Have you ever felt like your body and mind are disconnected? Or maybe you’re dealing with chronic pain, anxiety, or depression? In this blog post, Mystic Mag meets Paul Cavel, a Taoist teacher and healer who transformed his own life through ancient practices. After a serious motorcycle accident left him in poor health, Paul discovered the power of qigong, tai chi, and Taoist meditation. Not only did he heal himself, but he also found his passion in helping others achieve similar results.
When did you first know that being a Taoist Teacher and Healer was your calling and how did it come about?
After a motorcycle accident in my twenties, I was left with serious injuries. I walked with a limp, and my poor physical condition, and the lack of hope for improvement, also affected my emotional and mental well-being. Eventually, after the medical establishment ran out of options for me, I discovered the Water Method and practised qigong, tai chi, bagua and Taoist meditation to heal myself with my teacher’s guidance. At 61 years of age, I can honestly say that I feel in better shape today than I was even before my accident.
As soon as I went to my first tai chi class, I knew I would practise the art for the rest of my life. However, I would never have had the confidence to teach if my teacher, Lineage Holder Bruce Frantzis, hadn’t encouraged me to do so in 1995 with an abrupt message, “Don’t wait. Teach”! I began teaching soon after and I’ve never looked back.
I do not see myself as a healer, we are all healers. Nobody can heal you except you. A teacher can open the door, but you must walk through the doorway yourself.
What services do you offer?
I teach a fully integrated Water Method arts curriculum, including medical qigong, Five Element neigong, tai chi, bagua, Taoist breathing and meditation, for health, healing and personal development. People can study with me online and in-person, and I offer teacher certification and mentorship through my school, The Tai Chi Space. I also see a limited number of private students, clients and management teams to help them develop and refine Water Method practices.
Could you tell us more about Taoist energy arts?
The Water Method is rooted in training the 16 neigong or “internal/energetic techniques” that can be applied to health, healing, martial arts, high performance — anything to which you wish to put your mind and energy. Breathing is one neigong thread, for example, unto which whole systems of training have been designed. The synergy of the 16 threads has the potential to take a person into Emptiness, according to Water Method Taoists.
All Taoist practices start with the body, specifically with learning qigong or “energy exercises” that target the qi or “life-force energy” of the body. Most modern exercise systems focus on the muscles, whereas qigong, tai chi (basically a complex form of qigong) and bagua (an aerobic internal art that involves walking in circles) target the qi, blood and fluids, and internal organs of the body. The early goals of Water Method practice are to release tension from and open up the body, to re-establish fundamental energetic connections and flows throughout the body, and generate a sense of relaxation in body and mind.
Breathing, standing, sitting and meditation practices complement moving practices to help release stress and tension, and create a stable centre from which to take on deeper Dissolving meditation practices for releasing more profound physical, energetic, emotional and mental traumas.
How do you help people? Do you also treat mental disorders such as Anxiety and Depression?
Learning the foundational qigong practices imbued with neigong, or internal-power techniques, will address surface-level tensions and start to expel physical, energetic, emotional and mental blockages from your system. Once learned, you can deepen and fine-tune forms or add forms and/or meditation to drill into your personal needs — whether that is healing from injury, becoming healthier and more vibrant, achieving high-performance results in any aspect of your life or to further your spiritual path.
In conjunction with belly breathing, qigong can be practised to release the body’s soft tissues (fascia, muscles, tendons and ligaments) and the nerves, which can have a profound effect on reducing anxiety and stress. As Taoist breathing techniques are developed over time, you can learn how to activate your internal organs in order to release the tensions and negative emotions that they carry.
Regular exercise of any kind can be incredibly beneficial for depression, but where the internal arts have an edge is in getting the energy and fluids of the body — blood, interstitial, lymph, synovial, cerebrospinal — to circulate more powerfully, without the push and strain mentality that often accompanies modern exercise programmes. As the blood and fluids are pumped strongly around the body, the volume of fluids in circulation increases. Over time this can have the effect of upgrading all the body’s systems because the fluids lubricate and cushion the joints, and deliver nutrients to and take waste byproducts away from every cell in your body.
With depression, the fluids have often stagnated from lack of activity. In fact, stagnating fluids can be the cause of depression. Movement is therefore a key to making headway with depression. Exercise that does not require high-intensity aerobic activity makes it possible for many more people to get moving again, especially elders or anyone with severe body imbalances or balance issues. The smooth motion of qigong movements can help to release the strong and erratic vibrations associated with anxiety and fear, and replace them with a smooth, continuous and stable vibration that lulls the nervous system into a state of relaxation and letting go. All of this can help to lift the symptoms of depression, even if only temporarily, allowing a person to counter escalating anxiety attacks or feelings of closing down at any time they need it, before an episode.
Taoist breathing techniques take the letting go process started in qigong to the next level. In the early stages, the focus is on continuous belly breathing and getting the diaphragm moving, which shifts to breathing into and releasing the tensions and negative emotions stored in the internal organs. For example, breathing techniques for fully opening up the lungs, where the negative emotions of sadness and grief are stored, can be expelled to bring about more enthusiasm for those suffering from depression, or those who are simply bored or fed up with life. Breathing techniques that target the heart, which when out of balance produces anxiety, can be calmed, allowing the natural sense of joy for life to emerge.
All of the above considered, depression is a complex subject and serious cases should be treated under the supervision of a healthcare provider to ensure training is safe and productive for each individual. People who have serious mental disorders should only practise Taoist arts under the supervision of a healthcare provider because, initially, a period of destabilisation can result as a person begins to contact and release what is inside of them. The Water Method advocates for following the path of least resistance, and taking a slow and progressive approach to training, but this can be more challenging for those suffering from deep traumas or mental disorders.
What can a person expect from your sessions?
All Water Method training is about learning how to let go, rather than how to gain or get something. This is counterintuitive to Western conditioning. But when you release all that is false, what remains is true, really you. Having a daily personal practice is so important to staying connected with who you are: what you need, and what is right for you to do for yourself and others.
In any course you take with me, online or in person, I’ll teach you a complete internal practice that you can start training for your body, energy and mind. You can build on this base knowledge by continuing to train live or online with me, or with other TTCS instructors, as and when you are ready for refinements or to move forward.
What do you love most about your profession?
Seeing people improve, overcoming physical, emotional and mental obstacles, and finding their way … even in their older days. So many times I’ve been told, “If only I had met you 20 or 30 years ago”!
So we are here now, and all we can do is let go and keep moving forward, “all under Tao”, all of us.
To learn more about Paul and check out his weekly blog posts, see www.paulcavel.com.
