Having written about my favourite topic at the 1st level in recent months, namely “live“ Chi-Sao training and how it can double and triple our self-defence capability if done correctly, I would now like to move up two levels and warn you against the most dangerous enemy of all: the anger within ourselves that makes us blind.

Seemingly uncontrollable explosions of anger for trivial reasons cause more damage and unhappiness than attacks by criminals and terrorists. In fact judicious use of a nasal spray would immediately put an end to the danger, but I’ll come to that later.

Blind anger is also a first-class energy-robber. Many a highly-graded WingTsun master who has become a slave to his anger owing to a wounded ego has been incapable of thinking and acting for days on end. And yet just hours later, he would not have been able to explain why he was so angry. It is hard to fend off an anger attack if one does not recognise the warning signs (e.g. a blocked left nostril) in time.
A master should have developed the ability to remember himself after forgetting himself for a short time, in which case it would be possible to redirect this energy and use it in a positive way, e.g. to create new life. At least this is how some couples practice successful conflict management: make love, not war!  

Someone who cannot free himself from blind aggression in time deserves hardly less sympathy than his victim, for out of desperation and shame, this rage is often turned against the perpetrator himself.
But even more frequently he continues to chastise the victim, because (!) the blind tyrant – having come to his senses – is ashamed of his actions. He continues to lay about him because he can think of nothing else, he sees no alternative. He is blind, and has become the personification of his anger. He no longer exists outside his anger. 

Anybody who wishes to master WingTsun knows that the most important speed for us ist hat which enables us to adapt to something new: from a punch to Bong-Sao, from Bong to Tan, from inside to outside, from attack to defence, from advancing to giving way, from active to passive and back again .
This ability to change (oneself) at as many decision-making "points" in a process as possible is what makes a master, or at least it should.
But we need to keep practicing it by applying it, this ”3rd level point theory”, otherwise we lose the ability.
We should welcome every opportunity when the baleful power of “identification“ (as it was called by a famous, now dead mystic) threatens to seize us to train this ability, and awaken ourselves from this benumbed sleep.  
If we are able to observe ourselves during an outburst of anger as we might observe an exotic animal, and preferably from the lofty heights of the universe, we will feel so ridiculous and insignificant that – with a little practice – we will break into loud laughter and – return the vacuum cleaner tube to the car boot ... (See newspaper article above)

Other ways of deescalating oneself (!) work according to the motto: as inside, so outside, as outside, so inside, and Osho was already teaching this when his name was still Bhagwan.

Trick 1: Raise the corners of your mouth!
Just as our inner attitude determines out external appearance, our external demeanour determines what goes on inside.
We turn down the corners of our mouth because we are sad. But we are also sad BECAUSE we turn down the corners of our mouth.
If we forcefully pull the corners of our mouth upwards with our fingers when we are sad, our mood will change within a few seconds.

Trick 2: Raise your eyebrows!
Yesterday I was driving somewhere in a great hurry. The road was narrow, with cars parked on the opposite side. Nonetheless some chancer coming in the opposite direction pulled onto my lane and started flashing his lights to tell me to reverse back about twenty metres.
Naturally I declined to do him this favour. The line of cars behind him and me grew longer, and people started hooting impatiently because nothing was moving. Our two cars were bumper to bumper, and when he even threatened me I felt a sneaking urge to show him how. Naturally I suppressed this urge, but when my opposite number made a move to leave his car, I quickly released my seat belt to be capable of action. I intentionally left the door unlocked, however, which showed me that my urge to grab him by the collar and give him a good shaking was growing stronger.
Then I remembered my well-proven standard trick No.2: first I took deep, regular breaths until I had calmed down slightly. Then I consciously raised my eyebrows. My aggression and the urge to grab this fellow quickly disappeared.
 
Normally we only raise our eyebrows if we are surprised, and urgently require information in order to understand what is going on around us. Aggressive people do not raise their eyebrows, nobody who raises his eyebrows can remain aggressive: as inside, so outside.
The trick worked. After a short while which seemed like an hour, but was probably only a couple of minutes, the other party reversed his car and I drove past him, as well as a long line of waiting cars, with a friendly grin.

Trick 3: Lick your lips!
I could equally well have licked my lips, for if you lick your lips as if in anticipation, you will also lose any aggression. Being aggressive requires you to press your lips together, i.e. determination. Slowly licking your lips and feeling aggressive simply do not go together.

Trick 4: Hold one nostril closed
If you want to stop yourself from storming at someone in a blind rage, hold your right nostril closed and the anger will disappear within seconds.
But if a woman wishes to assert herself in a situation, she should hold her left nostril closed and only breathe through the right nostril. This is according to certain experts. This “secret“ was known to oriental sages well before western science discovered the two brain hemispheres and their different functions. If you breathe through your left nostril, you activate the sensitive, feminine brain hemisphere on the right (cross-wise). But if you breathe through your right nostril, you activate the masculine, combative side.
Presumably the chancer had a cold, and his left nostril was blocked ...

Trick 5: Let your jaw drop
I have already written elsewhere about letting the jaw drop stupidly and breathing through your mouth. This frees you from thinking by activating the brain hemisphere(s) less than breathing through the nostrils, and you may see things differently.
Consciously letting your jaw drop also takes away aggression in seconds, enabling many an unfortunate incident to be avoided.
Don’t forget that any physical confrontation can have serious and unforeseen consequences, which can be avoided with little tricks such as these.

Unfortunately, when the adrenalin starts pumping, we seldom have anybody to remind us to breathe deeply through our left nostril, count to ten, raise the corners of the mouth or the eyebrows, lick our lips or let our jaw drop.

In fact these skills would come in particularly useful during this Christmas period, as there is hardly any more popular time for family tragedies. So here is one final hint for the festive season: always keep a nasal spray handy, and keep your left nostril clear.