Tai Chi and Mindful Movement

Sometimes we practice Tai Chi by limiting ourselves solely to learning forms. While this is a necessary part, understanding and practicing mindful movement through the fundamental principles behind the forms is the ingredient without which we cannot experience all the health and personal development benefits this art offers.

What sets Tai Chi apart from other disciplines that involve movement is focusing attention on our inner space while we move. Although this may seem easy at first, it is not at all. This is because, usually, when we want to move or reach for something, we direct our attention outside ourselves. And if there are no objects and we are just moving, we tend to focus all our attention on the part of the body we want to move, without paying attention to the rest. Therefore, we do not become aware of the path of the movement from our center of gravity to the parts of the body we are moving.

Apparently, paying attention to this internal journey might seem to limit the practical use of Tai Chi. Most of the situations in which we need to move happen outside ourselves. But nothing could be further from the truth. We forget that all intention to move is born within us, even if we express it outwardly. This intention determines the direction, intensity, and quality of the energy we pour into a movement. Therefore, precision, strength, and distribution in our body and in the external object depend on the clarity of that intention, which can be developed.

Tai Chi and intention

Through our intention, we can direct precise, fast, fluid, elastic, and nourishing movements for our tissues and organs. Or, on the contrary, clumsy, slow, tense, rigid, and ultimately harmful movements for our body structure. In this case, intention acts like the gate of a dam. The wider the gate opens (intention), the greater the flow of water (energy) that comes out. Thus, the greater the flow of water, the more forcefully it can carry objects along its path (our body and external objects).

Through the mindful practice of the fundamental principles of Tai Chi, we increase the clarity in perceiving the movements of energy within us. In this way, we can learn to channel and direct it more efficiently in any action we are performing.

From this perspective, Tai Chi is not so much a system of techniques to apply in martial situations or daily life, but rather the internalization of a new awareness of movement. An awareness in which we attend with greater presence to what happens outside, thanks to the cultivation of a balanced internal space. Through experience, we become familiar with the subtle details of our inner space. This allows us to appropriately accompany and manage the most important movements that occur again and again throughout our lives. We refer to breathing, blood circulation, emotions, the tension and relaxation of muscles, tissues, and organs. And finally, we extend this balance to any action we express outwardly.