Our Kerdcera Dojo has been meeting weekly for over six months, during which we’ve had lots of fun, built friendships, and made some important discoveries. Kerdcera (pronounced, curd-car-ah), is a hybridization of two ancient Proto-Indo European words meaning, “heart” and “head.” Since our work combines the practice of Emotional Intelligence and Logic, this made up name suits us well.
We call it a dojo, from the Japanese word meaning, “place of the way,” because we use the Martial Arts model of learning through practice and repetition. As Aiki-do is the practice of the Harmonious Way, Ju-do of the Gentle Way, and Bu-do of the Warrior Way, the Kerdcera Dojo practices the Thoughtful Way. “Thoughtful” is also a word that conjoins logic and emotion. During our practice these past months, we’ve discovered this is so, that emotion and thoughts are part of a unified event. Emotions have thoughts and thoughts have emotions.
Though western dualism portrays them as opposites, we have found heart and head to be one. This has led to the further discovery of how quickly our emotional moods change when different ideas enter our conceptual environments. Bottom-line, we respond emotionally to almost every idea we hear, usually without noticing because we’re not trained to remain emotionally aware. Whether a practitioner of the Kerdceran Way or not, understanding how our thoughts support or justify our emotions, and that our emotions birth corresponding thoughts, helps us recognize the grip our own biases can have over our beliefs, and compels us to become more aware of how ideas alter our moods.