RDTC Dunblane
What inspired me to learn Tai Chi?
What gives life to the Tai Chi I teach?
I lived in HongKong for twelve years and every morning would see silent figures moving in stillness - shadow boxing . Coming home late from a dance we would pass groups of older people walking up the Peak to be there at dawn to do their Tai Chi. I wondered what it was that so motivated them to expend so much effort going uphill in order to do these movements at the top at dawn?
Dawn, HongKong.
Silent figures moving serenely.
Personal stillness within and without.
Hubs of calm in the dynamo of city life.
Here was a philosophy of life which seemed to allow for the ebb and flow of things and a harmony with a deeper reality. A lighthearted example of this is the practice of taking songbirds for a walk in the mornings and evenings to let the birds and their owners join with the dawn and evening chorus. My Chinese friends were all very keen on what was good to the health and this included eating the right foods, swallowing the right (nasty tasting) medicines and practising Tai Chi. I was easily persuaded to take to the first two of these but Tai Chi eluded me because it was not at that time easily available for non Chinese speakers and it was not until I came back to Scotland that I found a tai chi class to join.
My body's enjoyment kept me going through beginners class; enjoying the occasional flow of movement from within and wanting more of it. Somewhere deep inside me I felt Tai Chi was nurturing some part of me that wanted to return to a more natural way of moving.
It was some years before I discovered Rising Dragon School of Tai Chi but since then my journey with Tai Chi has brought me far more than just stillness in motion and peacefulness - it has enabled me to see how I interact with people and events and opened me up to life in a way I never dreamed possible.
I have found that the softer and more natural I become, the better my Tai Chi is. So the things that I enjoy sharing include - my exploration of the natural movement within postures; finding ways to encourage bodies to soften and minds to find repose; encouraging the soft, powerful connectedness to develope within the form of Tai Chi and to be reflected into daily life and become outwardly visible in relationships and interactions with life events.
Uncovering an inner stillness and using it to flow more smoothly over life's obstacles.
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