Take your time. You are making progress.
Lesson from a Turtle
One World. . .One Breath
Join us, breathe and connect your energy with others you know and don’t know across the world. Yes, connect with a stranger on another continent thousands of miles away! On the last Saturday in April we celebrate World Tai Chi and QiGong Day. We can participate with others at an indoor event, outside in a park moving through gentle Tai Chi movements or at home in our living room.
Join me on Saturday, April 25, 10am in your time zone. Stop. pay attention and breathe. Imagine and feel the connection with others who are stopping to breathe and connect with you. This wave of breathing and connecting our energy starts at 10am in New Zealand and Australia, then travels across the world in every time zone on earth. What a positive way to spread good will, spread our good energy and connect with others, a positive gesture of giving of our best selves and sharing a positive moment with no agenda and no personal gain.
Thousands, maybe millions will be joining us. Just to share energy and connect.
Join me and if you are outside, take time to enjoy the trees, the grass, the flowers, the birds.
Summer Light
What is special about summer for you? Many of us are eager to be outside, go for long walks by a lake or in a park, enjoy a picnic with our family, stroll through our neighborhood farmer’s market, attend an outdoor concert or a movie night on our lawn chair at a community gathering, watch boats glide along Lake Superior.
What do you like the most? The freedom of walking out the door in shorts and sandals, taking binoculars and camera to watch and listen to the birds, relaxing outside with friends over a glass of wine. All good possibilities. We think mostly about “doing”, being active because we have a sense of freedom to move around and go places when we know it will be light well into the evening.
We are in the season of Yang energy – activity, blossoming trees and flowers, bright colors, heat, light. While we are out “doing” we want to pay attention, enjoy the moment. Take it all in.
Recently my sister and I went to Starved Rock State Park in northern Illinois. It’s amazing to drive across flat terrain, rich farmland filled with corn and soybeans and then. . . huge trees, winding roads going up, up, up to a natural filled park. Looking out over a panorama of green trees as far as our eyes could see, we listened to a variety of singing birds, felt a summer breeze, marveled at small red berries we happened to see because we were still and paying attention to everything around us.
The sun shining brightly highlighted the various shades of green on the thousands of leaves surrounding us. It was mesmerizing, the stillness and calm of those moments. The light outside and how nature took it in, made it beautiful and we, in our stillness took it all in and thoroughly enjoyed the moments.
What moments of summer have made you feel this way?
Lesson for the Day
A good reminder.
Be Like Bamboo
Our calendars have turned to a new year and we might be looking for some optimism, something to look forward to that will nourish our lives. The daily news hits us hard with natural disasters, ongoing wars, bird flu, and on and on.
I’ve been thinking about what I can do to make a difference, even in small ways, to positively impact my friends, family, my Tai Chi students and all those with whom I might interact. Maybe adopt a word for the year like kindness, patience, smile, listen. All good traits for us to share with people every day. Taking time to make a phone call, send a text, write a note, smile at a neighbor. Slowing down. Taking time for others.
However, I desire to have something to aspire to and it hit me in a flash, what that something could be. Bamboo. Be more like bamboo. Let’s consider together at that might look like.
Bamboo is a symbol for longevity. It always shows strength and grace, bends but does not break easily, is very versatile and flexible. It is a rapidly renewable resource. In Chinese philosophy, the straight stem of bamboo symbolized the path towards enlightenment, the segments of the stem being the steps along the way.
This artist’s painting of bamboo, shows the graceful nature of bamboo with its leaves a work of art, sprouting out from the stalks. The insides of bamboo are hollow, yet it can withstand rain and snow and grow with great vigor.
The uses of bamboo are numerous, from food for the pandas to creating paper from its pulp, to making furniture, flooring, clothing, bedding, fences, baskets and more. It’s versatility and flexibility are admirable.
So I want to be more like bamboo in 2025. Won’t you join me?
Tai Chi Helps Cognitive Functioning
I tried to use my creative cognitive skills to come up with a catchy title, but decided to just name what I want to write about. Cognitive skills are skills of the mind. Most of us want to keep our minds sharp and healthy and h may have some concerns about losing sharpness of thought, of reaction, of figuring things out as we grow older. We do crossword puzzles, sudokus, play bridge. And some of us engage with Tai Chi
A few weeks ago I turned the car radio on as I drove home from class. To my surprise the conversation was about Tai Chi. My ears perked up. It was a PBS station but still, Tai Chi is not a common subject on the radio. The subject was a research study that had recently been completed which concluded that Tai Chi can be beneficial for cognitive functioning. Much research has been conducted on the benefits of Ta Chi for balance, relaxation, some chronic conditions, etc. and those continue. This study focused on cognitive functioning and suggested that with Tai Chi the mind is engaged in memorizing specific moves and then using our bodies to actually do the moves.
Mind – Body connection. Engaging both. Being in the moment. Tai Chi helps us do that.
Read about the study:
And if you want to start the new year off on a positive note, join a Tai Chi class.