The study of T’ai Chi involves changing the way we move.
We learned to move before we learned to talk.
Because of this fact, we are attempting to work with behaviors that evolved within the construct of the pre-language brain.
Practically speaking, we work on our form, not by talking or thinking about it, but by changing the way we move.
We apply this process of trading our less efficient habits for more efficient and effective habits, by repeating these ‘better’ habits until they become the new norm.
Our brains are great at taking something that works well in one activity and applying it in other situations.
Humans can, with practice, excel at these somewhat creative endeavors.
Generalization
The exercise of our ability to generalize principles and use them in other endeavors can allow us to refine and improve our processing abilities in new and varied content areas.
The possibilities are endless, and applications continue to appear and evolve the longer one practices the form.
“As above, so below”, “Garbage in, garbage out”, and many other idioms with which one might already be familiar, come to mind as practical examples of this concept of the generalization and application of processes learned in one activity being useful and beneficial in new and sometimes subtle ways.
The same basic principles that work well for us when learning the physical form, can thus be used to streamline many of our other activities.
This cultivation of our process of awareness is in fact the real work of T’ai Chi, and the learning of the physical form is just the beginning, or kindergarten, providing access to areas of the brain that are not so easily reachable solely through the intellect.
Examples
- Eliminating extra movement,
- Moving from the center, and the related principle of thereby
- Coordinating all the separate parts/movements to help each other, thus amplifying the effectiveness of the separate movements, and so on…
Blessings to All,
Daniel
