Harmony with Tai Chi
How many of us would like to achieve our goals? Get what we want, but more importantly
want what we get? How many of us would like to help ourselves and others?
How many of us would like to have fun and entertain others? Here is a simple
three step process that anyone can do!
First step: Do your best!
Second step: Help others!
Third step: Have fun!
Each of these steps build momentum from each other and work synergistically.
Step one is the easiest concept but the hardest to practice. Doing your
best! Discipline is the core of being the best you can be. Knowing your goals will help
keep you focused. Practicing your techniques helps make them a part of your instinctual
behavior. Persevere through the difficult and challenging times on your journey of
self- discovery and physical development.
Step two: Help others! We should all remember the golden rule “Treat others
as you would have them treat you.” In order to do that we must remain open to
hear challenges. Stay respectful of the way others do things but help show and share
infinite possibilities. Understand that others are responsible for their own thoughts,
feelings, and actions; everybody must be loyal to themselves.
Finally, always remember to have fun on this wonderful journey called life. The
most effective way to do that is to make sure what we do is as safe as nature can permit.
Activities should be invigorating, challenging, and help test your limits. Once the
effort is put forth one should feel uplifted, more alert, and centered.
By following this basic guide you should have a clearer sense of direction.
Hopefully, this will assist you to continue to expand your knowledge.
Warriors in life, Tai Chi in health
“Warriors create their mood”. That is an age old warrior slogan that goes against
so much of what you hear on a daily basis: “You make me soooo mad”, “He infuriates me” and “She drives me crazy”
Of course, I could go on and on to people, places and things but the underlying
intent or seed of all these statements is that something or someone outside myself is responsible for how I am feeling or what I am doing. It achieves the primary goal of avoiding responsibility for just about everything in our life and goes against the primary warrior concept that “warriors are responsible for their thoughts, feelings and actions.
Victor Frankl writes in his book, “Man’s Search for Meaning”, that when every
freedom is taken from you (which he experienced personally in a holocaust camp), you
have one freedom left and that is the freedom to choose your intent and perception of the
situation which is the core of how we give meaning to our life.
1. The next time you think your life is hard or bad, pick up his book and get a different
perspective – changing our perspective is a great way to detach and get a broader
picture of what is going on in our life and personal battles. You can also read, “Left
To Tell” by Immaculee Ilibagiza, a survivor of the Rwandan Holocaust.
2. Another technique is to change your perception or focus. Start focusing on what
you have to be grateful for as opposed to what you are lacking. Your focus becomes
your reality.
3. Use death as an advisor. Ask your death if the challenges you face can really destroy
you or what ‘you’ they really have power over. We all play many roles and
navigate many worlds. Often our biggest fears come out when roles or worlds that
we are attached to fall apart. One of the most important keys to the warrior’s
path is that you can let the roles or worlds fall apart (die) but you do not need to
fall apart (die) with them. Our attachment to the roles we play or worlds we navigate
through are often tough to disengage from unless we are very light and fluid
or light and bright as we say in training, but it is a great time to reflect that new
roles and new worlds await us, and contemplating or meditating on the character
for chaos from the g.e.t.i.t. book can help us ‘see’ the energy of the transformations
in process.
4. Ask your self, “Am I moving from fear, power or from love? What do I want to
move from?” Visualize starting from each of those energies and see the feelings
they lead into. What do you want to create within you and then resonate from you? Think of role models in your life and how they handled adversity and challenges. What
motivated them? What motivates you?
5. Move and breath! Train, dance, run, walk! Stretch out your arms, embrace the
chaos or Retreat and cocoon for awhile to reflect on who you are? Does your
identity come from what you have, who you hang out with or does it come from
a purpose or intent deep within you?
6. Laugh! Watch a funny movie, read a funny story, see the humor in being human.
Laughter boosts your immune system and an overly serious attitude is like slow
Poison.
7. Reaffirm what you value. Is it your health, your family, your integrity or the stuff
around you? Affirm and reaffirm what is important to you and find out what is
important to those around you.
There are many ways to create our mood and in part two I will share a bit more
of the eastern and western views including insights into Psychoneuroimmunology, NLP and shinkiryuku. The important part for now is to raise your awareness that you are responsible for your thoughts, feelings and actions and to start using techniques to take charge of your intent, perceptions and behaviors.
Master hill
