The Healing Effects of Our Practice

A few weeks ago, I led my long-time class through a session of just Rocking Motion. We focused on the soles of our feet and how to keep adjusting our feet and stance as we moved. When driving we may be pointing in one straight direction, but all the while we are adjusting the steering wheel to stay on course. We felt our Bubbling Well as we lifted the foot and broke that connection and then put it back down. We moved and talked and worked. After class I received this most interesting email from one of my dear students, Patricia Blakely:

Last week, you talked about how T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) is not just ‘moving meditation,’ but also a ‘moving medication.’ Yes! That according to Chinese medicine, we need to restore balance in our bodies, again and again. When we are ‘out of balance,’ we are ‘out of tune,’ and that can lead to illness. Restoring balance in our body can bring back our body’s natural resistance to disease.

I had some neuropathy in my right foot, which definitely feels ‘out of tune.’ It feels like a blockage — like a small stone in the ball of my right foot — a pain or a kind of weird numbness when I put weight on it. I have bunions on both of my feet, and I’ve been told it’s best to wear supportive shoes, even supportive flip flops, and not go barefoot. Now I’m beginning to think otherwise.

I believe you said our feet, as we age, lose sensitivity as to how they are connecting to the ground. I was particularly interested in your comment about how, therefore, it is best not to wear supportive shoes all day. And you recommended 30 minutes a day of going barefoot.

I’ve felt that practicing TCC helps us ‘bring our attention to our feet’ more in our everyday lives, so we aren’t as likely to fall. And I think that’s true, but it’s even better than that.

I did a little research — reading Bill Moyer’s book from the PBS series, Healing and the Mind, especially the parts about Chinese medicine and Chi. How Chi energy can be weak (insufficient Chi) or too much because there is a blockage somewhere (bad Chi). And I found a handout you gave us years ago by Gregg St. Clair on “Connecting to Your Bubbling Well.” He talks about the three-foot arches and how important it is to balance our weight over them, like a tripod, for more stability. I looked up neuropathy on the Mayo website and found that neuropathy in hands and feet is caused by “damaged” nerves. 

I was so grateful that you emphasized the Rocking Motion movement today. Something happened in class that was truly remarkable. I started out the day with that ‘stone’ feeling in my right foot. Walking a couple miles this morning didn’t even seem to ease it. But at the end of the class, that stone feeling was gone. I had no pain in my right foot at all. I think it was because of the careful work you taught us to do in that one motion.

I’m thinking maybe the nerves in my right foot aren’t damaged so much as overloaded or blocked because I’m not walking in a completely balanced way. That is really hopeful! Maybe I’m habitually putting too much pressure on the right side of my foot, in order to ease up on the bunion on the left part of my foot? I’m not sure about this. But I’m going to do more Rocking Motion, gently, slowly — and maybe even sitting down sometimes — to try to address this pesky problem.

Wanting to say how grateful I am for your faithful, insightful teaching. It’s rich and deep. And it’s new every time!