Two Minute Health Tricks From The Shaolin Temple Of Zen

Training in Shaolin Martial Arts is a lifestyle that involves eating well, working out at least an hour five times a week as well as practicing Qigong. But if you're finding that you're busier than usual and can't fit in your regular training, one of these quick practices can still keep you on the Shaolin path.

 Green Tea

Green tea is the best food source of a group called catechins. In test tubes, catechins are more powerful than vitamins C and E in halting oxidative damage to cells and appear to have other disease-fighting properties. Want to find out more about the health properties of drinking green tea? click here 

Qigong Workout Press Ups

Just doing ten Qigong press ups from my Qigong Workout every day will increase your upper body strength, and increase the flexibility of your back. A strong back is the foundation of a fit and healthy body. These press ups work the triceps hard so when you do regular press ups you'll find them easier.

Instant Health Massage

Don't have time to do Qigong? Five minutes of the Instant Health Massage after you've stepped out of the shower will increases circulation, stimulate the lymphatic system, open the meridian lines and act as a natural battery charger. To find out more click here:

 Five minute Form

Speed up a Qigong form or slow down a Kung Fu form. Moving through these ancient Shaolin forms helps us to tap into our inner flow and access a peace that can easily be lost in the midst of our busy life. 

Eating Meditation

Don't have time to meditate? Have time to eat? Turn that into your meditation. Tune into your breath and the awareness of the food you're eating. Being aware of the food you're eating, automatically slows down your eating, aids digestion and helps reduce stress. By the end of your meal you'll feel calm and connected. You can also do a tea meditation. 

Just Do It - How To Achieve Your Dream

When I was seven years old, my mother asked me if I had dream? I said, "Yes, I want to become a martial artist." Then she asked me, "Do you know which is the highest part of your body?" I said, "My head and my hair." My mum said, "No, it's your hands." She told me, "Your mind make your dream happen but your mind cannot make your dream come true, only your hands can do that. This means, you can't just think, you need to do."

 Life is about doing, not thinking. Action not words.

I'm a martial artist. A martial artist doesn't just teach people, he also trains. If you only teach and never train then you never learn new things and you can't grow as a teacher. I want my students to make a decision: know what you want to do, make a strong plan and challenge yourself to make your body healthier and healthier. 

Take action today. 

Shifu Yan Lei teaches a graded path of Shaolin Kung Fu & Qigong. For more details of how you can learn in your home click here

A Simple Method To Stop Anxiety & Stress

At The Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine & Institute of Qigong Science, EEG results on Qigong practioners showed a predominance of alpha brain waves indicating that Qigong induces a relaxed and focused mind. After just three or four minutes there was a measurable shift of alpha and theta concentration from the rear occipital regions to the frontal lobes. This corresponds to a union of the mind and body from which feelings of peace and harmony arise. 

If you can, it's good to do some of your Qigong training outside. If you live in the city then get up early and go to the park, preferably a place where there are some trees.

Just as we spring clean our house we can also spring clean our body, being outside helps us to clear our stagnant energy and breathe in fresh air. It also reinvigorates our practice. The important thing is to be awake to the practice. It is important not to do Qigong by rote but say to yourself: For these next twenty minutes I'm going to dedicate myself completely to this practice, I'm going to let go of my worries and my thoughts and just do it.

A practice free from doubt and worry is what we mean by heart mind practice. If the mind and heart are dispersed then our Qi will be, and there won't be as much power in the practice. Because we are so used to thinking all the time, at first this may be difficult but the more we practice, the more we will find that our mind and body remembers, and concentration and letting go will come easily. Ironically it is when we are feeling most stressed and tired that we resist the practice, and this is when we need to do the practice most.

You can do your own experiment; measure how much you are thinking at the beginning of the practice and how much you are thinking at the end. Thinking is necessary but if we can't stop then who is the Emperor of our mind? Our thinking or ourselves?

A relaxed mind is a happy and creative mind, we have our best ideas, and are more functional in our day to day life when we are relaxed. 

Want to learn more about Qigong? Visit: http://www.qigongworkout.com/

Heaven Is Now Or Never

 “Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train.”

Morihei Ueshiba

Whether we are fat, thin, old, young, healthy or unhealthy, we all share a mind and body that can be trained. If we step onto the path of Shaolin with intellligence and determination, I am confident that we can bring to our life the health and wholeness that we all seek.

Being healthy and whole means we take care of our minds at the same time as we take care of our bodies. Our mind plays a vital part in keeping us healthy. A happy mind makes a healthy body, and the key to happiness or unhappiness is in how we use our mind.

Most of us have minds that roam about like untrained puppies. Our martial arts practice -  whether it’s Qigong, Kung Fu or both - acts as an anchor and tethers our mind.  Once you start to workout with my DVDs, let this become a  refuge from your daily activities. A time to let go of the small self and allow the big self to concentrate on the posture and breathing.

This act of surrender creates an enormous freedom.  We just have to learn how to get out of our own way and once we can do that, we begin to harmonize with the universal life. Through our workout, we come back to ourselves. When our training session is finished and we go back to our daily life, we find that mind is clear and calm. But this clarity and calmness is just a by product. It is always important that we remind ourselves to do our workout without any goal or desire for profit.

 In the West there is a very strong emphasis on the individual and personal choice. But for all of us, our life is not just inside our body but it is a constant exchange with the life of the universe. We continually take in air, food, water, thoughts, energy, ideas, pictures. So where does the individual begin and end?

One thing that we all have in common is we want to be happy. Thich Nhaht Hanh, the great Zen master said that we can only find  heaven in the hear and now. There is no better place or better time or anywhere else to be.  The Qigong and Kung Fu that I teach on my DVDs are the Shaolin Way to Zen. Make this the year where you expect more from yourself and expect nothing. 

Click here to step on the path of the Shaolin Way Of Zen

Five Simple Tips To Lose Belly Fat

Whenever I go back to China, I'm so happy to see my friends and family that I eat too much delicious food, and  I'm always much heavier coming back to the UK than I was leaving. I used to be able to lose weight quickly but now I'm in my late thirties, I find it harder to shift and I notice that all the fat goes to one place: my belly. Belly fat slows a fighter down and for middle-aged people it can lead to health problems  later on. The belly is a very stubborn keeper of fat. To successfully shift weight from this place, we need to tackle it from not only a fat burning angle but also hormonal and diet. These are my top tips.

1) Eat breakfast

Studies show that people who eat a quality breakfast, consume less calories during the day as whole. If you're like me, and you like to workout after waking, then eat a banana or a healthy milkshake. I use a food processor to blend  a banana with some cashews, walnuts and milk. Food eaten before a workout boosts performance and enhances your workout.

2) Reduce Cortisol Levels

Too much stress leads to an increase in cortisol which leads to fat gathering around the belly.  Holistic workouts like Qigong balance the hormones so it's important to factor these in as part of your workout. If you're  rundown, stressed or busy then take a holiday from your workout and focus only on doing  Qigong. Once you're feeling better then do a regular workout and include strength training, cardio and interval training. Shaolin Kung Fu has all of these elements in one fully integrated unit.

3) Eat Mindfully

At the temple we say a prayer to our food before eating it and use the eating of our food as a meditation. Mindful eating not only makes us eat more slowly, and enjoy our food, it also helps us to eat less.

4) Eat less fat and sugar

Eat lots of fruit and vegetables, grains and healthy proteins.  Try to cook your own food. Avoid processed food, ready-meals, cakes and sugary drinks. I never saw cereals before I came to the West. They are full of sugar and salt. Try not to eat these types of cereals and also don't drink sugary drinks more than once a week.

5) Listen to your body

Our life is complicated enough so don't over complicate your healthy living and workout. Listen to your body, tune in to it on a daily basis and listen to your own intelligence. Your body has the intelligence of the universe, it knows what it's doing. Let it talk to you and take action on its guidance. 

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The Future Of Exercise

Powerful strategies for optimzing your body and mind

I believe that practicing martial arts or going through your life without practicing Qigong is like driving a car and never topping up the air in the tyres. The air is our Qi, it gets us places. Take the air out of the tyre and the car will go nowhere, take the air out of our bodies and we die. It is as simple as that. On a basic level Qi is breath, it flows where the blood flows, but on a deeper level it is the energy matrix of the body and when we do Shaolin Training we optimize it on daily basis to get the most out of ourselves.

This is what the Shaolin Temple mean when they emphasise the importance of internal and external. The external is the kung fu, the things we can see, the internal is what is going on inside of us, and to optimize our energy we mix internal and external together.

Shaolin Steel Jacket

A good example of this is Shaolin Steel Jacket. In order for me to be able to do this, I have to have good stamina but I also I need to practice Qigong. It is the Qi that protects my body. I direct my Qi to my ribs or my back and I deflect the pain away so it acts like a mirror, when a person kicks me, their power is deflected and turned back on themselves so it hurts them instead of me. That is the amazing power of Qi.

The Competitive Edge

The majority of people use Qi to unblock the channels and optimize the efficiency of the body. In China, top-level businessmen and women practice Qigong so that they can focus and have full energy for the day ahead. They believe it gives them a competitive edge. Martial artists use it to make their bodies into weapons or simply to give them a stronger and longer martial art's life.

The balance of yin and yang

When I first went to the Shaolin Temple to begin my training, I was fourteen years old and 90% of my training was kung fu – external - training and only 10% was Qigong – internal - training. To be honest, I used to find internal training boring and I wasn’t convinced that there was such a thing as Qi. But I wanted to learn Shaolin Steel Jacket and in order to do this I had no choice. It was only when I saw the effectiveness of the Qigong movements that I became interested in Qi.

As I get older I don't need to practice 90% kung fu, and if I did I would quickly burn myself out. The reason boxers and footballers usually retire in their thirties is not only because their stamina is not as strong but also because their body feels weaker, and this is one of the ways in which martial arts differs from sport. As martial artists, our thirties are the time when we have the maturity and experience to go deeper into the internal techniques. We change the yin and yang of our training so that we may do 60% kung fu and 40% Qi Gong but as I get older this may become as much as 90% Qi Gong and 10% kung fu.

The key to staying young isn't to work out until our endorphins make us happy but to be clever and learn how to balance our external training with our internal training.

How far can you go?

If we have a car, every now and again we check the air pressure, especially if we are about to go on a long journey. We need to do the same thing with our body. What is it telling you? How much can you do today? How much can you push yourself?

This is something, which is difficult for a martial artist to judge because we know we have to push ourselves to improve. Martial arts are about taking us beyond our limits. The training challenges us and this is one of the reasons why we love martial arts so much. It takes us away from the smallness of our self and connects us with a tradition that is thousands of years old and it also gives us unity with our fellow martial artists. There is something exhilarating about our body being able to do something that we never thought possible.

But no matter what martial arts you do, or even if you don’t do martial arts, if you want to sustain your martial art's life then you need to do internal training. If it's not part of your tradition then take it from another tradition.

Right Now

The history of the Shaolin Temple was built on monks going out to different provinces and taking the good things then bringing them back and finely tuning them. It's important that we don't stay stuck but we keep evolving. Remember the lesson of impermanence. Nothing is fixed and solid. Just as our bodies are impermanent and constantly changing so should our training change and adapt to where our bodies are right now in the present moment.

Less is more

My advice is at the end of your martial art's or workout session, finish with some Qigong. In the beginning, you may – like I did – feel bored. But if this happens remind yourself that Qigong has been around for thousands of years. If it were rubbish then it wouldn't be practiced anymore. It is a time-tested technique of putting energy back into your body but it yields nothing to an impatient bored mind. The practice needs to have quality so it's best to start off with doing less, just five minutes a day.

The Eight Treasures Qigong

The Eight Treasures Qigong is possibly the most popular Qi Gong form in China. I teach it in my book Instant Health and also my DVD The Way Of Qigong. It consists of eight sections so it's easy to break them down. Take one section from The Eight Treasures Qi Gong and practice this movement, and then build up a little bit more each day until you are working through a whole form. Try to get into a daily routine. We don't think about brushing our teeth because it's a habit. Try to make a habit of doing Qigong.

It's important to have patience. Our minds are like puppies, we know when we bring a puppy into the house it's naughty and we have to train it. This is the same with our mind. We have to give it direction and leadership and soon our body will start to enjoy the increase in energy and we will want to do Qigong.

Beginner's mind

Shaolin Qigong comes from a Ch'an or Zen tradition so we don't think about where the energy is going. The important aspect of this is to have a no thinking beginner's type mind. Practice with a heart and mind placed firmly on the practice and from this your own experience will grow. You will become aware of energy naturally; your body will direct you. Don't complicate things. The secret to a successful Qigong practice is to make sure your breathing is one with your movement. Don’t add anything more. Keep it simple.

The Shaolin Energy Massage

Just as top-level Olympic athletes have regular massages, we also finish our Qigong practice with a self-massage. And we use The Instant Health Massage Brush to do this. I use a metal one because I practice Shaolin Steel Jacket but The Instant Health Massage Brush that my students use is made from bamboo and consists of 108 bamboo rods. It is designed for a person seeking health, and for martial artists it is also the first step to body conditioning.

Not only does it relieve tight muscles but it also assists in unblocking the acupuncture channels, and helps the body to detox through the stimulation of the lymphatic system. This is a natural battery charger for the body. We do this massage when we have finished our Qi Gong training and it takes about five or ten minutes.

The future of exercise

The future of exercise is changing, just as yoga has become more mainstream, I believe Qigong will follow. New research is proving its effectiveness and I hope to see not only martial artists use it but boxers and athletes and runners and footballers.

Life is about energy. When we love something or feel passionate about something then we have a lot of energy. Our love for martial arts gives us the mental energy to keep training. The Qi in our bodies gives us the physical energy to keep training.

I like to think that even when I'm in my sixties I'll still be kicking and punching bags and running up mountains. I'll still be discovering more and more about martial arts because martial arts is like the ocean, it's never ending and I am a beginner who is always learning. It is only through the Qi that I can continue to do this.

Go for it!

If I explain to you the taste of an apple, it's not the same as you actually taking a bite from an apple. It's the same with Qigong. I believe it will help you to run faster or punch quicker and it will give you more energy not only for your martial art's training but your day-to-day life. But I ask you not to take my word for it but go and try it out for yourself.