My mission as an accredited Tai Chi Chih instructor is to create a space for students to feel safe, accepted, and comfortable to progress at their own pace. If you want to learn, I am here when you are ready to start.

Tai Chi Chih began as an attempt to cope with physical trauma that limited my mobility and diminished my overall satisfaction with daily living. At the time, medical professionals claimed my mobility challenges would be a lifelong burden. My loving, immigrant parents did not understand the value of physical therapy, so upon moving from being wheelchair bound to crutches, my body healed out of alignment. There was pain associated with this that raised concerns that life will be more limited for me too soon. After earning the nickname, “Gimpy,” for having noticeable impairment when walking, I decided that I should adopt a healthy practice to incorporate in my daily routine that might also bring my body back into alignment. Yoga was already a practice I enjoyed and studied in depth previously, but I needed something new to feed my focus. Tai Chi Chuan has always caught my interest when seeing older community members gather at the park to practice in synch together, across the street from my bus stop growing up. The synchronized, slow, and steady movement, has always been appealing. Fortunately, I found a local Tai Chi Chih instructor, D McElhose, August 2008.

After several years of practice, Tai Chi Chih took me beyond the physical benefits. Tai Chi Chih brought me objective awareness of my mental state, beliefs, and habitual perceptions that blocked my path to optimal health and happiness. Letting go of that stress and owning up to the reality that it was my own decision to refuse to make the changes necessary that can make positive growth possible. Tai Chi Chih has allowed me to change my life -both physically and mentally.

In 2018, an internal health condition led me to gain excess weight. By 2019, the year of my Tai Chi Chih teacher accreditation, I was 220 pounds…on a good day. Surgery fixed the internal issue, but the weight still had to drop the same way as it does for anyone that puts on sudden weight. We must watch how much we consume and we must exercise combining strength training and functional conditioning. The part of my weight loss that stood out to me most, was that, practicing self kindness was essential to make any positive choices-especially if we slip up and overeat, for example, it can be a true challenge to be kind to yourself afterwards. It is even tempting to give up on the standards we want and settle for less since we won’t be vicious towards ourselves if we stumble along the way. Practicing Tai Chi Chih daily was not part of the weight loss plan initially, but now I say it is the reason I could be kind to myself. Any time I feel extra stress, it is now a habit for myself to allow myself to slow down with a solo Tai Chi Chih practice. Meditation without movement is lovely, but harder to achieve the desired state without intentional movement to help guide the mind to connect to the body. Tai Chi Chih made it possible to practice self kindness during a challenging weight loss goal. The peace and playfulness Tai Chi Chih gives me, and gave me during weight loss, helped me lose 75pounds in 6 months.

If a former “lost cause” with improper support or guidance early in life, such as myself, could achieve peace, joy, and body confidence that eludes so many of us these days, is something that resonates with you, call, text, or email me…

Whether or not you decide to arrive, I am ready for you as you are now.