On Mindfulness

Any T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) teacher or student who has experienced part or all of our practice can understand the concept of mindfulness. Being mindful can easily happen. Even today, living with so much going on in our personal lives we can make a conscious choice to be mindful.

We not only need peace, calm, and joy, we thrive and are in our best health when we make time to be mindful. Turning off the world even for a short time is necessary for our mental, physical and spiritual health. Our life is what it is. We can have wonderful days or become off balance or drained of our vital energy if we do not replenish ourselves on a daily basis.

There are many ways to take care of ourselves. I write in my journal so that my voice and thoughts are released (not ignored or pushed down). I sing out loud — wherever I might be (funny how it just comes out sometimes!). I take time to sit, feel, and smile. I play and laugh. I feel the sun on my face and breathe in all the air I can hold and let it out. I am grateful for the little things, even the tiniest of things. And I notice that it brings me an inner peace.

The key to doing this comes from a central amazing place. I choose to focus on my TCC practice each day, in the morning. Whether I stand or sit, I can make time to practice TCC. It is truly a gift to myself, and as Justin said, “It is a gift to humanity.”

TCC practice gives us the opportunity to be mindful, to focus on the present and notice our feelings and sensations. Being mindful by practicing TCC allows us to be in the moment — not judging our practice on this particular day, in any way. This sets us up for every day to be the same. We breathe a little easier. We open up and allow ourselves to relax and flow with whatever happens.

Each TCC movement, starting from our two preliminary movements and continuing throughout all of the TCC movements to Cosmic Consciousness Pose, creates the opportunity to focus and pay attention to how we move. We are present and we are mindful. We feel the ground beneath our feet; we feel how our body is moving or flowing. We feel the principles of softness and circularity, balancing the yin and yang energies, the beautiful polarity, shifting our weight forward and back and side-to-side, plus paying attention to how the wrist and waist moves with each movement. These are the keys to feeling the Chi energy, our vital energy.

We can experience thoughts, feelings, and sensations throughout our practice, but the key is not to judge them. Letting go is next. It is healing.

I am reading Anger by Thich Nhat Hanh at the moment. He writes, “The energy of mindfulness is the energy of being present. Body and mind united. When you practice mindful breathing or mindful walking [I am adding T’ai Chi Chih here], you become free of the past, free of the future, free of your projects, and you become totally alive and present again. Freedom is the basic condition for you to touch life, to touch the blue sky, the trees, the birds, the tea, and the other person. This is why mindfulness is very important. Yet it is not something that you have to train yourself for many months to be able to do. … Any moment of the day is an opportunity for you to train yourself in mindfulness and to generate this energy.”

I know and feel blessed that my TCC practice gives me all I need to be my best self. It opens me up to the freedom from my “everyday everythings.” It gives me space to touch life, to touch the blue sky, and the trees, just as Thich Nhat Hanh writes. It allows me to open up and be kinder, more loving, more at peace, and to feel the freedom in my life.

When we experience, share, and love our TCC practice, we are making the world a much better place. This is our own personal gift to humanity. Each of us are sharing TCC with the world in so many ways. Thank you, Justin.