Student Voices – Grateful and Growing

Collected by Sheila Leonard, PBVM, NL Canada

Here is a taste of why our Newfoundland students keep practicing T’ai Chi Chih:

“When I finished my working life three years ago, I decided to try something completely new and enrolled in a TCC class. Little did I know about the wonderful door that would open. TCC has been a life changing experience that has brought joy, peace and gratitude into every day. One of the most difficult movements to learn was Working the Pulley, but I finally got it. Now I feel like clothes on a line, gently flowing in the soft breeze, keeping rhythm with the universe. And of course the sun is always shining.” – Sue C.

“’Serenity’ I answered, when asked what I was hoped to gain from my first TCC weekend. My hopes were met, and I continue to practice regularly, thankful for serenity and other benefits I’ve noticed. That first weekend I’d just had cortisone injections into my shoulder to alleviate torn rotator cuff pain. My shoulder, neck and back muscles were a knotted mass of misery; painkillers were frequent companions. Today I am pain-free. My shoulder has healed without surgical intervention. While my physiotherapist deserves a good deal of credit for that reversal, I think that TCC has also been an integral part of the healing package. As I go through my daily practice, I feel my posture improve, my muscles relax and my sense of well-being increase.” – Mildred B.

“It helps to set aside a special time each day when I can relax and recharge. What I like best is the peaceful feeling everything in TCC just flows. I’m also experiencing how important that rest is between movements. It helps settle me down before I move on.” – Judy S.

“The more I practice TCC, the more it’s like changing a square into a circle as I move my hands in Around the Platter.” – Lynn

“Before TCC, I would be awakened at night by pain in my knees. But after the fourth session, it was gone.” – Judy F.

“I generally have really bad migraines that last for three days. TCC seems to hold them at bay and I don’t get them as often. Medication plus TCC at onset stops them. But with medication alone, they still go full tilt. When I missed TCC a couple of days, I had a really bad three day bent.” – Bev L.

From students at an initial lunchtime employee wellness “Come and See” session: “I could see and feel an immediate calm come over you as you began.” A second person chimed in “and over all of us, too.” … “It felt like I was on my cabin deck in the country” … “ I had a real sense of balance and that’s what I really need” … Classes are now underway there.

On a different note, classes continue to grow throughout our province, but they are no longer all mine. Some of newly accredited teachers have begun offering classes in areas where I used to travel extensively to teach. And now I am a little more freed up to teach in new places. Yes, indeed, “Sometimes to keep something, you have to give it away.”

NL Canada: “Places to Go with Sharon Snow”

NTV, a local province-wide station, invited us to do a T’ai Chi Chih “Places to Go with Sharon Snow” segment that ran on the evening news. They taped 15 minutes and aired three minutes of Sharon learning TCC, with some of my students continuously moving as backdrop. The editing was good, all things considered, and we received lots of positive feedback. Hope it inspires others to do something similar. The segment can be viewed at . Amazing what TCC enables us to do.