I hear people say things like, “I’m just not very athletic”, “I’ve never been very coordinated”, etc. Mostly though, I see people’s attitudes in their movements. This doesn’t just apply to tai chi either. We experience what we expect in our lives.
It’s not usually as easy as just saying to yourself, “OK, now I want to believe I can be coordinated”, and there you have it. Our attitudes and beliefs were usually formed some distance in the past and we’ve invested heavily in many of them. Once someone adopts the belief that they are uncoordinated, they tend to repeat that mantra over and over to anyone who will listen. Someone else may be able to consciously convince them they can be more coordinated, but until they believe it it’s not going to happen.
I’ve seen students, and myself, take big leaps forward once a stronger belief about their ability to do tai chi takes hold. Up to this point they were just stumbling along. Then, one day they did something they couldn’t do before. It may have been something small, but it caused them to question a core belief. Once they began to question, it broke down and a new and more empowering belief took over.
There are many methods to achieve this kind of breakthrough. Therapy is one way; however therapy can sometimes cause the belief to become even more entrench by rehashing it over and over again. When a breakthrough happens in tai chi it usually happens when the student is so focused on what they’re doing, they forget they can’t do it. This too can take a long time to happen but when it does, it’s great fun to watch. NLP, or neuro-linguistic programming, is another interesting way to break through old patterns and it’s a lot quicker than most other ways. It’s the process of using your brain’s own method of functioning to change the belief, or to model the behavior you want. It’s used heavily in sports psychology and if you’d like to learn more, go to the source: http://www.neurolinguisticprogramming.com/
Today I’ll leave you with one of my favorite and most often quoted faux-losophers, the great Bob Tzu:
“What’s behind Door Number 1, Monty?”
Free Will or Determinism? Your choice.
John
Leave A Reply (9 comments So Far)
The comments are closed.
Loretta Wollering (2 comments)
682 days ago
This is a great point. It’s so odd that people apply this philosophy to tai chi (taijiquan). MANY times, I hear people tell me, “I’d love to do tai chi, but I can’t because I have joint problems and can’t move well….. -OR- “well, first I have to get over my ankle pain before I can move properly, …” etc. OR, “well, you know, I never was good at gym class, I have such a problem coordinating left and right… I first have to lose weight…” .etc….
What a lot of people forget, is that these are ALL THE REASONS WHY many people have STARTED tai chi, and then reaped the benefits! Geez – if everyone was in such great shape and moved with the grace and speed of a puma, then heck, we should all be learning tai chi from them!! Oh, it’s sad to see how every year there is more and more self-excuses and self-deprecation. I wish people would just give themselves a CHANCE. That’s all it takes – just giving yourself the CHANCE… but we’re all too impatient for that nowadays…
John Crewdson (479 comments)
682 days ago
Loretta,
What a great comment. You took this in a little different direction and a bit deeper than what I was thinking with this post. I really like it. Great idea for another post and an article.
Thanks,
John
Hugh at Croydon Hypnotherapy (1 comments)
622 days ago
Hi John
I’m a hypnotherapist and can also recommend NLP. I’m so glad to see you recommending in addition to Tai Chi – after all, they’re all about developing peace of mind.
Keep up the good work.
Hugh
John Crewdson (479 comments)
614 days ago
Hugh,
Thanks for the feedback and the support. Yes NLP is a good tool to help us advance in anything, whether it’s tai chi or our careers.
John
Peter J (1 comments)
398 days ago
Excellent post, this kind of information is exactly what I was looking for. I’ve been using NLP techniques + Self-Hypnosis to increase my self-esteem and to stop pro-castination and the results are just great. The best way to know if any type of method out there really works is by trying it on yourself.
Thank you
koçluk (1 comments)
309 days ago
What a great comment. You took this in a little different direction and a bit deeper than what I was thinking with this post. I really like it. Great idea for another post and an article.
Thanks,
John
izmir koçluk (1 comments)
295 days ago
I’m a hypnotherapist and can also recommend NLP. I’m so glad to see you recommending in addition to Tai Chi – after all, they’re all about developing peace of mind.
Keep up the good work.
Hugh
koçluk merkezi (1 comments)
261 days ago
What a great comment. You took this in a little different direction and a bit deeper than what I was thinking with this post. I really like it. Great idea for another post and an article.