Author: Steve Rowe

Martial artist, philosopher, author, writer,
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Time and Awareness

Steve Rowe

  Time and Awareness This is really important. We are constantly being told that time is precious and we have to set our goals, focus on them and then go out and get them. I have a problem with this. Firstly, time is precious, the more research is done, the more we realise that time has little connection to clocks, all time exists all of the time. We don’t pass through time, time passes through us. Let that soak in…. The past does not exist, the future does not exist, there is only the present. So time passes through the … Continue reading Time and Awareness

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Making Tai Chi Your Own

Steve Rowe

Making Tai Chi Your Own At 68 years of age, after nearly 5 decades in the Martial Arts and 15 surgeries and 2 life threatening infections in my legs leaving me with one leg 2 inches shorter than the other, one with no knee and fused straight, the other with a metal knee and 3 quads missing on both legs, the powerful antibiotics have ruined all my joints and left me with severe and painful arthritis, I have to use a crutch to walk and have terrible trouble balancing on my legs with no ability to control a forwards pull … Continue reading Making Tai Chi Your Own

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Dieting Is Mind and Emotions

Steve Rowe

Dieting Is Mind and Emotions Dieting is about manipulation and business. They know how to appeal to your basic instincts and emotions. If you’re fat no-one will love you, that instills fear and you can’t even love yourself. How deep and sad is that? That leaves you vulnerable to those that know how to manipulate you at that level.  Self loathing is a powerful demon that can drive you into all sorts of unnatural thoughts and actions and everyone from the dieting, plastic surgeons, make up and clothing businesses and even narcissistic friends and partners love it. So take control … Continue reading Dieting Is Mind and Emotions

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The Silence And Stillness Behind It All

Steve Rowe

Just standing; When I am still my body listens; When I stop transmitting I can receive; When my mind is still; I can perceive the unworded language; Of the trees and flowers; Nature is always talking to us; Normally our mind is filled with words; We are concerned with the past and future; But when standing we become ‘joined up’ with nature; At one with the Tao; Behind everything there is profound stillness; A deafening silence; Stand tall; Breathe deep; Focus your mind; Stop moving; Stop thinking; Ah! there it is……. Continue reading The Silence And Stillness Behind It All

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Pause For Stillness

Steve Rowe

Today I was walking up the stairs and I paused; As I get older I pause more and more; I pause to find the stillness; The stillness that sits behind everything. All you have to do to find it is be still; It’s always there, it feeds the universe; Everything arises from and then returns to it; It is the source that we need to be connected to. When not connected we feel lonely and isolated; We create a self to replace it; Like the make believe friend we had as a child; But there really is no self….. There … Continue reading Pause For Stillness

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The Fork In The Martial Road

Steve Rowe

The Fork In The Martial Road We start training in the martial arts to improve ourselves. We get fitter, healthier, better at technique and go up in our own and other’s estimation, often taking responsibility to teach and having others look up to us. This brings us to an important fork in the road of our martial arts training. We may have been weak, greedy for money, lust driven to manipulate others, bullied or a bully and/or a narcissist. Martial arts training SHOULD then reduce those weaknesses and make us a more disciplined, empathic, compassionate, tolerant and helpful person, but … Continue reading The Fork In The Martial Road

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Dealing With Obesity

Steve Rowe

No-one will understand the agony of obesity unless you’ve suffered from it. I posted a while back wondering how everyone had become ‘obese’ according the government. In my day you were ‘obese’ if your stomach was bigger than your chest; You were ‘fat’ if your belly hung over your trousers; Otherwise you were ‘normal’; Unless you were cadaverous and then you were ‘skinny’. People that have never had weight problems don’t understand the pain their comments cause. Overweight people know they have a problem every time they look in the mirror or try to buy clothes. They don’t need constant … Continue reading Dealing With Obesity

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Finding Myself….

Steve Rowe

  Thought I’d better find myself… Where am I? Not in my head; Could see my thoughts but they weren’t me. I think therefore I am? Nah, I am therefore I think more like; In my body? Not there either. My body breathes; Heart pumps; Organs function; Not me doing any of that. My name? Parents gave it to me; Work, hobbies? Just things I do. Sits still, scratches head; Then who the bloody hell am I? Looks into the dogs eyes…. Ah…. there I am… Everywhere but where I thought…. Continue reading Finding Myself….

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Breathing With Your Body

Steve Rowe

This morning’s neigong: Don’t eat breakfast; Drink a pint of iced water; Find your place to stand; Then find your balance. Find your natural breathing rhythm; Don’t breathe in until you would have to stop yourself; Don’t breathe out until you would have stop yourself; Let your body, not your mind deepen and control the breath. Use your entire dantien to breathe; Stomach sides and back draw the diaphragm down; Filling the lungs with air; Calming you down, making your mind aware and focused. In Tai Chi the joints and fascia act together as a pump; Expand them naturally as … Continue reading Breathing With Your Body

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The Tao Through Yin & Yang

Steve Rowe

Today’s Neigong In the beginning you use physical strength to hold the 5 standing positions, With time you feel the energy; The yin energy in the yin postures; And the yang energy in the yang postures. After a while ‘neutral’ is balanced between the yin and yang; Then you feel the balance in the other postures; The yin in the yang; And the yang in the yin. Every posture has an energetic ‘stasis’; Each energy balancing its opposite; The muscular force is at a minimum; As the energetic takes over. Then you search for the stasis in every posture in … Continue reading The Tao Through Yin & Yang