Friendlier, Nicer, More Open-Minded

I had the good fortune to register for T’ai Chi Chih classes at Tai Sophia Institute with Sharon Sirkis during her 10-week session in the fall of 2007. Sharon makes every effort to be sure her students’ focus is on several important concepts: being grounded, softness and continuity, and moving from the T’an T’ien.

Although I am Caucasian, I have always been interested in Eastern culture. I have studied Eastern brushwork for almost two decades and continue to utilize the brush strokes and experience gained from my lessons in my personal artwork. I have visited China and watched T’ai Chi Chu’an being practiced in the local woods. I am not a physician, but I have researched Eastern medicine and find its philosophy to be wholesome and sensible.

So I registered for TCC classes at Tai Sophia Institute with a sense of curiosity as well as an interest in its effect on my wellbeing. What a pleasant surprise. Sharon taught us carefully and well. I found TCC to be soothing and mind-broadening. I became more open-minded at work and was generally more relaxed at home and at work.

I utilized the movements one night after witnessing a horrendous accident on the highway. Although I was not personally injured, I developed a terrible headache and was stressed as if I had actually been involved. In the moment, my only thought was, “Do some TCC. Maybe it will calm you down.” Calm me down it did! I was most grateful for the knowledge imparted to me by Sharon. As I reported to the class the next week, performing TCC was like taking medicine.

Since completing the classes, I have continued to practice each morning and afternoon. I perform the movements in the morning in order to be a nice person to work with during the day. And I perform them before dinner to virtually guarantee that I’ll sleep that night. In general, I find that I’m friendlier (not that I am a grouch, you understand) and more able to consider others’ ideas. I also notice that if I’m tired from yard work or huffing and puffing from housecleaning, that a little TCC is soothing and relaxing. I have Sharon to thank for my wellbeing.

Row, Flow, Let Go

By Larry Bloom, Atlanta, GA (Student of Sheryl Adair)

This quote, from world-class rower Craig Lambert’s book, Mind over Water, describes my internal state of Rocking Motion: “Rowers have a word for this frictionless state: swing… Recall the pure joy of riding on a backyard swing, an easy cycle of motion, the momentum coming from the swing itself. The swing carries us; we do not force it. We pump our legs to drive our arc higher, but gravity does most of the work. We are not so much swinging as being swung. The boat swings you. The shell wants to move fast: speed sings in its lines and nature. Our job is simply to work with the shell, to stop holding it back with our thrashing struggles to go faster. Trying too hard sabotages boat speed. Trying becomes striving and striving undoes itself… Swing is a state of arrival.”

As I practice, I get an occasional feeling of something special. It is as if the Chi swings me; I don’t swing the Chi. The Chi wants to circulate through our bodies. Could it be that our job with T’ai Chi Chih is simply to work with our bodies in a way as to stop holding back the flow of Chi? Alan Watts said, “We don’t live life, life lives us.” So it is with the Chi.