From Instructor Charles: About the sublime

This blog exists is to provide someone outside of our school a chance to be aware of what is happening inside the school. Our Facebook page has been launched where many of the day to day events of our school can found, however, some of the more sublime changes involving our school need to be related in this space. It has been very busy since the last blog post; in that time instructor Ian and I have seen a number of students really grow in their mental and physical awareness.

For instance, today I watched a young boy use his meditation techniques to calm himself down from a hyperactive, virtually spastic state, to the point where his behavior was focused and relaxed. I have seen this affectation on students a number of times before and I never tire of it. It is so gratifying to see natural solutions resolve a challenging moment, instead of the administering of medications to address hyperactivity. Students often provide such a great sense of empowerment and validation of the effort put into their instruction by the things that they say or do in the moment. I witnessed this when the young boy stated “I feel relaxed” after he calmed himself using some beginning Chi Gong meditation techniques, and was then able to rejoin the group. It is greatly satisfying when students relate their success stories, how they weave personal practice schedule into their hectic lives, and are appreciative for the results they achieve and of the direction given them.

Our pee wee (4-5), children (6-9), juniors (10-15), adults (16-75), and seniors (76-101) classes are making this process available to people of just about any age. Our programs with a local provider of residential care and therapy for teenage girls have already begun to show results in these new student’s lives. Our scheduled Bagua Walk program has been initiated with observable benefit to the students.

What has come to pass over the years of teaching these various age groups is a greater sense of patience with the expectation of material covered, and lessons learned within each age group and class. Immersion into the ongoing process over a long period of time is how results are achieved. Slow and steady wins this race called life once the tools we have at our disposal are used with the right timing and amount.

From Instructor Charles

When I began my training the physical rush - the release of endorphins - was the most satisfying aspect of the nightly classes I attended as I continued to learn the new and compound ways my body could move. The coordination of these movements was extremely challenging and rewarding at the same time. The ability to move repeatedly through unique postures began to have the intended effect: strengthening my body and increasing my flexibility while learning how these movements applied in self defense. It took a while, but somewhere along the path, instead of just surviving the physical lesson, I began to challenge my ability to control my breathing while doing the movements.

Like a snowball barreling down a hill I began to notice how this enhanced the awareness I had of my body. I started paying attention to my manner (how I carried myself), and was pleasantly surprised when people in my work-a-day world started to comment that something seemed different about me. They thought I seemed happier. Well, something was different, I was striving to gain control over myself in many different ways. I was seeing the success (winning over myself) that comes with a concentrated and focused effort, guided by practitioners who had clearly achieved a fantastic level of skill - one that I hoped to reach. Their skill was apparent not only in their physical ability, but in their confidence level, their focus, and their determination. I wanted to emulate their serenity, how they carried themselves, and their strength of mind as well as body.  

I began practicing every day while balancing my role as a single parent. Often my children would do their homework or read a book in the waiting room while I participated in the nightly lessons.  As each month of my initial year of training passed, I could do more with body and breath control. These physical abilities allowed me to begin putting more of my mental energy into the desired result of each lesson.  This mental focus, or mind, compounded the changes in my biology. I was sleeping less, I was more energized, I noticed greater mental acuity, and control over my emotions was increasing in great strides. 

Early on in my training, one of my Instructors advocated washing my uniforms separately from other laundry. As I did this I started to notice the level of toxins (murkiness of the water) decreasing. This further confirmed in my mind the change in my biology. I wondered about the veracity of this finding and started strictly controlling the wash cycle of my 3 uniforms to privately challenge what I saw before my very eyes.  The need for 3 uniforms in rotation was due to the time it took for them to air dry; I found the dryer was very harsh on their life expectancy.  By the culmination of my 2nd year of training I was absolutely convinced that I had changed my biology through my practice. I believe it to this day, and teach it to my students.     

Martial Arts and Healing

Our ongoing goal for the students of Zhen Ren Chuan Martial & Healing Arts Center is to help them enhance their well being and life skills by virtue of practicing physical movement.

The real challenge of this blog is to bring awareness of this life altering gift to the public. Practitioners of Martial & Healing Arts find great benefit in strengthening the body-mind connection; the combination of physical movement and mental focus improves mental perception and awareness. This system of physical movement combines proper structural alignment and breathing techniques, allowing natural energy flow to occur within the body. Movement training includes learning how to relax the body while holding position, proper alignment, and intent, while transitioning from one position to the next. Intent is the mental component, and is powerful enough to affect the biology of the practitioner. After a cycle of movement is completed over a number of practice sessions the muscle memory of the body will change. This prepares the body to accept the challenging process of focusing the mind to achieve deeper changes on a biological level, allowing internal healing.

People of any age, including younger practitioners, benefit significantly from martial training. Capacity and aptitude of the student work hand in hand, producing noticeable and quantifiable results. When students enjoy their time in school they are inclined to continue. The responsibility of an instructor is to inspire, challenge, and engage the student, all the while being mindful of the goals of the individual, or, with younger students, of the parent and the child. Instructors must balance ability to manage the moment, as well as maintaining vision to maximize the lives of a large number of people from age 4 to 101. In the months to come this blog will continue to provide information that will introduce the process of determining practical goals for each student, supported by testimonies of life-altering results of practitioners, both written and on video.

On our website, www.zhenrenchuan.com, you can find information about our school, and testimonies of parents about their children and of students who have overcome challenges using this system of physical training. The purpose of this blog is to introduce the processes which create life-altering results, and to explore every possible avenue to show how complete this “Chuan” (physical manifestation) can be.