Chi – Cheater / Rebel

Something more light-hearted here. Not meant to offend anyone.

A while ago I got (re-)interested in Tai Chi and learned its relationship to QiGong. Cool Asian-ish practices of well-being. Can be applied to well-being for physical health, spirituality, and martial arts/combat. I don’t mean to offend anyone who has this as their religion, especially as I’m a no-nothing Western-er.

I mentioned to a healthcare professional a while back that I’d tried some Tai Chi youtube videos and found them relaxing. They set me straight that I was doing it wrong. Very wrong. They lectured me on what it’s supposed to be like. Long story short, I tried some of their suggestions, but it made me not enjoy it anymore, so I stopped. But who cares? I’m not teaching others and corrupting the practice that way.

The funny thing is, from what I learned on-line the common thread is that even if there are similarities, there are hundreds of different schools and traditions of Tai Chi. There are thousands of different schools of Qigong. A family starts the tradition and passes it down, but a different family elsewhere has their own version and does the same, and that’s fine if they don’t match. Qigong is supposed to be a vast array of movements and practices, one move here, another move here, like exercises, where one doesn’t necessarily have to do them all in a specific order. Tai Chi, on the other hand, is supposed to be where you put those moves into a prescribed order and sequence. These ideas seem pretty common in what I read.

Boy did this person dis-agree. They said there is only ONE way to do Qigong, and it MUST be done in a specific order, and the order is always this, and if you don’t do it this way and you’re exhausted afterwards 5 steps, you’re doing it wrong. Felt like they really put me in my place. I looked into the ideas they had, and attempted some of the tips they told me were absolute, and it made it something I no longer wanted to do. But is there any reason I can’t go back to the possibly very warped and cheating way the internet says I'm allowed to do if if I enjoy and benefit from it? As long as I don’t go about preaching it to others? (shhh, don’t tell on me)

Not everyone builds great architecture. Some make little play forts in the back yard. Some people are world class champion ice skaters. Some of us try to get from one place to another on ice without wiping out and are elated if we can stop on our own without hitting something or someone first.