Water Method Blog

What's Holding You Back?

In this follow-on talk with TTCS Instructor Javi Martinez, we discuss healing with Taoist neigong. Topics include:

- The benefits of training, such as better sleep, increased flexibility and growing a younger body

- Healing physical, energetic, emotional, mental and...

By Paul Cavel

Breathing is one of the most direct and simple ways to gain access to your internal landscape, and encourage a calm, relaxed state in body and mind. The ability to breathe well can dramatically affect your health and well-being—not just because you do it all day, but also because...

This is Part Three of the Water Method series with Mir Ali.

Start with Part One:
• What Defines Water Method Training

In this third video, Mir and I drill down into the question: What is the point of training? We also discuss the training progression as you develop skill with fundamental neigong...

This is Part Two of the Water Method series with Paul Cavel and Mir Ali.

Much of the documentation on Daoism has been destroyed, but the oral tradition has been preserved with the teachings being transmitted from master to student for millennia, to us in the present day.

In this video, Mir and ...

By Paul Cavel

In a previous post I offered exercises for opening up the musculoskeletal frame in a coordinated fashion to create space in your body. As you begin to feel a sense of more space, you want to transition your focus from the muscles to the nerves.

In order to target nerve flow, you w...

By Paul Cavel

Two Methods for Growing Your Life-force Energy

There are two primary methods of moving energy in the body, which can be broadly classified as beginning and advanced phases. Many qigong systems are designed according to the principles of the beginning phase and remain within this re...

In this video, I meet with my friend and fellow Water Method teacher Jason Roberts to discuss how to practise to cultivate qi and manifest the energies of the Five Elements.

We discuss:

• Where to put your focus and strategies for practising the Water Method as it is comprised of five neigong

  ...

Audio from a recording in California, March 2024 on how to make practice effortless with a video of an evening tai chi practice in California, May 2024.

Javi Martinez teaches tai chi and qigong in London

If you really want to be healthy, to feel freer, to become a better human being, you must first create balance. Taoist energy arts have been practised for millennia for these reasons, and many more.

Most popular is qigong (and younger tai chi), but in the Water Method, the focus is on neigong an...

In this video, I discuss bending-and-stretching neigong and lengthening neigong, and how they become one.

Classically Taoist Meditation was done while sitting in the Emperor’s position. In this video, I’ll show you how to sit in a chair (or on a rock!) for meditation.

 By Paul Cavel

In previous posts, I covered exercises for creating space in body, mind and qi to increase relaxation and release deeply bound tension. Now we’ll explore foundational breathing techniques to lull the nerves into a state of letting go and gently massage the internal organs to increa...

The kwa is essential to internal arts training as it powers all forms. In the this video, I’ll take you through the basic kwa squat to make sure you’re practising it correctly.

In my Taoist Neigong online classes, core Water Method training, we cover many layers of the kwa squat to help you r...

 By Paul Cavel

See Part 1

PART 2: What Is Wu Wei? 

Wu wei is often described as “doing without doing”, but what does that really mean? How can you do something without doing it? This misunderstanding is generally due to scholars outside the tradition translating Chinese characters into English,...

 This one’s for you, Dr. Miguel!

By Paul Cavel

Although people who train the internal arts of qigong, tai chi and bagua do so for a variety of reasons, all motivations can be classified into three general categories: health/healing, martial arts and spiritual development. In reality, everyone trains for health because, at the...

By Paul Cavel

You are being bombarded by noise – unrelenting distractions in the form of notifications, news and marketing – that diminish peace of mind. It’s no wonder why stress is the number one cause of disease with 90 percent of illnesses and diseases being linked to chronic stress (accor...

 By Paul Cavel

In ancient times, internal arts training often started just before dawn and was usually done outside. Taoists found that morning practice not only warms up the body’s systems by circulating blood and chi, but also wakes up the intuitive aspects of the mind. Starting the day on soli...

By Paul Cavel

In Part 1, we explored the peaks and plateaus in training both external and internal forms of exercises, and why you should not be discouraged when you recognize you have reached a plateau.

The Taoist Principle That Saves the Day

When you hit a plateau, that is the time when you m...

By Paul Cavel

I don’t have to tell you that stress and tension have a way of building up during the day. In this age of Big Data, a lot of that tension gets stuck in our eyes and nervous system.

If your eyes are perpetually tensed or overloaded, if your subconscious mind is clogged with visuali...

By Paul Cavel

See Part 1

Stress can lodge in various parts of the body, causing tensions that can eventually shape your daily routine and overall health. In this day-and-age, eye stress has become prominent due to the increase of screen time albeit for work or pleasure. This week we focus on ea...

 By Paul Cavel

Many events in life close people down in some way or another, especially because repetitive, micro-tasks on devices have become standard practice. They can leave your body and mind feeling condensed, hard and tense, especially at the end of the day.

Learning how to make space in y...