Category: awareness

From Shock to Strategy: Harnessing Fight-or-Flight into Surged Clarity [Part 4]

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 7 min read | 184 views

The mind should be clear thinking and you should remain aware. In this way the quality of your behaviour rises to such a level that you are able to act properly without turning the power up to the max suddenly. When adrenaline then hits, it is just a bonus.

Any martial artist will tell you that power comes from a relaxed state. This is because there is a steady current which is working as it is, rather than needing any kind of external stimulation to get it going properly. So the mind should be clear thinking and you should remain aware. In this way the quality of your behaviour rises to such a level that you are able to act properly without turning the power up to the max suddenly. When adrenaline then hits, it is just a bonus. Put differently, your behaviour is at maximum capacity without being artificially high in any one dimension. It is for this reason that when it hits the fan, the martial artist is already doing something intelligent when they get an additional boost of adrenaline.

Let’s say you have a pair of speakers. If the speakers are high quality, you can clearly hear them at volume level 30. Another pair of speakers needs to be turned all the way up to 100 just to hear what’s going on.

Most of us grew up with the idea that stress helps us perform. But this only allows you to act in specific ways at an high level. For example, however you are get’s amplified in some way. Let’s say you have a pair of speakers. If the speakers are high quality, you can clearly hear them at volume level 30. Another pair of speakers needs to be turned all the way up to 100 just to hear what’s going on. They are low quality, and one dimensional in terms of sound At the same time, there is a lot of unpleasant noise and interference going on with the bad but loud speakers. On the other hand, all of the supply lines and working properly in the quieter set of speakers, not just one or two circuits. Because of that, you get a balanced, regulated, and natural sounding output. It is the same thing in martial arts.

When there is a love for whatever you are doing, and the reflexes and basic fundamental skills are there, I think you can perform a lot better and with less emotional volatility. This love for what you are doing replaces the need to become dominant over others and increase the voltage in a volatile way. For example, when you love what you’re doing, dopamine release becomes tied to mastery and meaning, rather than external reward or reaction to external stimulus. This will at least bring down the need for craving stimulation from the sudden onset of environmental cues, in order to get the system up and running properly.

In terms of martial arts, rather than hyping yourself up and glaring at people insistently, you can disarm somebody completely by the way you are. You can walk through the situation rather than feeding it. Then, the simple act of remaining physiologically relaxed and disciplined is enough to diffuse hostilities instead of butting heads and puffing your feathers. This is known as fighting without fighting. Even if for some reason there is still a great need for external stimulation, or you are addicted to certain behaviours, building a solid foundation for internal reward systems can greatly reduce this need over time.

You should act before such thoughts arise by having everything within your gaze and fixating on no detail in particular. This is how the way you look at people can influence your physiology and theirs.

You should not think “That guy is staring at me, I must act”. You should act before such thoughts arise by having everything within your gaze and fixating on no detail in particular. This is how the way you look at people can influence your physiology and theirs. When yo are broadly aware but not reactive, you can then shift the gaze seamlessly so that you don’t cause other people to see you as some kind of hostile competition. When you remain aware before some kind of emergency situation arises, you do not need to suddenly boot up. You only need to do this if your system is switched off or has collapsed for some reason. If you are steadily active, you not only are better at defending yourself, you are better able to absorb the energy of the situation so that you and it are one and the same.

Flowing Into Strength: Stability Through Continuous Awareness

A dead and inert tree would simply be blown over by a gust of wind. A strongly rooted and vibrant tree would absorb some of the energy from the wind, sway with it, and its roots would even benefit from the pressure exerted upon it by getting stronger.

When you overall system is balanced in in tune with the environment, there is a completely different response to emergency situations. First of all you are not shifting from zero to one hundred. You are also better able to withstand pressure. Let’s use the example of a tree. A dead and inert tree would simply be blown over by a gust of wind. A strongly rooted and vibrant tree would absorb some of the energy from the wind, sway with it, and its roots would even benefit from the pressure exerted upon it by getting stronger. In the same way, the martial artist sinks deeply into the posture and absorbs the energy of the situation, remaining flexible in body and mind.

The thing to remember is that when these self defence systems were devised, life expectancy was low in most cases. For example, in China life expectancy was around 32 years old as early as one hundred years ago. Obviously, the Chinese systems were developed well before this, when life expectancy was even lower. In other words, the kinds of survival responses needed when life was much harsher was a lot different to what is needed today. So martial arts in the modern day must be viewed in this context.

Conditions today are not as tough as they were in the past. Although we have learnt to complain about everything, there is not such a need for constant survival mode all the time. At the same time, if you don’t look at how things were done, you don’t have the drive to do better. For example, there would be no need to live well if you didn’t take care of the need to survive. In fact, living well is built upon a good foundation of survival which is proportionate to need. The tree grows out of a mixture of turbulent environmental factors as well as a steady supply of life sustaining energies. In the same way, the martial artist is able to empower themselves through turbulence as well as energy cultivation, which are always linked.

If a tree was in survival mode all of the time, there would be no flowers fruit. The survival aspect is the foundation, the root. There’s a lot of digging around and feeding going on there, at the root level. So the survival instincts can be seen as a moving foundation, rather than a secure structure which is fixed. The secure structure, which is fixed, is built once there is a strong foundation for survival to happen, which is fluid. So in order to fix yourself strongly, you must remain fluid yet immoveable.

From Shock to Strategy: Harnessing Fight-or-Flight into Surged Clarity [Part 3]

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 5 min read | 156 views

Previously, we looked at the need for the martial artist to maintain a certain level of activity across the brain as a whole. This means the survival circuits won’t get overpowered more than is needed. A stressful situation will not power the pre frontal cortex, but it will take away resources from maintaining it properly. Remaining aware before the event, and in a certain state of attentiveness, will enhance the pre frontal cortex. This means it is already up and running, ready to be stimulated by fight or flight.

The experience of stress can easily cause you to lose impulse control and to disregard the consequences of your actions, if the pre frontal cortex is off completely. The pre frontal cortex is just one example. In reality, this is just one region which is important among many. However, because activity here is related to enhanced awareness, this means you are already acting more holistically overall if there is activity there. If not, you are less able to read subtle cues or even broadly assess the situation totally.

If your broader awareness and overall system is more regulated, then you are more online than if you are functioning in a limited way. Then, your amygdala doesn’t get hijacked making your other systems go dark by acting in an all or nothing way.

If your broader awareness and overall system is more regulated, then you are more online than if you are functioning in a limited way. Then, your amygdala doesn’t get hijacked making your other systems go dark by acting in an all or nothing way. When you are functioning more holistically, there is simply no need for the amygdala to scream out and trigger an over zealous response because you keep to an even keel. Then, you are better able to respond totally, rather than partially but in an overhyped manner.

if there is a sudden intensity of adrenaline, and over time a pattern builds up repeatedly, then you start to associate such happenings with powerful activity. However, over time this records the integrity of the system overall. On the other hand, if you remain warmed up but not over heated, ready but not reactive, you train the system to stay regulated. This means that even under pressure you respond in a more measured way. You are then able to think on the move, react without flinching, and move more dynamically in general in response to danger.

In terms of calm, it is only the mind which should be calm, so that you don’t clench your jaw and shoulders. Such clenching leads to too much tension. When there is a surge of adrenaline, there is a rigidity and sudden tension within the physiological pathways. This is why they should remain free of tension first of all. This initial onset of tension can lead to becoming frozen in place, so the idea is not to be filled with tension before this freezing happens. This freeze happens so that you can momentarily stop and assess, rather than become immobile.

When you remain dynamic and switched on fully, you instead get heightened awareness and clarity. These pathways too can become flooded if they are active.

People who remain aware and switched on spend far less time in freeze states. When one becomes frozen, emotional flooding follows as a compensation for being frozen and mobile. So the idea is to limit this flooding. When I say limit the flooding, I mean limit the flooding to specific regions, so that your energy overflow’s across a larger reservoir. When you remain dynamic and switched on fully, you instead get heightened awareness and clarity. These pathways too can become flooded if they are active. This means you get powerful activity with minimal panic setting in, which is associated with emotional volatility. This is because the panic get’s drowned out in the larger context, which your awareness gets drawn to.

Different patterns of behaviour create different effects. If you remain razor sharp and clear without burning out, then this creates a sustainable pattern.

Remaining aware and sustainably attuned to the flow of the environment, one is able to feed the same pathways which are said to cause panic with a different kind of energy and rhythm. This creates an entirely different pattern of short term and long term behaviour, which is more like a sustained current than a sudden voltage. Different patterns of behaviour create different effects. If you remain razor sharp and clear without burning out, then this creates a sustainable pattern.

Staying Lifted: How Martial Artists Can Avoid the Post-Surge Crash

When there is not such an extreme shift during fight or flight, your energy also does not crash down to rock bottom afterwards so drastically.

If, during an emergency situation, the energy goes up from an already high level of functioning, this means there is less of a sudden shift. So the idea is to maintain a certain level of attentiveness and awareness at all times. When there is not such an extreme shift during fight or flight, your energy also does not crash down to rock bottom afterwards so drastically. So after the event, you land much faster to a baseline state because it is already higher than normal. This is the work of the martial artist, to keep their energy within certain parameters so that they are not impacted by drastic shifts so much. in this way, if you get heightened, you don’t crash and shut off completely afterwards.

From Shock to Strategy: Harnessing Fight-or-Flight into Surged Clarity [Part 2]

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 7 min read | 164 views

The body does not distinguish between overload or inertia, the quickest way to boot up the system is through the survival circuits.

In the previous post, we already looked at how fight or flight is expressed differently for different people. In order to reclaim fight or flight so that it is a more focused power, one thing is to remain switched on, but not hyper vigilant. If you are switched off completely, there is no hope of doing much of anything meaningful. To compensate for this off state, the amygdala will be overloaded the moment an emergency situation presents itself to you. in fact, the emergency response can happen due to overactivity or under activity of one’s attention.

Let’s say you were zoning out and then suddenly a certain situation triggers your fight or flight response. You would go from zero to one hundred just like that. On the other hand, if you were hyper vigilant over something, anxious about it even, then fight or flight would happen out of that. So there can be an unwillingness to prepare properly, creating a deficit, or there can be a total lack of awareness. In either case the void of energy needed to mobilise for action will be filled by the survival circuits so that you become primed for action. This can be helped by harnessing other aspects of the system, such as awareness, so that fight or flight happens to that too, not just the survival circuits.

This has nothing to do with psychological misinterpretation of threat, the biological response to the void is very real. If you are under powered, fight or flight hypes you up. If you become one dimensionally aware of only your own immediate physiological needs, then this constriction of awareness creates an artificial sense of emergency. So the only way out is to remain aware of more than your immediate needs, the bigger picture, whilst remaining in a balanced state as much as possible.

With something as simple as catching a ball, you could jump out of your skin and fail to catch it if you were switched off or too tense. The body does not distinguish between overload or inertia, the quickest way to boot up the system is through the survival circuits. This explains why people who get struck by inertia end up in a similar state to burnt out people. If higher intelligence fails, which involves wider awareness and sense perception outside of immediate needs, survival takes over. If there is no survival instinct, fight or flight kicks in and fills the void also. This is simply the quickest and most efficient way for your system to get things going, which has worked throughout history.

Under powered or over powered, it just means lack of overall balance and nature takes over.

There needs to be a certain level of survival activity for there to even be a heightened intelligence, or a greater well being. This is important, because if you become either overpowered or too dim, the survival process initiates to prevent collapse or a vacuum being created. Under powered or over powered, it just means lack of overall balance and nature takes over.

It doesn’t matter whether it is the mind or emotions, if there is a deficit somewhere, the brain tries to keep up in the most efficient way, by reacting and powering the survival circuits to give you a boost. At the same time, this boost has its own consequences. Boredom turns into irritability, and emotional outburst often follow overindulgence. In other words, excess has its costs, and when something as costly as a survival reaction kicks in, there are usually deficits later on in terms of energy.

It is possible to make yourself in such a way that you supercharge aspects of yourself which generate the best returns. That way, you benefit from any kind of high energy state because you are ready for it.

Mental burnout leads to inactivity, in the same way as lack of purpose leads to restlessness. In other words, overactivity and under activity are two sides of the same coin. However, it is possible to make yourself in such a way that you supercharge aspects of yourself which generate the best returns. That way, you benefit from any kind of high energy state because you are ready for it. If you are adequately prepared, you are not caught out and surprised, you process everything clearly and act accordingly. This involves planning and preparation, and applies to sport as well as emergency situations. The idea is to think clearly, but not overthink, whilst acting as needed rather than underacting.

Gracefully catching a dangerous hammer being thrown at you uses the same internal wiring as flinching away from something desperately. The quality of expression is different in both cases, and they cannot happen ate the same time.

Rewriting the Reflex: Overlaying Mastery onto Instinct

If there were a hammer being thrown at you, you would be injured by the thrower if you were unprepared. Gracefully catching a dangerous hammer being thrown at you uses the same internal wiring as flinching away from it desperately. The quality of expression is different in both cases, and they cannot happen ate the same time. This is the reason for the beautiful forms which have arisen in martial arts. They wanted to capture this beauty in order to develop a different kind of energy within a survival situation. This enhanced energy could then be used just as potently as a desperate survival response within life threatening situations. This is why there was always an insistence on discipline and striving for more.

If the sprinter did not warm up, they would be able to produce the same power in a different way. None except the essential pathways for running quickly would be active. This would lead to diminished performance in the long term even if they got through a race or two without injury.

So there is no problem for someone who is ready to catch or even juggle a hammer. This is because they have prepared themselves, like a sprinter prepares themselves for a race by warming up the neurological pathways before hand. This turns a reflex action into an expression of self mastery. By warming up and getting ready beforehand, the sprinter is able to run gracefully as well as effectively, without overthinking or trying to warm up whilst running the race at the same time.

If the sprinter did not warm up, they would be able to produce the same power in a different way. They would be running in a desperate state, trying to warm up, prepare, and run the race all at the same time. This type of race can only be run in a state of reactivity, rather than complex and dynamic planning and execution. the survival response traditionally spreads resources thinly, so that nothing can be done optimally. None except the essential pathways for running quickly would be active in the purely reactive state, and these pathways would be doing the job chaotically and inefficiently. But they would get it done in a messy way. This would lead to diminished performance in the long term even if such a runner got through a race or two without injury.

Let’s say you become tired and irritable, and then someone annoys you in some way. All of a sudden you get flooded with adrenaline and kick off about nothing. If there is a steady supply of energy to those pathways which can become overreactive, such as the amygdala within the brain, then these sites do not race from zero to one hundred as soon as it kicks off. This involves activating others site’s, so that the adrenaline does not flood into one active place but across many pathways. For example, if there is activity of the prefrontal cortex, as well as other regions, then you end up in a more balanced and regulated overall state when survival kicks in. This leads to a more intelligent response, creating a greater sense of balance across several areas. Because of this greater intelligence, you are able to exert more and more control over your situation.

From Shock to Strategy: Harnessing Fight-or-Flight into Surged Clarity [Part 1]

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 6 min read | 84 views

It is said that the enemy can be held at bay and under control only by superior clarity, which becomes a skill and a form of strength. Then, even when the enemy is in front of you, their onslaught can be withstood.

You’ve probably heard people say in martial arts “Stay calm under pressure”. The moment you become reactive and powered by stress, you are liable to do something stupid. You also become very forceful immediately. However, when you decide on a clear intention, which you stick with unwaveringly, you organise the mind beforehand. with this clarity in mind, you are not trying to organise, fight off, and adapt all at the same time. The idea is to not be too reactive to the immediate presentation of things, or too under active, but to remain balanced.

You want the lights to be bright enough to see, but not so overstimulating that you forget to even breathe. This is what happens when the system fires up all of a sudden, certain faculties get diminished whereas others supercharge. It is said that the enemy can be held at bay and under control only by superior clarity, which becomes a skill and a form of strength. Then, even when the enemy is in front of you, their onslaught can be withstood. Reactivity to the situation brings one kind of strength. On the other hand, when you bring superior organisation and clarity of thought to the situation, this brings another kind of energy and strength entirely.

Stress triggers activity in the amygdala, the brains survival region. The survival circuits themselves are not designed for intelligent activity, but to initiate fight or flight. in terms of evolution, superior sense comes after survival has been ensured. When it comes to brain functioning, intelligent functioning can only be achieved if the survival circuits are kept within certain parameters. In other words, in an all or nothing survival response, it is beneficial to have some investment in intelligent action. Otherwise, you might over react for no reason other than because this is the only investment you have set in motion.

The work of the martial artists is to maintain their survival instincts within certain parameters, and constantly adjust and attune themselves to the situation as it unfolds in front of them. This means they do not get over reactive or under reactive. For example, when one succumbs to inertia, it is a good idea to do some training and activity. This need not be physical activity, it could simply be making more of an effort to remain attentive and switched on to the environment. Otherwise, without ramping up the system in some way so that it sits within certain parameters, you may be triggered into reactivity by outside events more than is necessary. On the other hand, when one becomes over stimulated, it is a good idea to sit and bring agitation levels down.

Fight or Flight as an Empowered State

The fight or flight response happens in everyone, but it is expressed differently depending on how you handle your own internal situation. If you keep yourself properly maintained, in a balanced and coherent way, then you are able to process everything clearly and take effective action. At the same time you get an injection of energy. Then, there is a good balance between attention and processing, which then gets powered up. You then know what’s going on properly, and you are in a better position to respond accordingly instead of simply reacting. When danger comes, you are then hit with less psychological shock because you see the whole picture clearly, and you are more stable. Let’s see how this works.

If you can grow and swell with the situation as it unfolds, expanding when needed without bursting your banks, you can learn to benefit from high pressure situations.

A person who relies on getting hyped up and stressed at the last minute, is fragile the moment things don’t go their way. Take the example of the boss who leaves everything to the eleventh hour and then bursts into a fit of activity. What should have been done over several hours is done all at once. This is because they have not prepared themselves optimally. On the other hand, if you can grow and swell with the situation as it unfolds, expanding when needed without bursting your banks, you can learn to benefit from high pressure situations. In many ways, this involves broadly assessing the situation without multi tasking and spreading yourself thin, as well as remaining aware but not hyper vigilant. You are then not trying to do everything at once, and do not become hijacked by the survival circuits of the brain. Instead, you remain dominant over the survival circuits, putting them in their rightful place, because other features of the system get powered up.

In terms of martial arts, if you remain balanced you are then much less likely to make poor judgements and make the situation worse. When you keep yourself balanced and regulated, the situation is in your hands, and you can use such situations as a tool for your own development, making better decisions. The additional adrenaline of fight or flight is then like a ball being thrown to you, which you absorb into your hands. Rather than the ball bouncing out of your hands before you absorb it, or fumbling about with it, you just take possession of it. Instead of being taken by surprise, there is a sense of anticipation. At the same time, too much calculation and overthinking actually causes people to miss the ball entirely.

The mind is able to declare that just about anything is a threat to survival, making you unnecessarily reactive to external situations. The survival response is not conditional upon their being an actual serious situation. This explains why people who overthink things, even small matters, can easily blow them out of proportion or miss something vital, even though they become very insistent or forceful. The vital thing they miss may be quite subtle but can make a big difference in the end. This is why it is important to remain attentive and aware of the situation as a whole. Then, you can see that which is not obvious, expanding your sense of the whole as well as the yet unknown. In this infinite game, you carry on noticing more and more in life that you previously didn’t get, broadening your consciousness.

Circulation of energy, and equalisation of pressure. Reaching the unlimited.

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 8 min read | 105 views

At the heart of martial arts philosophy lies the principle of becoming like a circle—a form in which pressure is equal at all sides, allowing energy to circulate freely and function to become unlimited. This symbolic and practical concept is rooted in how energy, structure, and pressure interact within the human body.

According to martial arts tradition, true upward movement and expansion only occur from a stable foundation—the Hara or lower abdomen. Like a bubble that starts as a flat surface and expands outward, the body must have a grounded base in order to build symmetrical energy. If the base is unstable, energy cannot rise or distribute evenly, leading to imbalance and dysfunction.

According to martial arts tradition, pressure only builds higher and develops evenly if it starts from a solid base. Otherwise the energy cannot mix with enough internal matter in order to have a stable enough foundation to properly build upward momentum. This mixing of energy and matter occurs in the Lower abdomen, or the Hara Centre. This is what it means to “Move from the centre”. It is like how if you build a house on a lopsided platform, structural weaknesses eventually happen because you cannot distribute the pressure well enough from a stable platform. 

So the soap bubble starts by being compressed flat, a potentially energy, like a flattened diaphragm. Compression creates a potential energy of its own

As with a house, the base of the martial artists is minimal and flat. Curvature happens when the structure elongates. It is like how with a soap wand, the film is always flat until it is filled with air. Filling it with air increases its overall surface area. So the soap bubble starts by being compressed flat, a potentially energy, like a flattened diaphragm. Compression creates a potential energy of its own. And then it eventually spreads as it is filled with movement energy, which travels up. This is essentially what martial arts is all about. We will come back to the bubble analogy later.

Becoming rounded

The idea is to become like a circle, so that any pressure which happens externally is matched by the internal pressure and is equal at all sides.

As we looked at earlier, when the bubble expands its surface area goes from flat to three dimensional. As the bubble fills with air, this creates a curvature. This creates a spherical shape. Another way for this curvature to be initiated, or equalisation of force, is for it to happen externally. As pressure is added to certain points such as in the hands or elsewhere, or if the body is pushed and pull in many directions, this creates an increased surface pressure. The idea is to become like a circle, so that any pressure which happens externally is matched by the internal pressure and is equal at all sides.

When a small insect lands on a bubble, creating small curvatures on the surface, this increases the outside pressure. This increases internal pressure as well because the polar forces in the water content try to equal out this curvature made by the small insect. If the bubble were not round, then the pressure inside it would not be the same at every point of the surface. In terms of martial arts, it is possible to stimulate internal pressure by adding external pressure. When one becomes like a circle, they become balanced, and there internal pressure matches the outside. This idea is behind the theory of acupressure.

Expansion of the Bubble

When we breathe efficiently, increased tension and a pull in several directions creates an overall expansion. This expansion allows the structure to take in more content, such as air. For example, the diaphragm is domed shaped so that there is equal pressure across all sides. The base of the diaphragm is flat and wide, particularly when one inhales, and like any foundation it is compressed. This means it is able to create a potential energy of its own.

Whether pressure is stimulated internally or externally does not really matter. It is about linking external and internal activity, which act upon one another. It is pressure which holds the expansion of energy together. Otherwise there is just stretching and laxity. Energy expansion within this stretching moves us towards growth.

Water and Circulation of Energy

When we talk about hydration, it’s not just in terms of consuming water. We are also talking about circulation and distribution of water. If you breathe, you can breathe deeply by using the abdominal muscles and intercostals, or shallowly with just the upper lungs. In other words, you can breathe from a stable foundation or not. Breathing works to enhance circulation of blood and other forms of energy around the body. When you increase this flow, then there is a smooth functioning and even distribution of energy. However, functioning can become impaired for several reasons.

For example, the abuse of steroids can enlarge muscles by increasing the consumption of energy within certain neurochemical transmitters. This increases water retention there and the firing rate of the surrounding neuron’s, as well as the neuron’s size. This can lead to over stimulation and lack of circulation. This can cause a person to become excessively yang, or of a fiery temperament, because their energy proportions become out of balance. 

With steroid abuse, people often experience low general well being with high emotional volatility. Water can be used to hydrate the joints as well as other areas of the brain and body. This requires circulation and balanced distribution of energy. This can be difficult to achieve if the neurotransmitters become over stimulated in certain local areas, such as around particular steroid hormone sites. 

From limited functioning to the unlimited

In cases of limited by highly volatile local activity around such sites, the survival circuits of the brain tends to become a dominant factor in behaviour. This high pressure within limited pathways leads to heightened fight or flight response. This is because the brain naturally assumes that with limited functioning one’s survival is threatened. This is ok in an emergency, but an emergency is not supposed to keep you on high alert for longer than necessary. The way to bring this down at all other times is to become more flexible and fluid, as well as more rounded as a person. Rounded means equal distribution of pressure. 

If energy is going only one way, rather than going back and forth, then it is only natural that one’s survival instincts will kick in.

When resources are scarce, a person will tend to become more survival orientated and become reactive. Another way of looking at this is that when someone’s survival pathways get chronically over stimulated or enlarged, they tend to view everything as a competition. This eventually leads to a loss of balance, and burn out. It also leads to feelings of insecurity, because energy becomes excessively outward bound rather than self sustaining. If energy is going only one way, rather than going back and forth, then it is only natural that one’s survival instincts will kick in. Being stuck in a survival mode prevents wider circulation of energy, and constrained energy leads to limited functioning. This creates friction. It takes a lot of energy, functioning in a limited way, to become survival orientated all the time. When one becomes like a circle, they move without friction, even over uneven terrain.

Wider circulation of energy is a way to preserve your health rather than just survive. Survival is important, but the eventual aim of martial arts is to increase energy circulation within the wider circuits of the brain and body which promote health, well being, and maintenance of energy. This requires work. Unfortunately, today many people do not engage in the level of work necessary to keep them healthy. They either under do it, or over do it. Just as when you overwork for too long, under work can lead to limited functioning and prolonged activation of the survival circuits. In both instances the survival circuits kick in because you are functioning in a limited way. This leads to reactivity rather than balanced response.

In such an emergency situation, if you are balanced, you are able to act in an unconstrained way, even if there options are limited.

In terms of martial arts, when you get the balance right between work and maintenance, you are then better able to choose when and how to act effectively in an emergency situation. In such an emergency situation, if you are balanced, you are able to act in an unconstrained way, even if there options are limited.

Sweating is a good way of cooling the system down. Athletes sweat more than the average person because they are efficient at cooling themselves down. If you retain heat and do not manage to cool yourself down, then this is another way the survival circuits are likely to get heightened. Ideally, if you sweat predominantly from the head, this is considered better than all over the body. This is because in terms of energy it is considered a good sign that the energy is traveling upwards and exiting at the top like a hot spring. It is usually a sign that there is enough upward transmission of energy.

To become like a circle is to embody balance, symmetry, and responsiveness. It is to distribute energy and pressure equally across the whole system, allowing for unlimited functioning in body, mind, and spirit. This is not just a physical shape but a living principle—a way of being resilient, fluid, and whole in the face of life’s pressures.

Energy expenditure and renewal – Achieving Balance

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 16 min read | 115 views

Sleep begins long before you lie down to go to bed. The natural cycle is to rise in the morning, and gradually wind down from midday onwards. Generally, ones energies reach a peak in this daily cycle at midday. Obviously, there are demands in the world which prevent this winding down happening in the most natural way possible. However, the body’s energies are like the rising of the tides, they reach a high point and then recede back daily. The weather and other factors play a role in this, but there is a general pattern which happens anyway. This is how the human system works. Energy is expended and outwardly manifests during the day, and then gradually settles back to the centre at night. 

Picture a circle. The energy reaches the periphery during the day time as the morning goes on. A big circle forms, which means the system is maximally outward bound. The outward bound internal pressure matches relative to that of the external environment. both rise throughout the morning. Then, into the afternoon and evening energy concentrates back to the centre and becomes a smaller dot at night rather than a big circle. This cycle happens daily, making sure that you are able to maintain your system in the best possible way. The planets also goes through this night and day cycle.

Essentially, the more you draw back in during the evening, the less your energies become externalised at night when you are trying to internally maintain the physiological system. If the energies are busy sustaining thought patterns and the brain is too active, this takes a lot of energy. Mental processes are thought to take up around 20% of one’s energy budget. There is a time for this to happen.

Sleep is linked to the formation of new memories because it rids the system of old accumulations of past impressions. Part of this process involves pruning the old branches of accumulated impressions, so that there is space to create new formations of memory. If you also sustain old impressions with energy by becoming too active at night, this slows the process of energy renewal.

If you stay up all day and night, it is like your inner sun is shining all day – the earth is bound to get scorched! However, if the temperature drops at night, this prevents the heat radiating out from the surface. In terms of the human being, this stops many aspects of your physiology from becoming over active, so that others parts of the system can do their job. During the night, metabolism slows, and the outward bound orientation of perception begins to recede inwards. When the energies become internally concentrated in this way, it is as if there is no mind.

The mind is actually part of the broader physiology, it is not just the brain. The brain is just one aspect of the mind. There is a pure mind or consciousness beneath this, unsullied by psychological processes. When the brain rests, this means that during sleep, you are able to sleep without becoming psychologically agitated or worked up.

This is all common sense. It is a question or resting to the extent that you recover properly, making you more able to work effectively. At the same time, it is about making sure that you do not store pent up energy which could interrupt sleep and restfulness.

The importance of sleep

It is important to go to sleep in the right kind of state so that you begin a new each day. Otherwise, there is a sense that the events and problems of one day follow on to the next. God is said to have rested on the seventh day of creation. This surely wasn’t out of laziness, but because there was some need to begin anew the following week, starting with the next day. Creating the world is not an easy thing to do, and we create our experience of the world through our own sense perceptions. The number seven represents the seven chakras, or energy centres. When one reaches the number seven, they are said to experience higher dimensions of thought, or pure thought.

When one has created for themselves the best possible situation, this too takes a lot of work. For example, when an athlete has trained to the utmost, they collapse in bed as if they are dead to the world. They then wake up revitalised the next day, ready to renew themselves. There is a lot of wisdom in doing this because there are many misconceptions about life which people ruminate over during the night if they do not expend enough energy during the day. It is foolish to go over transient thoughts which have not even developed to their full extent, as if they were enduring states. However, if you utilise the body’s energises properly, you reach a state of emptiness, which allows you to become free from agitation or tension. 

Weeding out past impression: Pruning

One way of tiring the mind is to engage in lots of physical work. This naturally makes one more settled and still, which can help with sleep. This is particularly important for children. If children do not get enough exercise, scientists are saying that they can develop psychological problems. This is because if they do not strengthen new neurological and physiological connections with enough vigour, old behaviour patterns do not get rooted out. 

This rooting out of old patterns of behaviour is called ‘synaptic pruning’. If neutrons get too enlarged or the connective synapses become too dense, there is a conflict in energy demands. It is like if you have a patch of soil with weeds in it, these weeds take up the nutrients from the soil, leaving a reduced amount of nutrients for the seeds you wish to planting new seedlings, You need to free up resources for new development. This is the work of the martial artists, to constantly keep their soil free of overgrown and hostile weeds.

Transforming past impressions

Unless you destroy the barriers to growth and renewal, you will not get rid of the same old problems which assail you. There tends to be a fear in people that if they destroy what they know, then who they are gets destroyed along with it. This is not so. It is only the illusion which gets destroyed, the memories of yesterday which have become weakened and damaged. These memories create the illusion that what you have achieved today will go on in its current form tomorrow. This prevents seeing things anew, as if for the first time. 

None of this means that you retain no memory of the past. it is possible to maintain your memories so that they become flexible and malleable enough to become modified and adapted to the present moment of experience. Just as the stomach empties in order to become full again, the basic structure of the stomach does not change. Much of the contents of the stomach is transformed into new cells which go into maintaining the health and vitality of the body. It is the same thing with patterns of behaviour, the old patterns go into creating renewed ones, which look the same but are new. This is the reason for maintaining the purity of the martial arts forms, so that they can be absorbed in the purest form possible before they enter into your system and become modified in some way. Each practitioner modifies the pure form in their own way according to the times in which they live, their own particularly temperament, and many other factors. 

Fullness and emptiness: Sleep and Wakefulness

What you have achieved in terms of work gets blown up like a bubble during the day. The bubble expands and becomes filled with air from the outside. This helps to oxygenate the blood, creating new cells and life within you. This is fullness. At night, the energy naturally recedes after expansion, just like how an area of high pressure drops to low pressure after a certain point. In terms of human experience, this point is when the outside pressure drops at night, which has a corresponding affect on inside pressure within yourself. It is only natural. It is not that you become pressure less, it is just that you become more concentrated and less outward bound.

So during the evening, if you manage to empty your container of high pressure, then you will naturally become settled, which sets the ground for maximum activity the following day. If you have not done this systematically, then energy tends to leave the body more abruptly. Whichever way, this is a daily cycle which the body must go through to reach maximum efficiency. Nature does not care how this happens, it’s up to you. So following an intense workout, if you manage to bring the body and mind back down to a resting state, then this promotes recovery and stable overall functioning.

When you have achieved balance between rest and activity, It is like being born again each time you wake up.  This is why it’s best to tire yourself out with physical or mental work during the day time, and then gradually wind this down in the afternoon and evening, so that you enter into a more mediative state or easeful state later in the day. There is then a good balance between gathering new information and resources, whilst allowing time for the pruning of old irrelevant branches of information. This was how the Masters of the past traditionally structured the day for their disciples. They did not stuff their heads with content night and day as they might nowadays. 

The masters of the past were not aware of the technical information which is available today, so they used very simple methods which worked for them. When something works, it is best to stick with it unless there is a compelling reason to change your methods.

When one feels physically tired, they just slip off to sleep easily because they have employed their energies effectively towards their work, keeping nothing for themselves. This works in your favour because you are preparing to reach maximum receptivity the following day when the energies get higher again. 

The importance of energy expenditure and organisation

When the body becomes tired, and the mind is too active, this can lead to mental imbalances. If you just go out for a long walk, chop some wood, or do any kind of physical or manual work for a few hours a day, you will see that it’s quite easy to go to sleep in the evening. This kind of activity also gets you out in the fresh air, which obviously is a healthy thing to do. Getting out in the fresh air relieves many modern problems, such as skin conditions and mental imbalances. So, the idea is to tire the body and focus the mind, preferably in nature, so that ones attention does not become too scattered and hyperactive. when you attention becomes scattered, you become dispersed. You have to gather this mess and organise it aside.

As we go from activity to non activity, we head towards nothingness, which is often referred to as death. In fact a restful sleep is a bit like a temporary death. At night, if you manage to become detached from purpose and drive, then activity becomes meaningless. This requires organisation rather than neglect. When you sit and rest, nothing else exists for you. There is just being, an organised being. This is not a state which you create, it is always there, so make it yours. So in terms of sleep, you are putting your purpose and activity to one side. Then, you can simply be. You then pick up your activity again the next day and begin your work afresh. This is true organisation.

Like this, you can go on indefinitely. For example, you put the days training to one side and then go to sleep for the night, rather than using the imagination to think about ways of improving and calculating how to actively improve. Sleep will make all the necessary adjustments for improvement if you have worked effectively during the window of activity in the day time. It is better to get rid of the old rather than hold on to the the past in order to ensure your successful development in an organised way. 

Pure Memory

Just because you forget about the details during the night, this does not mean you lost what you previously had. Nor does it mean that you will forget about what you have learnt. It just means that this information becomes imbedded into your deeper memory – your subconscious memory. Just like if you pull the weeds out of a soil patch, they rot down into the earth and provide sustenance for new growth. In other words, you turn the old weeds into a potent energy form which transforms itself into new expressions of growth. 

One way of looking at this is that you take the short term memory of learning something, and then imbed it into your muscle memory. This is just a different way of storing information, transforming it from short term memory into long term memory, which is more embodied instead of just brain based. Then the conscious memory (short term memory) becomes an embodied memory (long term memory) which no longer takes up so much space and energy within the brain. This is the purpose of so called synaptic pruning. At the same time, you can retrieve old information at any time because it is stored as pure memory. This pure memory is unimpeded by physical or mental formations, and exists as an energy. This explains how people who are highly trained can recall things they may think they have forgotten and relearn them again in new ways according to changing situations and demands. 

This is why the traditional systems did not work with complicated theories about what works in various self defence situations. They did not want to constrain the complexity of martial arts to the confines of the imagination. One can plan to fight against a swordsman, but what about an enemy who wields a gun, or even some kind of yet to be invented weapon? The imagination cannot conceive of any such novelty, because spontaneous action requires direct perception rather than imagining an outcome in advance. This is why it is important to maintain the purity of practice by breaking it down to its fundamental essence. 

To this end, martial arts masters wanted to free up the conscious memory so that they could process and experience the present moment. They did not want the distortions of past impressions and experiences to form the basis of their present experience. Instead these past experiences were to be stored in the longer term memory as a kind of energy form within the seat of the subconscious. The physical seat of the subconscious is located in the abdomen, the Hara Centre. This energy form within the seat of the subconscious can then become a kind of malleable expression of energy rather than a fixed form from the past. The Hara Centre is also important for maintenance of the body and its energy. When one becomes internally focused, they can use the energy which they have gathered externally to turn inward. 

Memory and Energy

The long term memory has two aspects to it. It is both an energy and a physical form. In fact, all memory is actually a form of energy in itself, you could not act without memory. In terms of rest, it is important to store the energies of the body internally for maintenance rather than for externally orientated activity. For maintenance purposes, you do not need the same high levels of energy storage and expression as you do in high activity states during the day. So the activity of the day recedes back down during the night, like a lowering tide. This is why it is often said that sleep consolidates memory, because it imbeds conscious memory into the subconscious, turning our physical and mental activity into a kind of renewable and self sustaining energy. 

It is important  that you are realistic about what you can achieve in your activity and training.  Rather than going by what you imagine or what social expectations suggest, it is important to maintain quality over quantity. Often, you get to a point where its best to write off the expectations for the day, dropping them off as you would hang your coat and hat up when you get home. Demands and work will still be there the following day. There is a time for these. You don’t need to hang on to them for longer than necessary. 

A lot of people keep their coat and hat on when they should be trying to sleep. In other words, a lot of people remain active when the time has come to be restful. But what sort of state are they in the next day after being up all night? Often they are unable to do what’s needed of them the following day, and they regret being so active all night. This is particularly important if you have reached a stage in your life where you are looking for more than just basic survival.

A lot of baggage which we hold on to can be simply dropped off when we relinquish holding on to it. What is this baggage? The thoughts and feelings about the events of the day, an excess of energy which can be put aside. These can be things which you pick up and drop at will, if you develop the capability to do so. For example, when it’s time to sleep, instead of holding onto some idea about yourself, it is often better just to put it aside temporarily. Holding on to unnecessary thoughts is the same as storing pent up energy which has not been utilised properly. Thoughts are transient. You may not have much control over them, but you can let them play out and after some time they will transform into a different kid of energy if you make yourself a certain way. 

Maybe you are a world champion kick boxer. There is no point being this way all the time, it just becomes a heavy weight to bear. It is often better to create some time and space to simply drop all of these ideas and become lighter. As I mentioned earlier, these rich ideas about ourselves lay the ground for new ideas to emerge. Allowing time for this process helps you relax and rejuvenate, which is a good way to enhance your own capabilities in the Long run. 

Oscillating Force in Martial Arts

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 4 min read | 102 views

“Energy transfer occurs as an
oscillation of dynamic energy”

If you perform a strike in an oscillating manner, the impact is often as though you were landing on the ground and absorbing the gravitational energy through your body. The only difference is that the impact is being absorbed through the striking limb. This means you can spring off of the opponent as well as stop them in their tracks with impact.


When you use an oscillating force, the energy you send into the opponent does not fully dissipate out of you and into them. It oscillates back and forth which gives you the ability to immediately spring into some other action, much like when you bounce a basketball on the floor and you dart off somewhere. This kind of rebound action is possible with the basketball because you send energy into the ball, which moments later is then reabsorbed by you after it hits the floor. When you correctly judge where it will go, you get into position and wait for it. It’s not that you lose the ball and gather it back again losing you momentum each time.


In martial arts, and elsewhere, a certain transformation of energy takes place from stored energy into movement energy. We call these different manifestations of the same force “oscillatory” energy. In martial arts, you hit the opponent or target and then re-position yourself during that moment when the energy is transferred into the target briefly. This frees you up for a moment to seamlessly transition into the next phase of action without having a large amount of stored energy to shift. This happens all at once without having to having to gather and reestablish yourself at each step, if it is done properly.


“A punch or kick is simply an inductor
which initiates the potential energy”.

In basketball, there is a moment when the energy transfers into the ball and away from you physically. This means it turns from stored energy to movement or dynamic energy. Nothing is lost in this process. The energy is conserved and remains constant throughout the oscillation back and forth. For example, in martial arts you hit the target, and this same energy from the impact is then released back into your own system when you pull it back. This involves a certain perception which is felt during the impact of a strike and which continues after.When the martial artists feels and anticipates this felt recoil after the initial impact, they align themselves physically to take full advantage of this energy before it dissipates.


When you launch a kick, it is not that you just passively shape the foot to brace for impact. You should find that your foot or fist shapes itself spontaneously to the angle it lands on the target, just as it would if you were to jump over a fence and land on an uneven surface. Your ankle might have to adapt spontaneously to land on terrain that could either be softer or more uneven than expected, for instance. This would be automatic if you were alert and ready, and would minimise injury.


You wouldn’t want to land on just the ball of your foot if you were to absorb heavy impact, because the ankle would likely get sprained. You would want to transmit this force through the entire system and align the body accordingly. Here you are not looking to unload energy into the ground. If you are preparing for an almighty crashing impact, it is best to use the entire surface area of the foot properly and absorb gravitational energy in such a way that it does not damage the ankle. This is just one example.


In martial arts, you are not looking to strike the surface with a part of the foot or hand and just unload energy there. Only in a very rudimentary sense are you doing this.


The strike you are doing, whether this is a punch or kick, is simply an inductor which initiates the potential energy. When it comes to striking a target, you are simply shaping the striking limb so that the energy is transferred effectively throughout the entire system as a whole. This energy transfer occurs as an oscillation of dynamic energy.

Total Involvement in Self Defence

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 6 min read | 101 views

“it is possible for the brain to distort the situation when it becomes flooded and overthinks the situation. This should not happen where possible.“

The important thing is to remain in a state of total awareness. Keeping the hands up in a state of unawareness is just going through the motions. Even if you cover your face with your arms, peek through your guard with at least one eye. That way, you can see what’s coming next. If your guard obscures your vision completely, you don’t know who is around you, or what they are going to do next. It is for this reason the hands hands should be fluid and used in many different ways.

Putting the hands in the way of the opponents face or body runs interference on them. This creates a series of diversions. These can be fidgety movements with the hands and body, which divert the opponents attention away from you being attacked. Much of the activity involved in fighting has to do with distractions and misleading the opponent, rather than creating any kind of definitive outcome.

If you need to, you can simply stick your hand in their face. If you distract them with your hands by grabbing out at them or poking them in the eye, this buys you time to run off. This is a kind of strategy to find an opportunity to make your escape. It is not that you want to poke them in the eye just to cause harm or for any kind of outcome in particular. 

The enraged opponent always attacks meaninglessly. Meaningless aggression is one of the most powerful ways to attack. The opponent is distracting you with meaningless yet dangerous attacks. This is the basis of their power. You do not need to try and understand this in any intellectual sense. If some wild animals are howling in the night, preventing you from sleeping, you do not need to decipher what they are saying or doing. You just keep out of their way and keep a barrier between yourself and them. We know that wild animals make noise. 

Act to put a stop to the situation, or distance yourself from it, as and when required.

Just as a boxer sends out a series of feints to make the attacker back off or stop, the individual defending themselves does the same to buy themselves an opportunity to escape. A moment is all you really need. Wild attackers rarely know why they are doing what they are doing because they are acting largely unconsciously. This does not prevent them being effective. If you respond to the situation with total conscious awareness, rather than turning it into just a thought process, you are able to become more toally involved in the situation.

Nobody made the planets round. This is just the way nature made them. It didn’t require any kind of building process. In the same way, nature endowed us with the capacity to intuitively respond to urgent situations so long as we remain aware and pay full attention to the process consciously. Just as the planet is rounded by nature, we too become rounded and balanced by becoming totally involved. We can become aware of this or not. Like the planet itself, it is possible to be at it twenty four hours a day, by offering yourself to the process of ceaseless development and conscious awareness of this process.

Most fights happen because somebody who is acting out of a need to dominate others in some social situation goes up against another person who wants to deliver them justice. Who is wrong and who is right is just a matter of opinion. Two such individuals will naturally gravitate towards each other unless they are not in the same room. This is why it is always best to leave the situation if you can, even if you think you’re in the right. Never trust what you think about survival situations, just see them for what they are. You can only think logically by comparing yourself to another. Instead it is better to cut through this and act totally rather than as one side against another. That is the whole meaning of sacrifice, to commit to the wholesituation and act from there. It is only though bypassing limited thought processes and committing totally that something else more powerful happens. At the same time, such an act of total commitment creates the best possible conditions for the thought process to happen most clearly.

You need to focus when the danger becomes imminent, but also remain aware of the periphery. Where are the exit doors? Does the opponent have any friends waiting nearby to help them? When the opponent is very close, you become very heightened and reactive. Due to the intensity of the situation, blood rushes to the brain. This is usually accompanied by a fight or flight response. 

If the brain gets flooded with hormones and blood, the body can become drained. If this happens for prolonged periods, then over time distortions happen within the system. In this way it is possible for the brain to distort the situation when it becomes flooded and overthinks the situation. This should not happen where possible. Maintain an awareness of your stance so that you do not lose all the energy from your body. Then it can communicate intelligently with the brain. This is one important reason why it is important to focus on the Hara Centre, the body’s centre of gravity,and maintain equilibrium. Maintain a certain pressure and energy there by locking into the centre. 

It is often important to move off centre to avoid an attack, whilst at the same time re directing its energy. For instance, you can step outside by pivoting on the front leg as the rear leg steps around the back of yourself. This takes you out to the side. The front leg stays where it is as the rear leg steps outside of the opponents line of attack. You can either grab the opponents arm, or thrust it away with the palm. It is as if you are kneading dough. You do not slap the dough but you sink the palm hand into it, gripping it somewhat whilst at the same time applying a kind of pressing force down and away from you. This redirects the opponents force against their own equilibrium. The idea is not to dissipate this force but to make it oscillate back and forth from your own centre, linking you to to the target. This prevents you becoming too drained of energy, and allows you to use the opponents force against them.

Growing Through Turbulence

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 4 min read | 95 views

Wu the Master said:
“On that depository of corpses, the battlefield, if there be certain expectation of death, there is life; if there be happy expectation of life, there is death. The good general is like unto one sitting in a leaking ship, or lying under a burning roof; the wisest man cannot contrive against him; the strongest man cannot destroy his composure; and the enemy’s onslaught can be withstood. For procrastination is the greatest enemy of the general; disasters to the army are born of indecision”.

It is possible to feel at ease even if you are working intensely at maximum effort. It is just that you often need to wait for some time for this stillness to wash over you. for example, when the breath quickens after running up a flight of stairs, a balanced equilibrium is soon reached once the blood has circulated around the system and the body has caught up with the increased breathing rate. There is a process of acclimatising to activity. For instance, when sprinting it is normal to get out of breath. There is a certain period of quickened breath which occurs before the body catches up. When it does, balance is achieved from what initially appears to be turbulence.

When the body catches up and starts to engage with the breath, there is balance. The heightened frequency of breath translates into increased blood flow and wider circulation after a few minutes or so. This leads to enhanced fitness over time, as well as a sense of invigoration and liberation. This liberation is a consequence of pushing yourself beyond certain limitations, which initially starts with a sense of turbulence. Many people give up before they are able to push through this turbulence.

If you do not successfully synchronise the breath with activity, then there is often just hyperventilation, which can lead to physiological anxiety. In other words there is just a stimulus without the necessary corresponding activity. It is for this reason that heightened anxiety is often accompanied by a decline in physical activity levels in modern society. Modern society is going through a widespread increase in such conditions of anxiety largely because physical activity levels have declined so dramatically. 

Following exercise, there is a certain sense of ease, once the energy situation is worked out and you have ridden the wave of physiological change. If you want to ride a wave, you float on top of it rather than being dragged by it and shot off course. This involves moving with events, rather than being moved by them involuntarily. So you use the energy of the wave to get to new heights. For example, in sailing if only one end of the ship is moved by a big wave, the other sinks down and the ships ends up taking on water and sinking. The ship has failed to ride the wave. To remain one an even keel, the ship needs to sink into the water line evenly from both ends in a certain way. In the same way the martial artist should remain grounded and focused on keeping their balance whilst their heart rate is elevated so that they remain on an even keel.

An initial rise in activity levels is often the beginning phase of you later moving towards a certain inner stillness. Turbulence is a phase of any given high intensity situation. It is also part of your own reaction to the situation as a whole. However, the laws of keeping yourself balanced do not change just because the is moving through turbulence. For example, you cannot reach well being by bringing turbulence or chaos within yourself, only by keeping on top of it or outside of its direct influence. So it must be used and transformed.

importantly, turbulence is a necessary state for balance to express itself totally and dynamically. The initial instability of a situation is simply a call to action, and a phase to move through. It is a stimulus, much like when the sunlight warms the earth and causes the seed to crack open. It is only later that it grows to its full stature. This is why many people find balance and stillness through high intensity work and even chaotic situations. With an unwavering discipline and determination, they can enhance their own growth through what appears to be turbulent environments.

Posture and Energy Transfer in Martial Arts

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 6 min read | 114 views

The Back as a Spring: Energy Storage and Posture in Martial Arts

The back muscles are fundamental to maintaining upright posture and enabling efficient transfer of energy throughout the body. They counteract gravity’s natural tendency to compress us, allowing us to stand tall and balanced. So there is an upward extension of the posture against gravity. This frees us from becoming too pressurised. At the same time, without the downward pull of gravity there would be no me or you.

Understanding how the back functions as an energy reservoir is essential for mastering martial arts and cultivating both physical and emotional resilience.

Energy Storage and Posture

The back muscles play a key role in storing potential energy, which can be transferred dynamically during movement. This storage and release mechanism ensures that the body can perform powerful, coordinated actions. For the back to function optimally in this way, it must work effectively to hold the body in a relatively straight line. If the back fails to maintain alignment, slumping occurs, leading to postural imbalances and reduced energy transmission and efficiency.

Maintaining an upright posture ensures that the back muscles remain engaged, creating a stable energy line for movement. This alignment is not just a structural necessity but also an energy-saving strategy, allowing the body to respond fluidly to physical demands.

Posture and Striking in Martial Arts

In martial arts, striking requires a balance between forward motion and energy transfer. When extending a punch, there is a natural tendency to lean forward, compressing the chest muscles and abdomen. This compression relaxes the back and legs, facilitating the forward motion and transfer of energy. However, to prevent loss of balance and energy dissipation, martial artists counteract this motion by drawing the opposite shoulder back. This is one way to become more balanced.

For example, when punching with the left arm, the right shoulder extends backward. This creates a relatively straight line between the front and back shoulder, as one draws back and the other goes in. This coordinated action maintains structural integrity and ensures the efficient transfer of energy from the back to the striking limb. This concept of balanced motion reflects the broader principle of energy dynamics in martial arts.

Posture and Emotional Balance

Posture does more than support physical activity; it also influences emotional well-being. An excessive forward lean or slouched posture compresses the chest and abdomen, often heightening feelings of fear and vulnerability. Fear naturally encourages a closed, protective posture—a survival mechanism that can hinder both movement and emotional stability. At the same time, when the time is right one must be ready to fight for survival when necessary. What is not necessary is to make a way of life out of this need.

Actively maintaining upright posture counteracts this survival reaction, promoting a sense of calm and readiness. Martial arts has long emphasized the importance of balanced posture to mitigate the effects of fear. By aligning the body, practitioners align their minds, reducing emotional imbalance and fostering inner resilience.

The Spiral Motion in Martial Arts

An effective martial arts strike incorporates a spiraling motion through the body’s natural curves. When standing upright, the spine’s “S” shape facilitates this twist. For instance, striking involves a coordinated motion where one side of the body contracts while the other extends. This creates a dynamic, whole-body movement that channels energy efficiently.

This spiral motion can be compared to the actions of a javelin thrower, who loads their weight onto the leg opposite the throwing shoulder. By arching the back and extending the throwing shoulder behind them, the thrower stores potential energy, which is then transferred explosively during the throw. Similarly, in martial arts, this stored energy enables powerful, precise movements.

In martial arts, it is essential to maintain the right posture so that you are not unnecessarily aggressive and fearful. If you spend too much time in a reactive state of stress and aggression, you run this risk of shortening and disturbing the energy pathways which enhances one’s health and vitality. These energy pathways have to do with the connective tissues and fascia around the body, which works as an integrated whole for energy movement.

The Back as a Spring

The back and legs function as a spring, storing kinetic energy that can be transferred throughout the body. This principle is evident in both martial arts and biomechanics. While the back itself does not deliver the primary force—as in the case of a javelin throw, where the waist and core initiate the motion—it plays a pivotal role in energy storage and transfer. To counteract the any excessive arching of the back, martial artists often maintain a certain pressure within the abdomen, which becomes distended as they extend the back.

This energy dynamics concept applies in live martial arts practice, where rapid movements rely on this stored energy, and in meditative or stretching exercises. These practices allow practitioners to generate and store energy within the back and spine, which can then be distributed to other areas of the body, including the brain and internal organs, for enhanced vitality and health. Of course, energy is also stored elsewhere too, but proper stretching and extension of the spine greatly enhances this quality of energy transfer.

Yang and Yin: The Back and Front in Martial Arts

In martial arts philosophy, the back is considered yang, representing strength, tension, and outward energy, while the front is considered yin, symbolizing softness, receptivity, and inward energy. This balance is critical for maintaining harmony within the body.

Do not think that the front of the body cannot be yang. As I said earlier, there is a certain pressure held in the abdomen which prevents the front of the body becoming overly relaxed. This spot is known as the Hara Centre, which stores a lot of the body’s energy. So by enhancing the posture, the martial artists also enhances the energy generation and storage capability of the abdomen and Hara Centre.

Because the back is associated with yang energy, it has a natural tendency to become overly tense if energy is not properly released. This is why martial arts training emphasizes not only strengthening the back but also stretching it. Stretching helps release excess tension, restoring balance and preventing stiffness or energy stagnation. By keeping the back flexible and strong, practitioners ensure that energy can flow freely, supporting both physical performance and overall well-being.

Balancing Posture and Energy

The goal of martial arts has always been to bring balance—both physical and emotional—to the practitioner. By focusing on upright posture, martial artists can reduce the impact of fear and create a stable foundation for movement and energy transfer. The back, acting as a spring, not only supports the body but also ensures that energy is stored and released efficiently via the waist and abdomen, allowing for powerful, fluid motion.

Understanding and applying these principles in daily practice can transform martial arts from mere physical training into a holistic discipline that enhances overall well-being.

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