Tai Chi Chuan (or Tai Ji Quan) is something that can be approached in many ways; as a performance art, a martial art or an internal art, for example. As an internal art, my Shifu from Guangzhou recently referred to Tai Chi practice. He told me that when I practice I should “make (my) heart peaceful, don’t feel afraid or nervous, don’t be tense, just keep Peng”. These instructions easily align with principles that also characterise many meditation styles. When you practice Tai Chi slowly, with the breath and calming the nervous system, a meditative state can be reached. This is why Tai Chi Fist is referred often to as ‘moving meditation’.
In practising any meditation, many things can be experienced. There are things that are quite nice to experience and things can be quite a handful to experience. When practising Tai Chi as a moving meditation you will find there are many common challenges that it shares with other kinds of meditation. Did you know however that these often times frustrating and difficult aspects of Tai Chi are actually pivotal to your growth? These struggles are the means of experiencing one of those end goals of meditation. That without knowing these struggles we can’t really appreciate our own sense of acceptance, peace and inner quiet. Let’s look at some of these common hurdles.
Anxiety
Anxiety comes from worrying about and being preoccupied with the future. Did you know that sometimes the practice of meditation can actually cause people to become anxious? Becoming concerned over questions and thoughts like: why am I so tense? Will I ever figure this movement out? I’ve only been practising 5 minutes and I’m already bored, how will I finish 30 minutes?!..
These patterns of thought are quite common and often people give up because they are too concerned about the “progress” of their practice. It’s in these moments that you realise that this is how your mind always behaves; however, it’s only when you try to quieten it that you realise how noisy and chaotic it is.
Impatience
Impatience is often drawn from being anxious. You’re waiting for something to happen, and in doing so, waiting for whatever is happening to be over. This is also something that can come up in Tai Chi and meditation practice. Rushing to learn forms and reach a state of relaxation is quite counter productive; you will be coming back years later no better and needing to relearn basics. When a person is accustomed to instant gratification they will find it harder to persevere with the things in life that require time and effort to be realised.
Boredom
Feeling bored when practising Tai Chi or another kind of meditation is also another common challenge. That when practising, it is difficult finding anything interesting about your breath, or that the slow movements on the outside don’t look like much. We want to get to the interesting part, but it never seems to come.
This may happen because we are accustomed to certain kinds of stimuli. Usually always external stimuli and a lot of it. We watch TV with 10-second sound bites, whilst chatting with a friend and checking our Instagram at the same time. This need to have multiple sources of fast, easy to consume stimuli at a time has made us prone to feeling boredom more easily.
So now you may ask: why practice something that seems to bring out the worst in me? Here’s why.
By putting yourself in situations where you are confronted by these feelings you will begin to learn about them. Letting go of anxiety by learning to live in the present. Learning to be patient by coming to appreciate the process and journey. Overcoming boredom by practising to look more deeply into less things.
When we practice any kind of meditation, often people are trying to reach something, trying to touch upon something that they have never experienced consciously. What we need to understand is that it is within the struggle that lies the benefit. We practice meditation to become conscious of being anxious, being impatient, being bored and then practising separating ourselves from these feelings. The better you get at letting go the better you are able to experience inner quiet, acceptance and balance.
– Jaime –
