TCC, The Same Old Thing?

Not so long ago, someone asked me how long I had been doing these 19 movements and one pose? “Quite a long while,” I answered, adding that I was still learning. The quick response was, “Oh, you must be a slow learner.” I laughed and agreed. Then I remembered what someone else said to me once, “les choses qui en valent la peine prennent du temps,” meaning “things that really matter take a long time.” 

Maybe discovering the Chi in our own body is worth all the time it takes to do so.

Yes, I am still doing 19 movements and one pose, and I still go to retreats, conferences and workshops because every time I go, another opening to the Chi happens. We all have probably felt heat or cold, tingling or the palpation in our fingers or a vibration in our body or a tickle in our ear. Every physical sensation is actually an energetic response. Quantum physics says that everything is energy. We just have to be open and alert to the way it manifests in the body. The present moment is the best way to tap into this energy. We have to tune in and listen to how this energy, our energy, flows in our own body. As TCC practitioners, we have been given a great way to access it. 

I just came back from a TCC retreat in Albuquerque led by Carmen Brocklehurst. We practiced those 19 movements and one pose, and it was amazing. Moving, flowing and gliding slowly through very heavy air, each movement unfolded in its particular way. Carmen was there to guide us through the process of finding how the Chi expresses itself in each one of us. It was a beautiful thing to feel and watch it come alive inside. Being true to the principles and to the movements that Justin gave us is all that is required. 

So how does it feel to do the same old, same old?

It feels great. Especially for someone who had – and has – the hardest time staying grounded even though I am reminded, and remind myself, to feel the soles of my feet. 

It feels great when I really find my feet on the floor and I find all the nuances of a slow weight shift. “A slower TCC is a better TCC,” Justin often reminded us.

The more I give my whole attention to the soles of my feet, and the more I become strong and solid in my feet – with no wavering or wobbling – the more my practice becomes totally fluid all the way to the fingertips. Every part of the body responds to the movement of the tan t’ien. It is magic. 

It feels great to just breathe and feel light and solid all at the same time. 

It’s a moment of grace when the yin of the movement encounters the yang of its strength; I feel totally present, strong in the body, strong like a mountain and fluid like water. The grounding energy is there to hold a space for the moving energy to manifest the life force within and around us. The bubbling spring is really bubbling with a moist heat. Twenty years to arrive in my feet; 20 more years to stay in them? 

Yes, it is the same old, same old way, done in a new light every time we sink, shift the weight and set our foot… every time we pay attention.

Are we ready to tap into our own inner power? Are we ready to activate and harness our power? Are we ready to keep on going back, again and again, to those “simple movements” without adding anything and simply surrender to how all of the principles work in them?

Have I always known or understood this? Probably not. Have I always felt it in the body? Not likely. How long does it take? The time it takes, I guess. I wonder what the next twenty years of practice have in store for me? I will have to be patient and wait… and see… and feel… starting now.

To become friends with this energy is to tap into the essence of who we are, to reacquaint ourselves with ourselves, to find the magic of the present moment. 

Now we can listen and feel how the energy flows inside our own body. Thank you, Justin, for trusting all of us to keep this practice alive and well.