Tag: meditation

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Buddhism & Taoism In The Martial Arts

Steve Rowe

There’s been a few comments recently about the relationship of Karate and Tai Chi to Buddhism and Taoism. You obviously don’t have to be any religion to study either. They are both practised by millions world wide from all cultures and religions, but they do arise from Buddhist and Taoist cultures. The names of the arts and their styles reflect this, any Japanese art ending in ‘do’ (karatedo, judo, aikido, iaido etc) the ‘do’ is the ‘Tao’ and the names often relate to gentleness, softness, emptiness, peace and harmony from the religion in those cultures. The name ‘Tai Chi’ relates … Continue reading Buddhism & Taoism In The Martial Arts

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Why Should I Be ‘Happy’?

Steve Rowe

Why should I be happy? One thing that’s always intrigued me is the human pursuit of happiness. Every quote, meme, lifestyle and business guru advert is about how to be ‘happy’, yet with only a little bit of examination we can see that to obtain and maintain the ‘happiness’ being shovelled to us is impossible. It’s an illusion that society’s manipulators captivate our souls with to keep us unfulfilled and forever chasing their carrot. Life consists of order and chaos and we need the wisdom to accept and deal with both aspects. All the time that we’re imprisoned in this … Continue reading Why Should I Be ‘Happy’?

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Sneezing In Tai Chi

Steve Rowe

Sneezing in Tai Chi When we sneeze, there is an incredible build up of energy, a hover, then a powerfulrelease. This is the natural way our body works and we can use it in our Tai Chi practice. The lines in our body that we can use this skill in are called ‘jins’, to identify them we need to practice neigong (meditation and standing postures) to calm the body, mind and emotions and then qigong (energy work) exercises to understand the sources of power in the body created with movement. When we have practised these skills we can employ them … Continue reading Sneezing In Tai Chi

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Waking Up Our Chi

Steve Rowe

Waking up the chi…. The most important part of the day. To get the energy working and vibrant we have to exercise the spine, core and vagus nerve together. Using the mind, breath, emotions and Tai Chi movements, we meditate, calm the system first and then open, close, stretch, compress, twist and release the three together firing up the neural system and releasing the good hormones into the system. It’s an incredible feeling, opening all the cavities in the body and pumping and manipulating them, the stretch goes from tiptoe, to head and fingertips like the ‘yawning stretch’ and release … Continue reading Waking Up Our Chi

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Manipulators & Indoctrinators

Steve Rowe

“If men lack knowledge and desire, then clever people will not try to interfere.” – Lao Tsu This reads to most people like you should keep people simple and stupid, but the meaning is far from that. We are indoctrinated and manipulated from birth, by family, school, business, culture and society to ‘want’ and think what they want us to desire and think. In fact the true qualities of empathy, kindness, patience, tolerance and compassion are only true if applied in a simple way to everyone and everything. It’s only our indoctrinators and manipulators that tell us that this is … Continue reading Manipulators & Indoctrinators

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When It’s Not Video Friendly

Steve Rowe

Talking to one of my kung fu brothers we were discussing why we don’t feel the need to demonstrate or video ourselves doing forms or techniques anymore. High level skills are supposed to be ‘hidden’ and subtle so they’re not necessarily social media friendly and if people don’t have the vision or perspective to see what’s being done there’s no real point in putting it out there. Being old and disabled I’m not so easy on the eye anymore either but last Sunday on the Coaching programme, instead of limiting my demonstration to what I wanted the students to work … Continue reading When It’s Not Video Friendly

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Receiving Feedback

Steve Rowe

Receiving Feedback I need constant feedback from my students to improve my coaching. Not flattery, but constructive feedback as to what is good or bad. It’s the only way to validate what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes in class when I ask for feedback no one speaks up and when anyone does it tends to be the same people. Some don’t like to speak in front of others and will message me afterwards. What at first appears to be a silly question or feedback often creates the best teachings and discussion, stimulating more questions, so everything is welcome in these … Continue reading Receiving Feedback

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Speak Your Truth

Steve Rowe

Speak your truth.Walk the left hand path.Don’t run with the crowd.Those that clamour around the famous.Have no mind of their own.Separate yourself from them.They are the subjects of others.Don’t subject yourself to anyone or anything.View them all objectively.Tribal fear is not empowering.Lose the pitchfork and torch.Sit in the dark.Find yourself.Let your soul unfold.When you find your truth.There is no fear.No need for the attention of others.That inner knowing shines out.You become insightful.Wisdom finds you.You become the beacon.For those seeking the way. Continue reading Speak Your Truth

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The Martial Yellow Brick Road

Steve Rowe

I seem to have rattled a few cages with recent posts, and they are never aimed at any particular individuals, but if it gets people to look inward instead of trying to copy others, it’s not a bad thing. We all have our own individual skill set and power, but we need to find it, understand it, train it and internalise it to give us that internal locus of power that makes us different and that will bring the right people to our door and keep them. It’s not just a numbers game, it’s not just how many new students … Continue reading The Martial Yellow Brick Road

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How To Be Successful

Steve Rowe

Martial Art instructors have to learn to prioritise. If they’re in the Martial Arts their own personal development has to come first. I see club after club fail because the instructors don’t get this. Their personal martial art standard is bad, their lack of coaching and interpersonal skills are bad, they go to the wrong people for advice, their social media posts and videos only show how bad they are, they continue to throw good money after bad in promotion without addressing the one fundamental issue that is as plain as the nose on their face. The problem is that … Continue reading How To Be Successful