Practise whn you feel like it - and practise when you don't

by Richard Farmer

I know that I wrote a year or so about practice from a more "Essence" point of view, so I thought, since this is a very important topic, that another angle might be worthwhile.

The art of practice is a key skill in learning to grow the muscle of being Tai Chi. Whether we are learning the Form of Tai Chi or whether we are using say Shibashi, we need to have some time to remember what it is we are learning or growing. Practice is a greenhouse, the place where we grow our RDTC. In this article I want to explore some of the things which can help us to practise and some of the common excuses that we use to not give ourselves this huge gift.

MOTIVATION. As some of you know I began my journey with practising in 1977 when I joined my first Tai Chi class. Up until that time, all I really practised was having a good time and avoiding things that didn’t work for me.

My motivation for beginning my Tai Chi journey was to help heal myself from an emotionally damaging time. I needed it to work and the only way I would know if it did was to give it 100% for the first ten week term. If there was some improvement or sign of healing then I would continue, and if not I would stop and find something else.

So you can imagine my surprise that I actually got up in the morning in time to practise! I would stand next to the scrubby vegetable patch of the shared house I lived in in London, and for the first time, do something that was actually good for me. I was surprised by that, that I could enjoy something that was good for me! So I guess the first thing that I want you to remind yourself of, and this is whether you are a beginner or an advanced student of RDTC, is why you are doing this. What is your motivation for engaging in this path?

Of course what motivated me by the vegetable patch and what motivated me say ten years later, as I meditated for an hour or so before breakfast and played hours of forms before lunch, was very different. My first teacher had said that if you are going to teach and receive money for teaching, then what the students are paying for is not the Tai Chi but your practice. I remember it being quite an insight because, like you, I assumed that someone would pay me to teach them Tai Chi. But no. By being a professional Tai Chi Teacher, what they were paying for enabled me to give quality time to my art, which I then passed on in the classes.

Lack of motivation for practice can be because we have not caught up with our present position and focus. And sometimes that lack of motivation is a sign that change is happening, so it is important to pay attention and from time to time, to re-assess why we are doing something.

Here are some common issues:

“I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TIME” We do need to give time to our practice, but how much time do you need? If you are a professional RDTC Teacher then you have nothing else to do really, but if you are a professional administrator then of course most of your time is going to go on that. After all, that is what you are paid for. So practice is something which is fitted in around work and our personal life. What makes for a good practice session? Is more time better? Well no not always. It is the level of presence and attention I bring to the time I have. You know that time when it all clicked, when the magic happened? That happened not because I knew more, or practised for longer, but because I fell into a place of relaxed and personal attention.

Take today for example. Whilst I was waiting to have breakfast with my wife, I gently stretched my back and Achilles tendons, moved through “Rowing a Boat” and “Opening the Sky” and then as I heard her footsteps I finished with the final Shibashi move. Now there would have been a time when a judgemental voice would have said, “That is not enough”. It would have left me with a feeling of frustration and being unmet. But I know that the Richard who sat down to breakfast had been opened and touched by what I had done. I had experienced those moves and let them touch me. The choice of those moves had come out of listening to my current needs and my current time restriction.

I now know that it is not quantity but quality that counts. It’s not about getting through things. It’s not about forcing, because whilst that can be satisfying to the one who is keeping score in me, the energy that is being created is not healthy. It’s not appropriate. It’s not balanced. It has no heart, only a “should do”, “ought to”, “must do”. And in the long run this is not helpful.

So the excuse that you don’t have time to practise just is not true. You have 30 seconds! If you allow yourself to be touched in those 30 seconds you will be transformed. And what’s, more the muscle of being Tai Chi, which is what RDTC is all about, will have been strengthened.

“I DON'T KNOW ENOUGH TO PRACTISE OR I DON'T WANT TO PRACTISE MISTAKES.” This is something that I often hear and it is an understandable concern, but in my view unfounded. The student is concerned about getting into bad habits. This can be true when someone practises on their own over a long period of time— it is always good to have someone to refer to from time to time and most students who are studying with RDTC will have some form of contact with a teacher.

The main thing to bear in mind here is the relationship with a posture. If you do not engage with a new posture or with an exercise or gesture, then no relationship will be built with it. Even if you get it "wrong" as long as you explore with a sense of presence, of being in the present, and with a sense of being at ease in your body, usually the body's wisdom will let you know if it is not right. If it feels wrong it usually is.

By being in relationship to the movet you can explore what feels right. When you are next with your teacher, because you have engaged with it, you know what to ask about and to check your findings. AND, because you are in relationship to it, there is some experience that receives the advice.

As a teacher I am more than happy to hear where students have a problem. I do not expect, once an answer has been given, for there then to be no further problem. I know that often there are many layers of learning. A student may need to hear the same advice again and again, not because they didn't get it the first time, but because a new place in them gets it. Bit by bit, together we travel the path.

“I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH SPACE TO PRACTISE.” How much space we need depends on what we are going to do. If we are practising a Tai Chi Form, we think we need a certain amount of space. In the long run this is true but what happens if we are somewhere that temporarily compromises our space? I knew one student who did wonderful practice in an L shaped room. I have had time in places where I would rearrange the furniture to get the space, tipping up my bed for example. I have also really enjoyed taking much smaller steps to fit into a smaller space and learned a lot in the process.

Also, we don't have to do the whole Form all the time. Sometimes it's great just to play with a few movements or different exercises that we would like to explore. Shibashi or most Chi Kung sets don't take up much room. Simply put, this is just an excuse of the one to doesn't want to practise!

HOW TO GET PAST THE ONE WHO DOESN'T WANT TO PRACTISE? You must have heard that one, or said to yourself "I just don't want to." But if you listen closely, before you said that to yourself, there was, often, another part, much quieter that said, “It’s time, now”. Understanding the psychology of practice is important - why is change so difficult?

Old patterns do not give up that easily. Whilst there is a part of us that wants to change, there is equally another part that doesn't. If this part is not made conscious it will give you a thousand reasons why just now is not a good time. It's never a good time! Some of these reasons are reasonable but when you understand who is saying them you will see that it is not a good idea to listen.

The art is in learning to find the heart invitation. To find a way of listening to the excuse, perhaps even honouring it or acknowledging it, but then listening to a deeper engagement. Perhaps by remembering your motivation. Perhaps understanding who is giving you this advice to not engage. Perhaps just finding something which honours rather than dishonours your wish to deepen yourself through RDTC and then to engage with that.

What eventually healed the rift between these two voices in me was first saying to myself, "Practise when you feel like it and practise when you don’t". Then, because of that commitment, finding the language and understanding that revealed the deeper place in me that simply is.

In RDTC our main aim is to use practice as a way of developing the Being of Tai Chi. This means that it is a natural way of being. It means that eventually the choice between the one who does want to change and the one who doesn’t is not an issue. The dialogue may still happen but the negative obstruction does not rule you. Where this important work is done is in the daily exploration of allowing yourself to be touched by your RDTC, whether this is in the form of Shibashi or a meditation or a Tai Chi Form, it doesn’t matter. What matters is making the choice.

Do you have enough resources both inside and outside yourself to practise every day? Yes! It only takes a moment of your life and yet in that moment a whole day can be lived differently.

Richard Farmer

back to articles page