Tag: philosophy

Dissolution through emergence – When the Whole Organises the Parts

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 11 min read | 160 views

Practice begins by consciously correcting individual movements, but it matures when those corrections become part of one integrated organisation. Rather than continually supervising posture, breathing, and movement, the body gradually learns to organise itself. This frees awareness to engage with the environment instead of constantly maintaining the body.

Energy released too early substitutes speed for timing and limits potential. The martial artist learns to dissolve pressure internally, integrating it rather than wasting it externally. It is often better to foster a sense of containment, so that pressure dissolves itself within, rather than wasted on externalities as they first initially appear. This dissolution simply means creating a mature and subtle energy out of more immediate opportunities for its expression. Then, your awareness seems to become more distributed across the environment while remaining quietly centred. In yoga, the point referred to as Bindu is traditionally located at the back of the head, near the crown but slightly posterior. It is described less as a chakra than as a subtle source or point of emergence and dissolution. This may be why warriors of the past, as well as elsewhere, traditionally wore a topknot, to focus one’s attention at that point at the back of the head. 

In some schools of Kundalini Yoga, Bindu is associated with the place where differentiation emerges from unity and returns to it. Meditation on Bindu is sometimes said to dissolve the sense of individual effort while increasing clarity of awareness. There is also the concept of bindu visarga, literally “the point from which the drop flows.” Systems such as Taijiquan often speak of suspending the crown, as if by a golden thread, while maintaining awareness extending behind the body. There is also an important point called Yuzhen (“Jade Pillow”) at the back of the skull, anatomically close to where many people locate Bindu. This region is said to be a place where upward and downward forces balance. Many teachers say that when this region releases, peripheral awareness naturally expands. They rarely instruct students to stare at the point mentally. Rather, the point becomes quietly alive while awareness fills the entire environment.

From a contemporary neuroscience perspective, it’s also plausible that sustained attention to that region is not significant because of the tissue itself, but because it coincides with a mode of attentional organisation. The posterior part of the head is associated with visual and spatial processing, and changes in muscle tone around the upper neck and occiput can alter one’s sense of orientation and body schema. That does not prove the yogic interpretation, but suggests a relatively simple organising variable that coordinates many degrees of freedom simultaneously. Rather than consciously adjusting ten different aspects of posture, one stable attractor reorganises the entire system. Whether one interprets that attractor as Bindu, Yuzhen, awareness itself, or simply an attentional strategy depends on the tradition.

One tradition says “nectar descends.” Another says “the Jade Pillow opens.” Another says “the crown is suspended.” They are useful because beginners don’t yet possess a global organising principle. So an instructor says: tuck the chin, lengthen the neck, relax the shoulders, engage the lower abdomen, soften the ribs, or unlock the knees. Each cue improves one variable. But eventually, there comes a point where thinking through a checklist becomes too computationally expensive. Instead, skilled performers appear to discover what systems theory would call a higher-order constraint. Rather than controlling twenty individual movements, they find one organising principle from which those movements emerge. In other words, the fragments dissolve into the making of making the whole. 

If dissolution is understood only as negation—getting rid of the ego, emptying the mind, eliminating tension—it can sound like a process of continual removal. But if dissolution is understood as the natural consequence of emergence, then practice becomes fundamentally constructive. One does not spend one’s time destroying old patterns; one cultivates the conditions under which more coherent patterns arise, and the old ones lose their necessity. This is why, perhaps, “dissolution through emergence” is clearer than simply “dissolution.” It avoids implying that development is about subtraction.

That is a subtle but important distinction. Some forms of concentration narrow attention around an object. What we’re looking at here, sounds more like a local point acting as an organiser for a global field of awareness. In that sense, the “point” is valuable not because attention stays there, but because it allows attention to move freely everywhere else without becoming fragmented. The sense of a rigid centre softens while awareness becomes more inclusive. That is a remarkably consistent theme across advanced descriptions in yoga, internal martial arts, Zen, and other contemplative traditions, even though each tradition expresses it through its own symbols and metaphors.  

To dissolve 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. This is why it is important to perform action through the core and out through the periphery. The body’s physical centre creates a kind of internal heat, which builds pressure. There is often a waste product built up in martial arts practice, particularly the physical systems (e.g. metabolic by-products, accumulated fatigue, excess muscular tension, etc.). Waste product is best released and flushed out by working from the centre and out. Otherwise, exercise becomes more inefficient and draining. So all of this waste product dissolves when one becomes integrated because at that point movement and energy no longer exists in isolated form. Dissolution is therefore not merely destruction but reabsorption into a more unified condition. Emergence and dissolution are opposite movements of the same process.

Consider someone sitting quietly in meditation. If their attention is continually occupied with correcting posture, regulating the breath, or eliminating distracting thoughts. Attention remains engaged in maintaining the organism rather than broadening its capabilities. By contrast, if awareness gently rests upon what some traditions call the Bindu—the point of dissolution—these individual corrections gradually become integrated into a single organising principle. The body settles without continual supervision, the breath deepens naturally, and awareness becomes free to participate in the wider field of experience. If you brining anything into your conscious awareness, then it naturally becomes all encompassing rather than restrictive. In this way, even becoming consciously angry, and bringing this into to your awareness, rather than focused attention, can lead to liberation from anger.

Intuition does not appear because something mystical has been added, but because the mind is no longer consumed by maintaining itself. This is an important distinction. Awareness is often mistaken for directing attention towards tension itself. Yet continually attending to what is fragmented can unintentionally reinforce fragmentation. Instead, awareness may be directed towards that which is all-encompassing, allowing the fragmented parts to reorganise themselves within a more coherent whole. Then, there is no more focus on singular aspects. When people say, “Bring it into your awareness,” they often behave as though it means, “Make this the only thing you think about.” A broader awareness approach is: “Recognise that the shoulders are tense, but continue to perceive posture, breath, balance, the environment, and the task as one integrated whole.” Just as posture settles when the organism becomes better organised, emotional states also begin to settle without becoming the primary object of attention. This is why working with the breath, the posture, and alignment is so important. 

Training and rest form a complementary polarity: effort builds containment, and recovery allows maturation. When this happens in a balanced way, there is fluidity and circulation. Then, there is a presence. Even small encounters, a playful dog, a tense situation, become opportunities to practice disciplined presence. Together, breath and body acts as a container system. One who can integrate their system effectively is never afraid of pressure. The accomplished martial artist simply uses energy as needed in the best possible way, and transforms it into a greater possibility. This is why they often remain impartial to outside events. It is not because they ignore outside factors. Instead, the “self” dissolves because experience is no longer organised around defending a fixed identity. In internal martial arts, the same principle appears in physical movement. A beginner tries to activate each limb separately, with no regard for whether or not they are effective in the wider environment. An experienced practitioner generates movement from a single integrated organisation. The isolated actions have dissolved, but only because a more coherent movement has emerged in the wider sphere of experience.

The countless separate adjustments—head position, shoulders, breathing, gaze, muscle tone—do not need to be consciously managed because they become expressions of one organising process. Accomplished martial artists often see that they themselves are responsible for creating greater organisation in the world. Then, they neither explode nor shut down, they become fully integrated, like a tiger in the jungle. The tiger draws strength from the scarce resources of the jungle, and opportunity is created from this scarcity. It is not that they just live minimally. The jungle is a place where awareness gathers without becoming narrow, and because a more integrated organisation emerges from it, the older, fragmented way of organising perception quietly dissolves. That makes dissolution an active, creative process rather than a passive loss of autonomy or strength.

The core maintains stability, guiding limbs, breath, and attention. 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’s centre of maintenance. The centre of maintenance is not necessarily the centre of awareness. On the other hand, maintenance does not happen at the release point, where energy is distributed. In other words, maintenance is centralised; awareness is distributed. Release happens at the periphery. The Bindu does not necessarily feel like the place where your body is maintained. The lower abdomen still feels like the place where weight settles, breathing organises, and force is transmitted. Maintenance preserves continuity. Orientation allows adaptation. Too much maintenance without orientation becomes rigidity. Instead, the two continually inform each other. The idea is to start by focusing on the Hara, and then to broaden one’s awareness. This is like the master watching the student and correcting them, before later allowing more autonomy. The supervision dissolves, not because of neglect, but because the student’s self organisation eventually reaches a point where conscious control is no longer needed.

When the core is stable and maintained in an integrated way, the limbs move and release freely. Breath and attention remain available to you without getting caught up and tied to the external considerations. Otherwise, breath and attention become linked with fluctuating situations and transient events, and the brain takes all of this in. The core dictates what pressures are felt there, rather than your brain getting worked up and projecting this into your system. When the brain gets caught up in cycles of activity followed by passivity, this creates a different kind of pressure, which is not sustainable. If this particular pressure is localised in the brain pathways, rather than the physical centre of mass, then psychological troubles are a natural consequence. When breath and body release an action from the core, it is balanced and contained, rather than erratic and out of proportion. Organisation should reduce conscious workload, as well as physical strain,  rather than increase it.

Premature discharge breeds anxiety, reactivity, and wasted effort. There is a sense that the clock is ticking and time is running out. Just as if you become settled and still you can find peace in any kind of situation, the same is true if you become unsettled and erratic, you can find stress in the smallest of matters. This is the emergency mindset taking over, which does not need any big problems to interpret things as a disaster. As integration develops, it is not energy that dissolves but the emergency organisation built around it. Pressure no longer demands immediate release because it has become part of a wider, more coherent system.

Controlled integration develops resilience, adaptability, and enduring capacity. This is so whether there is any external need for these things. This is because such enhanced capability is not defined by external situations. This kind of enhanced capability creates a widening sense of time, but also a greater capacity to act. In this, there is swiftness of action, but no hurry. As organisation matures, conscious effort becomes less concerned with maintaining the organism and more available for participating in the environment. The body increasingly sustains itself through its own integrated organisation, allowing awareness to become broader rather than more narrowly focused. This is not a withdrawal from action but a deeper participation in it. In this way, what appears to dissolve is not capability but unnecessary supervision. Local adjustments become integrated into a coherent whole, allowing posture, breath, and movement to emerge naturally rather than through continual correction. Dissolution therefore occurs through emergence: as a higher order of organisation develops, the fragmented processes that once required conscious attention gradually lose their necessity.

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 2

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 6 min read | 186 views

From Reaction to Regulation: How the Body Shapes the Mind

“Regulating the body is one of the most direct ways to regulate the brain, because much of what the brain does is to predict, manage, and respond to the body.”

The idea that mental health is separate from physical structure is increasingly difficult to defend. The brain is not an isolated control centre; it is embedded in a living system of nerves, muscles, bones, connective tissue, hormones, and feedback loops. Regulating the body is one of the most direct ways to regulate the brain, because much of what the brain does is to predict, manage, and respond to the body. In terms of martial arts, the work is to focus on the body through certain exercises, so that in the process you also take care of the mind.

Physical training offers a useful analogy—one that is also a direct cause-and-effect process. Bones strengthen through controlled stress and recovery. Muscles grow through breakdown and reorganisation. Movement patterns refine through repetition, error, and adaptation. Mental development follows similar principles. In addition to this, when you feel your body break down and recover, you will feel mentally more robust. I am not talking about breaking down completely, just reforming and replenishing the tissue anew, which is an entirely healthy process. Challenging misconceptions, forming new neural pathways, and reorganising perception require exertion followed by integration. This reforms neural pathways and a certain pruning of old pathways occurs.

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. So when you work with this processes, you are actually working with both the body and mind through physical activity. This is not about emotionally charging your activity with motivational talk. With a strong intent to perform vigorous activity, you bypass motivation and go straight to energising the body. This is known as Kriya in Yogic circles, or simply working with the energy body. Rather than the body influencing the brain secondarily, the brain’s operating mode is continuously shaped by bodily state.

Without recovery, the system breaks down. Without challenge, it stagnates. Importantly, this process is inseparable from the body’s condition. Posture, breath, movement quality, and tissue health directly affect cognitive and emotional regulation. And when there is a healthy body, the signals which are sent upstream to the brain are also returned downstream to the body, metaphorically speaking. This is a circular relationship. Awareness towards this creates a powerful process of self regulation, and there is no need for emotional stimulation such as in high motivational states, which can cause burnout particularly if unregulated.

“Breaking the mind—understood not as damage, but as restructuring—is as fundamental as breaking down muscle fibres in strength training.”

There is a state called “No Mind” in Zen martial arts. Breaking the mind—understood not as damage, but as restructuring—is as fundamental as breaking down muscle fibres in strength training. It is not that you mindless go around over training and breaking yourself down physically and mentally. It is in this context that “no mind” should be understood.

Martial Arts and the Centre of Gravity

“The Hara Centre are often treated as mystical, it describes something physically concrete: the body’s centre of mass, 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.”

Traditional martial arts articulate this understanding of becoming physically centred through concepts like the hara or dan tian. The Hara 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, 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. So when you centre your practice around a grounded posture and a developing a strong body, these often out perform purely cognitive interventions for martial arts based around performative technical execution, or even highly motivated and driven behaviour.

When stress or force is received into the Hara Centre, the system tolerates pressure more effectively. In particular, when the breathing is regulated through activity of the diaphragm, this pressure is able to be distributed effectively. For example, when there is a forceful exhale, and an engagement of the core, this signals smooth alignment of the system including the diaphragm and skeletal system into activity. This is why martial arts, yoga, and breath-based meditations emphasise coordinated exhale with movement.

“A strong exhale, particularly with full engagement, acts as a regulatory signal: it couples breathing, core engagement, and intention into a single force.”

Just as lifting a heavy object with the core distributes load and reduces fatigue, grounding stress through posture and breath spreads neural and muscular demand across the whole system. From a scientific perspective, this is training the nervous system at its foundation, not bypassing cognition or goal driven behaviour but stabilising it. A strong exhale, particularly with full engagement, acts as a regulatory signal: it couples breathing, core engagement, and intention into a single force.

As we have seen, it is important to distribute, contain, and circulate the forces of the body effectively. Without this grounding, stress remains concentrated—often in the head and upper body—leading to faster exhaustion, reduced perception, and poorer decision-making. This often makes moving the body a sluggish effort. So the idea is self regulation through movement and activity. Then, you do not need to worry about over learning the technical side of things, or being highly driven and confident about what you are doing. You do all of these things as well, but they become more of a side show.

“Just as a cake needs time in the oven to transform raw ingredients into a stable, palatable form, energy needs to “sit” in the system — contained, regulated, and integrated — to become effective, fluid, and sustainable.”

Martial arts is a whole body affair. In this sense, martial arts training is not merely about technique. Nor is it about developing the kind of cognitive load and mental saturation which is characteristic or overloading the short term memory when revising for an exam. This is what leads to stress, burnout, and a lack of self regulation. For example, during the exam there is a sense of relief and sudden expulsion of thought onto the test paper, but often not much is retained in the long term. Nor is there further inspiration to continue. This is because there is often just an immediate and tense effort. However, just as a cake needs time in the oven to transform raw ingredients into a stable, palatable form, energy needs to “sit” in the system — contained, regulated, and integrated — to become effective, fluid, and sustainable.

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

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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.

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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.

When Experience Outpaces Recognition

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 10 min read | 108 views

“If you have put in the proper sustained practice, then maturity and full stature has to happen for you, just as others developmental stages happen naturally without permission. Readiness to accept this earns you the rank of black belt. This blackbelt not only precedes formal recognition, but it also does not need permission from others.”

The body learns before the mind is able to explain all of the details. In other words, you build an understanding based on experience, rather than theory. This is true in martial arts, and elsewhere. Let’s say, for example, you are learning to ride a bike. You are likely to fall off several times before learning to balance and stabilise yourself. In fact, learning to balance requires that you fall over a few times first of all. At the same time, you practice riding in a straight line and not falling off. In other words, it is not so much that you need to fall off to learn, but you need to accept the risks involved and learn from them if necessary. 

In terms of martial arts, you sometimes need to take a few knocks and learn from them. This does not mean you need to risk your own safety necessarily. I am not saying that getting punched and kicked repeatedly gives you the necessary maturity to become a mature person. Often, it does not. However, in my opinion you do need to take responsibility for your own experience, which may include receiving knocks along the way. Rather than outsourcing that experience to some industry approved representation of events, what you need is a certain presence within your own experience. 

Depending on who you ask, people may say that you should either seek or avoid risk. let’s say you ask a doctor about your health. They will identify several risk factors to your health, and ask you to avoid certain things. If you seek advice from a businessman, they might tell you to go for it, despite the risks involved. So it is not that authority is risk averse, or risk friendly, it just depends on who you ask. So there is no right or wrong when it comes to risk taking. When you take responsibility for the development of your own development, you accept risk and safety at the same time. This acceptance precedes authority from one vested interest group. In other words, when you develop your now judgement, then this eventually becomes the wisdom you need to make informed decisions.

“Throughout most of history, they could not afford delayed maturity or competence. Neither were there many tools to make somebody outstanding. In reality, simply accepting the reality of the situation, as it is, is in itself a way of becoming outstanding.”

Throughout most of history, they could not afford delayed maturity or competence. Neither were there many tools to make somebody outstanding. In reality, simply accepting the reality of the situation is in itself outstanding. In the past, people did not live so long or have as many years of training, and by the time they were in their 30s and 40s, they were already standard bearers and mentors to others. This was, in my opinion, a more honest way of looking at things, rather than thinking that people need to be much older before they get fully wise. It is just that, today, training and systematic thinking has tended to be seen as the only real way to develop people. However, this is merely one way of many, and it is not necessarily the best way at all. The problem with it is that systems should be made to evolve and build on themselves, rather than to just start again and ignore evolved patterns and consequences. Any evolutionary change needs to take into account these consequences, rather than just seek to ignore or eliminate them as a matter of development. 

Rather than artificially delaying and extending maturity, full stature was something that arrived not after certification and training, it was just expected to occur quite naturally. There are obviously environments which are conducive to this seasoning happening in the best way possible. For example, an environment which has enough members in it that have accumulated insight is superior to an environment where age means decline. In some ways, age often means decline of course, but it means more than that. Systematic or structural systems often tend to treat experienced people as non compliant or out of step, rather than whole people with developed insight. This is a generalisation, of course, but it is often so. 

Today, we often find ourselves in a strange situation where we accumulate experience, but hesitate to embody it fully. We continue to defer to experts long after we have reached maturity. It is not a bad thing to defer to experts in certain contexts, such as when deciding which course of treatment to take at a hospital, for example. But there are many areas of life where one can have the necessary expertise and experience just by virtue of naturally arriving at maturity and competence in terms of life experience. This is not some anomaly, but is actually quite natural.

Some understanding can only be arrived at by sustained attention, as well as honest appraisal of one’s own life experience over time. This sustained effort does not rely on guarantees or reward or meeting objectives, nor does it lead to the completions of goals. If you can sustain your attention towards life, rather than all the details in the happenings surrounding life, then you can naturally develop the raw materials to flourish naturally and reach full maturity. These raw materials naturally develop themselves along a certain trajectory of lived experience. This process does not require societal permission, it just requires awareness of reality in the full sense. 

“Wisdom doesn’t switch on in old age. It is instead claimed by one who is able to see the emerging reality in front of them in the fullest possible sense.”

Wisdom doesn’t switch on in old age. It is instead claimed by one who is able to see the emerging reality in front of them in the fullest possible sense. This can happen at an advanced age, or just at a certain point of maturity, for example, in one’s thirties and forties. This emerges over time naturally. Historically, people were expected to step forwards rather than recede into the background once their narrow usefulness had run out. Today the reverse is often true, and one often finds themselves irrelevant in places where peoples are used as raw materials rather than as peoples to bring up to full stature.

“When martial arts is full of energy, in all of its possible varieties, it becomes dynamic and unpredictable. Then, there is presence and engagement, there has to be, it is inevitable.”

If a martial artist retires from competitive training, they often simply exit the community. At best, they become an instructor of a technical and systematic approach to martial arts. This is one reason why martial arts can easily become overly dogmatic and ritualistic, out of touch with the evolving environment. However, when martial arts is full of energy, in all of its possible varieties, it becomes dynamic and unpredictable. Then, there is presence and engagement, there has to be, it is inevitable. Ritualistic training, where everybody is doing the same thing at the same time has its benefits in the right context, but today there is so much variety and diversity, that it often becomes irrelevant. 

It is often better that people develop in their own way as unique individuals. This requires a level of discipline that is often missing in many people. However, when one is able to develop as a unique individual in the best way possible, they are an example and a nurturer of others to do the same, even though they are not a perfect representation of systemic design. However, in rigid systems, rather than imparting what they have learned, experienced martial artists are usually expected to stop developing and simply stand above others to be looked up to as a finished product. However, one does not get to a point where they have all the final answers freezing into an authority, they stand where they are fully, amongst others rather than on top of them. That way everyone is always in the making, evolving fluidly rather than in friction with one another. 

Embodied competence precedes recognition. This includes your own recognition, as well as that of others. If you have put in the proper sustained practice, then maturity and full stature has to happen for you, just as others developmental stages happen naturally without permission. Readiness to accept this earns you the rank of black belt. This blackbelt not only precedes formal recognition, but it also does not need permission from others. Waiting for the formal kind of endorsement often just delays the inevitable, and the inevitable only happens through sustained use and employment of your faculties on the right kind of pathway. Then, it is only natural that your competence emerges, and hesitation surrounding this natural development has its own consequences. 

One needs to be functional in real time, not just when it suits some establishment. Deferral of this proper functioning is a luxury you cannot afford, rather than a necessity that you must oblige. What I mean by that is, if you are training according to what is necessary, rather than all that is unnecessary, then you naturally arrive and there is no waiting around or deferring of your peak maturity. When you have already arrived, then there is no more to do than to do as needed. This arrival is simply there in your presence. No amount of following of a process can replace this awareness of being present. 

At a certain point, you stop copying others and putting them above your own development, above your own flowering. Instead, you start carrying the responsibility, and this responsibility becomes a reference point for others as well as yourself. You might say that this is a heavy weight to bear. In fact, it is not, it is just the way things are. Then you move from being above others, which carries its own challenges, to transmitting your insights because of your depth of experience, which is an enriching experience in itself. Rather than out of your power or influence over others, which requires conflict with others, you accept them and yourself as a kind of ecosystem. This is not a perfect powerful authority, it is instead a sincere and authentic authority of responsibility. 

In the context of martial arts, refusing to take this responsibility is seen as unethical, once one arrives at a certain point. The reason for this is not to pressure people into some system or position in the hierarchy, but because one must eventually stand by their own experience and developed capabilities rather than against it. When I say this, I do not mean some egotistical image of an authority that you have made for yourself. This is a delusion. Formal recognition of your authority should follow natural development, rather than you trying to live up to an image. 

“Formal recognition should recognise reality and seek to conform to it, rather than replace its richness.”

An image is something you or somebody else has made up, and has no existential relevance here. In other words, formal recognition and titles should not replace life experience. Formal recognition should recognise reality and seek to conform to it, rather than replace its richness. So in the end, martial arts teaches you that readiness is proven in capability and action, rather than grounded in the opinions of others. 

Six Timeless Key Principles of the Martial Arts Stance – Part 1

Posted on Last updated on by joeharman8 | 5 min read | 139 views

Though martial arts started off as an inward pursuit, over time it split into different systems. Each system has its own take on stance—grappling stances, kickboxing stances, Tai Chi stances, and so on. And, naturally, each group has its own ideas about what’s right and what’s wrong. It’s a bit like, each group has its own piece of the overall puzzle, and they try to make a complete picture out of the small amount of pieces they have. It’s not going to work like that. You have to work with more than fragments to get a an idea of the overall picture.

The point of internal martial arts has always been about pursuing an internal experience in order to get to the bigger picture. External form is really about physical requirements (as well other factors we will look at), which vary from person to person. Each person has their own idea about the truth, but they cannot get a whole picture from that because the whole picture contains other factors, such as movements which come out best when they are not forced.

“By focusing on a small slice, we can do wonderful things, but we can never capture richness of experience. And if we focus on too many small things we simply spread our attention thin. The idea is to develop an overall awareness of the whole, and place our attention there.”

How you hold yourself in a martial arts stance depends on your physical capabilities—and on the level of perception you’ve developed. We’ll explore some ways to develop both. Your capabilities, your perception—they’re always selective, not all-encompassing. In other words, there’s this all-encompassing energy inside you, and your mind and body are like tools that can only focus on a small slice of it at a time. By focusing on a small slice, we can do wonderful things, but we can never capture richness of experience. And if we focus on too many small things we simply spread our attention thin. The idea is to develop an overall awareness of the whole, and place our attention there.

So what is this all encompassing energy? One way to look at this is to consider that the nervous system does not interpret physicality as what it looks to us from the outside. Put simply, It experiences motion, pressure, and release. This is why the internal experience is different from the external one. Internal martial arts even works without much physical practice, because the environment for its expression is already there. You do not need kicks and punches, but these inevitably happen in the right context once you develop certain perceptive capabilities. From this simple example, we can see that you will never get the proper experience by relying on how things look alone.

Think of your mind and body like a cinema—full of plays of thought and emotion that make you feel like you’re right in the middle of the show. However the cinema doesn’t tell the whole story. When you step back, when you’re less caught up, you create a kind of functional space—a place for a different kind of energy, or just to be. This gives you a presence, a presence which can actually give weight, and effective movement to your martial arts skills.

So, the internal form isn’t really about perceiving the external environment, or even about the skill set you happen to have. It’s about the cause behind it all—behind what your mind and body choose to focus on, selectively. That focus is what generates all the skills and perceptive abilities. This is often Bourne out of a combination of thought, energy and emotion, rather than just pure energy. As an aside, the idea behind meditation practices is to generate this kind of undifferentiated potential energy, or a pure energy, which can be used to do nothing or to take action.

Your attention selects what to focus on. And if you want to let this energy flourish, it’s a good idea to understand some principles so it can function freely, unhindered. Then this energy will develop your capabilities to their maximum potential by supporting them from behind, in any way you choose. That’s why certain martial arts skills can feel dead under a rigid energy system. Instead of deciding the potential beforehand according to a few selected requirements, trying to make this whole picture from fragmented pieces, it’s important that you develop over time in a balanced, dynamic way. In part 1, we will look at the first principle.


Left and Right Sides
In a typical stance, the left foot and hand are forward, taking on a seeking role. The left hand probes, looking for openings, gathering information—fluid, subtle, yin qualities. This sets up the right side, slightly back, which is more direct and assertive—yang qualities. This yin-yang division balances seeking with decisive action. There are various reasons for this. For example, variety of form spreads attention so that the enemy becomes confused.

“This is the power of the quality of yin. It breathes instead of ticks, so that when you strike out with the right side it comes out in a way that has the element of surprise.”

The yin dimension, the left side, allows you to get the opponent to focus their attention there, below the surface. In other words, the opponent focus on something that is moving but is not insisting that they look there. This is the power of the quality of yin. It breathes instead of ticks, so that when you strike out with the right side it comes out in a way that has the element of surprise. Otherwise, The Yang side would be too predictable. This requires careful thought.

While this is the standard configuration, variations exist, such as the southpaw stance, which reverses the sides.

In the next part, coming very soon, we will look further at body alignment and posture, fluidity of movement, and biomechanics, amongst other aspects.


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Flowing Into Strength: Stability Through Continuous Awareness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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