T’ai Chi Chih Airport Practice

Michael S. Isaacs, San Francisco, CA

Waiting in the airport and flying can be a good time to do T’ai Chi Chih practice. Like me, perhaps you don’t have time to do your daily practice the day of the flight. You’re too busy packing and preparing for the trip. Then there’s the jet lag. And do you have moments of anxiety and boredom waiting for the plane to board and take off? Wouldn’t this be a splendid time to experience serenity and joy thru movement?

When I first started doing selected movements, I was a bit shy and self-conscious. So I searched out the most inconspicuous places in the waiting area. But it seemed like no one really looked or cared about what I was doing anyway. I guess they were as preoccupied, restless, and anxious as I! So I became bolder and started to expand my turf to more populated areas. In these denser spots, I eliminated from my repertoire Six Healing Sounds, Joyous Breath, and Light at the Top of the Head / Light at the Temple to lower the risk of someone questioning my sanity.

If you feel vulnerable doing standing movements in a busy public place, consider doing them sitting. Lastly, you can always visualize T’ai Chi Chih. This can be particularly auspicious while sitting in a cramped airplane seat. Visualizing the movements being done outdoors in Nature can be a wonderful antidote to the limiting space of the plane.

So give it a try. Remember: whether you are sitting, standing, or up in the air, the Chi remains grounded in the soles of your feet!

Doing TCC in the “Strangest” Places

Pete Gregory, Crown Point, IN

The wise student hears of the Tao and practices it diligently.

The average student hears of the Tao and gives it thought now and again.

The foolish student hears of the Tao and laughs aloud.

If there were no laughter, the Tao would not be what it is.

– Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tsu, Verse 41, as translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English:

The Daughters Within the Play

I work as a waiter and live in a small Indiana town near Chicago. Two years ago I thought it would be fun to practice outside the old courthouse in the town square. Towards the end of my practice, three squad cars pulled up quickly from different angles, and three officers approached me with a firm cadence in their step. They’d received a complaint that I was disrupting the flow of traffic with my … “We’re not sure what it is you’re doin’, but ya can’t do it here… We’ll clear your name with headquarters and you can go home. O.K.”

That night at work, a familiar customer asked me what was new and exciting, so I shared my little ordeal from my morning practice. His eyes lit up. “You’re an instructor? ” It turns out the man is the head of a program called Forensic Diversion Residential Treatment. It puts chronic offenders with chronic addictions into 90-day intensives to try and break both cycles of behavior. Since then, I have volunteered my services once a week for nearly two years.

Cut to present day: I thought I’d try again with a public display of TCC. I went out at sunrise to an empty lot near a Catholic church/school. I was resting between the “Daughter” movements, when yep… you guessed it, squad cars appeared again. One of the parents dropping off a child at the school was just being vigilant in light of a recent massacre. “Would you please go home. People don’t want anything unfortunate to happen to their daughters.” I told them I understood, came home, and started my practice again.

I’m waiting for the priest of the nearby church to come in for dinner and ask me what’s new.

As We Ebb And Flow

By Stephen Thompson, Tupelo MS

As we move through our daily practice, we shift our weight, we yin and yang, we ebb and flow, we activate the Vital Force. But deep down Chi remains constant. There is tranquility in the midst of movement. As we shift and change throughout our practice, there is motion and there is stillness. But when we anchor ourselves in the truth of our being, that core of Chi within us, we embrace every new day as it comes, knowing that we are calmly rooted in the moment and free of unnecessary expectations.

Like actors on the world stage, our 20 movements are like costumes we inhabit and then shed. Each movement rolls into the next, into the next, into the next…giving us seemingly infinite perspectives through which to understand ourselves and our universe. We might move through resistance as we shift from side to side; move through joy as we flow in and out; move ever deeper into the Chi as we weave through the patterns of our practice.

In those moments when we immerse fully into our practice, we merge Chi with Chi. From that perspective each subtle modification can be an adventure, a celebration, and a chance to find new balance.