Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Mental Rehearsal(s)

Today’s TCC practice was all in my head…. First, I performed a mental rehearsal during a half hour car ride to Ashland (my partner drove, I was the passenger). Then, I resumed my practice for another half hour while I waited for a medical test.

Oh, and did I tell you that I’ve always been an anxious person? I was extremely anxious before I learned T’ai Chi Chih moving meditation 16 years ago and my anxiety has—I gladly acknowledge--abated over the intervening years.

I’m still prone to anxious moments when I venture beyond the “safe” boundaries of familiar places, people, and situations. TCC practice offered--and continues to offer--a healing and balancing effect on my personality. And today TCC offered unaccountable solace in the midst of a morning filled with feelings of anxiety and stress.

Today’s reading from 365 Tao by Deng Ming-Dao focused on “Sorrow.” I easily substituted the word fear as I applied his wisdom and teachings. He writes:
     When sorrow [fear] comes, its bitterness soaks everything. The sages say that life is illusion, but does that change its poignancy?.... When faced with a sad [fearful] situation, it is best not to languish in it. We can change things by being with different people, moving to other places, or, if all else fails, adjusting our own attitudes to take the initiative. Sadness [fear] is transitory, like everything else. If we want to deflect it, we need only alter its context and allow it to be subsumed back into Tao.
Yes, fear [sadness] can be transformed through t’ai chi chih practice. Today's two mental rehearsals (plus two classes this evening) proved to me yet again that the power of this moving meditation is experiential. Whether your practice is performed by moving your body or by rehearsing movements in your head doesn't matter in the least.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I hope you get good news from your tests. I believe TCC helped to relieve my level of anxiety during the snowplow incident.