Tag: mindfulness

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Let Go Of Letting Go

Steve Rowe

You know I have an unusual mind. Every day on here I see everyone expounding the merits of positivity, happiness and joy and I really don’t get it. We also don’t want sadness, anger, unhappiness, anxiety or depression. It’s better to have an absence of all of these. The irony is that it doesn’t leave a vacuum, it gives an incredible sense of peace. The process is one of continuously letting go of all of those emotions until you reach a deep abiding peace with both yourself and the rest of the world. Let go, then keep letting go until … Continue reading Let Go Of Letting Go

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A Conference With My Body

Steve Rowe

A conference with my body. Before I train I monitor my mental, physical and emotional state to present my case to my body on how I’m going to train during the day. My body has its own intelligence that I know I can rely on. As I start moving it immediately starts communicating in its own instinctive language that is my first (not second) language and directs the format. Some days it’s purely health, calming body, emotions and mind and when all excessive tension is gone, it opens, stretches, closes, compresses, twists and releases driving the energy through open channels. … Continue reading A Conference With My Body

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How To Get ‘In The Zone’

Steve Rowe

The window of ‘maximum depth and efficiency’ in your training session. You cannot waste this precious time. In coaching and my Tai Chi Programme we talk about preparation and warm up for this phase, how to structure it and how cool down from it. The important thing to understand is that with practice, how deep, profound and insightful this window can be and why it’s important to recognise and not waste it. In our sessions we talk about ‘waiting for Tai Chi to arrive’ Tai Chi being the perfect balanced state. Preparing to train is important, the acts of hygiene, … Continue reading How To Get ‘In The Zone’

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Points Of Inevitability

Steve Rowe

Inevitable points in life. There’s birth and death, but what are the others? When I look back there are points of inevitably. It seems that whatever roads I took in life they would bring me to the same points and people. It’s like I have choice, but I’m here for a purpose so whatever choices I make, certain things have to happen, otherwise there’d be no meaning and purpose to life. My choices determined whether I learned the hard way or the easy way and sometimes what appeared to be the hard way was in fact the easy way. If … Continue reading Points Of Inevitability

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Drawing Lines From Insight

Steve Rowe

Whilst meditating this morning my mind was connecting the chi to the breath. As I breathed in it moved it from the lower dantien through the coccyx, up the back, over the head where it collected between the in and out breath and as I breathed out I sank the chest to drain it down from the tongue back down to the lower dantien. I found myself naturally drawing the line with my hands in front of the body and that drew a mental image of the shape of Daruma meditating in the cave. (I wish I could draw, AI … Continue reading Drawing Lines From Insight

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Everyone Has A Story

Steve Rowe

As the government turns on people with disabilities, removing independence payments and most importantly social help of all kinds, no one can understand the full import of what becoming disabled means. We all have a different story and I’m lucky that I’m still able to work and support myself, with a lot of family, friends and students around me to help. Others are not so lucky. Having been an independent, fit, strong career martial artist for most of my life, becoming disabled and losing my leg meant that I lost 95% of my life. If asked if I would rather … Continue reading Everyone Has A Story

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The Black Hole

Steve Rowe

There’s a yawning black hole where his heart used to be.It reaches down into infinity.It’s like another dimension reaching up.Telling him that this illusion is only one of millions.His body is of little consequence.He is drawn into this life’s movie.The character he plays is merely for experience.Sadness, depression, guilt, anxiety and addiction teach him lessons.In fact far more than the balancing joy and happiness which only offers temporary relief.The yawning hole permanently aches, it’s an elevator that only goes down to bring the demons up.It can’t be fixed, it’s there for the duration.The bigger the challenges, the more he grows.The … Continue reading The Black Hole

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Open A Portal

Steve Rowe

Our life is chasing one thing but always empowering its opposite.We can’t have one without the other.This is the way of the universe.We call it karma, action creates reaction.We chase happiness and in doing so empower sadness.The more happiness we chase, the more sadness is always on its back.We only know happiness exists because we have sadness to compare it to.Otherwise how would we know we were happy?We can only be rich by making others poor.We only know one by knowing the other.We don’t really want happiness, it’s a drug.We want peace.How do we get peace?Through balance.Recognise the effect one … Continue reading Open A Portal

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It’s A Matter Of Perpective

Steve Rowe

Was giving a private lesson to Kieran Evans yesterday and we were discussing perspective. I asked him if he was the centre of the universe or just a part of it. We often talk about how we are like a wave on the sea, we arise from the source, are separate but still made from it and when our body dies we return to it. The Tao Te Ching states ‘the space between heaven and earth is like a bellows, the shape changes but not the form”. But what if we turn that on its head? What if we are … Continue reading It’s A Matter Of Perpective

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Moving Chi

Steve Rowe

‘There is stillness in movement and movement in stillness’ – Yang Chen Fu This skill can be used in ALL martial arts, adding the internal to the external. Neigong (inner work)In stillness, (meditation and standing postures) we learn to open our body, opening the joints, fascia, lungs and empty spaces filling them with chi energy. We attach and harmonise our mind to our energy and breath (Sanchin, Saamchin) using our attention and intention to ‘follow our breath’ we stimulate and move the energy around the body. In the standing postures we learn to use intelligent and alchemised emotion to colour … Continue reading Moving Chi