Meet Marek Chromik | Martial Arts Instructor & Life Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Marek Chromik and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Marek, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?

A vision. A plan. A community – finding likeminded people.

It all started with a vision I received in March 2004 after asking into the ether; what is my purpose for being in this world? What followed was about an hour download of information about building a holistic type of healing and learning center with all sorts of different modalities under one roof. And when I say one roof, I mean about 3 or rather 6 roofs, as I received a download of what the building should look like too. I won’t go too much into the detail on that but basically the center that’s like a modern temple with eastern and western medicine modalities like acupuncture, massage, physical therapy, sound and aroma therapy, reiki, yoga, tai chi, chi kung, personal training, dance, meditation, breathwork and also life coaching, hypnotherapy, etc. A place where one can come and learn to know who they really are and what they came here to do through physical, mental and emotional practices.

After laying it all down on paper and drawing it all out I wasn’t really sure how to actually get any of it started. And so, I decided to start improving myself first – learn and practice what has been dear to my heart (martial arts and how tai chi principles are designed to heal or defend oneself) and hoped that I would gradually become master and get to know other likeminded practitioners, who would share my vision, so we would then be able to combine forces and build this center.

It took me a few weeks to figure out what I was going to call this place and I decided on Eclectic Ground. So that every practitioner could have their own business inside the company – Eclectic Ground Yoga, Eclectic Ground Acupuncture, Eclectic Ground Martial Arts, Eclectic Ground Dance, etc.
The word eclectic means – “composed of elements drawn from various sources and selecting what appears to be best in various doctrines, methods, or styles”. Also, “denoting or belonging to a class of ancient philosophers who did not belong to or found any recognized school of thought but selected doctrines from various schools of thought.”

And this is basically how I learn and how I have studied. Little bit of Bruce Lee’s theory – “Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, add what is uniquely your own.”
I have studied and later started teaching Chinese martial arts Wudang and Wing Chun Kung Fu, Tai Chi, also Chi Kung, Meditation, Breathwork, Sound Healing, Hypnotherapy and Neuro Linguistic Programming.

Eclectic Ground was un-officially founded in 2009 and got the business registered in 2012. After over a decade of teaching and running my own business aside of my full-time job, I have decided to transition to teaching and coaching full-time. I am currently in process of restructuring my curriculum and having finally met other practitioners who share my vision, we are working on building this center that may after all end up having a different name.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?

The business, as it will eventually become, will be unique for having several arts being taught and healing practices being done under one roof. The center will have holistic feel to it, where anyone with desire to learn, improve and heal is welcome. As for my current business of martial arts and life coaching, besides external physical martial arts practice, I teach internal (mental and emotional power) martial arts that isn’t taught in very many martial arts schools, and I bring the principles of internal martial arts into my life coaching with a subtitle “Emotional Kung Fu”.

I have gone through variety of martial arts trainings, so I could identify what works best for me. Over the years I have trained with several masters in order to gain different perspectives – a lot in-person and some through online courses. And I have gone through many self-help courses, having struggled a ton throughout my formative years. The martial arts training has been far from easy, but incredibly rewarding, as well as studying the self-help material, since I’ve had dyslexia and school was so not one of my favorite places to be. But I felt super motivated and learned a lot through audio books, videos, journaling and just examining my life every day. So then learning about how to run business, build my website, record and edit videos, create online courses, do my books, etc, was most definitely a challenge, but having felt really motivated and determined to bring my vision to life, I kept going. And just now I am learning about marketing and sales, which to be honest I should have done a long time ago.

I plan to continue to educate and improve myself physically, mentally, and emotionally, so I can live into my greatest potential and help others succeed on their journey. There is so much to learn in order to understand who I am, who we are, why we are here, and where exactly is here. I have a feeling there is way more beyond what we understand about this world and having an open mind and heart is going to be crucial to our success.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would offer to take them to see the Royal Gorge in Colorado Springs, go horseback riding at Garden of the Gods, Ziplining in Idaho Springs, hiking to Hanging Lake and going to hot springs and caverns in Glenwood Springs. Maybe go see a live concert at Red Rocks, see a movie and have dinner at Alamo Draft House. If it was winter, we would go skiing or snowboarding at one of the ski resorts and ice skate on Evergreen Lake. We could get tea and hang out at InTea in downtown Littleton, get dinner at any of the few local cuisines (Japanese, Indian, Vietnamese, Chinese, Mexican, American) and also most definitely have dinner at Café Prague in Morrison and get a taste of some homemade Czech food. I also like to cook, so some evenings would be spent hanging out with friends and maybe playing music.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?

It all started with the book called The Celestine Prophecy that I was gifted for my 24th birthday by my brother. This book has opened my eyes as it brought about several incredible insights into my life. So, my first shoutout goes to my brother and also my mom, who has been a steady source of support my whole life.

I would also give quite a bit of credit to my friend who introduced me to the movie The Matrix. This movie had inspired me in quite a few ways. It has most of all reawakened my curiosity for martial arts and existential philosophy.

The next person in line that deserve a huge credit would most definitely be my ex-wife Deb, as she has been my number one fan for almost 2 decades and without whom I would likely not have found the courage to follow my vision.

After that a shoutout would go to all of my students and friends who have supported me on this path and allowed me to grow.

And lastly, I would give the next credit to my new One-In-Wellness community members (ran by Dr. Tanya Atagi) and likeminded practitioners that she has gathered over the last few years and with whom we are planning to bring this vision to life.

Website: https://www.eclecticground.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eclecticground

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EclecticGround

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/eclectic-ground-martial-arts-littleton

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuAhJVA7T3_721RtvCbn77Q