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A Special Summer Solstice

June 29, 2016 By Arlene Faulk

A moment of silence, of stillness. That is how I started my day on Summer Solstice last week, in Portland, Oregon. At the Lan Su Chinese Garden. My friend, Barb and I met there before attending a busy day of meetings.

Immediately upon stepping through the front entrance, we felt the wonderful energy of nature and architecture in balance. Nothing is struggling. Nothing is in conflict. Nothing is out of alignment.

Everything is taking its natural course — the water, the orange fish, the trees, the designed stone walkways, the curved bridges, lily pads – all support one another, effortlessly. Effortlessly.

Every day most of us put in a lot of effort, to do a good job, to be a good parent, to run a good race, to be a good citizen. We feel that the more effort we put in, the better the results will be. Yes, we need some effort, to try our best, but we also need to take a lesson from nature. Nature does not try harder. It functions with ease. It has its still moments and it has its drama.

Looking at the peaceful water, brought stillness into my being. The clear, blue sky reflected in the water. I looked up at the sky, then back down in the water. What a beautiful reflection of that morning sky in the water. It is in the few moments of stillness and reflection that we can find balance within ourselves and with nature.

What will you do today to find a few moments of balance?

Starting to Relax and Let Go

April 15, 2015 By Arlene Faulk

“Bring your attention into the room, focusing on your body, standing here, right now. Feet are hip-width apart, with knees soft (not locked).” That’s usually how I start my Tai Chi classes, sometimes adding, “be aware you are breathing, naturally.”

Slowing down and starting to relax can be a challenge for many of us. Learning what ‘relaxed’ means in our body can take time and come in tiny increments. I remember an ‘ah-ha’ moment for myself in Rancho La Perta, Tecate, Mexico a few years ago. The teacher said relaxing is not something we need to do or add. It’s letting go of something we’re already doing.

Letting go is a life-long journey. We have so many things we want to hang on to – family responsibilities, job deadlines, worry about money, concerns about health, wondering what others will think, etc. Our go-to response is to try harder, do more, push ourselves more and more.

When we start to let go, particularly on expectations for ourselves, we not only start to relax, but also create more space for the things and people that are important in our lives.

Even with Tai Chi we can put pressure on ourselves, to learn and remember moves, to keep up with others in the class, to feel like we’ve accomplished something. A different thought — come into class thinking “I’m going to enjoy myself; I’m going to go with the flow. I’m going to just ‘be’ for now.”

“Letting go is a basic, if not THE basic principle of T’ai-Chi-Ch’uan. it is said that a student’s progress is determined by how much he is willing to let go of — tension, emotional programming, fear, thinking, defensiveness, etc. The natural being is already powerful and wise. You must let go of your interference with the body’s power and wisdom.”
~ Bob Klein, Movements of Magic, The Spirit of T’ai-Chi-Ch’uan.

How might you start letting go?

Finding Oz

January 6, 2013 By Arlene Faulk

Do you carry around little stories, phrases, life sayings that are good reminders for keeping a good perspective? I was cleaning out a drawer, with Tai Chi forms and principles that I’ve developed for class. In that drawer, I re-discovered a piece that I’ve been referring to for at least 30 years. It’s so good for the start of a new year, so I want to share it with you. I don’t have a date but I do have the author, Wanda Cavanaugh, at Tandem Computers when she wrote it:

Finding Oz

“When I hear the line ‘Oz never did give nothing to the Tinman that he didn’t already have,’ I think about what I learned from the childhood classic. It’s been stated in a dozen different ways, but the main point is that the person with the ability to change and control our lives is ourselves.

Be it problem solving or happiness, we often don’t know where to look or how to find what we want unless some outside event or person enlightens us. It may be a friend asking ‘why’, overhearing a chance remark, reading an article or anything else that starts our minds thinking along new lines and removes the barriers that have kept us from seeing these possibilities before, but usually it comes from the outside.

If I were to give advice to someone looking for a new career, a new idea, a new plan for something, a new hobby, I would say three things:

The answer is in you
Look for the thing that will help you discover it
Be ready for it

Like the Tinman and Dorothy, we won’t get anything we didn’t have the ability to get before. Like the Tinman and Dorothy, we may not have recognized these possibilities in ourselves. Diplomas and red slippers are marvelous devices for giving us the courage to try things we might fear to try. Even intangible things can help such as a pat on the back, a passing comment, allowing your mind to wander, or a deadline that makes you charge a little harder. The real key is to be like the characters from Oz, to be ready to receive.

Life is like a trip through Oz where you must let yourself hear and accept the ideas as they come to you or you will never get a heart, a trip to Kansas or Oz, a brain, or whatever it is you’re looking for.”