Recently I’ve been super busy with my life and time has been scarce to say the least. Work, family, friends and now I’m also starting to write again. I’m constantly asking myself how can I find the time to practise Tai Chi.
Ideally Tai Chi practice needs to be daily. This is because once we get on the momentum train it’s like the benefits start to compound and the body becomes more ‘Song’ and therefore more receptive to practice further enhancing the gains.
However if we have too many days off it breaks the momentum, the stresses of daily life start to again accumulate in the body and we then have to build up the energy all over again.
So consistent daily practice is really important. One to two days rest might be needed every week or so if we have trained enough to know we need it. Otherwise just keep going. It’s actually not that easy to over train in Tai Chi. Under training is far more of a problem for most I would say.
Tai Chi practice really starts to make sense once we understand how it is transforming us and the benefit it is bringing to our lives. I think there is a point of no return where the comprehension of the benefit becomes so ingrained that from that point on it’s easy to find the motivation to keep going.
What I got from Master Ma’s quote was that it can take a while initially to get over the hump so to speak. In his words to ‘find the chi’ I can relate to, and at that point I was hooked and the only question became ‘how can I optimise my practice to get the best results’?
Lately I practice first thing in the morning usually stretching or sitting practice. Then later in the day I will try to work on Ji Ben Gong (basic training) or study form. Often I like the evening time for really hard training such as Zhan Zhuang (standing practice) because it can be really tiring when done well and I need to be able to relax afterwards.
To be honest I don’t practice as hard as I would like. Life gets in the way. So I just try to be consistent and make sure I am doing something every day even if it’s a shorter or less intensive session. Then when time allows I dive as deep into practice as I can and those times can be really transformative. 🙏