Water Method Blog

 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...

The Yang style tai chi form Paul Cavel teaches is derived from that of Yang Cheng Fu, a direct descendant of the Yang family, as he considers it a superb balance between ease of learning and depth of internals, making it a practice well-suited to both new and existing students alike. The internal...

By Paul Cavel

Part 1: Origins of the Water Method

The Water Method, first coined by Lao Tzu, author of the Tao Te Ching, twenty-five hundred years ago, comes from the teachings of the Taoist oral tradition and has existed for many millennia. For this reason, I like to refer to it as “Old Taoism...

Creating Circular Forms.

The specialty of Tai Chi Circling Hands is developing circularity.

Circularity is a big deal in the internal arts and it gets talked about a lot. But when you go to practise your form, there’s a lot of complexity involved — not just with the choreography, but also nei...

By Paul Cavel

The goal of all Taoist movement arts is to move energy (qi) in the body, which can be done through direct or indirect methods.

• Direct movement of qi occurs when a practitioner's mind connects and merges with specific layers of energy within their flesh, and then mobilises that

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