The Grounding, Healing Effect Of TCC: Applications To Trauma & PTSD

My work as a psychologist/psychotherapist and T’ai Chi Chih/Seijaku instructor working primarily with individuals with anxiety and trauma conditions has led me to the belief that TCC is a therapy in itself. Trauma conditions are characterized by an activation of the Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS). Two primary principles that are vital in calming the SNS and are present in TCC are: (1) Rhythmic Sensory Bilateral Stimulation (RSBLS) and (2) Notion of the Bubbling Spring or Yung Chuan – K1 meridian; the entry point for negative ions or earth energy. The trauma and brain research of Robert Scaer, MD, finds that any form of rhythmic sensory bilateral stimulation has a quieting or inhibitory effect on the amygdala, which plays a central role in the activation of the SNS and resultant symptoms.

RSBLS is a central part of TCC with the yinning and yanging of the weight shifts. Additionally, and per my experience with trauma clients/students, they seem drawn to the bubbling spring and feet flat movements. Therefore, in any effort or goal to quiet the SNS, attention or awareness is held in the soles of the feet and to the sensation of the bilateral weight shifts. Furthermore, this awareness results in a slowing of the movements and a deeper sense of sensory body awareness, which is what we want with trauma conditions. In short, TCC becomes a moving meditation of embodiment.

We know from hypnosis research and practice that when we quiet the amygdala and SNS the brain is more receptive to spoken interventions or suggestions. What we say as teachers and how we say it makes a difference. Affirmations spoken aloud of “T’ai Chi Chih meets you where you are” and “soles of the feet” and “the effort of no effort” and the Seijaku notion of “Chi follows thought” when heard in a state of physical rootedness and mental calmness and awareness are heard and felt within both body and mind. The quieting of the cortical brain and the rootedness of the physical body creates the condition for subtle body awareness and healing to occur. Justin spoke of working through the physical and its effect upon thought formation and the mind. I find this to be so true. “When we practice T’ai Chi Chih faithfully, we will find that Love Energy is the fruit.”

Awakening Energy Within: Making Connections Inside & Out

By Sheila Leonard, St John’s, NL, Canada

Objectives and Outline: Below are the talking points for my 2019 T’ai Chi Chih conference presentation. It was indeed a joy and a privilege to present on something so dear to my heart and which has so profoundly deepened my personal practice, and which I dearly love and love to share. Thank you for this opportunity.

Format: The focus is a mix of informational and interactive as I invite attendees to go deeper inside an amazing inner energetic landscape which Justin was clearly so aware of and had often referenced without elaborating too much on it.

I hope participants will come away with an ever expanding, deepening understanding and experience of/that:

• Everything is energy and energy is everything: Body, mind, heart and the Universe, as a dynamic, unified, integrated energy system. As one.

• Coming home to our bodies: Body-mind-heart working together as one to facilitate healing and a return to the circle of original wholeness, the limitless energy of the original divine blueprint encoded within.

• Where the mind goes, energy flows: Blocked or constricted energy, broken energy connections lead to distress, dis-ease, disease. Using our mind’s energetic focus we can free up the energy flow and be re-energized for life.

• Shared purpose of all life: Happy, healthy, whole, fulfilled. Energy is alive, energy wants to move, connect, re-awaken and fulfill our shared vision and purpose, returning to yet another circle, the circle of wholeness, of oneness, for life.

Editor’s Note: Continue reading at https://taichichih.org/conference-2019/