Fighting Stress with Martial Arts

Stress is a frequently heard term in conversation today, but what is stress and what has it got to do with martial arts?  

The word Stress means many different things to many different people, however generally speaking it is the label given to the consequences of over loading the human brain. In today’s society, with television, radio, computers and the internet, the average person processes more information in a single day than our ancestors would have done in a year. Stress is no longer the preserve of stock market brokers but despite its widespread nature it still carries with it a social stigma. 

It has long been held that exercise is a good way of combating stress due to the accompanying release of chemicals in the brain called endorphins, and with many martial arts incorporating vigorous physical workouts into the training regime; the stress reduction benefits of martial arts training have often been quoted. 

 However given the psychological basis of the stress condition the question has to be asked, is the release of endorphins actually helping to resolve the problem or simply masking the symptoms temporarily? Secondly if the release of endorphins is the mechanism of stress release then does that mean that those martial arts practised in a more sedentary fashion are of no use in combating stress? 

If we look again at the root cause of stress, we can see that what the brain needs is a time out, a break from the information overload experienced during day to day life. Unless a person is experienced in meditation getting the human brain to think of nothing is a virtually impossible task. A far more achievable but equally beneficial state is to get the mind to focus on a single thing. In those martial arts described as internal martial arts, performing sequences of movements (often referred to as patterns or forms) with singular mental focus is common place.

Wing Chun kung fu and stress 

Within Wing Chun kung fu the first form that a student learns is called Siu Nim Tao. Roughly translated the name means way of the little idea. When performing Siu Nim Tao a student is asked to focus on the basic shapes of the system and more precisely the position of the elbow. Moving slowly in a relaxed state whilst allowing the mind to focus on this singular concept, allows the body to release physical tension and the mind to enter a meditative or hypnotic state. In this state the conscious mind can take a time out and allow the subconscious mind to process the information accumulated during the day thus helping to relieve stress and reduce the risk of stress related illness. It is common for Wing Chun practitioners to spend twenty minutes or more each day performing Siu Nim Tao in this slow meditative way but other martial arts could easily benefit in same way from slow relaxed practise of simple repetitious movements without having to learn anything new.  

In this high pressure age of information overload where the concept of relaxation has become synonomous with staring at a TV screen, competitive sport or consumption of alcohol, it’s fortunate that these simple but beneficial martial arts practices have survived through the centuries to provide an effective method of stress relief that can be practised by anyone.