Pulse, Breathing & Awareness

          

Date: 24^th – 28^th August 2026

Location: The Guildhall, Guildhall Square, Salisbury SP1 1JH

Times:       First day: 11am – 4.45pm

                     Other days: 10.30am – 4.45pm

What are the signs of life for us as living beings?  

Heart beat (pulse) and breathing.  When the heart stops beating and the breathing stops, life terminates.  

If our external capacities can be tested by our physical flexibility and strength, our internal capacities can be measured by how much our heart and breathing can cope with highly active activities.  For example, if going upstairs easily makes us end up panting with a fast beating heart, our inner capacities are fairly weak.  On the other hand, if we go up a few floors and can keep basically even with our pulse and breath, we are internally quite strong.  In other words, our internal health largely depends on our heart and breathing abilities.  Someone who appears to be quite strong (with strong muscles etc.) may well fail this kind of test. 

In Chinese medicine, touching and sensing the pulse is a basic way to do diagnosis on a patient.  It is like a blood test in Western medicine.  So the different quality of the pulse means a lot to the health of somebody. 

With the Pulse Breathing Awareness practice, we will bring our awareness into the quality and capability of our pulse and breathing, and find ways to improve and increase them. 

We will work on stabilising our heart energy so that it is properly centred and settled, rather than irritated and scattered; and on freeing our heart pulsation so that it pulses healthily and is well reflected in the right places throughout the body.  Similarly we will work on our breathing so that we can regularly replenish a good degree of oxygen (supposedly higher than ‘normal’) in our system.  

In emergency rescue, reviving the heart beat and breathing can save lives.  In this sense, this particular aspect of the Hua Gong practice is life saving in the long term. 

Parking

There is no parking available at The Guildhall.

The following car parks are a short walk away:

• Old George Mall car park (4 mins walk) £7.90 for the day, shuts at 8pm. Ticket dispensed on entry, pay at machine upon exit, card or cash.
• Salisbury Central Car Park (few mins walk), park in Long Stay section
• Mercure White Hart car park (5 minutes walk) can be pre-booked through Justpark website £4 for the day
• College Street and Culver Street car parks (7 min walk), all day parking at £9.50

Enquiries

Please email catherine@chineseheritage.co.uk