Health and Fitness

1) Get Moving The more that you sit in front of a computer, the less you will want to workout. At the end of your working day your body will tell you that it's tired and give you another excuse to skip your workout. But if you can motivate yourself to push through your tiredness, once you begin to move, you will be surprised to find that you feel energized. This is because movement and exercise unleash your body's energy. We are born to move. We are not born to sit down all day. The Shaolin Temple movements help us to bring our body and mind in harmony. It's only when our body and mind are working in harmony that we can feel truly energized and happy. 2) Use Your Shaolin Workout As A Refuge We are so goal focused and driven in our work that I think it's good to take the pressure off when we do our workouts. Use this as a time to tune out of your daily life and tune into your body. Each of your workouts gives your body a different experience. There is the challenging ana...

I have many bad character traits but one thing I'm grateful to my masters for teaching me is simplicity. Maybe I'm a little stupid but I don't think over and over again in the way I've noticed many of my Western students do. They run their problems round and round their mind like marbles. Shantideva said: “If you can solve your problem, Then what is the need for worrying? If you cannot solve it, Then what is the use of worrying?” This quote is very powerful because it moves us away from worry and inaction and gets us to the root of what we need to do. What is it that is making you anxious or worried? Can you do something to change it? If the answer is yes then do it. If the answer is no then you need to find a way to accept it. This is the end of the story. You don't need to think about this problem anymore. Move on.  If you find it hard to move on then this Chinese proverb is for you: 塞翁失馬焉知非福 (Saiweng Shima, Yanzhi Feifu). The Old Man Who Lost His Horse During t...

From a young age I was drawn to the image of the Buddha. I wanted to be like him, sitting peacefully with a smile on his face. But I couldn't understand why, when I sat to meditate I had so many thoughts whirling around in my head and I felt anything but peaceful and smiling. So one day I went and asked my teacher, 'How can I be like the Buddha?' He smiled and said, 'You already are. The Buddha is in here.' And he pointed at my heart. Don't get put off by the term Buddha. If you are not a Buddhist then you can call Buddha "inherent nature" or "God" or "love". We don't have to be a Buddhist to want peace, happiness, security and good health. And we don't have to be a Buddhist to realize that the external world can only give us security and happiness for a short time. True confidence, security, and happiness come directly from our mind. The Buddha said, 'It is our mind which makes the world." If we are feeling down ...