Providing those in the second phase of life and beyond with the tools to re-find themselves: mind, body and spirit. For those seeking longevity, who strive to be the best version of themselves, living life to the full. Advice, guidance, reflections, insightful interviews. Weaponry: Martial Arts, Mindfulness, Reiki and the ancient wisdom. If I can, you can! Just for today, let’s both try to be the best version of ourselves that we can be.
Author: paulrowinski
Paul is an award-winning lecturer, who has worked for the regional, national and transnational press for two decades. He first worked for various UK regional newspapers, before becoming a national newspaper reporter. Paul was a Berlin-based foreign correspondent working for The European, Scotland on Sunday and Times Educational Supplement. He has also written for other national titles, like The Independent and Financial Times.
He also worked as an assistant producer on the English section of Deutsche Welle TV, producing regular world news bulletins and as a guest columnist for the Berlin based quality broadsheet, Der Tagesspiegel and occasional features writer for Die Zeit. Paul has covered stories from Germany, Austria, Poland, Italy and the former Yugoslavia. On returning to the UK he worked for The Times Educational Supplement, the Daily Mail foreign desk, The Sunday Times and The Times night news desk:
Paul was previously course leader for the Masters in International Journalism at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and prior to that delivered an undergraduate journalism degree for the University of Middlesex. Paul’s PhD looked at different perceptions of European integration in the newspapers of Rupert Murdoch in Britain and Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, analysing both the discursive construction and political communication of Europe in the media. Paul’s research also looks at the relationships between national identity and media discourse.
He was co-editor of Br(e)aking The News, Journalism, Politics and New Media, published in 2013 by Peter Lang and wrote a chapter in this book and Media/Democracy: A Comparative Study, published by Cambridge Scholars (2013). Both focused on the discursive construction of Europe in the Murdoch and Berlusconi press.
Paul currently works at the University of Bedfordshire, where he organized two conferences at the university, entitled Britain in Europe, in April, 2015, and June, 2016, on the eve of the EU referendum, with politicians, journalists and academics debating the issues, as the UK hurtled towards the referendum on EU membership.
In 2017 Paul published Evolving Eurocepticisms in the British and Italian Press. Selling the Public Short (Palgrave). He is currently working on another book, Post-Truth, Post-Press, Post-Democracy. Paul runs the MA in International Journalism at the university.
He is fluent in German and Italian, and has a respectable command of Spanish and Polish. He is a visiting lecturer at the University of Applied Social Sciences in Berlin (HMKW).
Paul is a member of the Media and Politics and Italian groups of the Political Studies Association (PSA) and Journalism Studies Section of the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA).
He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was voted Outstanding Teacher of the Year (2017) in his faculty. In 2016 Paul won the 100% Effort Award at the Pantera Tae Kwon Do club. He is currently preparing for his black belt and various national and European veteran competitions.
Paul has a passion for mindfulness and runs a group for journalism first year undergraduates, suffering with various issues, including mental health problems.
Paul is passionate about soft and hard martial arts, history, current affairs, literature, writing, but most of all, his incredible wife and two boys. Paul is at his happiest cycling in the countryside.
A goal not meant to be reached.
“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.”
Bruce Lee.
Sometimes you have to accept defeat. It was a simple choice in the end, worsen my snapping hip or walk away from Tae Kwon Do, which, because of the mechanics of what the martial arts was asking of my body, was sadly exacerbating the condition. No pain. I decided to stop before we reached that particular juncture. The hip is hardly snapping at all now, thanks to a brilliant sports physiotherapist and well – that elusive black belt was never reached. I spent three years on red belt. I showed tenacity and as the Tae Kwon Do Mantra says ‘indomitable spirit’. It was not meant to be. The longer I took – the more it eluded me. Something was pulling the black belt further away. Tae Kwon Do, to be very clear is a great martial art, but it in the end it is the preserve of the young(er).
I am not the most accomplished or heralded martial artist you will meet. I am not a ‘master’ in any martial art – not yet anyway. I AM on the journey. Maybe as Taoism puts it, I am on the pathless path. On that alone, I can share with you and we can hopefully grow together. But I have been training long and hard and it has made a difference. THAT is what I want you to experience too.
So I said my tearful goodbyes to Tae Kwon Do and started White Crane Kung Fu and Tai Chi, which was continuously interrupted by first my father’s death and then one of my sons falling seriously ill. All these things are in the past now, thankfully.
While I decided I could not continue with Fuijuan White Crane, it was not for want of a truly brilliant teacher and advocate. I was thinking long-term and the need for an accessible club. I have just started learning Wing Chun. And so – without realising it, or maybe realising it a little, because of my research – I have crossed the Rubicon from a hard martial art, based on kicking and overpowering – to two inter-related southern Chinese martial arts, more closely connected with breathing, meditation, getting low, being grounded and working on using softness and excellent technique, rather than the power in your punch. This, I hope is the path to longevity, with many masters in their nineties and beyond. From too old for the class – perhaps I am now too young – or maybe I have regained some time – and no longer lost it! The key thing is to train hard.
Basking in reflected glory.
My son, back in 2019 became UK Tae Kwon Do colour belt champion in sparring. Guess who his trainer was on the day?
I am of course slow, but knew his strengths and what he had to do. So yes, I will bask in the reflected glory – even though my champion days are well – perhaps a thing of the past?
If I can coach my son to glory, then maybe I am able to help you to more moderate but no less honourable targets, right? Hopefully, right.
A Mindfulness Journey
My Mindfulness Journey.
I have attended a series of yoga courses over several years at the Sivananda Yoga Centre in Putney, south London. I am an intermediate level Yoga practitioner. These courses entailed a lot of abdominal breathing and other Mindfulness-related exercises.
I perform the eight brocades Chi Kung patterns daily every morning, helping me to clear my head for the day. I also use the Insight Timer on my phone daily and either listen to meditation music or have a ten-minute guided meditation, most commonly a Yoga Sutra, so body scanning, or a Chakra balancing guided meditation.
I have been practising Chikung and Tai Chi for more than ten years and studied Tai Chi for many years at the Glasgow Buddhist Centre.
I also regularly conduct Pranayama breathing exercises, informing my Reiki practice and conduct Reiki on myself for at least five minutes per day.
I also attend the Pantera Tae Kwon Do club in London two-three times a week, which also entails ‘living in the moment’ and the application of various aspects of Mindfulness, being a mind-body-spirit activity and not a sport as commonly perceived in the West. I have been practicing TKD for more than ten years.
I run a weekly Mindfulness group for university staff and another for students and have been doing so for several years.
The Journey
The weapons I want to help you wield –and I am still learning myself – are the worlds of Yoga and the soft and hard martial arts. They have made me strong.
Too many of you decide as you leave forty behind and rush to fifty and beyond that it is time to give up on your body or worse your mind, but to collapse into a long, painful death. Wrong.
Your body is still capable of amazing power and strength and that in turn will feed your mind and soul to do likewise. It will take you longer, you will suffer more – but then the prize is greater and the victory so much sweeter. You are no longer 21. Reconfigure how you see all that.
Grey Warrior 