Last weekend I found myself staring at a room full of clutter in our house (related to a previous business idea) and felt a strong desire to clean it up. I call this state of mind an official “CONNIPTION”. This frenzied effort at stress relief involved first creating space in our garage for the items we wanted to move out and prepare for garage sale. Fast-forward two days and two plus trashcans full later to Sunday night; we all noticed a big difference in energy we felt around that particular room in our home. For two years we (and our guests) have passed this room trying to ignore the clutter, not realizing what a drain of energy this had been on us; until it was gone!
Its only human…
As I mentioned this story to students during the week, literally everyone nodded in agreement, recognizing that wonderful feeling (energy) associated with a newly uncluttered area in their homes. I started meditating on the concept of clutter as it relates to the human experience and of course, to Tai Chi.
The way I see it, there are four layers of clutter in our human world; environmental, physical, mental and spiritual. I would like to break down what our students and I shared about this important point during the week.
Environmental Clutter
This involves your physical space. It can be stress felt about global “clutter” issues (pollution, deforestation, endangered species…), home, office or car, wherever you focus your attention and time. In Chinese Culture, they take the concept of environmental clutter so seriously that there is an entire practice devoted to this called Feng Shui.
Everyone I spoke with this week (over 200 people) each has a countertop, drawer, table, room or even and entire home (your secret is safe with me) they feel is very cluttered. More importantly, I could see that it drained their energy just to talk about it. We each try to justify our reasons for this behavior and quite honestly they are all excuses and irrelevant. The fact is that this cluttering behavior is a very real and very human tendency. No one seems to be immune, but just like in Tai Chi training, becoming aware of the drained energy feeling can set you on a path to change.
Physical Clutter
Lets move into Tai Chi training and look at how the concept of “cluttering” can affect our training. Think of each muscle as a piece of unattended mail on your desk. Now think of your first attempt at Tai Chi movement as if you were looking for the lost electric bill in that mess of unattended mail. Each muscle (letter) having a purpose but you find yourself unsure as to what you are supposed to do with them all. This predicament can create deep feelings of frustration, confusion, disappointment, even anger, in short, draining energy. Over time, as you relax and trust more, the muscles take their coordinated places within the movement and you begin to flow in harmony with your body, relaxed and calm. The energizing feeling in that moment is very rewarding, much like clearing off that letter ridden desktop.
Mental Clutter
Using the same cluttering metaphor of letters and a desktop, think about the mental anguish you feel when you are looking for something important and cannot find it. You know it is here where you left it but…GRRR - WHERE IS IT!!!
How about when you are practicing your Tai Chi forms? Are you feeling the same types of frustrations? Did he say left hand or right foot? Where is my weight supposed to be again? Oh sure, NOW he wants me to breathe too!
Allowing your mental clutter to distract you from the physical movements is normal in early training but the goal is to slowly let go of all that “mental noise” and allow the movements to find their way in a calm and peaceful mental environment. The body must settle into a certain level of comfort with the form in order to achieve any success at this level of training.
DISCLAIMER: Well here is a loaded gun. I am going to speak from my heart but please do not take this as the way I feel everyone is or should be. These are just my observations, fully open to discussion.
Spiritual Clutter
I have spent many years searching for a brand of truth that speaks to my heart and soul. In my explorations I have seen many people lost in the clutter of hypocrisy, self-doubt and conflicting messages wrapped around organized religion. I recently had someone tell me they were worried about their ability to pray effectively because arthritis had crippled their ability to hold their hands “properly” for prayer. I smiled and shared with this lovely lady that prayer / meditation / speaking to God (whatever you want to label it) comes from the heart and not from a specific location (church, temple, mosque or synagogue), position (kneeling, standing, seated), or from specific hand gestures to be effective. This perspective seemed to ease her mind, but it got me to thinking about the “spiritual clutter” that prevents us from being true to our selves for fear of being wrong or even worse damned. Every religion I have ever studied has some version of “The Golden Rule” – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” – yet many religions today deeply believe that if you do not worship their God, in their specific way you are on the outside looking in. Well, everyone cannot be wrong and right at the same time; how about THAT for spiritual clutter. Personally, I feel that if you come from a place of honesty, integrity and with unconditional love, whichever “God” is watching will be pleased.
Tai Chi Spirit vs Spirituality
When I speak of spirit during Tai Chi training, I am merely speaking to the openness of our hearts. When we train the physical body to be strong, relaxed and “uncluttered”, our minds will follow with a calm, refreshing clarity. With these elements in place, the spirit is free to be open, compassionate, empathetic and full of unconditional love…Smiling Energy in its purest form.
Tai Chi is NOT exercise…
This entry is quite a bit longer than usual, thank you for staying focused. People are under the misinformation that Tai Chi is just another exercise routine / gimmick / training system and in some cases they are right. It seems almost every week I hear of some new “Style” of Tai Chi. Including metamorphosis concepts like YoChi (Yoga and Tai Chi combined). Sounds more like a health food snack to me. As is discussed in this blog entry, traditional Tai Chi training, as we share with our students, involves MUCH more than just physical work. After all, how can you practice a flowing form of exercise in a room full of clutter.
Suggestions for practice:
There are 12 fundamental principals that govern Tai Chi training. (From grounding energy to strong posture, relaxed breath and a smiling heart) Trying to detail principals within your form practice makes things very cluttered so I always suggest my students use Qigong work for their focused principal practice, picking just one to focus on at a time. This will allow you to draw focused concentration into that selected principal within a limited movement set. For example, if you choose to focus on Circular Breath, then pick Qigong movements that will help you enhance that focus such as Crane Spreads its Wings, Gathering Breath or Repulse the Monkey all of which spread the arms out in some manner allowing for full expansion of the lungs.
As far as the other clutter in your life, you know what to do but are you willing to let go and do it?
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