Category: emergency

Integrating the Reaction

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 7 min read | 117 views

Most martial arts training begins with learning how to react under pressure. Yet true mastery lies in moving beyond fear-driven responses toward stability, awareness, and self-regulation. This article explores how traditional martial arts transform stress into resilience through posture, breathing, centred awareness, and the cultivation of a complete response to challenge.

How does one move beyond fear-driven survival and reactive training? Martial arts training need not be about reacting to perceived threats habitually. Many people believe that in martial arts, all you have to do is learn to quickly and effectively disarm or pacify and attacker with ferocity. This is true to some extent. Because of this, pressure testing came about, where one trains under externally induced stress to boost their reactions. In terms of martial arts, this often means training your fight or flight response, so that you take positive steps to defend yourself. This usually involves self defence against some sort of predetermined attack. There is an immediate benefit from engaging in such training. However, if one habituates themselves to just reacting to threats unconsciously, their response is just partial. 

When pressure is taken exclusively into the survival centres of the brain, the system narrows. Perception tightens, breathing shortens, and posture collapses or becomes rigid. In addition, energy expenditure rises sharply. In terms of self defence, this prepares you to either run away or hit back hard. There is nothing wrong with this. It is necessary and effective for immediate escape or stop an opponent’s attack. Moreover, a purely reactive strategy is particularly useful in the absence of more tactical and refined methods.  However, by itself, a reactive approach it is usually insufficient for long term learning, high performance, or sustained engagement in hostile or threatening situations. As such, a reactive approach is a partial solution to the wider problem of successfully navigating potentially hostile situations. To move beyond basic training, the martial artist learns to take what is partial and integrate it into a complete process.

The work of the martial artist is to translate this stimulus, which originates from a survival response, into a productive and useful kind of energy for universal application. 

Readiness to act is not simply about reacting to outside events and becoming tense. When the body is malleable to the environment rather than suppressed, the same stimulus that would create tension can be spread across the system, refined, and integrated. For example, if you spread ink across a page, it becomes less concentrated, but the same material is still there. Similarly, when fight or flight enters the system more broadly, it can broaden its capacity. External stress then becomes a stimulus, and a tool for distribution and refinement of energy. The work of the martial artist is to translate this stimulus, which originates from a survival response, into a productive and useful kind of energy for universal application. 

For example, if you are startled by a loud noise, the reaction does not need to remain localised, creating tension. In fact, it is possibly because you are not tuned in to the environment in the first place that you received a call to action and got startled. When the body is prepared and grounded, that same impulse that caused one to become immediately prepared, can be absorbed, transformed, and expressed as a stable posture. The same energy that would have become tension, leading to potential collapse later on, instead becomes part of an integrated structure.

posture and movement do not merely express mental states, they also help shape them. 

Because the body and brain are dynamically interconnected, a substantial portion of brain function is causally dependent on bodily regulation. This includes working with metabolic, physiological, and internal perception processes, not just the survival circuits. Rather than simply abstract ideas, the brain’s operating mode is continuously shaped by bodily state, so if one is in a perceptual state of survival all the time, then this potentially leads to one’s health becoming undermined over time. However, if the brain perceives that the body is stable and grounded, the feedback loop between perception and action begins organising the system toward greater coherence. In this way, posture and movement do not merely express mental states, they also help shape them. 

Traditional martial arts articulate the idea of becoming physically centred through concepts like the hara centre or dan tian. The Hara centre is the centre of regulation and maintenance of energy. While terms such as the Hara Centre are often treated as mystical, it describes something physically concrete: the body’s centre of mass. This includes all aspects of deep core engagement, diaphragmatic breathing, and integrated posture. These aspects of the physiology can be treated as inputs to the brain, much like external inputs such as visual or auditory stimuli. Just as a loud noise can startle you, good postural stability can act as a causal agent to make you feel grounded. So, when you centre your practice around a strong and grounded posture, this experience becomes directly embedded in a living system of nerves, muscles, bones, connective tissue, hormones, and feedback loops. When you bring awareness to this stability, there is no longer such a fixation on external chaos. On is then more able to face difficult situations more successfully.

Awareness towards The Hara Centre creates a powerful process of self regulation. When the martial artist focuses their attention on the Hara, there is no need for emotional stimulation to become driven. There is nothing wrong with activity which makes you driven and highly emotional stimulated necessarily. However, such states are often brought about by excessive engagement with external stimulus, which can cause burnout, particularly if such activity remains unregulated. This has always been the problem with sustained high motivational states. After a few years of being highly motivated and on the go all the time, people often crash. To avoid this happening, in martial arts they developed various internal systems which rely more on the posture and self regulation instead of constant external stimulation from the external environment. 

Regulating the body is one of the most direct and effective ways to regulate the brain because much of what the brain does is predict, manage, and respond to the body’s condition. When your behaviour consistently promotes stability and regulation, the brain gradually begins to expect these states as normal. In doing so, it adjusts its predictions, responses, and patterns of activity accordingly, reinforcing the very stability that produced them in the first place . In order to heighten one’s sense perception without becoming overly reactive, it is necessary to strategically develop self regulation so that you remain in control of the situation in front of you. 

The principle is simple, tension held consciously within the Hara centre, can effectively be distributed intentionally, so long as your engagement in this remains full. Conscious awareness is not merely attention, concentration, or mindfulness in the popular sense. It is becoming present in full participation with reality without fragmentation. When one is present, they are no longer reactive or partially conscious. Such an individual does not then merely react to outside events without regard for their internal state. In terms of martial arts, this means becoming better able to self regulate rather than just emote. To develop a complete response to danger, it is necessary to become observant and aware, as well as self regulated. 

Through observation and practice, the body itself becomes the medium through which clarity, resilience, and self-regulation arise in response to external stimulus. This response can be a complete one, or a partial one. If your response becomes complete, you are no longer wholly shaped by the external environment. Instead, your perception of the external environment becomes distinct from your internal state. This does not mean you ignore the external environment. It just means you do not identify with it. You stop reacting to fragments as though they were the whole. Your internal state is medium through which to develop a complete experience, whereas the external happenings are just fragments passing through it. A complete response sees the fragment without mistaking it for the whole. When those fragments arise, interact, and pass away, this is transformation. 

The Slow Fire: Training Beyond Fear, Thought, and Survival – Part 3

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 10 min read | 190 views

Thoughts Are Weather, Not Orders

Cognitive capacity is largely determined by bodily state. Beyond certain parameters, your emotions push, but your body’s resources can’t sustain the pressure. That is, unless you are a suitable vehicle for this energy. In terms of martial arts and self defence, developing ones body through martial arts is a method of stress distribution and energy regulation. In this way the martial artists does not suffer stress but is able to transform what would be stress one person into an enhanced possibility within themselves.

Motivation energises the system, but regulation prevents depletion.You can shift the balance from a sudden reaction to danger, which brings a kind of explosive overwhelm based on limited perception and a cognitive representation, to a more grounded and body based response. You can do this by working with breath, posture, movement. This can be done without changing thoughts at all. There may still be thoughts going on, but the contents of the brain in terms of images, sensations, and thoughts is minimal and does not disrupt your attention.

In traditional martial arts, they did not bother thinking in term of just becoming smart or technically trained. Technical details which are stored in the brain as short term memory are not the same as working with the long term neural networks. The short term memory is often an attempt to represent what is deeply understood, often poorly. On the other hand, working with an externally structured pattern and replicating that is a good way to start but after a certain point it is just recalled knowledge, rather than an expressed intelligence.

“You can look at them and use them if you want, but that’s different from imitating these surface expressions.”

In fact, many of the masters of the past urged us to ignore our thoughts and treat them as superficial, passing like the wind. You can look at them and use them if you want, but that’s different from imitating these surface expressions. There is a lot of wisdom in this, because according to martial arts thoughts are not to be enshrined or suppressed, they are just passing events, like the weather to simply observe rather than take orders from.

We think that in some way if we are strong, determined, motivated, that this will bring guaranteed health and confidence. However, it is necessary to develop your system in such a way that it thrives on what it creates in its own way, rather than relying on outside happenings and events. You then develop a strong sense of discipline and internal motivation, which when developed in the long term, brings its own kind of unique prowess to everything you do. Then, rather than because you have undergone some kind of short term competence training and recalled some impressions, you are able to generate something of substance.

So why wait for this teacher or that training method to come? Grow them from within, according to a stable platform and they will naturally develop. A fighter who engages with the their own thoughts or those of others simply hesitates and loses timing. Thus, martial arts historically trained practitioners to let thoughts arise and dissolve without engagement, keeping perception grounded in posture, breath, and the environment. Then, the benefits of training occur without changing thought content. On the other hand, you can be extremely motivated and full of technical skill but still dysregulated. Confidence from surface level competence is fragile. Confidence from a deeply held and formidable structure is stable. This is true competence.

True prowess comes from developing a system that can self-organize, self-regulate, and self-generate. In many ways, mental health is not dependant on the thoughts floating around in your head. Instead, how you engage the nervous system’s capacity to regulate attention, emotion, and action independently of transient mental representations and passing thoughts is the way foreward.

So, what I’m talking about is not just winning a fight, a match, or just getting fit. This is bricks and mortar stuff, where what you grow is inseparable from what you yield. Your thoughts and emotions might bring rain with them, which actually causes growth. rather than removing these, let them do as they will non judgementally. When I say non judgementally, this has been corrupted and can easily lead you to becoming judgemental about everything and fixate on certain things. What I mean is for you yo develop a no mind mind set.

Tomorrows skills are todays crops, which require uncertainty and contradictory conditions, like any dynamic environment in order to thrive. Thoughts, like rain, may feel disruptive. But rain feeds the soil. If the ground is stable, regulated, structured, and integrated, rain produces growth. Understand this, so that there is an interconnection between what you do and how you are, rather than letting thoughts govern action by default.

When you perform intrinsically meaningful activity, that means there is no external motivation. Yes there are external things happening, but there is no carrot and stick. If there is a thought, then there is a thought. Either way, you act as needed, not according to the thoughts going on in your head. This requires a certain clarity, and a lack of distortion of the mind. When there is no distortion, perception and attention occurs faster than thought because it happens unimpeded. It is not that you must have some thoughts and ideas to have attention. There can be attention and perception unattached to thought. In such a state, response becomes immediate, efficient, and fluid — not because thought is suppressed, but because it is not obstructing perception.

So what drives this process of perception without thought? It is simply that you remain fundamentally engaged with the activity, whether or not there is any reward or motivation. It is not that there is no thought happening. Action is not independent of thought, but it is not governed by it. Just as the crops grow without being destroyed by the rain and wind, you too grow as conditions wash over you and you continue in your growth. Growth requires diverse conditions, and thought is a necessary part of this. True development does not occur in sterile mental silence. When engagement is steady and distortion is low, the system reorganizes itself over time. Then, growth becomes continuous and perception led.

Thoughts and emotions gain a dominant influence when regulation is lost and identification occurs. Action then becomes repetitive and rigid. Thoughts then become compulsive and identity forming, rather than just informational or integrated. Mindfulness helps without changing thought content precisely because your activity is not identified with thought but with action and perception. So participation in thought becomes a vonantary process. Then, rather than your work being rewarded by relief from hardship or effort, the process is the product.

“When there is no inner bargaining, that reduces stress load and there is greater yield.”

When you voluntarily become the effort, rather than the result of some reward, this is the same as saying there is no identification with thoughts. There is no transaction, nothing in it for you. and yet, this kind of action improves mental health and wellbeing without disputing existing beliefs or relying on transient motivational states. That means there’s no pay off. When there is no inner bargaining, that reduces stress load and there is greater yield.

Why Survival Is a Terrible Default Mode

If training constantly triggers survival responses, the practitioner becomes good at panic, not endurance. So don’t drag yourself through the process just to get to the end result so that it is over. Staying grounded and centred, rather than dispersed, and in a no mind state, these are all instructions for staying out of survival mode unless absolutely necessary. Training should bias the nervous system toward modes of action that support sustained effort rather than emergency mobilisation. This means that every moment of engagement is life sustaining and stabilising, rather than survival based. You then continuously ride the wave of your own unfolding success, whether you win or lose. This all develops your ability to sustain effort without collapse, and your capacity to sustain this is a consequence of the time you have spent cultivating this process.

What you need to do is to find what uniquely inspires you. You do not need to spend hours practicing skills superficially to be a good martial artists. You will only become a technician that way. When you spend intimate time on all aspects of life, such as the meditative side, how you work, how you recuperate around training these martial arts skills, then you will become better as a result. So you can do minimal physical practice, in a disciplined and sustainable way, whilst spending time away from training. Then, all of your activity enhances the way you are. This is not the same as being lazy with training. When you become much more susceptible to growth and development, rather than just training to constantly triggers survival responses, your growth is ensured. Then, you are involved with everything rather than just a few hours of intense training at the physical level.

Fear Is Not the Enemy

Effective training prioritises sustained, regulated effort over short-term survival reactions, allowing action to arise from structure and perception, instead of cognitive overload and thought. So the idea is to get as involved in everything more broadly, just as you would with certain formal martial arts and self defence training. Then, you become fearless, because there is nothing you are not competent and involved with. This is the same as saying you are all inclusive. When you become excessively fearful, it is natural to want to dominate others and exclude them. So in dominating others, this is just a different way of identifying with fear.

When fear exceeds a person’s capacity to regulate it, the nervous system does not simply remain afraid. It seeks resolution. Domination is often a compensatory strategy for uncontained fear. This is why fear-based societies drift toward domination even when intentions are good. This is yet another example of how thoughts about activity are not the same direct perception and action. When fear cannot be carried, due to weakness and corruption, it is imposed on others. The way to handle fear is to neither deny it nor act upon it, but to work on self regulation and strategies to impede its amplification to an out of proportion state.This brings mental clarity. Clarity means the mind is not distorted by excessive narrative, emotional amplification, or self-referential fixation. Then, fear can exist without needing to control others or becoming reduced by it.

Excessive thoughts often fuel fear. So thoughts are not the source, they are fuel. When you don’t engage thoughts, you allow the fear response, which is primarily physiological, to run its natural course.Fear does not require thought to operate, and can easily become amplified and out of proportion if you allow if to command you. Fear is not the enemy, nor is it the master. By relying more heavily on becoming grounded and robust, you remove cognitive amplification of thoughts. Let fear pass through you, and you are liberated from it altogether.

Epilogue

What we call resilience may have less to do with toughness and more to do with efficiency. Systems that force people into narrow modes of functioning increase stress by design. Practices that widen the circuitry—through movement, posture, breath, and individualised development—allow the same pressures to be sustained with far less cost. This means you shift to heightened attention, without the noise and distortion. This is true of martial arts, and elsewhere. The question may not be how much stress a person can endure, but where that stress is allowed to go, as well as how you relate to a given situation. When you are able to self regulate and engage continuously, response becomes immediate, efficient, and fluid. Not because thought is suppressed, but because it is not obstructing perception. Then you do not comment on the rain, you just continue growing.

The Slow Fire: Training Beyond Fear, Thought, and Survival – Part 1

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 8 min read | 174 views

Ultimately, the only thing that will make you thrive in your practice, is that you ensure everything in your entire system benefits from your training. This is a long term investment, rather than a short term effort. Most forms of training involve practice according to some dominant method. The type of method changes according to the prevailing dogma, and the times we live in. For example, people might learn according to visual instruction, experiential learning, or some other method. This is ok for instructional purposes, but in the end it just leads to cliche moves and predictable cadences.

There are many ways that people learn. This is according to a variety of factors. For example, if someone is under some kind of stress, then they learn one way best. If they are more regulated and in a flow kind of state, then they learn best in another kind of way. Because the survival circuits were highly active in most people throughout much of human history, there was a strong preference for learning styles which spell everything out for you. This allowed for clean resolution. However, when one develops other centres of the brain, for example when they become older or have formed different connections, there is a need for a different style of learning, one that encourages more creativity.

Depending on the type of person, different pathways need to be taken into consideration For some, alignment to a given method is natural. Their way of thinking, perceiving, and learning happens to fit the dominant method. For others, success requires adaptation: developing a cognitive or behavioural quality that is not their natural strength. For some, there is no immediate acquisition and memory of facts. There is a more slow distribution after a sustained engagement, much like when one mediates and releases energy more slowly rather than all at once. When you can master sustained engagement, remaining present, you can find things easier and yet you perform better in many ways.

Ancient Training for Modern Stress

“If development were truly centred on human potential, there would not be a handful of learning styles. There would be as many methods as there are nervous systems.”

When one becomes meditative, there is a slow release of energy which buffers the stress response. This energy is sustained by all sorts of environmental and internal factors. Let’s say there is an environmental stimulus, which produces one unit of energy. For arguments sake, we will say that this one unit of energy can enter the survival circuits of the brain and produce a sudden explosion of activity which creates a fast and rapid response. When localised into the hara centre, the body’s centre of gravity, this same unit of energy is able to maintain and distribute energy more efficiently than if it were to enter straight into the survival pathways. This is of course simplified, but it makes it so you are able to capitalise on stress rather than be depleted by it.

Everybody has a unique capability, which if it reaches its potential, will over time produce unique qualities. So if you want to develop to your full potential and stature, you need to invest in this unique quality. Developing your uniqueness requires a qualitatively different kind of engagement. However, because people have not generally explored this, they think they should fit a dominant model dedicated towards produce pre determined outcomes. Over time, this produces a subtle distortion. People often become competent at what they are least suited for, while their more potent potential capacities remain underdeveloped or invisible. If development were truly centred on human potential, there would not be a handful of learning styles. There would be as many methods as there are nervous systems.

A key assumption in many systems is that the same stimulus produces the same response. Human physiology tells a different story. When an input enters the human system—whether information, pressure, threat, or stress—the outcome depends heavily on where that input is processed. An environmental stressor does not exist in isolation; it is interpreted through specific neural pathways shaped by biology, conditioning, posture, movement, and experience.

Why Stress Is Not What Happens, but Where It Lands

If a stimulus primarily activates survival-oriented circuits—those responsible for immediate threat response—the energy produced is fast, intense, and costly. These pathways are designed for short-term emergencies, not sustained effort. They burn quickly and deplete resources. So, if you want to focus on self discipline, and long term development, you are not primarily looking to bolster the survival circuits. Less is more in that regard.

Other neural networks operate differently when compared to the short term survival circuits. They are slower to activate but far more energy-efficient once engaged. In addition, they can be engaged for long periods without causing a depletion or energy and draining you of resources. This is the reason for the development of the more meditative exercises in martial arts traditionally, rather than just a focus on self defence in emergency situations. Then, if you need to you have more energy in an emergency, once a certain amount of energy is cultivated and refined, it is already available to you because you have cultivated it yourself.

Let’s say you react to an emergency situation with aggression. There is a sudden explosion of energy, much like taking off and sprinting to the finish line. There is a certain development of coordination, precision, and enhancement of health, but the units of energy are depleted quickly so there is no sustained long term development. There is no containment for it to become incubated and develop. This is fine in children for example, who have an abundance of energy quite naturally all the time. However, particularly as one ages, there is a need to become more efficient and intelligent about energy utilisation.

As one ages or becomes more concerned with efficiency over competitive edge, it is necessary to distribute and maintain energy, so that it can go further. This is entirely unnecessary of course if the goal is just to use up energy and dispose of it, as though it were of no value to cultivate.

So when one engages in their training with a grounded posture, sinking into the stance and focusing on the breath, one maximally engages the Hara Centre and diaphragm quite naturally. This enhance the aspects of the system which rise slowly and build steadily, with economy in mind. These systems support endurance, coordination, sustained engagement, and integration. The same “unit” of energy can be expended immediately, like a sprint, or slowly and sustainably, like a marathon. The stimulus has not changed. The pathway has. Depending on the pathway, you will take a certain kind of journey.

Stress as a Distribution Problem

“The same stimulus which causes stress can be sustained in different regions of the system, so that it becomes refined and evenly distributed rather than localised and isolated.”

In term of martial arts, stress is not simply about reacting to outside events. When you become malleable to the environment, instead of suppressing much of the system and just developing the survival circuits, you become more integrated with it. The same stimulus which causes stress can be sustained in different regions of the system, so that it becomes refined and evenly distributed rather than localised and isolated. From this perspective, stress is not simply about localised intensity within a short time frame. It is about distribution across a longer time frame.

When pressure is taken exclusively into the survival centres of the brain, the system narrows. Perception tightens, breathing shortens, posture collapses or becomes rigid, and energy expenditure rises sharply. This is effective for immediate escape, particularly in the absence of more tactical and refined methods. But it is inefficient for learning, performance, or sustained confrontation and engagement.

“When breathing shortens, the amygdala and the hypothalamus become more active, and you tend to become more emotionally reactive.”

For example, when breathing shortens, the amygdala and the hypothalamus become more active, and you tend to become more emotionally reactive. However, when you sink down into the posture, absorbing the load of the situation into the boys centre of mass, this signals stability and control to the brain. This makes you more fatigue resistant, as well as more aware of the whole body. Stress can be viewed as anxiety or fear inducing, but it can also be viewed as a kind of beneficial pressure. When handled properly, this pressure becomes a distributed process of self regulation, rather than one of narrow attention and localisation at the level of the survival areas. You are then able to benefit from anything that comes your way.

When stress is distributed through posture, breath, and movement—when it is “sunk” into the body rather than held in the head—the load is shared. Energy use becomes slower, steadier, and more economical. This is not metaphorical. It is mechanical, neurological, and biochemical.

When efficiency recedes, energy follows.

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 19 min read | 114 views

In martial arts, it is important not to just go through the motions without engagement in what you are doing. For example, you don’t just do a series of punches and kicks in some exercise session, and then wait for that to end. This kind of clock watching can lead to dead forms, as well as practices which lack the needed dynamism necessary to engage with the deeper aspects of martial arts. It is important to generate a certain amount of energy, and then keeps this flow of energy high so that there is a more fluid exchange and circulation on all levels.

When people act enthusiastic without meaning it, because that’s what the exercise demands, they often feel flat and merely performative. This happens when people pretend to engage with what they are doing superficially. They then feel they are simply complying with demands. In response to this compliance, people harden up, flatten, or try to become more dominant and controlling over others to try and secure an advantage for themselves. So because they have missed the deeper meaning, they go for something superficial. This reduces their scope for dynamic activity so that they become limited in their overall capability. Their identity also becomes correspondingly limited. this is because they associate themselves with some small aspect of the whole, rather than the bigger picture.

“So they move from self defence which manages risk in the long term, to the elimination of risk across short time horizons. This eventually leads to diminishing returns in martial arts.”

In the example of self defence training, rather than regulating themselves in a healthy way overall, people may instead seek to simply oppress or dominate others. This is often done beyond what is required for functioning in their environment. Instead of working on the whole, many people enlarge a small aspect of themselves well out of proportion. So they move from self defence which manages risk in the long term, to the elimination of risk across short time horizons. This eventually leads to diminishing returns in martial arts. What is this whole I’m talking about? It means you develop yourself as an integrated person, all at once, rather than trying to contain everything in one compartment.

The Prowling Tiger

“The tigers presence is responsive to the ecological need as a whole, and doing in so it is adaptive. Rather than eliminating all risk, it engages with it.”

When a tiger is prowling in the forest, its physical presence is very much minimal. You probably won’t notice it’s there. It does not go round disturbing its environment and drawing attention to itself, thinking it will dominate that way. Like this, the tigers presence is responsive to the ecological need as a whole, and doing in so it is adaptive. Rather than eliminating all risk, it engages with it. This is what is meant by responsibility. Like the Tiger, you can respond as you need to according to the situation as it transitions dynamically, not according to some limited time and place, or ecological niche. This is the source of the Tigers adaptive capability, and it can become be yours.

The tiger in the forest maintains a distance from others, but it does not withdraw. It is in a state of total responsibility in terms of its impact on the environment. In this way, the tiger responds with total engagement to what it is doing, even if this means withdrawing or creating space between itself and the attention of others. Therefore, the Tiger is able to engage in the ritual of the hunt when necessary, without clinging to this ritual, which would otherwise become a drain on its own resources. Thereby, the Tiger is able to retain its vigour in all aspects of life without clinging to transient situations unnecessarily.

When the ritual of the hunt is the only thing on the Tigers mind all the time, there is a certain dominance. However, there also tends to be an over exaggeration of on the survival aspect of life. In terms of martial arts, this means that too much emphasis on dominating others tends to bring about a kind of lifelessness within that person. They will say “unless it has to do with fighting, I will not engage with it”. This type of head strong martial artist will not look at the situation and say “I will withdraw from this temporarily to learn more about it, and come back better prepared”. It is good to be willing to take on all situations, but it is only if you are really disciplined that can you prevent this kind of approach from becoming a long term barrier.

“The Tiger does not meet this uncertainty with a rigid set of reactions and attitudes. This would be inefficient. When efficiency recedes, energy follows.”

The complexity of the environment, within which the tiger flourishes, is not dependant on some purpose built system. For example, the Tiger does not operate in a boxing ring, where there is only the one on one contest. The Tigers life is a fluid unfolding, moment by moment. With this, there is naturally sense of uncertainty about what will happen next. Rather than trying to control everything and make the outcome certain, the Tiger acts according to what it can do, even if that is not much. It does not dwell on things outside of its control. At the same time, it acts decisively. It is the same in the life of the martial artist. When it is time to withdraw, it is not worth second guessing this act, anymore than when there is a clear opportunity and time to advance.

The Tiger does not meet uncertainty with a rigid set of reactions and attitudes. This would be inefficient. And anyway, this kind of simplistic action would not even work. When efficiency recedes, energy follows. That means, becoming efficient and performing useful action is more important than being just strong. And yet, in martial arts we tend to think that decisive physical action is the only action. Action is about responding with economy, which may involve creating space, or regulating your nervous system for example, so that you are in better condition to think clearly. This may be the kind of positive action which works in a given situation, even though uncertainty remains and you don’t get a decisive victory once and for all.

“There is no equal and opposite force here. the Tiger does not meet a raised voice with a louder one if it is not necessary. Meeting situations violently at all times can lead to a dissipation of energy.”

The Tiger, or some other big beast out there, does not see a threat and then respond in kind, just like that. There is no equal and opposite force here. The Tiger does not meet a raised voice with a louder one if it is not necessary. Meeting situations violently at all times can lead to a dissipation of energy, even if there is a short term victory. Of course, sometimes it is necessary to take decisive action and defend yourself to the utmost. At other times, it is necessary to sit and wait, to watch and learn.

When you meet fire with fire unnecessarily, you might win the contest, but you could easily end up burnt out and drained. It is often beneficial to sink into the posture, and contain energy until it matures further. This is sometimes known as ‘sinking the Qi’ in certain Chinese systems. Put simply, this means you ground yourself in a suitable kind of posture, and focus on the Hara Centre, within the lower abdomen. By lowering the centre of mass, you are able to relax tension and slow respiration for example, whilst maintaining energy. The idea is that you stabilise yourself through posture and gravity, instead of finding peace because you dominated someone else. Then, whatever the outcome, you remain stable and in control of your own internal situation because you stay centred, ready, and aware.

When you see practice as a means to contain your experience and practice self discipline, life returns and all energy becomes refined. In this way, the body is a kind of container which is used to let something mature slowly. This does not mean you contain pressure without any kind of disciplined practice and no release at all. For example, when you sit with uncertainty, it becomes an opportunity for discovery, provided you are disciplined and remain attentive to the process. There is a controlled release through breathing when one sits meditatively. This can be done whenever you get the opportunity, rather than during a formal practice session. For example, you might be waiting for a coffee, so you sink into the posture and become meditative for a few minutes.

There is safety to be found in holding ones attention towards this unfolding meditative process, even in times of uncertainty. There are many situations where sustained attention towards becoming grounded can be beneficial. For example, if you mourn the loss of a loved one in a state of full conscious awareness, this reduces the emotional hijacking often brought about by impulsive activity. There can be a beautiful sense of grief being transformed over time and a reduction in stress.

None of this means that difficult situations become a breeze. It means that you are able to recover more quickly and with less exhaustion, even when the situation becomes overwhelming. This is exactly what predetermined reactions and scattered behaviours do not make space for. In this way, many who experience loss develop prolonged anxiety much more than in the past, because there is generally a lack of training to regulate the system. At the same time, physical action must always take place in an environment that requires you to be malleability to it. This means that rather than the environment yielding itself to you, you must remain flexible to it. It is of course fear of the uncertainty, rather than acceptance of it, which brings about all kinds of anxieties.

“A martial artists must contain a certain sense of groundedness within themselves, whilst being flexible to the outside world.”

For the tree to grow, it requires a solid platform. This platform is the earth. As the tree grows into the wider atmosphere, it is more exposed to the elements and branches out into a more flexible form. This is very much like how a martial artists must contain a certain sense of groundedness within themselves, whilst being flexible to the outside world. If the tree remained as a root, it would never transform. It is only through transformation that a tree defines itself. If there were no outside conditions, there would be no transformation. Therefore, there would be no understanding about the internal process of how a tree grows, because there would be no context. In terms of martial arts, the outside environment gives meaning and expression to the internal form.

We perceive things and define them according to how they act as opposites. Internal and external, dark and light, these are all opposites which form a unified whole. In this opposition we find wholeness, a wholeness which we inhabit. Due to our perceptions of opposition, we think that things are actually spare which are not. In our own deeper experience, which is beyond all this duality stuff, it is a mistake to view opposites as fragmented categories to organise our thinking around. These separate categories which we perceive through the senses are simply tools so that constructions can be made. The senses distinguish so that relationships can appear and be built. Separatedness creates a map so we can understand how the terrain fits together.

“So, there is always localised pressure, which we may feel isolates us, and containment gives it a place to rise, circulate, and spread. In this way the martial artist moves from an individual form, to a universal one.”

Containment and Integration

The internal side of martial arts does not make you an entity of your own, separate from the enviornemt. If there were a total absence of external demands and we could just sit there at one with the universe physically, there would be no need to act as an individual, because the inputs we take in from the environment would be the same everywhere. What is you, and what is not, would be the same. So, there is always localised pressure, which we may feel isolates us, and containment gives it a place to rise, circulate, and spread. In this way the martial artist moves from an individual form, to a universal one. Earlier I mentioned about ‘Sinking the Qi’. The martial artist must sink the Chi in order to feel more integrated and whole, becoming organised in chaotic situations.

When the martial artist move from external to internal, they move from an individual form, to a universal one. Rather than releasing pressure through anger and frustration indiscriminately and suddenly, the martial artists uses the posture and breath as the valve and container. For example, they release pressure through the nose and mouth in a controlled and gradual way, whilst containing energy in the centre. This is why there is such an emphasis on the form and breath, because this creates an efficient container, with a built in filter system.

Let’s use the example of a flask of coffee. When the pressure is contained in the flask, it rises up and redistributes itself. If the container is sound, the process happens naturally as pressure is neutralised through containment. When it is contained efficiently, energy does not blow up it just evenly distributes. The system remains potent if this is done sufficiently well. This is what internal martial arts is all about. Otherwise the energy is simply allowed to escape, or used violently and wastefully. This makes a person vulnerable rather than powerful, because they only feel relief after discharge, or they develop a need for constant indiscriminate expression. This is unlike the Tiger I mentioned earlier, who is actually the biggest presence in the jungle. In terms of human behaviour, reactivity often makes their personality more forceful, and their expression more performative. This is not martial arts at its core, this is survival and emotional projection.

“In the familiar example of cramming for an exam, the student holds within themselves a certain cognitive pressure. The short term memory becomes saturated in information, which increases cognitive arousal and activity.”

In the familiar example of cramming for an exam, the student holds within themselves a certain cognitive pressure. The short term memory becomes saturated in information, which increases cognitive arousal and activity. This is totally unnecessary for the martial artists who generally contains pressure, which is a kind of information, where it is supposed to be contained. If there is an unstable container, with no efficient means of pressure release, this naturally leads to anxiety about coping with pressure. This anxiety takes many forms, and explains why so many people experience anxiety whilst retaining only a limited understanding of the vast information they had previously crammed in their heads. It would be better if they had contained less and let the information sit within them until it matured into understanding. Otherwise, there is not the necessary time needed for the material to transform, or the time for growth and connections to develop.

“In terms of martial arts, when the martial artists learns to contain the lessons they learn and to embody this learning, there is no longer the need for explosive expression under tension.”

So, in short term memory cramming, there is a routine building up of tension and release, so that one learns to develop and kind of pressure management, rather than a fully vibrant and alive intelligence. As I said earlier, information needs time to sit in order to mature. This is very much like how a meal needs time to sit in order for the flavours to sink in and form together. In the example of people cramming for exams, such individuals only feel good after the pressure is discharged on exam day. This kind of cramming can of course be useful in some instances, particularly if the individual is well rounded and this is only an initial phases of practice to be outgrown after a certain point.

In terms of martial arts, when the martial artists learns to contain the lessons they learn and to embody this learning, there is no longer the need for explosive expression under tension. Otherwise there is just superficial learning, which although measurable and fast in the short term, does not remain adaptable or present across dynamic situations. This explains why people generally forget about martial arts later in life after being good athletes. The lessons they learn and the information they take in does not mature. Nor does this information hold in the long term, because there is no structural integrity, no stable base. Information is pressurised through repetition and anxiety, then released in an exam or short term window, rather than allowed to rest and sit within the system. The relief that follows is mistaken for mastery. Or in terms of martial arts, learning some moves repeatedly under tensions does not lead to understanding or capacity to act fully and dynamically.

“Dissolution doesn’t mean disappearance, it means integration. Another way of looking at this is that your energy finds freedom, which is all that really matters.”

When force is released prematurely, speed replaces timing. It is often better to foster a sense of containment, so that pressure dissolves itself within rather than wasted on externalities. This dissolution simply means a mature and subtle energy. Dissolution doesn’t mean disappearance, it means integration. Another way of looking at this is that your energy finds freedom, which is all that really matters. When energy is released prematurely, it is always limited. In this sense, dissolution means there has been a transformation. This is why it is important to perform action through the core and out through the periphery. There is often a waste product built up in martial arts practice, particularly the physical systems. This waste product can be flushed out in various ways, such as stretching, or taking a break from information overload. Waste product is best released by working from the centre and out.

Taking a break from information overload allows expression and release without depleting containment. In other words, you are able to fully integrate your energies, whilst naturally releasing tension which would otherwise build up and become harmful. It is very much like how a weight lifter must rest, and only train as much as they rest. That’s where the growth happens. It only happens within certain strict parametres, between two opposites – training and rest. This is what I was talking about earlier, and how overall sense can be made in terms of opposites.

Rest does not mean stagnation, it can be active and intense, just not so much in the physical sense. When there is containment and dissolution, there is a dynamic activity which is in a way a receding force, but in another way it is deeply transformative. This is why it is important to become meditative, stretch the muscles, or take some time out from physical exertion. These acts are restful in one way, but make you stronger in another. Becoming disciplined in this way will help improve sleep quality, as well as create a distance between yourself and any stressful situation. You are then better able to take on all challenges. This is because you are actually practicing being away from the harmful effects of being reactive, overdoing things, and building up unnecessary tension. Then it is not just theoretical, it is an experiential reality for you.

Containment happens at the centre, the foundation level. When you strike, you keep organised from the core, because the core is the Hara centre, the body centre of maintenance. When the core is stable and maintained in a certain way, the limbs move freely, and breathe and attention remain available to you without getting caught up in externalities. So the core dictates what pressures are felt there, rather than your brain getting worked up and projecting this into your system. As I said earlier, there is always a local pressure which allows for increased circulation with the whole. If this local pressure is localised in the brain pathways, then certain problems are a natural consequence. When breath and body release an action, it is brief and contained, rather than prolonged and unnecessary. There is no overkill. That means you move fluidly with the situation.

Self regulation vs Repression

Let’s use the example of an anxious dog playfully jumping up at you. There may be an initial apprehension. This is not because the dog is dangerous, it probably isn’t. In any case, panic would escalate the situation, and aggravation provokes agitated animals. There is a need for self regulation, and there is a physical element to this, just as there is in survival response. So the idea is to act from the centre, just as you would in a fight, but with a sense of containment and discipline. So in a way you hold back physically, but collapse invites hostility and makes you an easy target. This is why you remain energised and balanced. What resolves this every day situation is grounded and disciplined presence. This kind of bearing leads to a sense of disciplined authority as you are fully integrated internally and externally.

Holding back from heightening a situation is not repression. Repression disconnects you from the situation, and numbs sensation and awareness. The idea is to orientate your energies properly, giving them structure and form. This involves external and internal factors. When you can hold the internal energies within, you are able to redistribute any external pressures, which you might acutely feel, without losing energy. In martial arts this is done by maintaining a grounded posture, whilst working with the breath. You are then not undergoing any unnecessary adrenaline surges and energy is conserved.

Together, breath and body acts as a container system. One who can do this kind of work effectively is never afraid of pressure. Nor are they unconsciously led by others, or controlled by the limited expressions of their less refined outputs of energy which reflect back to them. In terms of martial arts, the accomplished martial artist simply use energy as needed in the best possible way, and transforms it into a greater possibility than the external situation may immediately present. This is not to say they judge something as good or bad, they just do what is needed and no more than that. Then, they neither explode nor shut down, they become fully integrated, like a Tiger in the jungle.

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

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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]

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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]

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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]

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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.

Total Involvement in Self Defence

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 6 min read | 100 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.

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