Tag: healing

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I Am Beautiful

Steve Rowe

I am beautiful. That’s not a ‘guru’ style bogus affirmation, at 74, with a barrel rather than a 6 pack, riddled with arthritis, a missing leg, more wrinkles than a crumpled crisp packet and more scars than a Russian gangster my body is my best friend and a record of an exciting life. I am beautiful. Because despite its battering my body is suffused with chi (life energy), alchemised and educated into geng (warrior energy) and then shen (spiritual energy) by trained emotions and a mind that has trained and meditated twice a day for over 50 years. I am … Continue reading I Am Beautiful

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2026 Shi Kon Tai Chi Coaching Programme

Steve Rowe

No Previous Experience Necessary.This one day a month for 10 months programme will be taught personally by Steve Rowe 9th Dan and his team of assistants, Steve is an internationally renowned Tai Chi teacher, Chairman and founder of Shi Kon Martial Arts International.  The programme has been running for 9 years and has qualified over a 100 coaches, it is designed to certificate and give Tai Chi Students the ability to teach Tai Chi and run and administer a club to a basic level standard. Participants will be registered with Shi Kon Martial Arts International Association and the British Council … Continue reading 2026 Shi Kon Tai Chi Coaching Programme

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The Missing Leg

Steve Rowe

Sat in the consultants office.The leg is infected, hot, red and swollen. The metal prosthetic rod that ran through the entire leg had now broken through the shin bone. It was a mess. “Go home, dial 999, it has to be amputated within 24 hours or you will die. It was 2021 in the middle of Covid, I was blue lighted into a hospital in chaos. By that point I’d had over 20 surgeries on my legs, 3 sepsis infections, 3 knee replacements in that leg including an antibiotic spacer, lost all my quadricep muscles on both legs, eventually having … Continue reading The Missing Leg

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The Virtue In Following The Tao

Steve Rowe

Tao Te Ching Part Twenty One  “The greatest Virtue is to follow Tao and Tao alone.” We tend to complicate the Tao, we can’t believe how simple it actually is. To stick to the profundity of the way is hard because we tend to use the wrong tool for the job, the thinking mind that seeks to define rather than our consciousness that connects all things. “The Tao is elusive and intangible.Oh, it is intangible and elusive, and yet within is image.Oh, it is elusive and intangible, and yet within is form.Oh, it is dim and dark, and yet within … Continue reading The Virtue In Following The Tao

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The Base Layer Of Learning

Steve Rowe

One of the things that came out on the seminar yesterday was the importance of the structure of learning, putting in the important base layers right from the start. We all advertise and discuss the importance of character training in the martial arts and yet many don’t teach how to educate and alchemise the character and only make vague references to it. We should look to the teacher and their senior students to see how the training system has worked for them. The most important base layer is emotional intelligence, as an angry or frightened martial artist is a danger … Continue reading The Base Layer Of Learning

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Tai Chi Is Simple And Easy

Steve Rowe

Tai Chi is ‘simple and easy’, it’s only one thing that we view through many different windows to increase our understanding. The first aware breath you take in neigong makes you better than you were before you took it. Your first lesson where you’re taught to ‘stand tall, breathe deep and focus your mind’ makes you better than before you attended. It makes you feel better, healthier, more happy and positive. From that point on you can only improve these skills. Always practice with an inner smile knowing that you can only get better. It takes years to ‘master’ musical … Continue reading Tai Chi Is Simple And Easy

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The Valley Spirit Never Dies

Steve Rowe

Tao Te Ching Part Six “The valley spirit never dies; It is the woman, primal mother.” ‘Valley spirit’ because it’s the Tao that underlies everything that is the primal mother, giving birth to everything in the universe and receiving it back, this is the same as western pagan thought. Diana the goddess giving birth to Herne the hunter at the beginning of each pagan year and receiving him back at the end, the circle of life. “Her gateway is the root of heaven and Earth. It is like a veil barely seen. Use it; it will never fail.” Seen as … Continue reading The Valley Spirit Never Dies

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Heaven And Earth Are Impartial

Steve Rowe

Tao Te Ching part 5. “Heaven and Earth are impartial;They see the ten thousand things as straw dogs.The wise are impartial;They see the people as straw dogs.” Heaven and earth are not subject to human justice and morals but the universal laws of nature. Too many people expect karma to adhere to human values and it doesn’t. Learn to harmonise with the way of nature. “The space between heaven and Earth is like a bellows.The shape changes but not the form;The more it moves, the more it yields.More words count less.Hold fast to the center.” The earth has been around … Continue reading Heaven And Earth Are Impartial

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My Day’s Training Schedule

Steve Rowe

I always start my Tai Chi coaching sessions by asking the students how they’re getting on with their training programme, any questions, any problems or any comments, and it helps me to shape the day’s study. I thought over the next few days I might share some of the most common thoughts. One of the most common comments is ‘I’ve been concentrating on one particular form or part of it’. The problem is that while they are doing this the other forms and skills slide. I practice everything in the syllabus every day, in the morning I’ll meditate, do the … Continue reading My Day’s Training Schedule

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Your Body Knows Best

Steve Rowe

Back on the antibiotics for infection in my knee and have all the side effects of bad stomach, pain in all my arthritic joints, fatigue and a bit of nausea so my morning training took a strange turn. You know how when you do your morning stretch it’s different to a ‘training’ stretch? I often refer to it in qigong because it has a ‘stimulate, store and release’ quality to the energy. Well, today my body spontaneously did it in every tai chi technique and it alleviated a lot of the side effects of the antibiotics. Sometimes our bodies know … Continue reading Your Body Knows Best