1. The Principle of Non-resistance to Force

An Aikido response is opposite to what many of us are conditioned to do when facing a difficult situation. The society-conditioned reaction of an average person is to resist or to deny the situation. An aikidoist' momentary approach would be: "This is the situation. How can I use it to my advantage?" In fact, the whole Aikido training is about ingraining this approach on the level of your intuition.

In aikido you learn to go with the flow, accepting the aggressiveness of your partner and redirecting his own force creatively in order to neutralize him without harming.

"This is the situation. What is the lesson to learn here? How can I use it to my advantage?" - when you apply the same approach in life, your life stops being "hard" or "depressing". Life becomes interesting, you start evolving.