Last Sunday, during my Tai Chi training, I found myself in an old familiar place that I thought I had left behind. About 2/3rds of the way through my form, I noticed myself being frustrated, tense, unfocused and even tired. I see this everyday in my students but I had not experienced these feelings in my own training in quite some time. It turns out I was so intent on a new training focus (Dr. Chen had given me the week before) that I lost sight of my foundational Tai Chi principals. As soon as I noticed myself in this state, I almost laughed out loud, and with that I felt my body release the tension, allowing me to finish the form, relaxed, focused and smiling. I was still working on the training point but I had a completely different attitude towards it.
Heading into the week I felt my focus was to bring attention to Smiling Energy and how it can help release tension during training. As the week progressed, through the wonderful feedback from my students, our focus turned deeper into perspectives and how we interpret that information.
I INSULT YOU!!!
If I look at you with full intent and yell these words you will most likely look at me with confusion and probably call for the rubber truck to take me away. However, if I choose my words more carefully, reaching for your sensitivities, you may very well get your feelings hurt and even try to hurt me as a result. The difference between these two scenarios is simply perspective. As humans, we tend to attach feelings and meaning to things like insults, allowing them to generate deep, visceral responses in our physical bodies. Elevated heart rate and blood pressure, increased tension, anger and even aggression can all be triggered by our interpretations or perspective. Think about road rage and how we tend to project our own issues on someone that cuts us off. They may have truly not seen us in that lane and yet we attack first and ask questions later.
When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change…
Dr. Wayne Dyer, one of my favorite teachers, spoke these words in one of his many, wonderful PBS Specials. As I travel down my chosen path, I see many opportunities to select different perspectives; I can take things in a negative way or bring forth a positive response to any situation. This is not a simple matter of being “optimistic” it has to do with what we choose to accept for ourselves. What do we attach to? How we respond to our daily interactions is truly, completely up to us. NO ONE has the power to affect our world unless we let him or her do it. Certainly you can look back to earlier in the week at the horrors faced at Virginia Tech and say those poor people did not have a choice. This is true, but the people left behind have a choice as to how they deal with this tragedy. It can turn to hatred and anger towards the gunman and his family; it can spiral hatred out to his entire home country or even anyone that looks like he did. And unfortunately, it will for some people.
Tai Chi only LOOKS easy…
When you begin Tai Chi training, most likely, you will find yourself at times frustrated, annoyed and tense over your apparent lack of coordination, concentration, balance and strength. Tai Chi looks so very simple and yet it is extremely challenging. I have trained (very hard) in 16 different challenging martial arts and can honestly say that traditional Tai Chi training has by far been the most difficult, demanding and rewarding training I have ever encountered.
So how do you adjust your perspective to be productive for your own training? As always, it starts with simple awareness. Before you can change anything you have to be aware it exists within yourself. If you cannot recognize tension in your shoulders you will be at a complete loss as to how to relieve it. The same is true of any physical, mental or spiritual blockages you may have during training. This week we looked at trying to recognize our own challenges and smiling about it. We did not try to fix them, we just tried to recognize and “feel” them. One of the principals of Tai Chi involves Listening, which allows us to still our minds and feel our bodies. As we become more comfortable with the Tai Chi form movements we can allow ourselves to delve deeper into this skill of listening and grow from its lessons. Our perspective on what we “hear” (once we are listening) will determine if we can truly grow from the information. If we find ourselves to be tense and get annoyed, then the tension will become more deeply seated, effectively blocking our energy flow. If you recognize that awareness is the first step to change then maybe you can embrace the fact that you found something to work on further and take the information in a positive way.
Stepwise progression…
1) Recognize an imbalance in your body (tension, coordination, balance, strength, concentration)
2) Identify the path to change
3) Smile and embrace the path for yourself
4) Find a strong sense of contentment, accomplishment and happiness along the way
As a teacher, I can only show you the door, it is completely your choice to open it or simply walk away. Those choices can make our lives rich and rewarding or daunting and mundane.
Hey, I feel a bit like Bob Barker! ;-)
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