51. Chi Kung
Chi Kung or working with energy. I’ve recently had one or two people ask about the Chi Kung…
50. Li
Li describes the grain in wood or jade. Li is the reason why a willow leaning over a…
49. Wu Wie
Wu Wei has often been translated to mean something like Not Doing, or Doing By Not Doing. It…
48. Yin Yang and the symbolism
Many people ask about the Yin Yang symbol that the academy uses; wondering about any religious significance. Although…
47. Te
You may have heard of the Tao Te Ching; a classic text written by Lao Tzu. The style…
46. Tao
Lao Tzu defined contentment as the only measure by which we should gauge both personal success and the…
45. Metal
The traditional role of Metal involves cutting and adornment. Both weapons and agricultural implements are generally used to…
44 Stone
Think mountains, rock, crystal, granite and diamonds. When a muscle is tensed it is harder than bone, harder…
43. Fire
Picture the leaping bush fire or the roaring furnace. Now think of the full flowering of crops in…
42 Wood
Think of the wind bending a bamboo. Start with being fully rigid, then relax just enough to allow…
41. Water
Think of Water in its many various contexts: the bubbling brook, the steady flowing river, the lake, the…
40 The Elements
As students progress through the Masters’ Course at our Norwich Academy, they develop their understanding of the Elements…
Exercise for Flexibility
Flexibility for a lot of people implies stretching into weird positions that are only ever used by circus…
Exercising for Muscle Strength
Over the last few blogs we’ve considered exercise in terms of fitness, fat loss and it’s limitations. This…
Exercise and fat burning
It’s January and you want to lose some fat, particularly after nearly a year of lockdown or at…
How much exercise to be fitter?
With any serious commentary about any topic, it is important to know what the words you are using…
Exercise and Limitations
This is the first in a series of blog articles about fitness. The most common argument put forward…
Fit for what?
When people start Kung Fu the issue of fitness often arises and it usually comes down to one…
When is Kung Fu not Kung Fu?
Because many people like things to be neat with everything clearly in its place, boxes ticked and flow…
Why do you want to get fitter?
One of the questions that people often neglect to ask is, why get fit? It’s often assumed that…
The key to Motivation and Self-Discipline – How to supercharge your resolutions.
It’s a new year and we’re all keen to re-animate our previously failed goals. Can we conjure up…
39. Ancient advice
Original Jing or telomeres It is very easy to ignore ancient wisdom when it is presented dressed in…
38. Meditation & The Brain
In the last article I talked about stress. Stress, you may recall, is the result of prolonged activity…
37. Understanding Stress Better
Previously I mentioned that what we think of as our stress reaction is principally our whole system moving…
36. Stress. What is it and how to reduce it
We hear so much talk about stress that you’d think we all knew what it was. The reality…
35. Unconscious messaging
There is a certain conversation that I have often had with people after they have been training for…
Tao Te Kung Fu – The Influences of Wing Chun
Tao Te Kung Fu is a style that has many influences from traditional Kung Fu styles, real world…
34. Balance and Freedom
It is typical to understand many Zen masters as teaching that we should aim to be above such…
33. Feel the Fear and see the Beauty
I grew up during a time of international anxiety. When I left school in 1979 the principal topic…
32. Personal Development?
It is only that which has never known the actions of energy that is still and unchanging (e.g….
31. Attitude
Attitude is the key to understanding so much of what we do. When we enter the training studio,…
30. Economy of Motion
Most people will be aware that economy of motion implies, in most cases finding the shortest line between…
29. Structure
During a Kung Fu lesson you will be told to relax your shoulders, keep your spine straight, have…
28. Practicality
One of the fundamental principles behind Tao Te Kung Fu is that every technique we teach must be…
27. Momentum
There are laws of motion in every area of life. Inertia and momentum are fundamental. It takes a…
26. Fluidity
Some fighting styles would encourage you to train so that you become harder, stronger and more able to…
25. Inertia
It is so often the case that the most useful lessons (and, it appears, the hardest to apply)…
24. Perspective
Seen from high enough all of life’s problems are small. A famous economist, when asked why he had…
23. Live Now
One root of both depression and anxiety is where you live… Anything that requires your total focus on…
22. Freedom from your past
A theme that has cropped up many times, in relation to learning to live in the moment, is…
On Courage
“Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of…
21. How to reprogram your unconscious mind. Or, creating yourself as you choose.
I’m going to explain briefly how to reframe memories to adjust how your past affects you, but mainly…
Recording Subroutines
So you think it’s easy to walk and chew gum at the same time? Without getting too immersed…
20. How we learn our emotional response to confrontation.
In the last blog I was talking about how we appear to attract into our lives whatever we…
19. The unconscious process of creating our world
We learn to create the world we live in. The unconscious brain receives and processes billions of bits…
Can I learn martial arts at 40?
Over the years I have been asked every version of this question from “Is it too late to…
18. The key to motivation and self-discipline
I wish I had a pound for every time I’ve been told that someone’s problem was self-discipline, either…
How to learn martial arts at home by yourself
Most people who attend a martial arts class will of course do most of their practice at home. …
17. Another way to understand the learning process
There are times when people tend to give up on their training. One occasion is when they think…
Chi Kung breathing techniques or Qigung breathing
I’m often asked, if there is one Chi Kung exercise that someone could do for the maximum effect,…
What is chakra meditation?
The theory of the chakras either migrated to China along with Buddhism, or at another time, or was…
16. How we learn
With Kung Fu Living you will be benefitting from the most modern teaching concepts. This means you will…
15. If things Don’t change
It is so often the case that the most profoundly useful lessons appear the simplest, while actually being…
14. Who’s Reality
Enlightenment through Koans, just join the dots and a picture emerges. A Koan is a story or a…
13. Who do you think you are? Part 3
In this article I hope to offer you some ideas of how your training with us can develop…
12. Who Do You Think You Are? Part 2
Someone recently commented that in their heads they were still about 25. The person in question is in…
11. Who Do You Think You Are? Part 1
I have to let go of what I am, if I am ever to become what I choose…
10. Creating Yourself
Stop trying to find yourself. Create yourself. Stop burying your head in distractions because life seems to lack…
9. The greatest danger to you
Protection from the greatest threat to your life. People often ask about self-defence in terms of being physically…
8. Ethics of Violence
There are generally two elements to consider. What is the right thing to do and how do you…
7. Effortless skill takes a lot of effort
I was talking the other day to someone who said that they practiced Chi Kung, but they didn’t…
6. Rhino or Unicorn
When the rhinoceros was first described to Europeans it was almost certainly from the accounts of sailors who…
5. The Kung Fu Living Approach to Learning
When I learned to type I practiced the sentence “the quick red fox jumps over the lazy brown…
4. Our philosophy
Truth is like a jewel you find in the mud, you might not be looking for it, you…
3. Sport or Tournament Styles
Historically, many martial arts have tried to ensure their continuation by becoming a sport once the conflict or…
2. Introduction to martial arts
A passion pursued with discipline and a discipline pursued with passion; both an art and a science. It…
1. Five Reasons to train with Kung Fu Living
Focus & Self MasteryThe best Kung Fu training will have a primary emphasis on developing focus & mastering…