Breathe Life into your Bagua Zhang Kung Fu Practice — in every aspect of training — the deeper and longer your breath the better! 🐉

This will enhance your focus and whole body awareness for more invigorating exercise, and encourage you to breathe more vitality into every aspect of your life, to be more aware, connected and fully engaged!

We often find that shallow breathing is both a result and cause of stress, tension, pain, withdrawal and fatigue.

I see this reflected in both martial arts and in my massage practice — most people have very shallow breathing, and as result are distracted and disconnected from their bodies and what’s going on around them.

This is why I encourage my massage clients to breathe deeper to release tension and pain, and inspire my martial arts students to to breathe deeper to be more present and aware, as well as to reveal their potential and empower them.

Consciously focused deeper breathing is the critical bridge that helps build our awareness of ourselves and taps our potential for healing, growth and creativity. Consciously focusing and coordinating your breathing with your movement is the most obvious and powerful secret hidden in plain sight, because it’s an aspect of life most people take for granted and ignore.

Some of the most essential lessons in training martial arts is enhancement of awareness and sensitivity, both of oneself, one’s environment and in relation to others.

Proprioception is the awareness of ourselves in relation to our surroundings.

This kinesthetic awareness is sometimes referred to as our “sixth sense.” Most of the physical training in martial arts — partner drills, basics and supplemental exercises, forms, equipment training and weapons practice — enhance our sense of proprioception. Distance, balance, timing (our timing and coordination with an opponent’s timing), reflexes and connection are all aspects of proprioception.

Interoception is our awareness of our inner processes.

Interoception encompasses all the physiological tissues that relay signals to the central nervous system about the state of the body. Disconnection from the body’s signals and internal states may be related to anxiety, depression, PTSD, autism and other disorders.

The internal training in martial arts — standing and sitting meditation, Qigong, silk-reeling exercises — moving from the inside — develops our sense of interception.

Our inner-awareness, or interoception, informs and enhances our sense of proprioception.

Deeper breathing invigorates us, increases our focus and awareness — linking our awareness of the inside and outside of our bodies — as well as our awareness of others and our surroundings.

An often overlooked aspect of “Internal” Martial Arts training is inner-work: meaning working on your emotional and mental health and well being. This is in fact one of the most important aspects of our training. Chinese medicine has long recognized the interconnected relationship between balanced emotional states and specific internal organs.

Mental and emotional trauma affect our bodies, just as physical trauma can affect our mental and emotional well-being.

We will be discussing this topic in more detail in future articles and classes, stay tuned!

Classes returning at our new WuGuan opening this month, on Saturday, April 23rd!

Since moving last November, we’ve been busy settling into our new home and renovating our garage into our new WuGuan. Five busy months later, we are excited to return to training together!

at:

Towns at Riverfront

(Please register for classes for address)

Everett, WA

United States

Please RSVP to all classes you plan to attend, to confirm location and schedule.

Space limited to 5 students per class for in-person training — please message ahead to confirm your spot!

For students joining remotely via Zoom, we can host classes for up to 100 participants on our Zoom account.

As the mask mandate from the COVID-19 Pandemic lifted on March 11th, masks will be optional for in-person classes. Students will have the option of wearing a mask in classes with the expectation that other’s choices will be responsible and respectful. Proof of vaccinations are strongly encouraged but no longer required for students with medical exceptions. 💉🦠😷