What are the benefits you can get?

All of the things we teach and use as therapies focus on improving the overall quality of life.
It always comes back to that.

Putting health back in your hands...

More specifically our aim is to put health, happiness and vitality back in the hands of the people we work with. The arts we teach build a strong, healthy and happy base and the resilience to maintain it. And they only require a small amount of time each day – all of the best/elite arts through the ages have been simple, direct and effective.

All of that can sound a bit ‘airy-fairy’ and too general. However, we all know we are happier when we feel energised and bother ourselves less about things. It also means we are more resistant to stress and illness. Western science is catching up with these simple facts that people have always known about themselves.

We believe the arts we teach are the most effective way of staying healthy and happy.

The arts we teach clear illness – including many of those which western medicine finds so difficult. It is wonderful to see people be free from conditions they might have lived with for years. Often they have been ‘managing’ symptoms with a belief that is the best they can get. Our experience (with conditions as diverse as fibromyalgia, asthma, depression, anxiety, chronic pain, diabetes etc.) is that people can hope for a lot more. Although western medicine can’t always explain the mechanisms, it does recognize the idea of “spontaneous remission”. The arts we teach seem to make that more likely ☺.

People who practice what we teach stay well – physically, emotionally and mentally. Our experience is that the niggly little physical problems like colds, stomach bugs and headaches just don’t stick. Also, we know that emotional stress leads to tension in the body and prolonged stress can lead to a depleted immune system, poor health and low moods. Difficult thoughts, images, memories, even old traumas can also feed these difficulties. These arts break that unhelpful spiral, releasing the things that lead back into illness or stop people moving forwards. In simple terms, people maintain and improve their health and happiness.

The arts we teach were practiced by the ‘elite’ in many societies in the past. Good health was just the starting point, but what they wanted is now often called ‘peak performance’. Important components of this are increased energy, the skills and ability to make use of it and the clarity of mind to use it effectively. In our experience these are all natural outcomes of the things we practice and teach. These benefits apply in business, sport, meditation and everyday life.

We are Martial Artists. We don’t practice them because we want or need to fight but for the benefits we get. These include all of the above along with the confidence we can defend ourselves if we need to. Spiritual, meditation and energy practices were all originally part of the elite martial arts – but they are often not understood or taught effectively within these systems now. In fact some martial artists get more injuries, illnesses and anger/stress than other people. The way we teach means you get the benefits of knowing how to use energy effectively (often now considered “secrets” or just legends), can defend yourself and improve your health and happiness along the way.

As therapists ourselves we appreciate the importance of staying healthy and maintaining our energy levels throughout the day. The practices we are passing on also ensure we don’t pick up problems from our clients. We have become more effective as therapists as we can use the ‘power’ of the arts in various ways. On our courses we explain the mechanisms behind this, when it is appropriate. That means therapists (psychological, energy and physical) who learn from us will understand how to get the same benefits consistently.

Many people learn these arts to deepen their sense of ‘spirituality’.

The way we define this is a sense of increased:

Being at Ease
Awareness
Connection
Being part of something bigger
Understanding of our part in things
Excitement/engagement in life
Joy in being
Presence
Insight

None of this is religious, in the sense of believing anything in particular or following particular sets of rules or ideas. In fact, we teach people from many different religions who say it helps them deepen their connection with their own practices.

We find that as these qualities increase it is easier for people to recognize challenges/opportunities as they arise and accept and deal with them effectively and compassionately. We believe the world becomes a better place as a result.