Tai Chi Journal

Breathing and Remaining Mindful

Yesterday something quite nice happened for me as I was in church. (As a Catholic, Saturday Mass attendance is optional for me, rather than attending on Sunday.)

I was way late getting to the 4 P.M. service. When I got there I was anything but tranquil. Then, part of the way through the liturgy, something clicked in. I noticed that I had begun breathing quite deeply, slowly, and comfortably ... and that a feeling of bodily warmth and complete mental contentment had washed over me.

I reflected that I was doing exactly what Tai Chi masters advise: breathing from the belly or dan tien.

Yes, I was actually breathing in everyday life (if being in church can be considered that) as I have started to learn to breathe while standing in Wu Chi posture or doing Tai Chi exercises. Not only was I not breathing just from the chest or upper lungs, I was managing to allow myself to exhale all the way. As I "watched" my breathing, it felt like there was a sort of internal "click" when that point was reached. Then I would watch myself inhale, easily, calmly, neither too deeply nor too shallowly, and also from the dan tien.

I was able to sustain that type of breathing fairly well, as the church proceedings went on, by means of remaining mindful of it. Mindfulness, I am coming to see, is what Tai Chi is really all about. It, mindfulness, is a kind of laissez-faire watchfulness in which the mind does not micromanage what the body is doing — in this case, breathing — but it does pay close attention to it and offers gentle hints and corrections from time to time.

This mindfulness did not interfere with everything else I had to pay attention to and do ... though I didn't sing any of the hymns, as I didn't want to add too much complexity to my breathing rhythms.

So the lesson here is that Tai Chi strengthens mindfulness as it strengthens the body and improves the breathing. That's quite a lot going for it, I'd say.

posted by eric @ 9:49 AM