure for depression this side of a Prozac infusion.

The Buddhists refer to happiness as inner peace. This is what Jiu Jitsu creates through the testament of the body. Steel sharpens steel. And what if you can’t train? This happens when you get an injury or are sick or just miss the class due to traffic and you feel bad. It’s a genuine low feeling, lack of dopamine. When this happens, unless I’m sick with the flu or some other virus, I still go along to the academy from time to time and check on my teammates. Even that term teammates, makes us close, and the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community as a whole could not be closer.

I’ve never engaged in another sport where everyone gets together, competes and celebrates. It’s unique and it makes you happy.

All right that is the end of our essay. Let’s go back and learn the vocabulary now, learn some of these words and phrases. So back to the beginning.

Vocabulary

Jiu Jitsu will make you happy. This is another reason to make sure you get to that training session.

A Session – just means a time period. It’s a practice period, a practice time. Training session; training time.

Jiu Jitsu will make you happy and that’s a fact. Researchers and scientists who have been looking into the science of happiness, and they have come to the conclusion that the happiness hormone is something called ‘Dopamine’.

Hormone – hormones are chemicals in our body that tell our body what to do. Testosterone is a hormone. It’s a chemical in your body, goes through and tells your body to get stronger, to get tougher.

So, Dopamine– is another type of hormone.

Dopamine is technically a neurotransmitter and makes sure the signals in your brain fire at the appropriate times.

Okay technically, dopamine is technically a neurotransmitter; that means specifically, scientifically. So scientists really don’t call dopamine a hormone, they call dopamine, technically means specifically, accurately. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter.

Neuro – means nerves (right) brain and nerves.

Transmitter – it’s like a radio signal, something that sends out a signal. So nerve signaler, something that signals your nervous system. That’s what a neurotransmitter is, so it’s a chemical that tells your brain, tells your nerves to do things. That’s a neuro transmitter. It’s a type of chemical. Dopamine is one type, but there are others; Serotonin is another type of neurotransmitter; there are many.

Dopamine makes sure the signals in your brain fire at the appropriate times.

So, make sure – means guarantees. Guarantees in your brain fire, fire at the appropriate time.

Fire – means activate, to activate.

So, dopamine makes sure all the other chemicals and signals in your brain activate at the appropriate or correct time.

The more you can get the dopamine to light your brain up the more happiness you tend to feel.

To light up your brain, light your brain up – means to excite, to activate a lot. Right, so it means the dopamine excites your brain, activates your brain a lot, when you’re really challenged and excited, usually you have a lot of dopamine in your brain that’s active.

So, what makes the dopamine get excited and fire up, activate? Well, real happiness isn’t the short-term smiley feeling.

Smiley feeling – it’s the feeling you have when you smile. It’s kind of slang here, smiley feeling. Smiley just means, kind of a little bit happy.

So he’s saying it’s not the short-term that’s what he means by happiness. It’s not the short-term smiley feeling we feel when someone buys us something, like a gift. That is more a fleeting bliss or euphoria.

Fleeting – means very short, very temporary, very, very temporary, not permanent, not longterm, very, very short-term, fleeting. Fleeting bliss, bliss is extreme happiness.

Euphoria – same thing, euphoria is a strong feeling of happiness, pleasure. Euphoria is a very pleasurable feeling.

But he’s saying that short-term happiness, like if you get a gift, if you win a bunch of money, that kind of stuff it’s only short-term. It’s fleeing, it’s very-very temporary. You feeling really good but then maybe the next day no change really, you go back to your normal level of happiness. But he’s saying this study, this research looks at something more permanent, long-term happiness.

And the scientists have realized that to get that dopamine moving, right, to get those chemicals in your brain active for long-term happiness, we can do three main things, do several things. One thing that leads to long-term happiness is to… First, engage in a physical activity that raises the heartrate.

Engage in – means to do, to participate in. So engage in, do, a physical activity that raises your heartrate, gets your heart beating more. Some kind of exercise basically, or sport or game that makes your heartrate go up.

Number two, learn new skills that test us and keep our brain active.

Ah hah, so lifelong learning makes you happier log-term. Challenges and learning.

Number three, spend time with friends and family, have a sense of community. So love, connection, a good social life, a positive social life also leads to long-term happiness. Those are the three big ones that lead to long term happiness.

Those are the main three that can help us live a long and happy life. Did you notice that all of those elements fit perfectly into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu?

So, Jiu Jitsu is cardio centric.

Cardio – means heart, means related to the heart.

Centric - means focused on or in the middle of.

So, cardio centric means it’s focused on the heart. So what this means I that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu makes your heartrate beat much faster, right. It’s a good cardio workout. It’s a good heart workout. It’s cardio centric, it’s focused on cardio. Definitely true; you do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, you start breathing heavier, your heart rate will go up it’s good cardio training.

Point number one– We need to keep learning new skills or everyone gets a handle on our game and we get passed

So we need to keep learning new skills where everyone gets a handle on, gets a handle on our game.

That means, gets used to our game, all right, knows our game, understands our game. He’s saying if you trained in a gym, for example, and you have a few techniques, but if you’re training every week, several times a week, in your gym, academy or school, they learn and understand your game, right. They understand your strategies. They understand your techniques. They get a handle on them. They understand them, and so then they get used to it they know how to defend against you.

So, if you don’t continue to learn more you get passed, right, everybody else in your school will get better than you, they’ll start beating you because you’re not growing, you’re not learning and they are. So there’s a natural pressure in Jiu Jitsu to constantly be learning. That’s point number two.

Point three– The academy is a great place to have a good time and enjoy yourself. It’s a very close feeling and I can definitely say this for myself, there’s a strong connection in an academy, in a school, in a gym; everyone’s very closely connected to everyone else.

Even in a tournament environment, once the war is over, the fight is over, all I see are people hugging and shaking hands. It’s the safest cure for depression this side of a Prozac infusion.

He’s saying that Jiu Jitsu is the safest cure for depression and he’s comparing it to a Prozac infusion.

Prozac – is an anti-depression drug.

Infusion – is like a solution. Tea is a kind of infusion.

He’s kind of making a joke in this sentence, it’s a joke. It’s like, if you imagine getting a bunch of Prozac, several pills and mixing them in boiling water to make like a Prozac tea and drinking it. It would be very strong. Right? So he’s saying that Jiu Jitsu is the best thing for depression.

This side of – means except for a Prozac infusion, Prozac tea. So he’s just making a joke that only a strong Prozac tea, a strong drug is the only thing that might be better for depression, to cure depression. Other than that, this side of Prozac; other than Prozac, Jiu Jitsu is the best cure for depression. So it’s a joke.

The Buddhists refer to happiness as inner peace. This is what Jiu Jitsu creates through the testament of the body.

The Testament of – means proof of, evidence of.

Through the body – so it means, Jiu Jitsu creates inner peace through your body, through the evidence of, through the activity of your body. So it’s not just in the brain it’s in the body. It’s a physical way to create inner peace. Your body gives you the evidence, gives you the proof of the inner peace. That’s how you get it in Jiu Jitsu, so the testament of, the proof of, the evidence of, the means of, the body.

Steel sharpens steel – Again, this is an idiom. I think in the main lesson I said iron sharpens iron; this is the same idea, steel sharpens steel. Hard sharpens hard. And the idiom, what this means is the idea is that, you get tougher by competing against tougher people, right? Hard people or hard challenges make you harder and tougher.

So, if you want to get stronger, if you want to get sharper, if you want to get smarter then you need to have tougher, harder opponents or tougher, harder challenges. That will make you better.

And what if you can’t train? What if you cannot? This happens when you get an injury or are sick or just miss the class due to traffic or you feel bad. When that happens it’s a genuine low feeling, lack of dopamine; not enough dopamine. When this happens– and he’s talking about himself, he says unless I’m sick with the flu – he says when this happens, when I get injured I still go along… I still go to the academy from time to time and check on my teammates.

So, even when he cannot train, he cannot physically train, he still goes to the school, the academy, the gym to check on his teammates, to see his teammates. Then he says, even that term– teammates– makes us close.

Teammates – so a mate is like a close friend. It’s a partner, a friend, so teammates. It’s people who are on your same team.

So he’s saying that’s what we call people at our school, we call them teammates; we’re all on the team together, and that makes us feel close. And the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu community, as a whole, in the whole world, could not be closer. Meaning its very, very close; could not be closer. Meaning it’s as close as possible, everyone is as closely connected as possible.

He says, I’ve never engaged in another sport, I’ve never done another sport, participated in another sport, where everyone gets together, competes and celebrates regularly. It’s unique, it’s special and it makes you happy.

All right that’s the end of our Interactive A lesson. In Part B we’ll do this again, but I’ll ask questions. You’ll answer the questions quickly and you will master this vocabulary and the phrases and even the grammar in here. Don’t need to think about it, just do it.

See you in part B.