Practice makes… practising more fun!

Practice won’t ever make your T’ai Chi perfect. Unfortunately. It’s not something you can “achieve” as such, because we’re always learning. But regular T’ai Chi practice is something which can bring huge benefits to us, if we focus instead on simply letting go and relaxing into the experience.

So let’s agree to give up on any dreams of “Perfection.”

Just let them go.

Let go of your drive for Perfection Photo by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash

Let go of your drive for Perfection
Photo by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash

Now, we can look to tap into all those wonderful benefits of T’ai Chi – which presumably are the reason we were drawn to T’ai Chi in the first place!

How does T’ai Chi improve wellbeing?

It’s great to remind ourselves what these benefits are. Here’s a few which students mentioned in class this week:

  • improved balance in the body
  • getting to “that place” of complete relaxation of mind
  • increased mobility & flexibility
  • improved posture, and awareness of posture
  • an opening of the senses
  • confidence to “let go” and just “be” in the movement
T'ai Chi gets you to "that place" of relaxation Photo by Luisa Rusche on Unsplash

T’ai Chi gets you to “that place” of relaxation
Photo by Luisa Rusche on Unsplash

Track your sense of wellbeing

Notice I’ve not called it “progress”! Consider running a T’ai Chi diary. Even if it’s 3 sentences – just something to capture how the T’ai Chi felt both during the exercise and then the benefits you felt afterwards. You can then build a picture of how you are building on that experience week by week.

Capture how you feel at the end of T'ai Chi Photo by Lesly B. Juarez on Unsplash

Capture how you feel at the end of T’ai Chi
Photo by Lesly B. Juarez on Unsplash

Your practice this week

Consider practising in smaller chunks. Break it down – in between classes we shouldn’t let pressures on our time, and the size of our coffee table stop us from tapping into all the loveliness which is T’ai Chi. Consider setting your sights a little lower, and practice just Cloud Arms for five minutes!

Or just do the Monkey Steps for one minute!

Don’t rush – do it mindfully, and enjoy it : )

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