Tag: meditation

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Dealing With Pain

Steve Rowe

Dealing With Pain.Right from their first day of training we have to teach students the difference between good and bad pain. Good pain strengthens the body, emotions and mind and bad pain affects them negatively, student and coach need to know the difference between them. The understanding has to deepen with illness and injury as rehabilitation is essential and needs to be positive. Today I was fatigued from a seminar on Sunday and had a bad night last night, still recovering from cancer treatment, so training had to be very mindful. I needed to open and manipulate the core and … Continue reading Dealing With Pain

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Have Patience….

Steve Rowe

Social media is full of ‘up and ‘at ‘em’ ‘get off your ass’, ‘take action’ type statements, memes, reels and FB live vids, usually by young, healthy, trying to sell something, would be ’influencers’, but I’d like to add a counterpoint. Patience really is a virtue and timing is everything. Often you have to wait to heal and for the circumstances to be right. Instead of pushing forward (often to failure or to suit others) sit back and look for opportunities instead of rushing past them. Less can be more. Instead of blasting forwards, nudge the opportunity and allow it … Continue reading Have Patience….

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Pain…

Steve Rowe

PainWhen I was young I taught myself to like pain, it made me train harder, made me focus and never give up. When I was hit, I tasted blood and fought harder. I constantly found myself joyously saying “is that all you’ve got?” There was a perverse pleasure in pain. As a matter of principle I would never, ever give up and you would have to kill me to stop me. Now at 72yrs old I’m in constant pain, with an amputation and phantom leg pain, painful arthritis in both shoulders and remaining leg, prostate cancer and radiation treatment inflammation … Continue reading Pain…

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Podcast My 50 Years In Martial Arts

Steve Rowe

Key quotes and takeaways from the show: Never practice struggle! “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” – Aristotle. Balance!… Martial arts (and life) are holistic. Develop your mind, body and emotions. A good coach teaches on all of these levels. A good coach sees the kind of person their student is (type of learner, physical, mental and emotional state, etc.) and gives them what they need in that very moment. The same goes for a class. A good coach forgets about themselves and provides students what they need most at the time. Use meditation to … Continue reading Podcast My 50 Years In Martial Arts

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Truth Seer

Steve Rowe

The road to becoming a truth seer is a solitary one.Unencumbered by indoctrination and what everyone else wants you to see you cut through to the truth.Often they won’t like it, family, ‘friends’, politicians and work peers.They say that there is your truth and their truth, but there is only one truth.That one truth comes with different faces and colours but it’s quality is that it’s eternal.It always works, time and time again.The fundamental truth is that everything is one.The shape changes but not the form.This can be found in stillness, silence and mindfulness. Continue reading Truth Seer

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The Abyss Of Death

Steve Rowe

We never truly understand life until the abyss of death is staring back at us into our very soul. The veil that life throws over our head means that we forget we’re going to die and live as if we’re going to live forever and push it to the very back of our mind, occupying our headspace with trivia and human indoctrinated shit. Only the ancient tribes that lived close to and in harmony with nature saw life and death in the right harmonious balance. Warriors confronting death on a daily basis also had to feel comfortable staring into that … Continue reading The Abyss Of Death

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The Empty Chair

Steve Rowe

There is the chair,He used to be there,Hair gone grey,Body wasting away,Cognitively impaired,But with humour shared. Strong when he was young,With punches that stung,A high standard of Kung Fu,With kicks that flew,But time took the skill,And made him sit still. He ended in the chair,And had to stay there,Until the part that cannot be destroyed,Finally returned to the void. Now his spirit is still there,As always willing to share,For those with respect,Are still able to connect. Continue reading The Empty Chair

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The Eyes Have It

Steve Rowe

Where your intention (yi) goes your energy (chi) follows. In Tai Chi we use an ‘eye’ form, whilst practising a hand form we look at certain parts of our own body (usually a hand or hands) with the intention of sending our chi energy there. This has the effect of moving our chi and sending it to where we need it. It helps us to learn how to raise our energy, colour it with the right intention, focus and discharge it. Vision can be focused and unfocused, activating and utilising both sides of the brain and using peripheral vision to … Continue reading The Eyes Have It

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Insight

Steve Rowe

Insight is an important skill and can be trained. Most senior martial artists rely on it in many areas of their life and particularly in their martial art studies. Insight is the ability to pierce to the heart of any subject or problem without having to go through a laborious process. How do we gain this skill? The first step is to develop mindfulness, by calming the body, emotions and thoughts, without the mental and emotional clutter, clarity can arise. Mindfulness arises from a combination of posture and deep breathing until everything calms down and an appreciation that we are … Continue reading Insight