Why TCC? (August 2010)

Because it gets me out of my head and into my body. I spend most of my time in my head: trying to make sense of things, thinking critically, abstracting, analyzing, teaching – a rationalist rationalizing. Responding to the vague sense that some sort of body movement would add needed balance to my life, I looked for a T’ai Chi Ch’uan class at my local community college. The time slot didn’t work for me, so I blundered into T’ai Chi Chih. I blundered in but soon realized the rightness of it for me.

Doing TCC felt right, but I did have a concern that it would come with the expectation that I buy into (or pretend to buy into) a belief structure. So when I first read Justin Stone’s statement in the Photo Textbook that, “no beliefs are needed and words play no part in successful practice (1996, p. 13),” it spoke powerfully to me. I am grateful that I’ve been given permission to make a deep commitment to doing TCC without engaging or challenging the thinking and questioning part of me.

I relish the emphasis on doing TCC rather than thinking about it. Sure, I have to think about the body mechanics – the “what?” and the “how to.” But I am not burdened with the “why do it this way?” or “why does it work?” types of questions. There is, however, one “why?” question I can answer: Why is TCC for me? Because it gets me out of my head and into my body. And, because I welcome the stillness it brings to my life.