I’d like to share with you some helpful insights I offered to the Golden Flower Instructor Trainees who spent the day at Heavenly Way last week.
Focusing your mind is an essential element of Tai Chi and self-cultivation. Focus and commitment dramatically increase your ability to progress towards mastery. It is something most people don’t think about much of the time, but give it some consideration now:
- If you wake up in the morning and think about the multitude of things you need to accomplish over the next thirteen hours, you’re likely to have a stressful day. In contrast, if you wake up, listen to your breath, and focus instead on what a wonderful gift your life is, you’re more likely to enjoy your day.
- If you let your attention jump from one thing to another, you are likely to have a busy, fractured and unproductive day. If you begin your day with standing Chi Gong and focus on one element of The Golden Flower Form you want to practice, you’ll have a more centered, peaceful, productive day.
- If you focus on feeling tired and wanting to veg out in front of the TV, you’re pretty certain to get a lot of television watching done. If, however, you focus on being healthy and fit, over time you can become healthy and fit through movement, a little Tai Chi practice at home, and eating foods that are full of benefits.
Focus is an important determinant of whether you’ll achieve a goal or stick to creating healthy habits. Not self-discipline, not rewards, not sheer willpower, not even motivation (also an important ingredient, however). If you can maintain your focus, your mind and spirit will bring a centered power to achieving that goal.
A few more helpful ways to increase your focus and ability to tap into the peace available in every moment:
- Attend Tai Chi class two or more times a week.
- Take advantage of the opportunity to deeply learn from the beauty of nature during our Annual Retreat at Heavenly Way in August.
- Practice Golden Flower’s “Be Here” Process. It will help you learn to achieve a relaxed focus, which slows down your breathing and quiets your mind so that learning can come easily and naturally.
- Make a commitment to do your standing Chi Gong practice every morning.
This is a very exciting time on our planet. All of us have an opportunity to wake up and be happy. Life is about being happy. If you’re not happy, what are you doing here? It’s something you might want to focus on.
~ Master San Gee Tam
