Whew! The election is over. Most of us sigh in relief. The bombardment of negative commercials, angry talk show hosts and hateful words expressed by colleagues, “friends” and facebook messages are mostly over.

However, the underlying opinions and associated emotions remain. We are largely a divided nation, with little desire for give and take.

Each of us can benefit by drawing on the goal of Tai Chi, the pursuit of balance in all things, starting with our own body mind and spirit. Rather than opine, we need to breathe. Rather than trying to influence others with our strong opinions, we need to stop, be silent, reflect. Rather than spending time wound up about what went wrong, we need to look around us and help make somebody else’s day go better.

Tai Chi is all about energy, creating positive energy within ourselves and then out to others. Our mind, the Yi, directs the Qi, our life force energy. We can, one person at a time, create positive energy and send it out to every person with whom we come in contact with, whether we know them personally or not.

Each of us wants to feel better, feel positive and the best way to do that is to go within and resolve to be the positive energy ourselves, that reaches out to others. Start today. Right now.