29 Aug The Power of Moving Meditation & Tai Chi
Ancient Health Benefits through Tai Chi, Meditation and Awareness in Mind & Body
Ancient Health Benefits through Tai Chi, Meditation and Awareness in Mind & Body
In a fast-paced world where tranquility is a commodity, something you must buy or plan, the modern world does not point inwards to find it. It seems to be a rare treasure, one that requires a lot of free time and wealth to have. What if it was normalized to find the quiet within? Simply the calm and stillness under the noisy stress of our own busy day. The restorative peace that is the space of each inhale and exhale.
The concept of “moving meditation” exists as an eternal beacon of balance and mindfulness. Rooted in the ancient practices of Tai Chi and influenced by the essence of Taoism, moving meditation offers a profound way to cultivate self-awareness, self-honesty, and a deeper connection with oneself. Connection, the ultimate treasure in this lifetime.
In this written journey, join me to delve deeper into the world of moving meditation, Tai Chi, and the transformative powers of ancient energy practices. Take a deep relaxed breath, gently guide your spine, neck, and head into balanced alignment, and let us begin.
Unveiling Moving Meditation: Presence in Motion
Moving meditation is a simple and powerful expression of the physical and mental planes, and the metaphysical and spiritual world. Like a yoga practice with deep presence, it is an experience that harmonizes and strengthens the connection with ourselves and the universe.
Quite simply, it allows us to engage in a state of mindfulness while in motion. Unlike traditional seated meditation, moving meditation, or Tai Chi, harmonizes breath with movement and intention. It brings attention together with intention. It is a union of form and flow. Tai Chi is a slow and calm meditation that enhances your self-awareness and presence in your mind and body.
There are specific movements called forms that are based on thousands of years of energetic wisdom. It is not simply a muscle building exercise, or even a relaxing core stabilizing routine. This practice is a potent conduit for cultivating presence, which is the greatest gift of healing we can give our lives. The Practice is a laser sharpening the mind and body, and expands our inner space of self-awareness.
The holistic benefits of Tai Chi are incredible. Regular moving meditation practice looks like having a more regulated and balanced nervous system, emotional wellness, greater strength in your stabilizing muscles and core, increased memory capacity, more space before reacting, better sleep, increased bone density and balanced hormones. My favorite aspect of this moving medicine is the power it has to incredibly enhance my WILL POWER. The discipline I find in my body and mind when I practice and explore is a clarity and a strength I did not know I have. It gives me a space to focus, breathe more deeply, think more clearly, have greater access to my creativity and intuitive powers. This Practice is truly a gift I give myself.
The Power of Tai Chi
At the heart of moving meditation lies Tai Chi, an ancient Chinese martial art that has transcended time and history as a source of physical and spiritual nourishment. I use the words moving meditation and Tai Chi interchangeably. My own moving meditation practice is rooted in the wisdom and practice passed down from Master Waysun Liao. Tai Chi, which means ultimate supreme, is an energetic Qi Gong practice of slow controlled movements.
These flowing, deliberate movements synchronize with deep breathing, creating a graceful jelly-fish movement that feels other-worldly. We all experience it differently and you may describe it a whole other way. To me, it feels and looks like jelly-fish, especially when I first began. Everyone in blue robes at the break of dawn, it felt to me like an underwater spirit world experience.
To flow through the forms with presence brings the practitioner into a trance state, while simultaneously being conscious in the moment and in the body, which promotes physical health and homeostasis, the balancing of the body systems, and enormous mental health benefits that re-balance hormones and rewires brain chemistry. The slow, intentional motions of Tai Chi allow us to engage with our bodies in a way that deepens our connection; it is a moving expression of meditation.
The power of Tai Chi and qigong is literally otherworldly. It brings us into a greater spiritual state, like thinning the veil of our own subconscious. The Practice strengthens our ability to learn, think, and feel. We become more alive. I am not exaggerating. To practice this regularly, even five devoted minutes a day, will change your life, your health, your ability to feel yourself, your mind-body connection and state of health down to your bone mineral density. And it is so simple; to allow the energy to move through you with these slow and careful movements.
Embracing Taoist Essence
From the spiritual path of Taoism, Tai Chi was born, as a way to connect the body and mind to a more clear and aligned living experience. I would not describe myself as a devoted Taoist in all ways, but the small meaningful bits that have been shared with me as a part of the practice and being close with the Taoist community of my Taiji Tao Temple training has greatly touched my life and affected how I live and see the world, my path, and the journey we have together here on this planet.
This living philosophy of Taoism has changed my life in beautiful ways. For many years I was seeking the one right path, right diet, right everything. Although my intentions were from a desire to live in love, in goodness and connection with nature, I sought this path with much mental rigidity and self-righteousness that looked like constantly comparing myself to others. I carried blame and judgmentalism from my formative years.
A sacred seed of compassion was planted at the Temple.
Within my Taoist community of Tai Chi practitioners, my teachers and fellow practitioners inspired an enormous amount of humility within me. I shifted into a much greater sense of self-honesty, discovering the value and power of self-responsibility, deep contemplation, and both strengthening and aligning my will to be of service to my path. To my values. To loving-kindness.
I will never forget, a very special woman and mother of the Temple told me that G-d thoughts are Love and Kindness. To align our thoughts and words with compassion is to be in alignment with the Tao. With the essence of nature. This brought tears to my eyes and I still do my best to return to this path whenever I stray from day to day, thought to thought.
Taoism is not a religion. It is a profound and ancient belief system that emphasizes the harmonious interplay of opposites within the Great Mother of the Universe.
We exist within an ocean, a womb of all life.
Taoism invites us to connect with the flow of the universe, to embrace the natural rhythms of life, to know the rhythms within ourselves, and to find balance in mind and body. Through moving meditation, we embody the essence of Taoism, experiencing the dance of Yin and Yang within our very beings. The push and pull. The fullness and emptying. The cosmos and the physical. We allow for strength and softness. And ultimately, strengthening our wellbeing, our power, and my favorite one: our WILL.
My Personal Journey & Transformation
My discovery of moving meditation began along my international quest for deeper knowledge. I found the Taoist Temple on my path of seeking truth, strength and beauty. After my first year backpacking through Europe, living in a simple cave on the top of a mountain by the sea, in eco-villages and communities dappled like hidden treasures throughout Europe, I felt called to voyage through Central and South America. With just my backpack and hula hoop I hitchhiked from Washington DC, through central America, crossed the Panama canal on cargo ships, through South America all the way to the Sacred Valley of Peru.
Along this journey I found myself in an incredibly magical indigenous Mayan village called San Marcos. This tiny town is part of Lago Atitlan, Guatemala, a sunken super volcano full of thousands of years of rain water, as a majestic intersection of Mayan people and ex-pats seeking a more simple and spiritually connected life. It was there I met the first Taiji practitioners. I was welcome to come and train, morning and afternoon, practicing Tai Chi about 4 to 5 hours per day.
Through this practice, I was humbled to tears again and again. The crusty wrappings of ego began to slough off of me like dried out snake skin. Something began to wake up. I took the practice with me, continued to train every day along my journey South, and then back to Europe, finding other forms of internal Chinese Martial arts of moving meditation. I returned about 4 years later to stay two years. I believe I would have been there forever, but I met the father of my daughter, became a mother, and my path took me elsewhere during the pandemic, meanwhile the Temple disintegrated…
I had a meeting with the Master of my first teachers around this time, MasterWaysun Liao. He told me something very very important, that I think we should all hear. He said to me, in a light and playful spirit only the most awakened seem to exude,
“The Temple is inside of us.”
Create your life like a temple, he explained. Make your home your sanctuary. Devote your life to be in sacred service. Practice every day and you will see, the Temple is inside of us. Life is a ceremony. Connect to the sacred.
Cultivating Self-Awareness & Living with Compassion
May we bring this perfect beauty and truth of our own power and sacredness. May we feel devoted to and inspired by a life of intention. Of ritual. Of daily practice that brings us to clearer states of being. To loving-kindness. To humility. To deep self-reflection.
Moving meditation, much like the essence of Taoism, encourages us to listen to our bodies and minds with attentiveness and earnesty. Each fluid movement becomes a pathway to deeper connection to ourselves and the Source of all life. Health. Truth. Power. Love.
Grow in understanding, cultivate self-compassion and acceptance and you will know love, within yourself as it pours out into the world in deep and healthy relationships with others. Support your mental and physical health. Meditate. Nourish your life energy. Make your life your greatest gift to the world. Fill your days with meaningful gifts to yourself, of Practice, compassion and calm.
This Practice has taught me the value of attuning to the whispers of my body, honoring its needs, and nurturing its growth. Like a mother to a small child, I listen to and honor my body. I take care of myself. Like a mother, I make mistakes. I lose my patience. I can be hurtful to myself. And then I come back to softness. To forgiveness. Understanding. Enormous love for my own beautiful living Being.
Closing Thoughts: Taoism & Mental Health
I have softened enormously in my own harshness and controlling way of thinking, living and speaking. I have let go of right and wrong. However, I believe there is a ‘right way’ in the sense of being in the direction of love and compassion.
In Taoism, the concepts of “right thought,” “right action,” and “right lifestyle” are closely intertwined with the philosophy’s core principles of harmony, balance, and following the natural flow of the universe. Connecting us more and more to the natural flow within. There is a framework that guides people on the path of living in alignment with the Tao, the essence of all life.
- Right Thought: "Right thought" in Taoism refers to aligning one’s thoughts with love, gratitude and compassion for all life and for ourselves. It is the intention and choice of cultivating a mindset that is in harmony with the natural order of all things. It invites a letting go of excessive desires, attachments, and ego-driven thoughts that disrupt the balance of life. It is nourishing thoughts of simplicity, humility, and compassion, allowing individuals to attune themselves to the rhythm of the Tao. Right thought encourages self-awareness and the ability to discern between genuine needs and fleeting desires.
- Right Action: "Right action" means to engaging in actions that are aligned with the Tao and contribute positively to the well-being of oneself and others. This involves acting with integrity, kindness, and mindfulness. Right action encourages individuals to consider the consequences of their actions and to choose paths that reflect respect for all living beings and the environment. By embodying right action, individuals promote harmony and contribute to the greater balance of the world.
- Right Lifestyle: "Right lifestyle" encompasses the way one lives and interacts with the world around them. It involves adopting a lifestyle that is congruent with the principles of simplicity, naturalness, and moderation. A balanced lifestyle in Taoism avoids excesses and extremes, embracing a middle way that nurtures physical, mental, and spiritual well-being. This might involve practices such as mindful eating, regular physical activity, and spending time in nature to remain attuned to the natural rhythms of life. What I love about Taoism is that it is a middle way for each individual at every point of their life’s journey. There is space and acceptance to meet ourselves where we are at right now.
Ultimately, these principles encourage individuals to become conscious co-creators with all of life, harmonizing their thoughts, actions, and lifestyle with the ever-flowing currents of the universe. Through this alignment, individuals find themselves living in alignment with the Tao, and also contributing positively to the well-being of the world around them. It touches me deeply when I realize that ‘the right way’ is to align myself with kindness, compassion and simply being present. It is a simple and powerful path of love for self and all life. Connect.
If you feel inspired and intrigued to experience this practice for yourself, you are very welcome to join me in a guided introductory online course, Mindful Moving Meditation, where I share with you the gifts my teachers have shared with me.
I also invite you to go even deeper and check out the online resources of my teachers. See below.
Resources
One of my first teachers, a deeply connected and contagiously loving human being, whom I named my daughter after… https://taijitao.net/10-minute-meditations/
Master Waysun Liao, https://www.taichitao.tv/
Sarah’s Youtube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@taijitaosessions
Join me in a guided introductory online course, Mindful Moving Meditation, where I share with you the gifts my teachers have shared with me.
✨Journey Within: 10 Simple Practices for Self-Connection and Inner Transformation✨
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