Once-Depressed Mother of Five Earns Black Belts!

June 13, 2012 - PRLog -- Eleven years ago, Dawn gave birth to her fifth child.  For the first time, the baby fat refused to leave her body.  She was depressed.  Shockingly depressed, actually.  The doctor testing her had never seen a depression score that bad before.  She had every symptom but suicidal thoughts.  After all, for Dawn, this was “normal.”

She had taken her four-year old son to the Guardian Academy Martial Arts School not far from her new home.  The master there got her son to stand on a line, and that was proof enough to her that this place might help him.  She never imagined that it might become a place that could help her.

Dawn’s self-image was so shattered that she could not even go to the store alone.  She had to have a child with her.  She felt so badly about herself that she felt no one would wait on her if it was just her.  They would wait on a mother, though.  So she took at least one child with her everywhere she went.

After her fifth birth, she was a size 16.  She wanted to do something about that.  When she decided to sign up at the “dojo” (martial arts school), she did it primarily to get rid of some of those extra pounds.  She found it was so much more.  She started to learn about her emotions and how they worked.  Dawn found out there was a way for her to break out of her depression.

In the early days, she even cried on her way to class.  It was hard for her to stand in a room with all those scary black belts!  She made herself go.  It was good for her, and she knew she had to be there.

It paid off.  It paid off bigger than she would have ever imagined.

Therapy had helped her before, but it only took her so far.  She had learned a great deal from reading books by Henry Cloud and John Townsend.  As far as she had come from her worst, she was still in a perpetual pit of despair.  She did not understand why.

The master instructor at the Guardian Academy is Scot Conway.  Conway is not merely a martial arts master.  He also holds a Ph.D., a law degree, is a licensed attorney, real estate broker, and pastor.  His books are available on Amazon.com (search his name).

Dawn knew none of that.  She had come there by luck.  Some would say by providence.  It was a surprise to her when the master martial artist paused class to talk about depression as though there was a solution.  After class, she stayed to talk.  She wanted to learn more.

Conway taught her a series of techniques, one at a time.  First, she was to master posture.  In martial arts, you stand tall.  How you stand and move is important.  He taught her proper posture and explained how it affects emotion.  She tried it.  She had the best two days of her life.  She was ready for more.

The next exercise had to do with changing her vocabulary.  The way she talked to others and, more importantly, to herself was fueling her depression.  Even when she was talking about positive things, she had a negative spin to them.  She had no idea how much her words and thoughts were feeding her depression.

The lessons continued.  Dawn had been through a lot during her life.  There was a lot that needed to be let go.  A lot needed to be forgiven.  Conway taught her how.  Those techniques are now contained in Conway’s books Freedom Found and Forgiveness Is Important.

She would also learn how to control her emotions better.  The skills she learned to start with are part of a system called Instant State Change.  Conway taught her how to do it, and that it was only a stop-gap measure so she could function.  If she wanted lasting change, she would need to learn other skills.  Many of those skills are now found in Conway’s book Emotional IQ.  

More skills would help her rise above her circumstances.  Above It All and Be In The World But Not Of It contain those techniques.  In her case, she learned many of these technique live, and many of these techniques through Conway’s audio programs.  (http://www.scotconway.org for his full list of audios)

She started off in a very deep pit.  A few years later, she was called upon to mentor others.  She started to teach what she had learned.  She started to share the techniques that she, herself, had mastered.  She went from a woman in desperate need of help to someone qualified to give help to others.

Dawn continued her martial arts training, too.  She went on to earn a Black Belt in Guardian Kobujutsu, a martial art focused on weapons.  Then she earned additional Black Belts in Karate and Jujutsu.  Recently, she was awarded Third Degree Black Belt in Kobujutsu, the highest rank attainable in that art.

She has also completed three special programs called “Next Level Guardian.”  These are personal development programs at the Guardian Academy.  One focuses on Leadership, another on Martial Arts, and the third on being a Christian Disciple.  The Guardian Arts are Christian martial arts systems.  Adherents to other faiths can do a variation of that program harmonious with their own religious beliefs.

Dawn Conway is now one of the top instructors at the Guardian Academy.  If you come to the Guardian Academy, you will probably meet her.  She is a phenomenal example of all that can be accomplished by learning the right system.  She found hers at the Guardian Academy.

Guardian Academy, 2782-E Sweetwater Springs Blvd., Spring Valley, CA 91977.  (619) 582-8770.  http://www.GuardianAcademy.com.  For those more interested in the Christian perspective on these arts, go to http://www.XianGuardian.com. Info@GuardianAcademy.com.

The books mentioned can be found on Amazon.com.  Search "Scot Conway" in books.