What we teach

Our students are required to undertake an ongoing extensive course of study.
We address physical, psychological and emotional development:

1. Change
2. Analysis
3. Attention
4. Listening
5. Mirroring
6. Initiative
7. Principles
8. Creativity
9. Reflection
10. Meditation
11. Adaptation
12. Perception
13. Composure
14. Spontaneity
15. Observation
16. Perspective
17. Improvisation
18. Interpretation
19. Contemplation
20. Proprioception
21. Spatial awareness
22. Theory & practice
23. Emotional awareness
24. Breaking things down/reverse engineering

In addition to the more obvious physical training, our students are required to study the website thoroughly and select books from the reading list.

We offer quarterly questionnaires and comprehensive assignments for more experienced students.

Think for yourself

Watching television, surfing the web, reading newspapers, magazines, fiction books and engaging in gossip can all lead to mental stagnation.
Instead of thinking for yourself, you begin to parrot the thoughts and opinions of others.
Advertising bombards people with trends, fashions and must-have goods. It promotes competition, jealousy, greed and restless agitation.

How many people sit in the company of others listlessly fiddling with portable electronic devices?These are simply adult toys.

Stop

In order to open your mind, you need to switch-off, unplug and just stop.
Just sit, stand or lie down without stimulation of any sort.
Listen to your mind, to your thoughts and emotions.
Feel the anxiety and the agitated thoughts.

Do not act, judge what is happening or have any thoughts of control.
Simply become aware of what is occurring.

If you are stimulated by sugar and caffeine, you will find this extremely difficult.
It may take many occasions of practice before you experience any expansion of awareness.

Take control

Instead of allowing society to manipulate your mind, take control of what you are exposed to:

1. Media
   - media is easy to avoid: only watch the programs or DVD's you feel will be healthy for your mind and emotions. 
   - be ruthlessly selective.
   - do not watch the news. Recognise that the news is a commodity, a product. It is sold to you. And like any commodity it is tailored to suit the market.
   - stop reading news, gossip and anything that makes you feel emotionally unsound (envious, frustrated, depressed, anxious, fearful, helpless, angry etc).
    
2. Advertising
   - be cautious with advertising.
   - think carefully about what you want to do or buy.
   - advertising is a very clever field of business and it will manipulate people any which way it can.
    
3. Switch-off the toys
   - video games, mobile phones, the web all serve to foster unease and unrest.
   - put your phone on silent or better yet switch it off when you return home.
   - switch your contract to pay-as-you-go: it will allow you to control spending and be more frugal.
   - avoid gimmicks: a phone is a telecommunication device not a multimedia centre.
    
4. Consumerism
   - avoid debt.
   - avoid the lure of consumerism: there is more life than buying goods.
   - do not shop unless you have a specific agenda in mind.
   - think long-term: but things that last and avoid fashion.
   - every penny you spend needlessly is cutting into your earnings.
   - invest rather than squander.
    
5. Diet
   - eat healthy food, avoid sugar.
   - feel your mind become calmer and more aware.
    
6. Read
   - read books that expand your consciousness, that challenge your preconceptions.
   - encourage your mind to grow in new directions.
   - make time to read every day.

Mind control

If you think that you are in control of your mind, you may want to look deeper.
Do some research.
Start thinking for yourself again.

Try reading:

Commentaries on Living Volumes 2 & 3 by Krishnamurti
- short conversations and interviews regarding living, thinking and conditioning.
Keep it simple by Nick Page
- a very nice little book examining ways in which to simplify your life and start living.

The Way to Love by Anthony De Mello - this is a beautiful book which examines our conditioning and questions how we perceive our reality.

Weight Loss for the Mind by Stuart Wilde
- he questions how we justify actions based upon opinion and emotion.

Puzzles & games

Some puzzles and games are good for your brain. Others are not.
The main danger lies in training your mind to fulfil a specific skill; such as play sudoku or answer a crossword puzzle.
These activities are arguably limiting; an end in themselves.

Seek instead to undertake activities that expand consciousness, teach new skills and challenge how you perceive reality.

Neuroplasticity

http://www.newcastletaichi.co.uk/neuroplasticity.htm