| Interview Philosophy of Tai Chi Becomes Second Nature to Leo
– interviewed by Instructor Lis
Leo is an architect who grew up in far North Queensland.
Amongst the many ethnic groups in the area where he lives, there is a very large Chinese
community, dating from the gold rush days. This is where Leo first became aware of Tai Chi
and martial arts in general. He always knew that the Chinese had a different, wholistic
approach to medicine and health, but it was much later, as an adult, that this knowledge
became relevant to his life. Several things conspired to bring about an awakening of
interest and subsequent action.
In 1994, Leo saw Brett and the Academy team demonstrating Tai
Chi in the Woden Plaza. It brought back childhood memories of a particular friend’s
mother, Mrs. Wong, now in her sixties, who teaches and practises Tai Chi in the community.
At about this time, the department where Leo worked was
undergoing major cuts and upheavals. All around him were people under stress and the
workplace environment was rife with tension. Leo could feel his body starting to react
accordingly - shoulders and neck muscles tightening, aches and pains appearing. Also, at
this same time, a number of people close to Leo experienced more physical problems, for
example heart attacks with one particular fatality.
"At that stage, I thought I’d have to do something
myself, before it was too late." About this time he began doing some home
renovations. He found that crawling through the roof cavity played havoc with his knees
and legs.
Tai Chi was, to Leo, the obvious course to
take. Living with his wife who has spinal
damage made Leo very aware of the need for good posture. From my
discussion with him, I would say it is the overall awareness of his body
and the ability to identify and deal with tension areas that he has
found most useful.
Leo told me that he is constantly applying the Tai Chi
principles in his daily life, not only the physical, for example the straight spine and
relaxed shoulders, but also those mental concepts of neutralising, yielding and
redirecting, remaining calm in pressure situations and "going with the flow".
These last concepts have been particularly useful at work, when he finds himself able to
stand back from stressful group encounters and inject a note of rationality and clarity.
He also stated categorically that before he started Tai Chi, he would never have thought
about any of those things at all. This amounts to adopting a Tai Chi lifestyle, something
we would like every student to experience.
When Leo first started in second term 1995, he was a very
keen student and found he learnt the movements quite easily. He said, "this might
have something to do with having an architect’s three dimensional viewpoint. Both
architecture and Tai Chi involve movement, time and space."
Also, Leo was a javelin thrower at school, and realised that
the body is used in a similar way in both activities, that is, the force comes through the
whole body, travelling from the ground upwards. Timing and co-ordination are crucial. Now,
he attends class twice weekly and at home does some of the Taoist Qigong exercises which
he learned in one of the Academy’s extra courses. He also practises the Tai Chi
Walking, some of the lower exercises for leg strengthening and holds various postures, a
training technique which the Refinement classes do occasionally.
Leo commented that the Quiet Standing
Qigong never really
appealed to him much. He prefers to do it in the class group. He said his home and general
lifestyle are very calm and relaxed and he doesn’t feel the need for
Qigong at home
as a stress relieving strategy.
Since commencing Tai Chi five years ago, Leo has experienced
no physical problems. He can crawl through his roof cavity quite comfortably, and knows
that his legs and knees are much stronger and more flexible as a result of his training.
He finds that he squats instead of bending over to pick things up or look in low
cupboards. The wholistic approach, something he became aware of in his childhood, becomes
increasingly important as he grows older, and he likes the feeling of having tuned his
mind and body to a state of awareness.
When Leo goes back to North Queensland, he invariably visits
Mrs. Wong to talk Tai Chi. Last time he went, she began demonstrating some stretching
exercises in the aisle of the small supermarket she owns. Customers were walking past,
wondering what on earth was going on! Leo plans to be as energetic and flexible as Mrs.
Wong when he reaches her age.
(This is an actual interview, but the names have been changed
for reasons of privacy.)
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