Are You A Fattist?

Are You A Fattist?  Telling a person they’re fat, And should get their lard arse of the couch, And come down to your club or gym, Makes you the fattist. Every advert is about being skinny, Every pop up on the screen, It’s a ‘miracle’ pill or method, Preying on the weak. People are overweight for many reasons, Some have a thyroid dysfunction, For some it’s caused by medication, And some can’t move because of disability. For some food is an addiction, And some are emotionally disturbed, What makes it worse for all of them, Is that it’s there for … Continue reading Are You A Fattist?

Dojo Visitor

There are times when you’re talking to someone and you suddenly realise that they aren’t listening to a word you’re saying.  They are only waiting for an opportunity to speak. The guy had come in for a free ‘guest’ training session and actually worked quite hard.  The only problem was that he hadn’t heard a word of the instruction given to him.   The words ‘using a sledgehammer to crush a grape’ sprang to mind – everything he did was simply full of effort with surprisingly poor results He had cruised over to sensei after the session and started to discuss … Continue reading Dojo Visitor

10 Stress Busters

Do you get that niggling ‘worry’ pain in the tummy? It seems that life is getting to you with one thing after another, maybe relationship troubles, annoyed at what people are saying about you, the never ending cascade of bills and never having enough money? You could be suffering from stress. You end up feeling angry, worried and picked on – life seems to be working against you and in the end your health begins to suffer. You feel that everything is getting you down and it doesn’t matter what you do it seems to make matters worse….. Well cheer … Continue reading 10 Stress Busters

Dealing With Fear

Dealing With Fear Fear is healthy, Everyone has it, It keeps you on your toes, Unless it gets out of hand. Then it freezes you, Or makes you into a monster, Either way it doesn’t help, And turns you into a victim. There is no ‘quick fix’, No ‘little trick’ to solve it, It requires Kung Fu, That is time and effort. Every day you learn to watch your emotions, What you do and how you react, Unnatural fear is a learned response, That has to be unlearned. Every time you train, You train your emotions, Neigong means ‘inner work’, … Continue reading Dealing With Fear

How To Be Happy

Happiness is a decision and a habit. It has doesn’t necessarily have to do with where you are, what you are doing or who you are with. It’s possible to be a happy person by deciding to be happy and by setting up a few habits that help you to remember that you are a happy person and why. How do we find that elusive state of being whatever is going on in our life and maintain it? Make the decision. Decide that you are a happy person and that wherever you are, whoever you are with and whatever you … Continue reading How To Be Happy

The Chakras

I’m not going to give you collected information on the Chakras, no wiki information from the internet, no aura colours or gemstones – all that ‘academic’ information can be gathered via the internet and in my opinion can be untrustworthy. What I will give you is my direct experience from 50 years of martial arts training and healing in a way that I hope that you can directly relate to and experience for yourselves. I’ll also map out the alchemy and healing of a human being through the practice of the Martial Arts and how it reflects through the Chakras. … Continue reading The Chakras

Death Is A Warm Blanket…

Death Is A Warm Blanket… You don’t even know you’re born, Well actually, that’s true, Because no-one can remember it, We become self conscious at a few years old. So why can’t we remember? Because we are still fully connected, And are pure universal energy, Until someone gives us a name. Drifting into sleep, is our name slipping away, We commune with our unconscious, While our name disappears, And we can regenerate. Meditation brings us back, Back to where we were as a child, The uncarved block, Energy without a name. The illusion of ‘self’, That which is named, Disappears … Continue reading Death Is A Warm Blanket…

The Simple Guide To Meditation

“I can’t make my mind a blank…” Is a common complaint and ‘monkey mind’ (the mischievous wandering mind) seems to be the biggest problem for anyone ‘sitting’ without proper direction. Trying to make your mind ‘blank’ is a thought in itself – and therefore self defeating. The Japanese word ‘Mushin’ or ‘no mind’ means no thinking mind, the only way you can create this spontaneous mental state is to gradually reduce the activity of the thinking mind until it ‘flatlines’ and allows the aware, non thinking, ‘wisdom mind’ to come to the foreground. The best route to achieving this is … Continue reading The Simple Guide To Meditation

Cultural Stories In Tai Chi Postures

“Okay lets do the form” said Sifu after we had completed the neigong and qigong exercises… We were about to practice the ‘Yang Chen Fu 108’ form, probably the most popular Taiji form in the world today. 108 because it’s a magic number to the Chinese, there are really about 335 moves but then – who’s counting! Taiji has names for techniques that are sometimes self-explanatory, like ‘Lift Hands’ or ‘Brush Knee’ but also have names that explain how the technique is done, often with cultural stories. Techniques are also often grouped by a name like ‘Grasp Sparrows Tail’ which … Continue reading Cultural Stories In Tai Chi Postures

I Have A Dream…

That one day Martial Arts will not be thought of as ‘separate’ Martial Arts, that the politics of structures like Karate, Ju Jitsu,  Kung Fu, Taekwondo and Aikido are consigned to history – that Martial Arts will retain it’s diversity without the politics and have just one Governing Body dealing only with club structure, safety and the various types of competition…. That there will be no politics of styles, no Wado, no Shotokan, no Hun Gar, no GKR, no Tomiki, that everyone will be working to be the best they can and eventually transcending the ‘style’ of their teachers with … Continue reading I Have A Dream…