Part 1: Ready, Set, Flow

In early April Anita Vestal emailed me, pitching the idea we apply for a presentation spot in this year’s Science of T’ai Chi & Qigong: Whole-Person Health Conference facilitated by OSHER Center for Integrative Medicine (). At that moment the entire T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) community commenced its big Beantown adventure. For me, meeting the criteria of the application was a somewhat heavy lift, but with Anita and her years of experience in such things at the helm, we eventually sailed right through. 

In June, when we learned we’d been awarded an “Experiential Session” slot (only 30 minutes), it became clear our best bet would be to minimize talk and simply move as much as possible. So, I spearheaded the creation of a dedicated webpage (www.SculptUrLife.com/osherscienceoftcq) where interested conference-goers could access all the most important information related to how TCC and the community dovetails perfectly with the conference’s theme (all in three clicks or less). 

So, on September 17, 2023, Anita, our UK colleague Adam Lacey, and I (plus the talented Manhattan-ite Sokie Lee) descended upon an unsuspecting Boston. And here I must add that in hindsight, Anita and I would most likely have done a great job on our own, but the two additional teachers being there completed and complemented our experiences and effectiveness in millions of ways. Perhaps this was just one more example of the Chi always knowing what’s best and consistently working things out from behind the scenes? 

Finally, both the big day and the appointed half-hour arrived. I imagine the four of us would all agree that the moment we stepped into the room and began unpacking all we had prepared to provide, we were each utterly relaxed. It was as if the Chi had silently whispered in each of our ears: You’ve worked hard you’re definitely ready. So, get set, now flow!

Perhaps we were all simply riding on a wave of communal good vibes? Although the four of us were certainly walking billboards for the TCC community throughout our entire trip, we all owed a great deal of credit for what we managed to present to the larger world of T’ai Chi & Qigong practitioners during our four-day odyssey: Many in the community took time to consider then approve Anita’s and my foundation grant proposal in order to partially fund our trip; many helped underwrite the cost of our uniforms by buying T-shirts specially designed to increase our visibility at the conference; many edited and sent print and digital materials; many helped draft and proofread documents for our special webpage; many updated existing websites; the majority of our amazing TCC community sent huge invocations of positive energy. Perhaps the most generous (or at least surprising support we received, came from the conference organizers themselves: apparently OSHER found our proposal worthy of a grant which covered our entire hotel stay plus Anita’s registration fee to boot.

Only about 40 conference-goers attended our session (it occurred simultaneously with several wonderful workshops and presentations) but every single attendee had nothing but pure enjoyment written all over their face and many approached us later expressing excitement and gratitude.

We were also easily able to clearly convey all of the following while effortlessly moving for a full 30 minutes (demonstrating both the seated and standing form, plus even providing a side view throughout): 

• A brief introduction (including the history of the practice plus TCC’s basic health-enhancing qualities, and why all that was relevant to a conference of this kind) 

• An overview of TCC’s effectiveness for past and future research 

• An overview of my own and Adam’s work plus that of several teachers who’ve displayed particular dedication to working with special populations and/or are actively offering TCC as a perfect accompaniment to other evidence-based complementary and integrative therapeutic modalities

Frankly, I took the time to attend four additional experiential sessions over the two conference days and none of them provided even half as much movement as ours. I can confidently say we provided an absolutely awesome taste of TCC.

I also fervently believe this opportunity was exactly what was required to successfully launch the TCC community into an entirely different space and I am simply and utterly grateful to each and every one of you for allowing and enabling me to play the role I was offered.