Northern Wu Style Tai Ji Quan
Global Association
Movement, Tai Ji, and Success
The human body evolved to move. As hunter gatherers we moved well, or we didn't survive. Joy is one of the results of motion else why are endorphins released during exercise that give us pleasure? Unfortunately, we spend most of our lives sitting in chairs or lying in bed. Our joints, our muscles, and our internal systems decay from lack of motion. We have multiple industries that cater to our health. But we still develop all kinds of ailments that are a result of lack of motion. Even though we go to the gym, see our doctor regularly and take all kinds of pills, our joints ache and our muscles are sore. We try gyms and running and diets(every new one that comes along) but still are unhappy with our bodies. One of the problems with working out is that it is so boring. Lifting weights and running, if there is no joy in it for you is just work. We have plenty of work in our lives so that doing more work and calling it a pleasure doesn't work. The statistics on people starting at a health club and quitting within a very short time are staggering. In classical martial arts, only one out of a hundred stays four or five years. Why is this? It is because the practices that we use to move our bodies are not of sufficient depth to practice for a lifetime.
What do I mean by this? It is quite clear that you want a practice that you can do as a beginner, but as you progress new things are revealed to you in the art. There are many practices like this. Yoga and many kinds of martial arts are examples that act in this fashion. The other thing you desire from a practice is that it gives you a feeling of success from the very beginning. If it doesn't you are unlikely to continue. If you get hurt in the beginning you will stop also. Much of this success depends on the instructor. The main thing you are looking for in an instructor, besides competence, is their desire for your success. This means that you must have a good definition of what success means for you. Personal success is not dependent on competition. It is an internal judgment.
One of the reasons I like the combination of Chi Kung (Qi Gong) and Tai Chi (Tai Ji) is the natural progression of the practice. With Chi Kung one starts by learning simple motions that teach you to open and close your joints correctly. As I said before, if we spend much of our time not moving our joints tend to atrophy. They become stiff and hurt when we start to move. Chi kung teaches you to open and close your joints gently, so that the synovial fluid of the joint starts flowing in the joint. These motions are easy and uncomplicated to learn. We work on them at your pace and at your level. As you gain success there are deeper levels that you will be taught that exist in the same motions. As you become comfortable with your body your mind will become more a part of the exercise. Eventually you will be comfortable at feeling and directing the energy in your body with your mind. You will learn to listen to your body and to your mind and take breaks to move in a way to heal your body and give you joy.
Soon, one can move to the more intricate motions that make up a tai chi form. You will learn this form in the same manner as you learn Chi Kung: one step at a time at a rate that you are comfortable with. We treat the motions in tai chi as applications of what we learned in our Chi Kung. We remember that the movement that we do is full of mindfulness and aimed at joyfulness in our bodies. These arts are not about should. They are about defining and filling your potential. As you succeed your definition of your potential will increase. For this is the definition of a practice: doing something for joy even if from the outside it seems to be the same thing you have done for the past week. What we start with is practical -- teaching you how to make your body work better and what we get to is a practice -- something you do for the love of it. There are few enough things in our lives that give us joy. Create a practice that gives you joy.
