Laingholm Eleven has now been open for over one year and we have recently celebrated its first birthday – thanks to Tai Chi class participants for making delicious vegan cake and cookies and making it a special occasion to remember.
Reflecting back on the first year of L11, many of the classes have been very enjoyable and some have even been a highlight of my week. The new teaching approach and curriculum structure have worked very well – I found that the participants are able to focus much better and get more enjoyment out of the class. It is very satisfying to see class participants incorporating the practice into their lives and reporting the benefits they’re getting out of it. I’ve also met some interesting people and we’ve shared many interesting conversations by the fire during the now customary after-class tea sessions. Just for fun we’ve sampled various interesting brews of tea.
This year I’ve encountered a number of people who think that learning Tai Chi would be a good idea for them, but their lifestyle is too full to allow two hours per week to go to class. After making my classes free of charge I can see that cost actually isn’t the issue for the majority of people. The issue is having too many commitments and too little time to rest and be with family. They are so busy with work and other projects that when they have free time they would prefer to blob out rather than engage in mindfulness practice. Clearly, the most beneficial thing for them would be not Tai Chi or meditation, but adjusting their lifestyle to be more calm and balanced.
Living a healthy lifestyle is even more important than engaging in health practices like Tai Chi. I think that one of the biggest lifestyle issues in this society is excessive use of debt to live beyond financial means. This can create an equivalent of debt slavery – living in a big and beautiful house purchased on debt that requires two people to work at least full-time for 20 or 30 years. In this manner the apparent luxury could start diminishing happiness instead of enhancing it. It is also a self-perpetuating practice – the more people borrow to buy expensive houses, the more expensive the houses become. In my experience people who rent or have purchased more safely within their means can live more relaxed lifestyles and often have time to spend on their wellbeing. Taking great care with debt is very important for long-term health and well-being. It is important to choose luxuries mindfully and ask ourselves if the net result will be more happiness or more stress.
Coming back to our practice, the most challenging part of the practice and the most rewarding part is learning to calm the constant chatter of the mind – learning to pause the constant verbal commentary running inside our head. Doing this is very restful and frees up attention to focus on the present moment. We practice a number of different techniques to calm the mind. For instance this week we’ve practiced the Tibetan singing bowl meditation where we focus our attention on the beautiful sound of the bowl and follow it into silence, becoming aware of the silence underneath the sound. We then apply this state of mind to Tai Chi practice.
Calming the mind is like a muscle that is initially weak for most people and needs to be trained. It can take some years to become strong. There is no magical shortcut that I know of and long term perseverance is what brings the results. Mindfulness practices are not for everyone. Some people’s minds have a constant need to be entertained and refuse to focus on something unexciting (such as paying attention to breathing) for any length of time. These people will not be able to do Tai Chi or meditation at all and will simply decide that it is boring. A new practitioner needs to have a desire to challenge themselves beyond entertainment.
Tai Chi offers a number of benefits, but just learning Tai Chi will not give these benefits. The benefits are gained from doing Tai Chi every day. There is often confusion about this as some students come to class to learn but do not do any practice at home. Intellectual learning of the movements and principles will not bring any benefits without practice, and one hour’s practice in class once per week is too infrequent for good results. My suggestion is 5 minutes of practice per day for beginners and 15 minutes per day for intermediate students. Those who come to class but do not wish to spend five minutes per day on practice are doing a token effort and will only get a token result. Learning is the car and practicing is the fuel. One doesn’t do much without the other.
It is better than nothing to have one hour of relaxation and calmness amid a stressful week. However, to fully activate the potency of Tai Chi and meditation and bring it into our life we need all four elements – lifestyle, learning, practice and persistence. I don’t mind students who do not practice, but I do want them to know that they are taking only a small slice of the cake and leaving the rest untouched. Or as my teachers said, “going into a treasure mountain and leaving empty-handed”.
PUBLISHED IN DEC 2013 ISSUE OF LAINGHOLM ROUNDABOUT.