Peace Amongst the Chaos: What Has T’ai Chi Chih Practice Done for Me

I am able to hear so many of my friends and clients who are undergoing those tough times when life seems to be so hard. I am able to lend a sympathetic ear and a shoulder to lean on and yet be strong enough to rise the next day and know the world will be okay.

I have weathered the emotional break-up of two major relationships in my life. Times when I agonized over what is wrong with me — why can’t I make things work better? Yet finding my center, being able to s-l-o-w-w-w down, I can understand that the sun will still rise tomorrow, I will be able to move on, I will build another strength within my life; it will be okay.

I can watch the news of the war in Iraq and feel the pain of those people who are losing their homes, their lives and in many instances their basic belief structures. War is so cruel — how can we allow it to happen within our world? How can I right the injustices that have befallen them? Very simply, I can’t.

But I can try to live life from my very core; I can go deep within myself and remember the things that are good. I can do my practice quietly and with intention and I can hear the birds chirping and feel the flowers growing; I can believe there is a guiding hand out there and maybe everything really will be okay.

I have been practicing T’ai Chi Chih Joy Thru Movement for 15 years now and I think I am finally being able to understand how much it has given to me.