What Inspired me to Start Tai Chi?

• Dr Paul Lam, Sydney, NSW, Australia
• Bruce M. Young, Ed.D., Senior Trainer, Maine, USA
• Caroline Demoise, Master Trainer, NC, USA
• Christine Campbell, Canberra, ACT, Australia
• Debra Leonard, IN, USA
• Wendy Mukherjee, Canberra, ACT, Australia
• Jennifer Chung, Singapore
• Lisa James-Lloyd, Victoria, Australia
• Trevor Reynaert, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, UK
• Toni Stoker 
• Dr David Borofsky Gig Harbor, WA, USA

I started Tai Chi from 1974 after graduating from Medical School. I have had osteoarthritis since my early teens. By the time I graduated my arthritis was quite debilitating I felt I really had to do something for myself. I remember in the village where I grew up in China, Tai Chi was considered effective for arthritis. I decided to give it a try. I tried a couple of teachers but did not feel comfortable with them. After a while I was fortunate to learn my late father-in-law was an accomplished Tai Chi practitioner and he had been my main teacher. Other great teachers have also helped me enrich my Tai Chi experience.

As a young man, the martial arts had always been a mystery to me, one which I had hoped I might some day solve. Like most folks I had watched a multitude of characters perform in the movies and on television what seemed to be miraculous fetes requiring an athletic and almost magical skill, and I was convinced that I would never be able to snatch the pebble from the hand of a master, or jump wildly into the air, and with several twists, kick an opponent in the head or chest, then finally land with the ease of a graceful bird alighting on a tree branch. What I did not know at the time was that the martial arts skill which I so much desired was not real. It only existed in the minds of fiction writers who created it to entertain the masses. The real knowledge and skill of the martial arts was quietly waiting to be discovered in the concept of wu chi.

Wu chi is a Chinese term which has been interpreted as “emptiness,” and it is the key to finding the power of the martial arts, which exists within each of us. It has been said that the cup that is full cannot be useful; it is only when the cup is empty that it can be of use. This is true of the mind as well. If the mind has been filled with the busyness of the world around it, it will never be open to new concepts or ideas. It will never have the desire to discover the real meaning and power which the martial arts offer. And for the better part of my life, I had not been ready to find this path; as my mind was always full. I was busy; completely engrossed in the work that I was doing as a public school superintendent. It was not uncommon for me to work 12 to 14 hours a day, 6 days a week. I had no room in my routine for such things as the martial arts, or time in my life to relax. The stress was overwhelming, and I was not even aware of it. My body and soul were beginning to exhibit the effects of this stress, and I couldn’t stop going and doing long enough to see, or address it.

When I finally became aware of what was happening to me, I began to seek a way to relieve the stress I was experiencing. It was at this time that I met my first martial arts teacher, who was my instructor for many years in the Korean fighting art of Tae Kwon Do. While Tae Kwon Do did relieve some of the stress my career path and my type “A” personality had caused, it also opened the door to my subsequent investigation of the spiritual nature of the martial arts and its connection to the movement of God’s Spirit in my life.

It was not uncommon for my teacher and me to spend an hour or so after a Tae Kwon Do classes in prayer, seeking God’s guidance and healing for our lives. It was here that I learned about the openness of the heart, mind, body, and spirit. It was here that I learned that our ability to hear, see, touch, taste, and smell are often inhibited by the busyness of our daily lives and the mindless pursuits we follow. While Tae Kwon Do helped relieve my stress, I began to realize that this “hard form” of martial art needed to be balanced. I was able to find this needed balance in the study of Tai Chi Ch’uan, qigong, and Reiki. But, as I began to practice these arts, I also discovered that there was a healing aspect to them; and I suspect that my complete and speedy recovery from two myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) was due in no small part to the fact that I got up from my hospital bed immediately to continue my practice of Tai Chi and Reiki.

Now I delight in telling folks that Tai Chi is the one best ways I know to help others lead a happier and healthier life; and I delight in teaching them how they can share this skill. What better gift can we give to one another than the gift of physical and spiritual healing?

When I was in my early 40’s I had this persistent, recurring thought “If you want to be healthy when you are old, see a nutritionist now.”

One evening at a meditation class, I overheard a woman talking about a nutritionist, a shaman who had studied Chinese Medicine and decided to honour that inner voice. At the first visit, he radically changed my life. Sugar, salt, grains, alcohol and coffee were out. Fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, low fat meats and Tai Chi were in.

I began Tai Chi for health reasons, 6 or 7 years ago. I had osteoporosis. I was a regular swimmer. Weight-lifting was out, I couldn’t walk any further than I already did – I felt like doing less rather than more exercise because I had contracted poliomyelitis in 1954.

A friend, Wendy, talked constantly about Tai Chi, clearly under the influence of some acute Asian fever. She took me to an outdoors practice. I asked the teacher, Elizabeth Halfnights, if I could join a regular class. She later admitted that she thought it would be too hard for me, but then, so did I.

I joined all of her classes: Beginners, Intermediate, and Advanced. The following year, I went to the St Vincent’s January workshop, and now I try to go every year, as well as to the Sydney updates. I have found something that I can do, despite a very fragile left side.

This year, with Wendy, I began to teach two classes a week, taking over from Elizabeth. What a big difference there is between demonstrating and following! We teach Long Yang and Tai Chi for Arthritis. Some of the more physically challenged members of the class are interested when I demonstrate toned down movements, in place of the more energetic kicks. Others are delighted when I suggest that they experiment to see how certain movements will fit in with their particular disability and disabilities are not only physical. We take in Tai Chi ‘refugees’ whose past teachers have reprimanded them for their weaknesses. We also teach strategies for remembering the routines, something we have all struggled with.

Debra Leonard, IN, USA 

I can’t remember just how old I was when I first heard the words “Tai Chi”, 10-12 possibly? I do know it was on a Sunday morning news program, reported by a man named Charles Kuralt, a fairly popular journalist in the US until his death in 1997.

When and where that news article was made I don’t know, but I was struck dumb, “Look at how they move, I want to learn that!” was all I could think, then it was over. Years, no decades went by, rarely did I see the words Tai Chi again.

Working in a church office, while on the internet, I was looking for interesting events for the church congregation when I saw a class listed. I called that instructor up and asked him if he could give lessons at our church, and he said yes! Finally, after more than 40 years, I was going to have the chance to move like those people I saw in that article. It has changed my life, how I look at everything. I love teaching Tai Chi and performing it, I have so much more to learn, but it is like nothing I’ve ever done or worked at before and hope sincerely that I can keep another person from saying “I wish I’d started this 30 years ago.”