Having a sequence to practice gives us easy access to the primary health benefits of tai chi – conscious movement with relaxation to encourage circulation of energy and body fluids. Practicing the form daily takes a short amount of time, which of course can be expanded with repetition.
Having a routine is the first step in moving to being in practice. Practice means taking the principles of tai chi into your life. To fully reveal the transformative potential of tai chi practice we get to discover and play with our rooted connection to the earth – a conceptual awareness, which only truly functions when it becomes an experiential awareness. When we feel it.
Having established a rooted connection to the earth, we then learn to move with it and our experience of the world and the space around us changes. This mindful awareness goes further in allowing us to witness our reactions to the world and consequently observe how they affect our balance.
So without going too far, the health benefits of a Tai Chi practice can be understood as: we integrate regular conscious, relaxed movement into our daily life and we begin to relax all day, decreasing stress levels in all of our activities.
From here we continue to build on the transformative aspects which are the true gems available to us from our Tai Chi embodiment. Grounded relaxation also includes our hands, key components of our expression system and contact with others. This leads to a change in how we connect with the world, our activities and our relationships.
The partner practice of Tai Chi gives us a clear place to witness how we (over)react in contact with one another and to practice allowing grounded response and connection instead. Learning that we alone are responsible for our (re)actions gives us the power to move from reaction to response. This can truly transform our relationships when we find the strength and courage in our own relaxation to open our hearts and allow change.
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