Softness, Stillness, Continuity
T’ai Chi Chih is a mindfulness moving meditation practice that’s easy to learn. The series of 19 movements and one pose helps circulate the Vital Energy, the Chi. Practitioners experience peace, improved health and many more benefits. Our free monthly e-newsletter offers inspiration between issues of the TCC quarterly journal, The Vital Force, in which teachers and students tell stories about ways they’ve benefited from the practice.
We stress softness and continuity in T’ai Chi Chih. – Justin F. Stone, TCC Originator
From a recent issue of The Vital Force:
Softness: “As we grow in our understanding of the practice and begin to feel the energy, our mind and thoughts begin to change. As our movements soften, perhaps we soften. The stresses and challenges life presents to us can sometimes make us uneasy and anxious, but the practice of TCC can help us find an inner stillness, learn to act but not react.” – DK, Midland Park, NJ
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Stillness: “So, what is it that we do as T’ai Chi Chih teachers? We re-introduce people to the realm of their own presence. We invite them to become again as little children and to take delight in the movement and aliveness of their own bodies, as we, too … We offer them softness, and stillness within motion,
as we, too, soften into the still point of our own lives.” – DD, Siesta Key, FL
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Continuity: “In Bird Flaps Its Wings, we achieve greater inner continuity paradoxically by flipping, breaking, fast, then slow! … The ‘both/and’ paradox found in so much of TCC and its principles seems to take time to develop. Justin never talked about how soft he was on the inside. He embodied it. He moved quickly and effortlessly yet exquisitely could ‘commune with the Chi’ … Little by little, and gently so because TCC is so gentle, we are stretched through paradox to expand and include a new experience of ourselves, our connection to Source and sources …” – AT, Albuquerque, NM
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In Bird Flaps its Wings, when the arms are out to the side the third time, do the wrist circles with the wrists, not the arms, and be sure a complete circle is made each time. We flip the wrists to the side quickly but bring the arms and hands back together slowly. As the hands come together, the polarity of the palms facing each other is important, so do not rush bringing the hands together. – Justin F. Stone, from his TCC Photo Textbook
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