Building Good Will

When you invite guests to come stay at your home you go through a lot of effort to make them feel comfortable. You might clean up the house, clear out the guest room, or at least set out fresh sheets and towels. Everything is done to help them feel welcome and relaxed. The same is true when inviting the Chi into our T’ai Chi Chih practice. We must get out of the way and make room for our “guest” by becoming very soft. Without this softness, our practice lacks a living touch and we are unable to sense the Chi and be responsive to accommodate it in our practice.

Unfortunately, some of us are not very good hosts. Rather than becoming soft and receptive, we allow tension to build and take up permanent residence in the legs and hips. This tension forces the body to rise up as the weight shifts onto a stiff leg, and the body ends up leaning in the direction of the weight shift. Everything is undermined by the accumulation of this unneeded tension.

If you want to move well during the T’ai Chi Chih movements, pay attention to see if the leg and hips are becoming softer in the direction of the weight shift. Otherwise, as the weight shifts in a given direction, the Chi flows to create the space but the body is unable to fill it. The hips stop moving as the weight shifts but the shoulders do not. This is especially important on the side-to-side movements because tension is often present in the hips and waist.

In the T’ai Chi Chih movements, each part of the body must remain soft and flexible to provide stability and support for the portion above it. Softness in the legs builds “good will” in the hips, which make them more generous toward the shoulders. This seems to make sense, yet how many of us are working to build good will? This can only come from consistent attention to sense the building of tension, and a commitment to address the root cause.

When tension is absent from the legs and hips, the spine remains upright and in proper alignment without effort. Now the Chi can flow without hindrance while every part of the body moves with ease. Alignment is perhaps the most important prerequisite to flowing well throughout the T’ai Chi Chih movements. It is the first topic I address when working with students, and a subject I continue to work on in my personal T’ai Chi Chih practice.