How Kung Fu Changed a Foreigner's Life

Source: China Daily, Nathan Keith Williams

It's 5:45 am and the soothing hues of the sunrise fill my room with rich yellows and burnt orange, as if my room is awash in amber and honey. I wake as usual, 15 minutes before my alarm. I sit up and look out over the tranquil countryside in Shandong.

It's a flat landscape and I can see the village in the distance and the mountains to the left. To the right I see him, shining as bright as the sun, a giant golden statue of Lao Tzu, the great Chinese philosopher! He looks out over the countryside at the foot of Shenjing Mountain. The sight calms my soul and I feel grateful.

It's market day and I need to find some instant coffee- it's hard to come by in this part of the world.

In fact many Western commodities are hard to come by but I am actually glad of it, after all that is why I came here. I dress in my traditional martial training clothes and stretch my aching back and legs. My alarm sounds: It's time for Kung Fu training to begin!

It's 4th October 2017: my birthday. I'm 31 years old and 3 months ago I quit my job of 7 years, left my family and friends in the UK and joined the Shengjing Shan Shaolin Traditional Kung Fu Academy in Shandong province. Learning Kung Fu, Tai Chi, Qi Gong (a form of meditation) and Sanda (Chinese kickboxing), changed my life and I'd like to share with you some of the lessons it taught me.

Routine

We have the training classes 5 hours a day, 5 days a week. Every day started the same with Tai Chi and then Qi Gong before breakfast, but after that you got into the real good stuff! One day would focus on your form, be it Shaolin, Bagua(eight diagrams in Taoism representing the fundamental principles of reality) or Mantis Fist. Other days would focus on body conditioning and stamina. And other days would be more relaxed and focus on power stretching and mediation.

Before my time at the academy, I didn't care much for routine, my life was too busy I was the type of guy to jump from one thing to the next, disillusioned that I was functioning well because I could multitask! I burned the candle at both ends as the saying goes and eventually I burnt out.

Having a routine is like a buffer, between you and the stress that fill your day. A well thought out routine can be an act of contrition for a lifestyle that neglects your wellbeing.

Silence

During my stay in the academy I took a vow of silence for a short period of time. It sounds a little clich I know and I must admit, I was a skeptic before I shut my mouth, but low and behold I learned so much!

First of all, the world is such a loud place; do you ever stop to really comprehend how loud the world is? I would wager that not many people do, because for most, being quiet is just an insincere moment of waiting until someone else has finished speaking only so they can continue talking. When you're silent in a world of noise, you realize just how much of what's been said is vacuous; it only serves to fill the void.

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