About Fully Alive
About
Welcome to Fully Alive, a place where like-minded people train together with a variety of enjoyable and transformational practices. At Fully Alive you learn how to support your physical, emotional, mental, energetic and spiritual well-being.
Fully Alive wishes to provide for:
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Simple, understandable practices to work on mind, body, energy & spirit
- Connect with others in an open, friendly & engaging environment
- Exploration and bridge ancient wisdom and modern understanding of health & well-being.
- Online and in-person classes, courses & therapy to enrich your life.
Meet your Teacher: Tim Franklin
Working as an online and in-person teacher, coach and therapist, Tim uses over two decades of experience in the Shaolin Arts and Therapy to share positive and thought-provoking teachings of self-healing and well-being in a easy going, heartfelt and accommodating way.
Besides being a teacher he remains a passionate student and practitioner of the arts he now teaches in. Tim continues to learn and practice with a variety of teachers, masters, and coaches to help define the best and most simple methods available to achieve actual and noticeable results.
Tim is a Mental Health Support worker for the NHS Highland.
Please note: The practice, therapy and support you receive through Fully Alive or Tim is a private practice, and not part of the NHS service or associated in anyway.
Additionally, Tim has spent considerable time training in many styles of martial arts including:
Shaolin Kungfu | Choe Family Wing Choon | Taijiquan | Xing Yi Quan | Baguazhan | Drunken Eight Immortals | Choy Li Fat | Cotton Palm | Flower Fist | Karate.
The Story
Fully Alive started out with three ordinary people coming together to explore extraordinary things in the most simple way possible. We were all trained in the Shaolin Arts and worked as therapists from different modalities.
What emerged from the years working together was an understanding of how traditional methods - closely aligned with the origins of Qigong and Chinese medicine and culture - met with modern science and approaches of health and happiness, in an effortless and natural way. We called it ‘being fully alive’.
In more recent times the three became one as Tim Franklin, Mark Appleford and Barry Smale decided to go off in their own direction, exploring what life has to offer, spend time on other projects, while continuing as friends. Fully Alive is now run by Tim Franklin.
Past Masters, Teachers & Influencers of Tim
Martial Arts
Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit - Shaolin (Shaolin Wahnam - Malaysia)
Kai Uwe JettKandt - Shaolin (Shaolin Wahnam - Frankfurt)
Shihan David Jacobs - Karate (Sama Karate - West Sussex)
Zen & Mindfulness
Daizan Skinner (Zenways - London)
Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit - Shaolin (Shaolin Wahnam - Malaysia)
Qigong and Neigong
Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit - Shaolin (Shaolin Wahnam - Malaysia)
Yoga & Breath Work
Daizan Skinner (Zenways - London)
Lucas Rockwood (Yoga Body - Barcelona)
Paul Cohen (Bone Yoga - New Zealand)
Therapy
Zero Balancing (Dr Fritz Smith - Founder & Paul Cohen - Senior Teacher)
Swedish Massage (Wilbury School - Brighton)
QEA - Quantum Energetic Alignment (Andrew Barnett - Founder)
CBT- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (Institute of Counselling)
HypnoCBT (The UK College if Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy)
Lineage of Teachings
In addition to the teachers Tim has directly learnt from there are notable teachers that directly influence the methods and skills we use, such as:
Bodhidharma - Patriarch of Zen, China: known as the patriarch of the Shaolin Arts. He was a Buddhist monk who traveled to the Shaolin Temple in China in around the 5th century AD. When he arrived, he found the monks weak and sickly, unable to cultivate their minds, energy and spirit for prolonged periods of time.
He impressed on the monks the need to be strong in body and mind, and taught them two sets of qigong exercises: the Eighteen Lohan Hands and Sinew Metamorphosis. Later he also taught the monks Bone Marrow Cleansing. These three exercises are still taught in our school and are considered to be the three treasures of Qigong.
Zhang San Feng - Founder of Taijiquan, China: a great Shaolin Kung Fu master and the originator of Taijiquan, has also greatly influenced the way we practice today. He combined the physical skills of Kung Fu, the energy training of Chi Kung and the mind training of Zen meditation into one practice known as ‘Triple Cultivation’- body, energy and mind/spirit training.
Hakuin - Reviver of Rinzai Zen, Japan: One of the most influential figures in Japanese Zen Buddhism. He is regarded as the reviver of the Rinzai school from a moribund period of stagnation, focusing on rigorous training methods integrating meditation and koan practice.
Tim’s foremost teacher of Shaolin Arts
Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit - 4th Generation successor of monk Jiang Nan of the Shaolin Monastery: He has dedicated his life to studying, practicing and passing on the arts passed down from Bodhidharma and Zhang San Feng. He has passed them on to us simply and directly so that everyone can experience the benefits of better health, more vitality and a clearer mind, with just a short 10 minute daily practice.
"I have been practicing Chi Kung for many years and have experienced so many benefits with the simplest of daily practice. It translates as energy work and is the first of the three arts that include Tai Chi and Kung Fu and are rooted in traditional teachings that were brought into China from India.
If you are looking for an authentic and experienced Chi Kung teacher to introduce you to a simply daily practice, or just simply want to learn more, I highly recommend you follow Tim Franklin who offers online courses to absolute beginners.
Tim has taught me for many years and has been outstanding as a teacher.
You will find that with very little practice you will benefit from reduced anxiety and a greater feeling of 'flow' that you can take into your daily lives. You can do and little or much as you need. Even the simplest practice of a few minutes a day will have benefits."
- George Carivalis