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From Chaos to Calm: Shoring Up Your Foundation

When life gets wobbly, it’s time to shore up your foundation.

 

Without a strong and steady base, life’s challenges can quickly tip us from calm responsiveness into chaotic reactivity. That’s one of the many reasons I participate in Tai Chi classes here in Boquete, Panama, with my teacher, Kevin Reilly, of Tai Chi-riquí.

 

While I love the flow of well-executed movements, I also cherish being a beginner. Returning to the basics makes me attentive, curious, and humble. In this space, I am most open and receptive to life’s teachings.

 

Here are a few foundational lessons I’ve learned from Tai Chi:

 

  1. Stay grounded.Tai Chi, encourages us to move from the ground up. Both in life and in Tai Chi, starting with a strong foundation ensures that everything flows more smoothly. Revisiting the basics helps us become more grounded, present, and real with whatever we engage.

 

  1. Don’t get ahead of yourself. Rushing through Tai Chi creates sloppy, choppy, tense, and chaotic movement. When this happens, I lose power and become less effective. Allowing myself to pause, to enter stillness and to feel my way forward creates space for grace—in both Tai Chi and life.

 

  1. It’s about presence, not performance.When focusing on my performance in a Tai Chi class, I often lose balance and find myself using too much effort. This never works well. Instead, reminding myself to be present with what’s unfolding allows energy to flow effortlessly.

 

  1. Chaos happens, stay curious.Whether in Tai Chi or elsewhere, staying receptive allows me to relax and learn from whatever is unfolding. Releasing the need to "be right," or to "know it all” removes immense pressure and shifts focus from performance to presence. Curiosity allows wisdom to rise into consciousness.

 

  1. Every moment is a chance to begin again.Mistakes in Tai Chi—losing balance, misunderstanding instructions, or moving clumsily are inevitable. These are moments to pause, reset, and remember that every moment offers an opportunity to start fresh.

 

  1. Pay attention to the space between.Transitions between Tai Chi movements are filled with possibilities. These transitional moments, much like life’s, are opportunities to cultivate awareness, to go deeper, and to move gracefully from one phase to the next. What seems impossible in this moment, becomes reality when we pay attention to the space between.

 

  1. Community and individuality.Tai Chi blends individual and group practice. Practicing alone allows for personal improvement, while practicing in community enhances the collective experience. Both are essential and can be mutually enriching. For better or worse, our communities hold us. They can can be spaces for connection, support, and communion or division, hostility and discord. Chose your communities wisely.

 

Focusing on a strong foundation, staying grounded, and avoiding the rush to get ahead, we cultivate grace and balance in both movement and life. The spaces between movements, much like transitions in life, are opportunities for conscious awareness and choice.

 

I hope these principles help you foster resilience, mindfulness, and connection–no matter how chaotic, wobbly and confusing the circumstance.


Photo by George F. Mobley




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