| Interview
The Importance of "My Time" in a
Very Busy Life
–
interviewed by Instructor Lis (March 2007)
In
January 2001, Aileen aged 46, picked up a Tai Chi Academy flyer at her
hairdressers. She looked at it and thought, “This is something I’ll do
when I’m older.” But when she showed the pamphlet to her family, they
said, “No, go now.” So she did.
Chinese
culture and philosophy had always interested her. While Aileen was in
China in 1980, she stayed at the well-known, old European style Peace
Hotel in Shanghai. From her window, she had seen people practising Tai
Chi on the Bund and had been fascinated. When she came along to her
first class, twenty years later, this long term but vague interest
merged with curiosity. She feels fortunate to have found a good school
and teacher immediately. A mismatch can be off-putting.
Many
years before, she had gone along to a yoga class.
She
was very disappointed in the instructor and so didn’t continue.
The
flexibility in class times was appealing as was the range of ages and
skill levels. She liked the feeling that anybody could come at any age
and any level and not feel part of a competition.
As
manager of a large organisation, Aileen enjoys the lack of
responsibility in class. “I liked coming in as a novice, starting as a
raw beginner. It made me reflect on learning — approaching something
new with an open mind. The struggle with co-ordination at the start was
hard, but there was a great sense of achievement and satisfaction in
working through that stage and mastering the movements. You have to
stick at it.”
A sense
of peace is very important to Aileen. “I feel very strongly that ‘peace
and quiet’ is crucial in today’s world. A question I like to ask is
‘Can you sit still and do nothing?’ Finding stillness is something we
seem to have lost. We were promised that we’d have more leisure time as
technologies improved and computers took over the work load. The
opposite has happened. People rush through their lives, losing any
sense of balance between work and home. It’s a giddy roundabout. When
people ask me how I am, I try not to say ‘I’m so busy.’ In the main,
there’s always a choice and we need to recognise that. I try to have a
balance in my life.”
Tai Chi
is a framework for remembering the importance of quietness and
stillness. In her managerial role, she encourages her staff to keep a
balance between home and work in their lives. When she began Tai Chi,
her organisation was undergoing a number of changes. Her increasing
knowledge gave her a set of skills to draw upon when tensions
increased. Like many office workers, Aileen experiences occasional
headaches and neck and shoulder stiffness. Now she knows how to loosen
the stiff muscles with the warm-up and Silk Reeling exercises and how
Qigong practice can calm a busy mind.
Her
organisation experiences a lot of change. When I suggested this may be
stressful, Aileen replied in true Tai Chi fashion that changes are good
in a way because they prevent a group from becoming stuck. She sees
that change enables people to rethink and improve things, to find
another way.
Aileen
feels that an important aspect of Tai Chi in her life is
"My Time", the
notion of doing something without interruptions. “It’s a couple of
hours in the week when I can turn off the phone, not think about work or
home and be instructed by someone else.” She has never allowed missed
classes to worry her. “I knew I could pick those lessons up later. I
am in this for the long term. There is no hurry. If I worry about
missing a class or not practising enough, I’m defeating the purpose. I
do what I can do.” Aileen is a working woman in a position of great
responsibility with a husband and children and a house to run. She
recognises the importance of time to nourish and nurture her inner
self. By doing this, she improves the quality of not just her own life
but also the lives of her family and her staff.
“Society needs to recognise this growing problem of over work.
Depression is fast outstripping heart trouble and cancer as a major
illness. We need to relearn how to be still. There is a lovely phrase
in Italian — La dolce fa niente. It means the sweetness of
doing nothing.”
(This is an actual interview, but the name
has been changed for reasons of privacy.)
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